Medivac edges closer to chopping block

Pauline Hanson and Jacqui Lambie hold the government’s legislative agenda to ransom.

One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, who controls two upper house seats, withheld her support on Sunday for the union-­restricting legislation. Picture: AAP

Pauline Hanson and Jacqui Lambie are holding the government’s legislative agenda to ransom in the Senate, as Scott Morrison tries to win their support for key election pledges headlined by union-busting laws and repealing the medivac bill.

Ahead of the final parliamentary sitting fortnight of the year, the Morrison government was inching closer on Sunday to ­securing the crucial vote of Senator Lambie to repeal the medivac laws.

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As MPs return to Canberra, the government will attempt to win passage through the parliament this week for its Ensuring Integrity Bill, “big stick” energy legislation creating new powers to divest the assets of energy companies and the medivac repeal. It will table its final religious discrimination bill next week.

Senator Hanson, who controls two upper house seats, withheld her support on Sunday for the union-­restricting legislation, declaring she would hold more talks with unions before making a final decision.

“I have meetings organised with unions. I think it was not very good of the government to actually release the amendments late Friday afternoon,” the One Nation leader said.

Centre Alliance has committed its two upper house votes to support the bill, which means the government will need the support of One Nation or Senator Lambie to secure its passage.

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke used the 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and terrorism rules by Westpac to discredit the government’s bill, arguing that a union could be shut down for “three breaches of paper work”.

“Under this bill, after the amendments, if a union puts its paper work in late or fails to put its paper work in three times the ­entire organisation can be deregistered. Now, if that’s meant to be corporate equivalence I’m not sure how 23 million equals three,” Mr Burke said.

On Sunday, another of the government’s election promises to repeal the medivac laws, which passed in the dying days of the 45th parliament with Labor, Greens and crossbench support, looked closer to being resolved.

Senator Lambie flagged changes to the repeal bill, confirming her office had been locked in negotiations with the government and suggested “we’re not far off it”, with a potential resolution within a few days.

The Tasmanian senator, whose vote would secure the numbers for the government, said there would be more face-to-face meetings to finalise her position on the medivac repeal.

“I think what you’ll find with the medivac, it may not look like it does today,” Senator Lambie said.

Under medivac laws, doctors were granted stronger powers to recommend that an asylum-­seeker or refugee on Manus Island or Nauru could be transferred to Australia for medical treatment.

Ahead of the final two sittings weeks before the Christmas break, Anthony Albanese said he would push Mr Morrison on ­climate change following the devastating bushfires across the ­nation.

Government frontbenchers are also expected to keep promoting the government’s response to the drought and the Murray-­Darling Basin.

In addition to focusing on the economy, Mr Albanese said he would urge Mr Morrison to convene a special meeting of the Council of Australian Governments to discuss a “national disaster strategy”.

“It is very clear that whilst you can’t say that any individual event is just because of climate change, we know that the scientists told us that the bushfire seasons would be longer and more intense, just like with other natural disasters,” Mr Albanese said.

“What we need to do is to make sure that we have the best co-ordination in place.”

Mr Burke also said Labor would pursue Energy Minister Angus Taylor over his explanation of how his office used inaccurate figures to attack Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore over travel expenses and carbon emissions.

“On the face of it, he’s misled the parliament. And you don’t get off the hook for misleading the parliament of Australia,” Mr Burke said.