Politics Live: August 27, 2014

Before we venture out into the Canberra evening, what did we learn today?

• Beware of backdrops when you're doing a doorstop;
• Beware of what you say to party room meetings;
• Just plain beware. The US is talking about a "coalition of allies" when it comes to Syria and Iraq;
• There's no braver politician than Sarah Hanson-Young;
• Except maybe Bob Hawke.

 

Many thanks for tuning in. Andrew Meares, Alex Ellinghausen and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

 

 

Treasurer Joe Hockey during question time on Wednesday. Photo: Andrew Meares

The Senate is now considering the "tabling of committee reports".

The House is debating the government's plans to wind back or "streamline" the Future of Financial Advice laws.

(This is expected to eventually pass the Senate with the support of PUP.)

Along with Bob Brown and Christine Milne, Rice thanks her sons and partner Penny for their support on the way to Canberra.

The new senator says she and Penny are proud that they are a legally married same-sex couple in Australia.

"The time for marriage equality has come," she says.

"Penny's and my partnership shows that love is love."

Senator Janet Rice is congratulated by Greens leader Senator Christine Milne after delivering her first speech. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Rice talks of how she was politicised in a science lecture in 1980 when she first heard about climate change. She also explains as how she has been a feminist since an early age.

"We can afford to care for many more refugees," Rice later argues.

 

 

 

Rice has been mayor of the City of Maribyrnong, an environment campaigner, transport planner and the Ride to Work co-ordinator for Bicycle Victoria.

(She is a very keen cyclist.)

She also has an interesting personal story.

As she told Same Same last year:

"I married Peter, we had John and Leon, and many years later, Peter became Penny."

In the Senate, Victorian Greens senator Janet Rice is delivering her first speech.

"What a privilege to be here!" she begins. 

 

 

Senator Janet Rice delivers her first speech in the Senate. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

A spokesman for Tony Abbott has released a statement about Iraq, Syria and all that military jazz:

"The Prime Minister has made it clear that Australia is ready to continue our humanitarian involvement in Iraq.

"Our response to any request from the United States, or other close allies and partners, will be based on whether there is an achievable overall humanitarian purpose and a clear and proportionate role for Australia as well as on a careful assessment of the risks.

"Australia is not considering putting combat forces on the ground (nor, for that matter, is the United States)."

Keating also reflected on Hawke's habit of nudie sunbathing by the pool at the Lodge when ministers called by to discuss important national issues. 

Here's Michael's family friendly take on the annecodate:

"Although he recalled jesting about the size of the prime minister's manhood, Mr Keating noted that after one such meeting Professor Evans had conceded that 'it does take a certain chutzpah' to meet ministers in the nude."

 

But back to the nation's favourite political fued for a moment.

Keating and Hawke.

Can't get enough of it, hey?

Not if your name is Paul Keating.

The Age's political editor Michael Gordon was at Gareth Evans' ANU book launch today, where he saw Keating deliver a real witherer.

"To be prime minister of Australia, you have got to be lucky," Keating told the launch.

"To be prime minister for Australia, with five years down time, you've got to be more than lucky - and history deserves to know that that's the way it was."

 

And Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has had a bit of a win in the Senate.

He has gained Senate support to order the government to produce/ table documents that outline the definition of metadata.

This comes after the Coalition circulated a consultation paper to the telco industry last week, clarifying what sorts of customer web and phone metadata the government wants Telstra, Optus, iiNet et al to store for up to two years.

The paper has been published today by Fairfax Media.

As Ben Grubb reports, the paper rules out the retention of destination IP addresses and URLs customers access online. But it does not rule out access to this detail without a warrant if a telco happens to store it anyway, outside the proposal's requirements.

It is also "murky" about what is required to be retained when it comes to internet metadata.

Over in the Senate, Ludlam - with the backing of Labor, PUP, David Leyonhjelm and Nick Xenophon - has ordered the government to provide a definition of metadata to be retained under the proposed data retention scheme and the paper sent to the telco last week.

Attorney-General George Brandis is required to deliver this to the Senate no later than 12pm on September 3.