Australian politics live: Thursday October 24

One mysterious document is at the heart of a bizarre scandal that has consumed parliament this afternoon, with a referral to police looming.

Sam Clench

@SamClench

less than 2 min read

October 24, 2019 - 9:04AM

Welcome to another day of political shenanigans.

Parliament is sitting for the last time in October, and drought policy is back at the top of the agenda, with the Nationals pushing for some significant changes.

Read on for all the latest news from Canberra.

Live Updates

Parliament erupts over 'bizarre' scandal

OK, let's pause and take stock of this Angus Taylor thing, because it's getting a bit complicated.

It all started with a letter Mr Taylor, the Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister, sent to Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore late last month.

In that letter, he claimed the City of Sydney council had racked up a $15 million travel bill during the 2017-18 financial year, and suggested Ms Moore crack down on travel to lower her carbon emissions.

The Daily Telegraph reported on that letter on September 30. When Ms Moore questioned the $15 million figure, the newspaper pointed to a document provided by Mr Taylor's office – a page from the City of Sydney council's annual report.

That document showed a total travel spend of $15.9 million.

However, the full annual report is available online, and it shows a completely different figure – a total travel spend of just $229,000.

Mr Taylor's office says it downloaded the document on September 6. But the council has shared metadata from its site, which shows the online version of the report has not been edited in any way since November of last year.

So the obvious question is, where the heck did the $15 million figure come from?

The accusation from Labor today is that someone, perhaps in Mr Taylor's office, doctored the original document to make it seem as though the council had spent far more on travel than it actually did.

That would obviously be an extremely weird thing to do.

Mr Taylor was grilled on the subject during Question Time, and he dismissed the forgery allegation as "bizarre".

"I am advised that document was drawn from the City of Sydney website and it was publicly available. I reject the bizarre suggestions and assertions being peddled by those opposite," he said.

Then, after Question Time, Labor announced it would refer the matter to NSW police, citing two criminal offences it thought may have been committed.

And you're all caught up. Watch this space.

'Forgery' being referred to police

Labor is going to refer the matter involving Angus Taylor's office and a mysterious, seemingly forged document to NSW police.

The background here is a bit complicated, so if you're wondering what I'm talking about please scroll down to our earlier posts on the subject.

"Today, the City of Sydney has released metadata log information that confirms the actual report, which was uploaded almost 12 months ago, has not been altered once on the City of Sydney council's website since that time. It is quite clear that Angus Taylor was working with a different document," Mr Taylor's Labor opposite Mark Butler said.

"The document he provided The Daily Telegraph has different formatting, different spacing and different font as well as obviously very different numbers.

"The NSW Crimes Act provides that the making of a forged document that is intended to influence the exercise of a public duty by a publicly elected official, like the Lord Mayor of Sydney, is a serious indictable offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

"It is also clear that the NSW Crimes Act provides that a failure to make a report about such a document to the NSW police is also a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison after a person becomes aware of the forgery."

Reporters questioning Mr Butler tried to clarify whether he was accusing Mr Taylor of personally doctoring the document.

"We are not suggesting anything at the moment. We gave him many opportunities to clarify, and all he would do was deny the clearly obvious thing, which is that the document is forgery," he said.

"Angus Taylor will not say whether or not it was made by him or his office, or provided by someone else to him. Instead, he tries to pretend this is not a forged document, when all the evidence is to the contrary."

Houston: 'I just don't know'

Hillsong preacher Brian Houston was just interviewed by 2GB's Ben Fordham. He addressed the Wall Street Journal's story claiming Scott Morrison tried to get him an invitation to a dinner at the White House.

Mr Houston has previously labelled that report "totally false news". Mr Morrison has refused to comment one way or the other.

Today, Mr Houston was less sure.

"Was I invited? I genuinely don't know. At first I thought no I wasn't. Now I literally don't know," he said.

Mr Houston said he had only spoken to Mr Morrison twice since he became Prime Minister more than a year ago.

The first time, immediately after ascending to the top job, Mr Morrison texted Mr Houston asking him to "pray for Jen". The second time, the Prime Minister thanked Mr Houston for hosting him at a Hillsong conference.

Fordham asked whether it was possible that the PM's office had pushed for him to be invited without telling him.

"Everything's possible, I just don't know, because I've never had a conversation with the Prime Minister about it," Mr Houston said.

"The reality is I couldn't have been there anyway, because I already had prior commitments in London.

"It's really a matter for Scott Morrison."

Asked why he hadn't texted the Prime Minister to ask what had happened, Mr Houston said he was sure Mr Morrison had "a whole lot of more important things on his mind".

The interview also covered the news, first reported by The New Daily, that Mr Houston remains under police investigation for failing to report his father's sexual abuse of children.

Mr Houston said the victim in question, whose abuse he did not report, was a 36-year-old man who had "made it clear" he didn't want the police involved.

"The reality is that the law itself actually spells out that very circumstance. That if an adult victim doesn't want the police involved, that is a reasonable excuse for not including the police," he said.

"I was doing the right thing by that victim, who was very adamant and very clear he didn't want the police involved."

Taylor grilled on 'forged' document

As expected, that weird story about Angus Taylor's office and the mysterious City of Sydney document did come up during Question Time.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, scroll down a couple of posts for the background.

Labor asked whether Mr Taylor would say the "forgery" was not made by him or his office.

"Yes," he replied.

"Where did the Minister get the forged document?" Mark Butler followed up.

"I absolutely reject the premise of the question and the bizarre assertions being peddled by those opposite," said Mr Taylor.

"Where did he get the document?" Mr Butler asked, dropping the word "forged".

"The document was drawn directly from the City of Sydney's website," Mr Taylor said.

A quick aside here. The version of the document on the City of Sydney's website shows a travel spend of $229,000. The version given to the media by Mr Taylor's office showed a spend of $15.9 million.

Mr Taylor's office says it downloaded the document on September 6. The council says it has not updated the online version of that document since November of last year.

I call shenanigans.

"Does the Minister stand by his claim that he downloaded the document from the City of Sydney’s website in light of information released today by the City, that metadata logs proved conclusively that the original documents had not been altered since being uploaded to their website almost 12 months ago?" Mr Butler asked.

"As I say again, I am advised that document was drawn from the City of Sydney website and it was publicly available. I reject the bizarre suggestions and assertions being peddled by those opposite," Mr Taylor responded.

PM's pointed two-word answer

Drought policy has dominated Question Time so far, with Labor trying to capitalise on divisions between the government's two coalition partners.

Earlier today, of course, the Nationals leaked their $1.3 billion plan to further address the drought. That plan has not been considered or approved by Cabinet yet, so making it public is a mildly rebellious move.

"The Cabinet will come out with a drought policy, I presume next week, and if we drive our agenda which influences their outcome, that is a good outcome," Barnaby Joyce told ABC radio this morning.

"Obviously if the Cabinet outcome is completely lacking, we'll continue to drive our agenda harder.

"We've been playing the dutiful Coalition partner, we've been making sure we've been part of the team, but there is a sense out there that we are not doing enough. And that is not correct. We are driving these agendas as hard as we can."

Anthony Albanese started Question Time with a somewhat facetious question to Scott Morrison.

"Is the reason his government won't commit to a bipartisan approach with Labor on the drought because he cannot even manage a bipartisan approach with the National Party?" he asked.

"No," the Prime Minister replied. Officially a tie for the shortest answer in history.

Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon had the next question.

"Who is running the government's chaotic drought response – the Prime Minister or the National Party backbench?" he asked.

"The Cabinet," said Mr Morrison, before promptly sitting back down.

It is remarkably refreshing to see some succinct answers for once, but I have to say, my ears pricked up at that second one.

It could easily be interpreted as a pointed message to Mr Morrison's colleagues in the National Party – policy is decided by Cabinet, not by leaks to the media.

$15 million dispute erupts

A weird story has been bubbling along today involving Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor and the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore.

On September 30, the Telegraph reported on a letter Mr Taylor sent to Ms Moore, accusing the City of Sydney of racking up a whopping $15 million travel bill during the 2017-18 financial year and suggesting it cut down on travel to lower its carbon emissions.

When Ms Moore questioned that figure, the Telegraph pointed to a document provided by Mr Taylor's office, which was seemingly a page from the City's annual report. That document clearly showed a $15.9 million travel spend.

But as The Guardian noticed yesterday, the version of the annual report posted online shows a completely different figure – a total travel budget of $229,000.

The implication here is that the document listing a $15.9 million travel bill was wrong or doctored.

Mr Taylor has labelled that idea a "conspiracy theory", and he says he makes "no apology for suggesting that the Lord Mayor should take real and meaningful action to reduce the City of Sydney's carbon emissions instead of hollow virtue-signalling".

"One way to reduce emissions is through limiting unnecessary air travel, and I suggest that the Lord Mayor's flights to Paris for the Women for Climate conference was an unnecessary indulgence," he said.

This is an odd one. Maybe it will come up during Question Time.

52 lucky ministerial staff

The Australian's Alice Workman has picked up on an interesting piece of information from the Department of Finance.

She reports that Scott Morrison has signed off on 52 staff in the ministerial wing being paid a salary "above the top of the range for their classification", at a cost of $1.4 million a year to the federal budget.

Public servants are placed in different classifications, which are outlined here, based on their seniority. And each classification has a salary range. These 52 people are being paid above their assigned range.

That is double the number who were being paid above their range under Mr Morrison's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull.

Labor dismisses drought plan

Labor has dismissed the Nationals' leaked $1.3 billion drought proposal as "a plan to save the Nationals", rather than farmers.

"The National Party backbench hasn't produced a national drought plan, just a plan to save the Nationals," Joel Fitzgibbon said.

"The Nationals are in revolt within the Coalition because the Prime Minister doesn't have a drought plan.

"There's a rump of mainly northern Nationals who know that the government's lack of direction on drought will cost them the bush."

Dutton 'working closely' with Lambie

Peter Dutton appeared for his regular Thursday spot on 2GB radio this morning, and discussed the government's push to repeal medevac.

The law's fate depends on the vote of crossbench Senator Jacqui Lambie, who has not yet made up her mind.

"I'm working closely with Jacqui, and she wants to consider a report that was done in the Senate," Mr Dutton said.

"The Labor party is saying there's nothing wrong here, nothing to see. Keep the law as it is.

"Our people have rightly said this is a bad law. It's a backdoor way into Australia, and if people needed medical attention they were already getting it under the old model."

Ms Lambie has until next month to make up her mind, as the Senate isn't reconvening until November 11.

New census questions scrapped

The Guardian reports the Australian Bureau of Statistics had to ditch 20,000 census forms which included new questions on gender and sexuality after input from the office of Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar.

That piece of information was revealed by the bureau's boss David Kalisch during estimates today.

He was asked whether Mr Sukkar's office had sought to influence which questions were used on the forms.

"They put a view to me but ultimately it was my decision," he said.

"They did express a preference, but ultimately it was my call."

Mr Kalisch said there had been "some sensitivities" around the questions, and some members of the community would have been unsure what they meant.

Labor MP Steven Jones is a bit worked up about it.

It is now clear that the Minister’s office has interfered with the ABS Census process.

20,000 questionnaires were pulped.

They didn’t want to ask questions on Sexual Orientation.

Did this come from the PM?#estimates
— Stephen Jones MP (@StephenJonesMP) October 23, 2019