Newspoll: Coalition’s primary vote slides but Scott Morrison gains popularity
Scott Morrison’s government has caved in to crossbench calls for a federal anti-corruption watchdog to avoid losing a vote on the floor of Parliament. But there’s a catch.
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Scott Morrison’s government has caved in to crossbench calls for a federal anti-corruption watchdog to avoid losing an embarrassing vote on the floor of Parliament.
The Coalition voted for a motion to launch a federal Independent Commission Against Corruption today rather than lose the vote on its first day in minority government.
But the vote was non-binding, meaning the government won’t be forced to follow through and launch the commission.
The motion to launch the federal ICAC passed on voices shortly after 1pm AEDT, after a brief debate.
The Morrison government, which has argued for months a national integrity commission isn’t needed, didn’t attempt to block the bid and risk being defeated.
It came after Coalition MP Llew O’Brien signalled he was willing to cross the floor on the issue this morning.
Mr O’Brien told The New Daily a federal ICAC was a “no-brainer”, adding: “Much of the public have lost trust in the political system and politicians and this is certainly a step in the right direction of rebuilding that trust.”
Labor has described the outcome as a win, with Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus urging the government to cooperate to launch the federal ICAC as soon as possible.
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Nevertheless we call on the government cooperate with us and the crossbench to get this done properly, and as soon as possible. @cporterwa needs to step out of his bizarre denialism - let's get to work! #auspol (2/2)
— Mark Dreyfus (@markdreyfusQCMP) November 26, 2018
Attorney-General Christian Porter argued against the watchdog during the debate, warning the bill before Parliament had massive implications and could potentially see ABC or SBS journalists found guilty of corruption for reporting without impartiality on the government.
He noted ABC senior politics reporter Andrew Probyn could have been found guilty of corruption for calling Tony Abbott “the most destructive politician of his generation”.
Mr Porter didn’t rule out the government establishing its own version of a federal ICAC when asked in Question Time today but indicated there was no pressing need for one.
He said Australia was ranked low as a “corruption jurisdiction” and already had a multi agency approach to tackling misconduct.
“Whether scrapping it for a ... singular model of an Integrity Commissioner is the best way to go or whether there should be consolidation in the creation of a new umbrella model, we are considering that and doing it in a dutiful and cautious way,” Mr Porter said.
Mr Morrison’s control over parliament is being tested after independent MP Kerryn Phelps was sworn in as the new member for Wentworth this morning, cementing the government’s minority in the House of Representatives.
It comes as the PM faces a nightmare week in Canberra as Liberals lash out after a horror result in the Victorian state election and the Coalition’s primary vote plunges in the latest Newspoll.
The Prime Minister held crisis talks with Victorian MPs this morning after the party copped a drubbing at the state election on Saturday, which saw Labor’s Daniel Andrews re-elected as premier on a 5 per cent swing.
Labor could be emboldened by the federal ICAC debate to push for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to be referred to the High Court over a potential Section 44 eligibility issue.
Mr Dutton revealed this morning that he would miss a week of Parliament after suffering an arm injury on Friday that required immediate surgery.
Labor is calling for Mr Dutton to be referred after it emerged a refugee whose visa he cancelled for alleged criminal activity had launched a Federal Court challenge to the decision because the Minister’s eligibility to sit in Parliament remained under a cloud.
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) November 25, 2018
“Because of the foolishness of the Morrison Government’s decision to ignore Mr Dutton’s eligibility issues, Australia’s ability to kick foreign criminals out of the country is now in jeopardy – with more than 1600 visa cancellations made by Mr Dutton now in question,” Mr Dreyfus said in a joint statement with the party’s immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann this morning.
“It’s time for Mr Morrison to wake up and end this farce – which is putting Australians at risk.
“If Mr Dutton refuses to refer himself to the High Court, Mr Morrison must move the motion himself.”
LIBERALS AT WAR OVER VICTORIA RESULT
Angry federal Victorian Liberal MPs vented about the horror result at Saturday’s state election this morning, as The Australian’ s latest Newspoll showed the party’s primary vote has fallen another point to a near-record low of 34 per cent, the third drop in three consecutive polls.
Senate President and Victorian MP Scott Ryan took aim at his conservative colleagues, who have spoken out against same-sex marriage and energy policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and were behind the push to launch a leadership spill to oust Malcolm Turnbull.
“A lot of Liberal voters, they’re fairly conservative in their own lives, they raise kids, they work hard, they run small businesses, support local communities, they volunteer. But they’re pretty liberal in their political outlook,” he told ABC.
“They don’t want views rammed down their throat and they don’t want to ram their views down other people’s throats.”
“That has historically been the Liberal way. We are often conservative in our disposition - I am, but I’m very liberal in my political outlook.
“We don’t want a litmus tests that somehow you have to adopt this position, particularly on social issues, that means if you don’t you are not a real Liberal or you’re not conservative enough.”
He also said the result on Saturday, which saw swings in previously safe Liberal seats, was a message from voters who were “our real base of the Liberal Party”.
Fellow Victorian MP Tim Wilson also had some blunt words for his colleagues, telling Sky News: “We try to keep trying to stuff reality through some people’s ideological objectives, or we can actually listen.”
.@TimWilsonMP: We have a choice; we can heed the message and try to keep trying to stuff reality through people’s ideological objectives, or we can actually listen.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 25, 2018
But if we don't have a vision for the future … we cannot be successful.
MORE: https://t.co/nCa56qqjCY #amagenda pic.twitter.com/O7TXS16Aaz
Former prime minister Tony Abbott agreed the result was “very, very disappointing” but blamed the loss on the state Liberals being behind in the polls for five years and not having enough cut through.
He said the federal Coalition was “looking pretty competitive” ahead of the next election despite the polls.
“I think if you sit down Scott Morrison against Bill Shorten, I think Scott Morrison looks much better,” Mr Abbott told 2GB this morning.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann rejected concerns about the divisions within the party but acknowledged the Victorian result was a bad sign.
“It was obviously a bad result and we’re disappointed by the result,” he told ABC radio. “There’s no question that we’ve got a lot of work to do to get ourselves back into the position we would like to be to serve the people in Victoria.”
He added: “The Liberal Party is a broad church. It is important we continue to operate as a broad church, both with the conservative and liberal traditions.
“If we want to be successful, the best way to be successful is to work together across the broad traditional spectrum that the Liberal Party has covered in the past and I’m confident will continue to be covered in the future.”
The Coalition continues to trail Labor on a two-party preferred split of 45 to 55 per cent in the latest Newspoll for the second consecutive poll - just one point higher than the 44 per cent the party’s vote plunged to after the leadership spill which saw Malcolm Turnbull ousted in August.
The poll suggests that traditional Liberal and National voters have abandoned the Coalition for One Nation, which recorded a significant two-point leap in its primary vote to 8 per cent.
The national vote for the Queensland-based conservative party is now just a point shy of the Greens, who remained unchanged on 9 per cent
Meanwhile, Labor also maintained an unchanged primary vote of 40 per cent, which is the fourth time in the past 10 years that it has breached the 40 per cent threshold according to The Australian.
But while the Coalition has been delivered blow after blow, Mr Morrison doubled his lead as preferred prime minister over Bill Shorten over the past two weeks, recording an extraordinary four-point jump in approval ratings.
Originally published as Newspoll: Coalition’s primary vote slides but Scott Morrison gains popularity
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