PM Scott Morrison under fire over odd Question Time tactic
Scott Morrison has broken Kevin Rudd’s record for dragging out Question Time while facing defeat on a vote to launch a royal commission into the ‘abuse and neglect of disabled people’.
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Scott Morrison has smashed Kevin Rudd’s record for dragging out Question Time while facing defeat on a vote to launch a royal commission into the ‘abuse and neglect of disabled people’.
The Prime Minister came under fire today for refusing to call an end to Question Time, which ran for two and a half hours until 4.30pm.
It breaks former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd’s record of 126 minutes.
Labor attempted to suspend standing orders but were cut off by the Speaker when it reached 4.30pm, when adjournment speeches begin.
Parliament will now rise tonight without dealing with any more legislation today and won’t return until next week.
“I’m not affraid of losing votes in this house, I lost one on Tuesday. But I tell you who the losers were - the Australian people,” Mr Morrison told Parliament this afternoon.
“The Australian people saw the weakness of the leader of the Opposition, who is more interested in the politics of this Canberra bubble than the border protection of this nation.
“I was prepared to come in here and face down the loss of that vote because I have the courage of my convictions when it comes to border protection.”
It comes after there were chaotic scenes earlier when protesters hijacked Question Time shouting slogans about climate change.
MPs will have to vote next week on the push to establish a royal commission “to investigate violence, abuse and neglect of disabled people” after the Senate earlier today supported a motion from Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John 35 votes to 30.
It will go before the House as a message from the Senate.
Mr Morrison also said he was not opposed to a royal commission into the ‘abuse and neglect of disabled people’.
“I have been considering this matter. My priority has been to deal with the royal commission into aged care, which is now underway,” he said.
“The government will consider this in all seriousness.”
There are only three more sitting days before the budget on April 2.
Earlier, a series of activists - dotted throughout the crowd to prevent a quick response by security guards - stood during the session in parliament today to interrupt politicians.
The activists were escorted out individually by security as they rose.
Most of the activists appeared to be middle-aged men and women.
The has also been criticism of the behaviour in parliament today after Senator Brian Burston and One Nation staffer James Ashby were involved in a physical altercation last night.
Earlier, Peter Dutton told of the trauma of Australian sailors pulling dismembered bodies of asylum seekers from the ocean as the government warns a new wave of boat arrivals is on the way.
The Home Affairs Minister made the comments on Sydney radio 2GB this morning as the government ramps up its attack on Labor over the refugee medical evacuations bill.
“It is going to see hundreds of people coming here quickly, it will be quite confronting and that’s the reality of the bill that they passed in the parliament,” Mr Dutton said.
“We have spoken to the sailors who pulled the kids out of the water, the half-eaten torsos. “Those sailors, members of Border Force, there are people still to this day with PTSD, they have never recovered and some never will.”
CHRISTMAS ISLAND MOVE ‘HYSTERIA’
Opposition leader Bill Shorten accused the government of trying to “whip up fear and hysteria”.
He claimed the Prime Minister’s decision to re-open Christmas Island detention centre was a purely political move that could have “tragic consequences”.
“I do not believe that Australians want a government which governs by slogans and fear,” he told reporters in Canberra this morning.
“Strong borders does not need to come at the price of humane treatment of people who’ve been in our care for half a decade or more.
“I totally repudiate the attacks of the Government, seeking to whip up fear and hysteria, seeking to lure people smugglers to entice people onto boats to come to Australia.”
The medical evacuation laws which passed parliament yesterday allow only asylum seekers already on Nauru and Manus Island to come to Australia for medical treatment.
The Daily Telegraph revealed activist doctors were already mobilising to bring 300 boat people to Australia using the law while the Morrison government prepared to beef-up border security in a bid to fight an expected revival of the people smuggling trade.
It’s not the first time Mr Dutton has raised the post traumatic stress navy officers endure as a result of picking dead bodies out of the water.
In 2017, Mr Dutton said the government’s military-led response to people smugglers had saved lives.
MORE: PM’s new plan to ‘stop the boats’
“Since Operation Sovereign Borders commenced we have not had a drowning at sea in three years,” Mr Dutton said, repeating his oft-cited figure of 1200 deaths at sea in the six years Labor was in power up until 2013.
“They were pulling the bodies of children, dismembered, from the water … children attacked by sharks, and they were pulling the remains of those torsos from the water.”
Mr Shorten brushed off the potential for a Tampa “children overboard” style scare campaign to become an election deciding issue.
“I think this country in 2019 is not the same nation as 2001,” he said.
The Labor leader said the Coalition should be “ashamed of themselves for luring people to Australia by somehow implying that this Government hasn’t got strong borders”.
“The opening of Christmas Island, I believe, was a political gesture designed to fuel domestic political unrest but I’m worried that we’ll have tragic consequences because this is a government addicted to slogans and fear,” he added.
NEW MEASURES ‘IRRELEVANT’
Defence Minister Christopher Pyne today argued it was “irrelevant” that new medical evacuation laws would only apply to asylum seekers who are already in offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru.
It comes after intelligence sources reportedly warned “the beast is stirring”, meaning the people smuggling trade, after the law passed the Senate yesterday 36 votes to 34.
Mr Dutton said any new arrivals would go to Nauru, but added it was also possible medical transferees could end up on Christmas Island, where the detention centre will be reopened after closing in October last year.
Christmas Island’s local council has warned its small regional hospital is not set up to handle asylum seekers with complex medical needs.
Local council chief executive David Price said the hospital was so small it made more sense to send sick asylum seekers straight to the mainland.
Under the new laws, the home affairs minister can reject medical transfers if the person poses a threat to the Australian community.
Meanwhile, the govenment has put its “big stick” energy policy on hold to whip out on the campaign trail ahead of the election.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg maintains the “important reform” aims to hold big energy companies to account, increase competition in the market and lower prices.
But Labor’s treasury spokesman Chris Bowen says the government “can’t even be bothered” to bring the proposal on for a vote in parliament, telling reporters in Canberra the coalition were “hopeless” with energy policy.
— with AAP
Originally published as PM Scott Morrison under fire over odd Question Time tactic
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