Q&A recap: Super Saturday, company tax cuts, Emma Husar and the Fairfax takeover

Q&A: Mitch Fifield rejects Tony Abbott poses a threat to the PM; claims of a protection racket for Emma Husar; and Nine-Fairfax.

Q&A host Tony Jones, Parnell McGuiness and Mitch Fifield.

SUPER SATURDAY & TURNBULL’S LEADERSHIP

Mitch Fifield has rejected claims that Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership is under contest by Tony Abbott, saying the prime minister was leading the government “extremely well.”

Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program this evening, the Communications Minister threw his support behind the prime minister, saying Mr Abbott didn’t pose a threat to Mr Turnbull.

Mr Fifield’s comments followed a question from an audience member, who raised doubts about the Liberal leadership off-the-back of the Coalition’s disappointing result in the weekend’s Super Saturday by-elections.

Should the Liberal Party provide difference to Labor? Is it Tony Abbott’s time again? @lenoretaylor & @parnellpalme respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/AiottxKiQD

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 30, 2018

The Liberal minister also downplayed the significance of ALP’s four by-election wins, describing the results as “the expected status quo result for an incumbent government.”

“No incumbent government in Australia has won a by-election from their opponent since the Kalgoorlie by-election of 1920,” Mr Fifield said. “When the sitting member was expelled from the parliament for sedition, He ran again and lost.”

When asked if it was “disturbing” how often Mr Abbott spoke out against Coalition policy, Mr Fifield said it was “the absolute prerogative of a backbench member of parliament.”

The Guardian’s Lenore Taylor said that while she didn’t see any real chance of the Liberal party “coalescing around” Mr Abbott, the by-election results proved the Coalition’s “Kill Bill” strategy hadn’t been effective as they had hoped.

COMPANY TAX CUTS

Labor MP Jim Chalmers has taken aim at the coalition’s controversial company tax cut proposal, describing any potential abandonment of the policy as Malcolm Turnbull’s “final humiliation.”

In a fiery exchange, the Labor MP argued against the proposed cuts he said came at the expense of middle Australia. But argued that “abandoning” the policy would be tantamount to the Liberal party “giving the election away.”

.@JEChalmers thinks it's a repudiation of trickle-down policies that have failed. @SenatorFifield says they are taking it one week at a time #QandA pic.twitter.com/pfjJqQKIgJ

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 30, 2018

But, Mitch Fifield shot back by throwing his weight behind the tax policy, saying the Liberal party still planned to take the legislation to the Senate.

The Liberal MP also denied the policy was “on the nose”, but declined to say whether the party would take it to the next election.

“Bill Shorten was a passionate advocate for company tax cuts when he was the assistant treasurer of this nation,” Mr Fifield said.

Earlier, Mr Fifield said the Liberal party was pursuing company tax cuts so foreign companies with lower tax jurisdiction didn’t have a “leg up” in a competitive international market.

But The Guardian’s Lenore Taylor took aim at the government’s modelling, saying Mr Turnbull hadn’t been very convincing in demonstrating any supposed benefit to the nation.

The journalist also argued for a “proper discussion” about what would be done with “the large pool of money.”

“We’re being presented with a massive change to the tax system at a time when our tax base is narrowing and it’s quite worrying how we’re going to pay for our level of services into the future without having a proper intelligent conversation about the options that might be on the table,” Lenore said. “I think that’s why people aren’t buying it.”

But Labor’s Jim Chalmers argued that the Liberal party was facing more than just a “messaging problem”.

He said he understood why Australians were “filthy about tax cuts for the top end of town” at a time of insecure work and declining living standards.

“The overwhelming priority for this country when it comes to growing the economy is proper inclusive people-powered, bottom-up economic growth,” Mr Chalmers said. “You won’t get that if you give the biggest tax cuts to the people who need them at least or if you keep hacking away at education...”

EMMA HUSAR

Mitch Fifield has slammed Bill Shorten for running a “protection racket” for embattled NSW Labor MP Emma Husar, who is facing an internal investigation into bullying allegations.

When asked by an audience member how thorough the ALP investigation into Ms Husar would be, Mr Fifield said he was concerned that “there’s a lot that Bill Shorten doesn’t know that occurs in his party.”

How thorough and comprehensive will the investigation into Emma Husar be? @JEChalmers & @SenatorFifield respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/F2SRIW4P6i

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 30, 2018

The Liberal MP also took the opportunity to take aim at Mr Shorten’s delay in referring Labor MPs to the senate over their dual-citizenship status.

Mr Shorten was left with egg on his face earlier this year when it was revealed five Labor MPs were ineligible to sit in Parliament — a saga which triggered 7 by-elections, 5 of which were held on Saturday. Labor retained each of its seats.

“He didn’t know that he had a large number of his House of Representatives colleagues were ineligible to sit,” Mr Fifield said. “Of course he didn’t know and he was running a protection racket for them.”

But Labor minister for Finance, Jim Chalmers refused to be drawn, saying as an independent investigation was underway, he didn’t see the point in hypothesising about the allegations until “all the facts were on the table.”

FAIRFAX TAKEOVER

Editor of The Guardian Australia, Lenore Taylor has told Q&A she is deeply concerned about the future of Australia’s media industry following news of Nine’s takeover of Fairfax Media.

Taylor said while Nine did produce some “good journalism,” Australia’s contraction in media diversity spoke to a larger issue of “a problem with civic journalism.”

She said news that held the powerful to account was “really essential for our society and our democracy,” and that consumers of media had to actively support public interest journalism.

But Mr Fifield threw his weight behind the Liberal party’s 2017 changes to media laws, which paved the way for the historic takeover, saying they increased the viability of Australian media organisations and gave them a “better chance to compete.”

Are you concerned about the concentration of media ownership in Australia? @lenoretaylor @SenatorFifield & @JEChalmers respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/5aZAU7ts8g

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 30, 2018

“I think the changes that I’ve put in place mean that it is much less likely that a major Australian media organisation will fail,” Mr Fifield said. “ … What we’ve done gives a fighting chance to Australian media organisations and obviously Nine are getting together with Fairfax because they see value in the mastheads of the Sydney Morning Herald.”

While Labor’s Jim Chalmers said Liberal changes to media ownership, and with it Nine’s takeover of Fairfax had been “universally panned”, he declined to say whether a Labor government would wind back the rules.