Trent Zimmerman says Australia needs to look beyond good target for 2030 as we head into Glasgow. All the day’s events, live
It’s time for who’s that MP?
It’s Andrew Wallace.
Asked about the Nationals (and some Liberals) who claim a net zero 2050 emissions target would bring about end of days, Trent Zimmerman tells the ABC:
No-one is saying that getting to 2050 with a net zero target is an easy task. It is a challenge.
We know in many areas we are doing really well.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison announces cut in number of government departments as part of public service overhaul. All the day’s political news, live
Labor is moving a motion saying the government’s attempts to push the union-busting bill through without debate was “anti-democratic”.
Better still is this bit of the motion:
This is a prime ministerial tantrum, with the prime minister of Australia behaving like a juvenile schoolyard bully just because he didn’t get his way last week.
We’re now moving through the votes for the government’s union-busting bill.
A side note - this is the 100th division to take place in the House for this sitting fortnight.
Continue reading...Sydney lord mayor approached by police investigating accusations the emissions reduction minister relied on a falsified document to attack her. Follow all the day’s political news live
That’s where we’ll leave the live blog for the day. Thanks for following along.
It’s been another messy day. Many say the medevac repeal has made it one of parliament’s darkest.
Another development on the Angus Taylor front.
The City of Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, has been approached by police to provide a statement for their investigation into accusations Taylor relied on a falsified document to attack her travel-related emissions. The council said in a statement:
Continue reading...The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, says there have been more than 400 ‘senseless loss of life’ since 2001. Follow all the day’s politics – live
Cormann’s full response to the order to produce the Morrison-Fuller transcript has been tabled. The full text of the letter is below.
Dear President
I refer to the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator the Hon Penny Wong, and agreed by the Senate on 2 December 2019, requesting documents associated with phone call between the Prime Minister and the Commissioner of the New South Wales Police Force that took place on Tuesday, 26 November 2019.
Labor is furious at the government’s response to an order to produce the transcript of the Morrison-Fuller phone call about the Angus Taylor police investigation.
The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, read the government’s response to the Senate after it was provided to her at the outset of Senate proceedings by the finance minister, Mathias Cormann. The letter simply referred the Senate to previous answers and said the documents would be subject to a public interest immunity claim because they relate to a police investigation.
This is transparency from the Morrison government. This is the transparency and integrity, or lack thereof from the Morrison government.”
Continue reading...Author says she was not at Oxford with Australia’s energy minister, and his implication she was part of an ‘elite’ attacking Christmas is an ‘antisemitic dogwhistle’
The American author Naomi Wolf has accused Australia’s embattled energy minister, Angus Taylor, of an “antisemitic dogwhistle”, and of falsely claiming they were at Oxford University together.
In his maiden speech to parliament in 2013, Taylor told a story about “political correctness” and a dispute over a Christmas tree at Oxford in 1991, when he was a Rhodes scholar at the university, mentioning that Wolf lived on the same corridor.
Continue reading...PM concedes a misstep in his defence of minister as Labor continues its attack. All the day’s events, live
From Peter Dutton’s office:
The Australian Government has declared three terrorist attacks for the purposes of the Australian Victim of Terrorism Overseas Payment (AVTOP) scheme.
The Senate is finishing up its divisions on the ensuring integrity bill. That’s brought on the second reading debate, where we go into the amendments.
We’ll be in amendment hell until about 11.45am. Then it’s usual Senate business for a bit, and then straight back into the IR bill. The only thing that will interrupt it then, is question time.
Continue reading...Exclusive: story published in Daily Telegraph was based on false figures for travel expenditure purporting to be from council’s annual report
Angus Taylor baselessly accused Sydney’s lord mayor of driving up carbon emissions by spending $15m on travel, a claim that was later backed up with a doctored council document provided to the Daily Telegraph, which reported the figure.
On 30 September, the Telegraph reported on page three that the “City of Sydney Council’s outlay on flights outstrips that of Australia’s foreign ministers”.
Continue reading...ALP requests documents about Barr investigation into the Mueller report. Plus, new AFP commissioner faces Senate estimates, and media companies unite against secrecy laws. All the day’s events, live
Scott Morrison adds to the answer to Warren Snowdon’s question:
On 13 September of this year, I can confirm that the tender was awarded to Australian company Oricon an engineering company that, will lead the Kakadu road strategy and they’ll work in a consortium with PwC, and PwC Indigenous consulting, beginning the work immediately.
The roads of strategy will be developed in.conjunction with the tourism master plan, access to key sites and planned upgrades. I thought the member would be interested in that additional information.
The folders are stacked.
We are done as soon as Greg Hunt finishes this dixer.
Then environment minister knew of Taylor family’s interest in farm being investigated for alleged illegal clearing
Josh Frydenberg, then the environment minister, knew his ministerial colleague Angus Taylor had a family interest in a farm being investigated for alleged illegal clearing of grasslands when Taylor met with environment department officials to discuss endangered grassland regulations, according to Taylor.
The 2017 meeting between Taylor – then the assistant minister for cities – and environment department officials over critically endangered grasslands came while Taylor’s family’s company, Jam Land Pty Ltd, was being investigated for allegedly illegally poisoning grasslands on property on the Monaro plains of New South Wales.
Continue reading...Some Liberals are concerned about the power to break up big companies being extended economy-wide
The Morrison government’s backbench economics committee has signed off on the long telegraphed “big stick” package but MPs, already uncomfortable about the proposal, have expressed reservations about how it might be amended in the Senate.
The package, which contains a power to break up big energy companies if they engage in price gouging, will go to the Coalition party room for approval on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Before the meeting an official asked about the Taylor company being investigated for alleged illegal land clearing
Department of the environment officials were acutely sensitive about meeting Angus Taylor over critically endangered grasslands while his family’s company was being investigated for alleged illegal land clearing in New South Wales, according to internal emails.
The information is revealed in correspondence that had previously been partially redacted from documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws in June this year.
Continue reading...Minister tells parliament he requested briefings because of constituents’ concerns, not family business interests
A conversation with an unnamed Yass farmer, not the interests of his farming family, had spurred the minister for energy, Angus Taylor, to seek briefings from the environment department about a listing to protect native grasslands, he told parliament on Monday.
In a personal explanation to the House of Representatives, Taylor sought to deflect further questions and a possible Senate inquiry into meetings he had with bureaucrats on the grasslands laws in 2017.
Continue reading...Push to set up Senate inquiry takes a step forward, as Coalition faces questions on why energy prices keep rising
Labor will continue to target the energy minister, Angus Taylor, as the government’s weak link, citing power price rises since 2015 and renewing its push to set up a Senate inquiry into his meetings with the environment department over endangered grasslands.
On Sunday the mooted inquiry took a step forward with Rex Patrick reversing Centre Alliance’s position and pledging to support the move, although Labor and the Greens still need Cory Bernardi or One Nation’s votes to succeed.
Continue reading...Rebekha Sharkie says if the government is successful in repealing the legislation it will cause ‘needless harm’
On the ensuring integrity bill, Rex Patrick says there are political elements to the bill it can’t support:
The aim was to deal with misconduct and there is no question that has been in the union movement.
I have seen the fairly significant sheet of judicial rulings against some of the unions and in some instances we have some very conservative, considered judicial officers stating things like this union is simply using the fines, treating the fines as the cost of business.
Rex Patrick is speaking to Patricia Karvelas on Afternoon Briefing and says while Centre Alliance supports the intent of the temporary exclusion order bill, it will abstain from voting for it, because it can’t support it in its current form.
Labor will be passing it, although it has raised its own concerns.
Continue reading...In a combative question time the energy minister suggests the Coalition has an ‘open mind’ on nuclear power
Angus Taylor has flagged the Morrison government has an “open mind” about pursuing nuclear power during a combative question time where the energy minister was pursued about rising emissions and his meetings with officials about the protection of grassland in the south-eastern highlands.
Taylor, who is the minister for energy and emissions reduction, was asked repeatedly by Labor on Tuesday whether emissions had risen in recent years, whether he supported calls by government backbenchers to establish a nuclear industry, and whether he had declared any relevant conflicts when meeting departmental officials.
Continue reading...