Australia politics live: Report claims Scott Morrison about to sack Minister Alan Tudge

Scott Morrison is reportedly on the cusp of sacking one of his ministers – though the Prime Minister’s office denies he’s made a final decision.

Hello and welcome back to our coverage of Australian politics. We’ve wrapped up the live blog for today.

There was a fair bit to get through today, including a proposal from the government to make it easier to deport convicted criminals, a significant strike by nurses in New South Wales, and of course another testy round of Senate estimates.

Speaking of which, in estimates on Monday night we learned the answers to a couple of lingering questions from the Novak Djokovic visa saga. For example, we now know why the Australian Border Force decided to cancel his visa at 7:42am, even though he’d been told he could have until 8.30am to respond to officials.

And the Prime Minister has responded to criticism of both his TV interview alongside wife Jenny and a recent hair salon photo op.

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Read on for all the latest updates.

Minister reportedly on cusp of being sacked

Channel 10 reports the Prime Minister is getting ready to sack Education Minister Alan Tudge, who is currently stood down from that role, over bullying allegations from a former staffer (which Mr Tudge strenuously denies).

As our political editor Samantha Maiden notes below, the Prime Minister’s office is insisting Scott Morrison has yet to make a decision on the matter.

Channel 10's @vanOnselenP reporting Alan Tudge is getting punted. (But PMO insist @ScottMorrisonMP hasn't made a decision). Which doesn't mean that isn't exactly what will happen...

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) February 15, 2022

In Senate estimates yesterday, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet confirmed the report into former staffer Rachelle Miller’s allegations against Mr Tudge had been handed to Mr Morrison’s office on January 28.

Mr Morrison ordered an inquiry into those allegations back in December, though Ms Miller declined to participate, citing issues with the terms of reference.

We have yet to learn anything about the content of the report. Yesterday officials from Mr Morrison’s department said they were going through the process of consulting its participants to determine whether they would be comfortable with the report being handed to Ms Miller and Mr Tudge.

“We advised that, should the Prime Minister wish to provide the report to the two parties, to Ms Miller and Mr Tudge, then we should go through a process of consultation with those participants of the inquiry who provided information,” said a department official.

The department sent the relevant people extracts of the report on Friday of last week. Those people have until close of business on Wednesday to respond.

If anyone objects to their part of the report being given to Ms Miller and Mr Tudge, the department will need to consider their stance and decide what is in the public interest.

According to Channel 10, the report does not uphold Ms Miller’s allegations of emotionally abusive, and in one instance physically abusive behaviour from Mr Tudge. However it reportedly includes an “adverse comment” against the Minister for seeking to promote Ms Miller from the role of media adviser to senior adviser while they were in a consensual but undisclosed relationship.“ It’s expected to be used to justify his dismissal on the grounds of breaching the ministerial code of conduct,” Peter van Onselen reported.

Mr Tudge and his then staffer Rachelle Miller at the 2017 Midwinter Ball. Picture: ABC/Four Corners

‘What a joke’: Senators’ tempers flare

I now bring you some truly captivating drama involving the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee – words I doubt have ever been written before.

During Senate estimates this afternoon, Labor Senator Katy Gallagher and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham got into a heated argument over costings, released by Mr Birmingham’s office last week, of Labor’s alternative pandemic policies.

Those costings, calculated by Mr Birmingham’s staff (i.e. not the Finance Department), claimed Labor’s pledges would have cost an additional $81 billion on top of the government’s already significant spending.

The policies in question included $300 cash incentives for double-dosed Australians and free rapid antigen tests.

Under questioning from Ms Gallagher today, Mr Birmingham confirmed the endeavour of costing these policies “was undertaken within the government, not the Department of Finance”.

Asked to clarify the meaning of “within the government”, he said the costings were done by a combination of his own staff and the Treasurer’s.

“Obviously we are conscious of announcements that are made, and potential government spending,” he said, adding that the government was “providing information to ensure Australians can understand the profligate ways of the Labor Party”.

A generous undertaking, I’m sure you will agree.

Katy Gallagher, however, does not agree.

Saying Labor had failed to cost its own policies, Mr Birmingham said his staff had managed to “extrapolate, on a very conservative basis,” what the party’s “ill-defined policy” on rapid antigen tests would look like, for example.

“Ill-defined, but you managed to define it?” said Ms Gallagher, eyebrows raised.

“On a conservative basis, Senator,” said Mr Birmingham.

“Oh god, what a joke,” she replied.

The Minister said Anthony Albanese had not made it clear how many RATs each person would be entitled to.

“So you made it up,” said Ms Gallagher.

“Well unfortunately, Senator, you’ve announced a policy with no detail,” he said.

“Oh, no details, so you’ve filled in the blanks, have you?” she asked.

“If you’re going to go out there with grand promises-” he began.

There was a fair bit of cross-talk here. I did pick up on Ms Gallagher telling Mr Birmingham he had “no credibility”.

“If you’re not going to cost your policies, your policies that are clearly ill thought through and not costed, then we think the Australian people deserve to understand what those costs may be,” he finished.

“Are you serious? Are you serious? You’re the Finance Minister, and this is how you are spending your days,” she said, calling the numbers “dodgy” and “cooked up”.

“I don’t even know how to cook,” he could have said. It would have been mildly funny.

Let’s fast forward through some more back and forth.

“Is your dodgy costings unit going to continue to put out tables like this?” Ms Gallagher asked as the argument neared its end.

“We will continue to scrutinise your announcements in the lead-up to the election, just as I expect you will continue to scrutinise ours,” said Mr Birmingham.

“Provide the costings of your policies at the time of release, and you can avoid these sorts of circumstances, Senator.”

Ms Gallagher said Labor’s costings would be provided before the election “as usual”.

“So you can probably disband your little costings unit, if you’d like, Mr Birmingham, now that it’s been completely discredited,” she told him.

“Senator what is discredited is your policies,” he fired back.

She then described the costings as “a little scare campaign that fell flat on its face”.

“It has become a total joke,” she said.

“This is the scandal. When Australians needed their government to be going out fixing aged care and actually buying rapid antigen tests, you established a little costings unit of Liberal staffers to cost Labor campaign commitments.”

“Which you won’t cost yourself!” Mr Birmingham protested.

“What an absolute shambles,” said Ms Gallagher.

“The cost of policies actually matters, Senator,” he shot back.

“How embarrassing. How completely embarrassing,” she said.

The chairwoman was, by this point, calling for order with great exasperation.

PM urges China to denounce Russia

Question Time started, for a change, with a question that appeared to have no partisan motive. Anthony Albanese asked Scott Morrison about Ukraine, which is of course facing a potential invasion from Russia.

“This parliament stands united in support of Ukrainian sovereignty and in opposition to Russia’s attempt to intimidate the government and the people of Ukraine,” said the Opposition Leader.

“Can the Prime Minister outline the steps he has taken to convey this parliament's support for our Ukrainian counterpart?”

The Prime Minister said Foreign Minister Marise Payne “has been in regular contact” with the government’s Ukrainian counterparts.

“We continue to convey our strong support for the people of Ukraine, and we have also continued to convey our appreciation to our many partners and allies in the actions they are taking, working closely with Australia to send a very clear message to the Russian government that their threats of terrible violence against Ukraine are unacceptable,” Mr Morrison said.

“All effort should be made to prevent Russia from taking that step in committing that violence against Ukraine.”

He said the national security committee of cabinet had been convening to consider Australia’s potential response, should Russia invade.

“We are continuing to work through those options with our partners and, in the event that those terrible events take place, we will move swiftly with our partners along the lines we were considering,” said Mr Morrison.

“The other point we have been clearly making is we would expect all nations, all governments around the world, to be denouncing what is taking place with the threats of violence against Ukraine, and I do know that the Chinese government, together with the Russian government, have been banding together on this issue.

“The Chinese government has not denounced what is occurring in Ukraine, and I would urge the Chinese government, and all persons in this place to urge the Chinese government to denounce these actions and to allow an appropriate response through the UN.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: Alexei Nikolsky/AFP/Sputnik

No federal ICAC before the election

Over in Senate estimates, Labor Senator Murray Watt and Liberal Minister Michaelia Cash have been sparring about parliament’s failure to establish a federal integrity commission.

The main news here is that Ms Cash confirmed there won’t be action on that front before the election, barring a massive change of heart from Labor, which does not feel the model put forward by the government goes far enough.

“Can you give us a clear answer, on behalf of the government, about whether legislation to establish an anti-corruption commission will be introduced to parliament before the election?” Mr Watt asked.

“We have been very clear about our model. We have finalised our model on the integrity commission,” Ms Cash said.

“I have consistently made this clear: the bill we have presented is the bill that we are able to take forward. Labor has been very clear that you do not support our bill.

“You don’t support our bill. You have not put forward an alternative, and on that basis, at this point in time, we will not be proceeding with it.”

And so on.

Albanese takes victory lap on discrimination

Apologies, bit of a delay in updating the blog there as I’ve been writing something else. We have Question Time coming up shortly.

Anthony Albanese congratulated the Labor Party room on its approach to the religious discrimination legislation last week. It joined with the crossbench and five Liberal MPs to pass an amendment, which led the government to shelve the bill for now.

“Last week was our party at its best,” he said.

“We made a collective decision and backed it in. There is often a debate about Labor having different constituencies and attitudes between them. We can represent people of faith and still represent that every child should be free from discrimination.”

Massive nurse strike in NSW

A significant strike is happening in News South Wales today, with thousands of nurses and midwives walking off the job despite a last-minute order not to do so from the Industrial Relations Commission.

They’re pushing for higher pay, as well as better staff-to-patient ratios.

A large crowd gathered outside NSW parliament this morning, chanting “shame”.

My colleagues from NCA NewsWire report O’Bray Smith, president of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, addressed the crowd.

She said “crisis talks” with Health Minister Brad Hazzard had failed.

“What did they offer us? Nothing,” she said.

“Yesterday we sat in front of the Minister and the Ministry of Health and we were mansplained about life in health.

“Let me tell you: I will not be lectured about safe staffing by these men.”

Nurses from across Sydney gathered in front of NSW parliament. Picture: David Swift/NCA NewsWire

Note the “thank you is not enough” sign behind them. Picture: David Swift/NCA NewsWire

Nurses frequently have to work 12-hour shifts. Picture: David Swift/NCA NewsWire

Another shot of the crowd. Picture: David Swift/NCA NewsWire

A theatre nurse from Broken Hill Hospital spoke to News Breakfast earlier, explaining why nurses were so angry.

“We’re exhausted. We are tired and we are suffering out here, and our government is not listening to us,” she said.

“We’ve been fighting for safe staffing, particularly nurse-to-patient ratios, for years. And our government continues to ignore our pleas.

“Look, it’s not even about the pay rise, it’s about safe staffing at the end of the day. It’s not uncommon for one nurse to be looking after up to eight patients on a ward by herself, and it is even worse with midwives.

“It’s just unsafe, at the end of the day.”

The 24-hour strike is the biggest of its kind in nearly a decade. Mr Hazzard has expressed his “disappointment” that it’s gone ahead despite the ban from the Industrial Relations Commission.

“It’s unfortunate, I’ll put it that way, that having the clear decision of the IRC and having in mind the government has actually been open – I had an hour and 10 minute talk with them yesterday morning,” Mr Hazzard told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

“I think it’s particularly disappointing.

“I’ve seen the notice that went out straight after the IRC report and they completely breached it, they did tell nurses to come to strike today.”

‘Harden up’: PM addresses leaked texts

Scott Morrison addressed the leaked text messages from Barnaby Joyce and another as yet unidentified Minister during an appearance on John Laws’ radio show.

“If you want to be the Prime Minister, you can’t have a glass jaw,” he said.

“You can’t, sort of, get all sooky about it. You’ve got to harden up.”

Mr Morrison was also asked how his wife, Jenny, was handling the criticism of their joint 60 Minutes interview.

“Taylor Swift. The haters are going to hate. Shake it off,” he said.

Meanwhile, it’s Tuesday, which is party room meeting day. Mr Morrison stressed to his colleagues the need to draw a sharp contrast with Labor – hence the sudden focus on that bill about deporting foreign criminals.

“We have a job to do. I’m going to do mine. I need you to do yours,” he said.

“I need you to prosecute every single inch of our agenda.”

Labor’s party room meeting did not reach a position on the bill, as their relevant spokeswoman Kristina Keneally is still negotiating with the government.

Grace Tame’s cheeky response to photo

Yesterday, The Daily Mail published a story about an old photo of former Australian of the Year Grace Tame sitting next to a bong.

That was pretty much the full extent of the story.

Ms Tame has posted this joke in response. It's a little dig at the Prime Minister’s ukulele performance, as seen on 60 Minutes.

Alright, I confess, we were doing a cover of ‘April Sun in Cuba’. On the oboe. pic.twitter.com/MKKsm7EF3y

— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) February 15, 2022

Steggall argues she made ‘rookie error’

Independent MP Zali Steggall has said she made a “rookie error” in failing to properly handle a $100,000 donation.

Yesterday The Sydney Morning Herald reported on an Australian Electoral Commission compliance review into Ms Steggall’s 2018-19 financial disclosures, covering the lead-up to the 2019 election.

The review found a $100,000 cheque from the family trust of a wealthy businessman, John Kinghorn, had not been publicly disclosed even though it far exceeded the $13,800 threshold.

While the money came in a single cheque, it was split into eight separate donations of $12,500, each identified as being from a single Kinghorn family member.

This sort of tactic, where large donations are split up into a series of donations under the threshold, has been the subject of criticism from transparency advocates.

After slamming the story for “misinforming” the newspaper’s readers yesterday – something editor Bevan Shields dismissed as “spin” – Ms Steggall today conceded a mistake was made.

“I received eight pledges, eight receipts were issued, there were eight trust distributions,” Ms Stegall told ABC radio today.

“Unfortunately, the accountant failed to raise that there had been a single cheque issued.

“It has been on the record for over 12 months, I haven’t tried to hide it.

“It was a rookie error.”

‘That is ridiculous’: Albanese’s answer mocked

Anthony Albanese was on 2DayFM radio earlier. The interview wasn’t particularly interesting, I just like the way it ended.

Host: “We saw Jenny Morrison on 60 Minutes. And she’s being called (Scott Morrison’s) secret weapon. Do you have a secret weapon?”

Albanese: “My secret weapon is the Labor Party. We actually like each other.”

Host: “That is ridiculous.”

Mr Albanese was presumably referring to the leaked texts showing some of Mr Morrison’s Liberal and National colleagues haven’t always been his biggest fans.

Lingering Djokovic mystery finally solved

During Senate estimates last night, Border Force officials explained the key mistake that denied tennis star Novak Djokovic “procedural fairness” when his visa was cancelled.

As you’ll recall: Djokovic was detained by the Border Force when he entered the country, and his visa was cancelled hours later. That decision was later overturned in court, as both sides agreed he’d been denied procedural fairness.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke then had to use his ministerial power to cancel Djokovic’s visa a second time, and he was subsequently deported.

A lingering mystery from the saga has been Border Force officials’ decision to give Djokovic until 8.30am to speak to his lawyers and seek advice from Tennis Australia, only to go back on that promise and cancel his visa at 7.42am.

“Why did the Australian Border Force tell him he had until 8am or 8.30am, and then change their mind about half an hour later?” Labor Senator Kristina Keneally asked last night.

“Yeah so the officer, the delegate had initially agreed to the 8am-8.30am time frame. I mean, that’s clear,” a Border Force official said.

“And unfortunately, as that went through the chain of command, they thought that the break there was for fatigue purposes, that he needed a rest. They reconsidered that and re-entered the interview.”

So the most senior officials involved in the decision that day believed Djokovic had been granted extra time to rest, when in fact he was granted that time to consult his lawyers.

“They were aware that he was granted the break to 8am-8.30am. They weren’t aware of the purpose for which the break was agreed,” said the official.

“They were unaware that it was for the purpose of meeting his lawyers and getting advice from Tennis Australia?” Ms Keneally asked.

“Correct,” said the official.

“So that’s where the mistake was made?” said Ms Keneally.

“Correct,” the official confirmed.

Novak Djokovic. Picture: William West/AFP

‘Sneering at millions’: PM defends photo ops

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has insisted he did not allow his wife Jenny to take the fall for him during their joint interview with 60 Minutes, which aired on Sunday night.

As mentioned in the post below, Mr Morrison was interviewed on 2GB radio this morning. Host Ben Fordham brought up the criticism from “some people” that “it was Jenny who had to step up and answer” questions, particularly about the Prime Minister’s infamous trip to Hawaii with his family as bushfires ravaged the country.

“I am more than sorry if we disappointed. And not if. We did,’’ Mrs Morrison said during the couple’s joint interview on 60 Minutes.

“Did we make the right decision? I thought I was making the right decision for my kids. I obviously was wrong.”

Mr Morrison mainly remained silent, nodding along as she spoke.

On 2GB today, the Prime Minister suggested he also addressed the Hawaii holiday during a separate one-on-one interview with Karl Stefanovic, the footage of which didn’t make it into the final program.

He said questions about the holiday were not just “directed at Jenny”.

“She can certainly speak for herself. She’s amazing,” said Mr Morrison.

“I’ve addressed those questions, particularly in relation to when we went away together as a family.

“Karl raised all those issues with me in our own interview. You know how TV works, I don’t think they were going to run it for an hour and 45 minutes.”

If there is indeed unused footage of Mr Morrison talking about Hawaii, I’m sure we would all implore Channel 9 to release it.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and wife Jenny

Fordham also brought up the footage of Mr Morrison playing the ukulele, which sparked a significant reaction on social media.

“They wanted to talk about how we live, and what we do, and yeah, that’s what I do,” said the Prime Minister.

“We were talking about it, and I decided to just show Karl my ukulele skills.”

Mr Morrison pivoted into a defence of his other photo ops, such as that time recently when he washed a hair salon employee’s hair.

“People are having a crack at me the other day because I went to a hairdresser,” he said.

“I go into workplaces all the time. People show me how to weld, people show me how to do all sorts of things. These were trainees and apprentices who wanted to show me what they were working on.

“So if people want to sneer at me for that, if they want to sneer at me for other things, like playing the ukulele, fine, they’re sneering at millions of Australians who just get on with their lives and do a great job.”

Rightio then.

Scott Morrison washing an employee’s hair. Picture: Andrew Henshaw/NCA NewsWire

Labor’s confusion over deportation bill

At a doorstop this morning, Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers was asked about the government’s proposal to make it easier to deport convicted criminals.

“We’ve made our position really clear,” he said.

“These matters are best dealt with in a constructive, collaborative, and ideally bipartisan way. We’ve been trying now, I think for the last three immigration ministers, to understand the issues that are to be addressed by this legislation.

“The Immigration Minister already has the power to throw people out, we saw that with the Novak Djokovic debacle. So it’s not clear to us what powers the Immigration Minister is seeking that he doesn’t already have.

“We’ve tried to work with the government to understand what they’re trying to do here.”

He accused the government of being more interested in a “fight” than a “fix”.

“They want to play these divisive and dangerous political games with our national security, and that makes Australians less safe,” said Mr Chalmers.

The bill is expected to be introduced to parliament either today or tomorrow.

Morrison pivots to law and order

Have a little sniff of the air this fine morning. Do you smell that? It’s the unmistakeable scent of election season. You know what that means: it’s time to talk about LAW and ORDER.

Today the government has shifted its focus to a proposal to a bill that would make it easier to deport visa holders convicted of committing criminal offences.

The current system allows such individuals to remain in the country if they’ve been sentenced to less than two years in prison. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s proposal would allow the government to kick them out even if they receive less than one year.

It would also give the government greater discretion to deport people under the character test.

“The law needs to be fixed. It needs to be changed,” Mr Morrison said during an interview with Ben Fordham on 2GB radio.

“The judges are handing down sentences which enable people to get around this, and we need an objective test.

“There are judgments that have been handed down, Ben, where we know that they haven’t given a higher sentence because they’re concerned it could lead to a visa being cancelled.”

“If you’ve committed a crime – domestic violence, child abuse, assaulting a police officer etc – we want to make sure we can punt them.

“There’s only one person standing in the way of that, and that’s Anthony Albanese. You can’t have an each way bet on law and order.

“This election, there are very serious issues at stake, and Labor just cannot be trusted on this. They are weak.”

The pair went on to discuss Mr Morrison’s efforts (along with Defence Minister Peter Dutton, in particular) to “paint Anthony Albanese as soft on China”.

Mr Morrison argued Labor wanted to “appease” nations like China.

“We are the certainty when it comes to these issues, and they’ve demonstrated weakness.”

“You’re in campaign mode, aren’t you?” Fordham noted.

“I’m in Prime Minister mode. That’s the mode I’m always in,” said Mr Morrison.

Originally published as Australia politics live: Report claims Scott Morrison about to sack Minister Alan Tudge