Politics Now: Scott Morrison, Pauline Hanson at odds over anti-thug bill
Scott Morrison vows to push on with the union integrity bill, as Pauline Hanson defends her controversial move to scuttle it.
- Unions deny Hanson deal
- Xenophon teams up with Huawei
- Hanson ‘guarantee’ on Medivac
- What’s making news today
Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live blog on the happenings at Parliament House in Canberra.
TOP STORIES: PM vows to pursue union bill | Hanson: Union bill was bad law | ‘Dutton knows my word is my bond’ | Unions deny Hanson deal
5.20pm: Reef report ‘spin’
The federal government’s report to the UN on protecting the Great Barrier Reef is an “exercise in spin”, the Greens say, AAP reports.
The report was handed to the UN on Sunday, and will be part of the World Heritage Committee’s assessment of the reef at their annual conference in June next year.
The 68-page document highlights the challenges facing the the reef’s survival, and what actions are being taken.
The report acknowledges climate change as the major threat to the reef, but says the federal government is on track to tackle this issue.
“Australia is taking strong action as part of global efforts to address the global threat of climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement,” the summary reads.
“The Paris Agreement aims to keep global temperature rise well below 2C - and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C.
“Australia’s commitment under the Paris Agreement is to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.”
However Greens senator Larissa Waters said the report was “an exercise in spin” while Queensland state member for Maiwar, Michael Berkman said it did not sufficiently highlight the serious issues facing the reef.
“You can’t send the UN a glossy report pretending everything’s fine when the Australian Government’s own report downgraded the long-term outlook for the reef to very poor for the first time,’ he said.
“The Queensland government is also in denial with its support for new coal and gas projects, including Adani’s new coal mine and the entire Galilee Basin.”
— AAP
Greg Brown 4.30pm: What we learned in QT
Labor used Question Time to raise more allegations about Energy Minister Angus Taylor, arguing he failed to declare an indirect interest in a company.
Opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler asked Mr Taylor if he stood by a previous statement that “all my interests are declared in accordance with the rules”.
Mr Taylor responded: “yes I do”.
Mr Butler followed up by asking why Mr Taylor had not declared an indirect stake in GFA F1 Pty Ltd.
Documents distributed by Labor showed Mr Taylor was a partner in Gufee Pty Ltd, which has a shareholding in Farm Partnerships Australia.
Farm Partnerships Australia has a stake in GFA F1, leading to accusations from Labor that Mr Taylor had failed to declare all his interests.
Mr Taylor said: “My interests are declared in accordance with the rules as I have said many times in this House”.
Anthony Albanese used the allegations to ask Scott Morrison why he was standing by a minister who “has been embroiled in four scandals this year”.
The Prime Minister defended Mr Taylor’s record in the energy and emissions reduction portfolios.
“For the last six months, and before then our government has just been getting on with the job,” Mr Morrison said.
“Those opposite are just getting on with their grubby smears and political games.”
Labor grilled Attorney-General Christian Porter after it was revealed the senior minister was also on Mr Morrison’s phone call to NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.
Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus asked whether Mr Porter sought departmental advice before sitting in on the phone call.
Mr Porter admitted he did not seek advice.
“It was not the sort of phone call, because it was so basic and simple, that required any advice to be sought or given,” Mr Porter said.
“The descriptions of that call provided by the Prime Minister and Commissioner Fuller have been absolutely accurate.
“I won’t be ...taking advice from someone who has an 8-0 record of referring coalition members to the police. Eight referrals, zero success.”
3.35pm: Heckler targets Nats deputy
A man has been thrown out of the Senate’s public gallery for hurling abuse at Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie, AAP reports.
The man yelled “F..king useless!” at Senator McKenzie during Question Time on Monday amid calls from angry farmers to ditch the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. He was swiftly escorted from the chamber.
“That’s utterly inappropriate behaviour. I will not tolerate interjections from galleries. It’s impolite to other citizens who are also here,” Senate President Scott Ryan said.
A group of about 50 people cheered and applauded after One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts asked Senator McKenzie whether she would resign over her “failure” to help agriculture.
“No, Senator Roberts, I won’t be resigning,” the Nationals deputy leader replied.
An outbreak of interjections from the public prompted the usually reserved Senator Ryan to ask if one of the men had the courage to own up. “You calling me a coward? You’re a coward,” one man said before he was marched out.
Senator Ryan was unimpressed with the outburst.
“It is completely disrespectful to your fellow citizens to behave that way,” he said.
The group staged a mass exodus shortly after, as Senator McKenzie answered a “Dorothy Dixer” question about the government’s support for drought-affected farmers.
A convoy of farmers has descended on Canberra to urge the Morrison government to scrap the basin plan.
— AAP
Greg Brown 3.18pm: United birthday wishes
Scott Morrison closes QT by wishing his father a happy 84th birthday.
“My father is watching from an aged care facility near his home. I would like to wish him the very best for his 84th birthday, and dad, we’re all thinking of you at this very difficult time. I wish I could be there with you,” the Prime Minister says.
Anthony Albanese says “some things are above politics” and he also wishes Mr Morrison’s father happy birthday.
Joe Kelly 3.10pm: Keneally attacks medivac ‘fallacy’
The opening salvos on the medivac repeal bill in the Senate could mean a vote by Monday night on the contentious medivac repeal bill. Read more here
Greg Brown 3.08pm: ‘Grubby smears, political games’
Anthony Albanese asks Scott Morrison to confirm Energy Minister Angus Taylor “has been embroiled in four scandals this year”.
The Prime Minister defends Mr Taylor’s record in the energy and emissions reduction portfolios.
“For the last six months, and before then our government has just been getting on with the job,” Morrison says.
“Those opposite are just getting on with their grubby smears and political games.”
Greg Brown 3.02pm: Taylor: ‘Interests declared’
Opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler asks Energy Minister Angus Taylor if he stands by a previous statement that “all my interests are declared in accordance with the rules”.
Taylor says: “Yes I do”.
Butler follows up and accuses Taylor of failing to declare his partnership shares in GFA F1 Pty Ltd for more than five years.
Taylor sticks to the script. “My interests are declared in accordance with the rules as I have said many times in this House,” he says.
Greg Brown 2.52pm: Labor hung up on PM’s call
Labor frontbencher Terri Butler asks Attorney-General Christian Porter how he felt the phone call to NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller was appropriate.
Porter says the call was “totally appropriate”. “It’s precisely what the Prime Minister undertook to do. He did it. He came back to the House with the response to that call,” Porter says.
Greg Brown 2.47pm: ‘Basic, simple’ phone call
Mark Dreyfus again asks Attorney-General Christian Porter if he received departmental advice before the phone call with NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.
“Did he seek advice from his department or agencies or not?”
Porter says he did not seek advice. “It was not the sort of phone call, because it was so basic and simple, that required any advice to be sought or given,” he says.
Greg Brown 2.44pm: Zero-success Dreyfus
Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus asks Attorney-General Christian Porter if he advised Scott Morrison against calling NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller.
“Before the phone call, did the Prime Minister ask the Attorney-General whether the phone call should be made? Did the Attorney-General seek advice from his department or agencies, including whether the Prime Minister calling the Commissioner, one of his best friends, gave rise to a further conflict?”
Porter says he “won’t be lectured to” by Mr Dreyfus, who has referred eight matters to police without any charges coming from them.
“The descriptions of that call provided by the Prime Minister and Commissioner Fuller have been absolutely accurate,” Porter says.
“I won’t be ... taking advice from someone who has an 8-0 record of referring coalition members to the police. Eight referrals, zero success.”
Greg Brown 2.40pm: Fuller phone call revisited
The Angus Taylor saga re-enters Question Time.
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles asks Attorney-General Christian Porter if he was with Scott Morrison when the Prime Minister called NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller.
“Was the NSW Police Commissioner made aware that the Attorney-General was on the call with the Prime Minister which discussed the instigation, nature and substance of the criminal investigation into the Minister for Emissions Reduction?”
Porter says Mr Fuller knew he was on the phone.
“I note with respect to his call, he said the Prime Minister didn’t ask any questions that were inappropriate,” Porter says.
“I also note with respect to that call he said something else very interesting. He said that matters like the one that was referred by the shadow attorney-general are, in his words, ‘a great diverter of my time’.”
Greg Brown 2.25pm: Paris targets ‘will be met’
Anthony Albanese asks about a leaked speech Malcolm Turnbull gave to Liberal moderates last week when the former prime minister called Scott Morrison’s energy policy “incoherent”.
“Does the Prime Minister agree that it is time government members start acting like real Liberals and took effective action on climate change?”
Scott Morrison defends his policies, saying emissions per capita were at their lowest level in 29 years.
“We continue to implement the policies that were first commenced by prime minister Turnbull when it came to emissions reduction,” Mr Morrison says.
“And of course that had most significantly included getting on with the project of Snowy 2.0, which has been brought to a final investment decision by this government.
“We will meet or Paris targets, but importantly we will meet the Kyoto 2020 targets and we will be able to beat our commitments.”
Greg Brown 2.12pm: Chalmers ‘out of witness protection’
Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers asks whether low wage growth is “mission accomplished” for the government.
Josh Frydenberg says Dr Chalmers has been let out of “witness protection”. “He’s been averaging one question a sitting week since the election. Not bad for a shadow treasurer,” the Treasurer says.
Mr Frydenberg says real wages have been growing at 0.6 per cent “which is around the historical average”.
“Real minimum wages have increased every year under us, whereas under the Labor Party three out of six years they went backwards and we now have one of the highest, if not the highest, minimum wage in the world,” Mr Frydenberg says.
Greg Brown 2.05pm: A tactical switch
Anthony Albanese opens Question Time without talking about Angus Taylor. The Opposition Leader instead grills Scott Morrison on low wage growth and low business investment.
The Prime Minister says the economy is in good shape under the Coalition because the government was keeping taxes low.
“I can confirm that businesses in this country kept putting people into work as a result of not having to face the higher taxes of what those opposite were proposing to do at the last election,” Mr Morrison says.
1.35pm: Cultivating support
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has offered her support to farmers after jumping on a tractor outside Parliament House.
Greg Brown 12.25pm: PM firm on Medivac repeal
Scott Morrison says he will not consider allowing New Zealand to take asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru in return for Jacqui Lambie’s support of the Medivac repeal. “Those policies on those matters haven’t changed,” the Prime Minister said.
Greg Brown 12.19pm: ‘Frustration’ over digital platforms delay
Opposition technology spokeswoman Clare O’Neil has criticised the Morrison government for delaying its response to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission digital platforms inquiry.
The Australian revealed this morning Josh Frydenberg will miss his Christmas deadline to respond to the report. “The main thing for us is frustration the government is unable to tackle some of the biggest issues facing Australian families at the moment,” Ms O’Neil said.
“The ACCC has undertaken a very impressive inquiry into digital platforms, it has uncovered a range of things that are really hurting Australians, their families, hurting our media market in Australia. And the government just can’t tackle any of these things. They said they would respond to the inquiry by the end of the year. We are really worried about this. Technology is a really important issue for Australian families.”
Ewin Hannan 12.00pm: PM vows to pursue union bill
Scott Morrison has vowed to pursue Senate backing for the Ensuring Integrity Bill, accusing One Nation of walking away from assurances to back the proposed union-restricting laws.
Pauline Hanson insisted on Monday she voted to defeat the Ensuring Integrity Bill because it was “poor law”, and denied she gave the government a guarantee she would back the bill.
Attorney-General Christian Porter will take the bill to the party room on Tuesday before reintroducing it into the House of Representatives this week.
However, the government will not seek another Senate vote on the bill until next year.
The Prime Minister said on Monday that the government was committed to the bill, expressing disappointment that One Nation had “gone back” on assurances to vote for the bill.
“We believe that union thugs should not go on to building sites and threaten people, or in any area of the workplace, and be able to do that on and on and on and on and not face any expulsion from the industry for doing that,” he said. “They should be. I put laws in place to do that to bankers. It should be in place to do that to union thugs too.”
Senator Hanson said on Monday that One Nation’s vote against the bill was “based on the belief that it is a poor law and it was not in the interests of Australia”.
Greg Brown 11.50am: PM explains Huawei ban
Scott Morrison says he has no plans to allow Huawei to participate in the rollout of 5G in Australia, as former senator Nick Xenophon is appointed to give legal advice to the Chinese telecommunications giant. The Prime Minister said Mr Xenophon will “have to comply with the law, when asked if the founder of Centre Alliance should register with the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme. “As the Treasurer who made the decision regarding 5G matters, that was a decision we took in Australia’s national interest and we stand by it,” Mr Morrison said. “It was not directed at any one operator. It was a decision that applied across any number of those who would have sought to make applications that would have fallen foul of the standards that we set. I wish Nick all the best in his new employment and sounds like he’s prosecuting his case. It’s a free country.”
Ewin Hannan 11.30am: Hanson: Union bill was bad law
Pauline Hanson insists she voted to defeat the Ensuring Integrity Bill because it was “poor law”, denying she gave the government a written guarantee she would back the bill. Attorney-General Christian Porter will take the bill to the party room on Tuesday before reintroducing it into the House of Representatives this week. However, the government will not seek another Senate vote on the bill until next year.
Senator Hanson said on Monday that One Nation’s vote against the bill was “based on the belief that it is a poor law and it was not in the interests of Australia”. She said the government suggested “I had given a written guarantee and had even texted Ministers that I would support the Bill”.
“I never did that, and I’ve followed up that with a request for the recipients of those so-called texts to prove their allegations by releasing them publicly,” she said. “No doubt they will find any excuse as to why they won’t reveal those texts, but the truth is they don’t exist.”
She said One Nation’s decision did not absolve the union movement of its responsibility to take genuine steps to stamp out “thuggery, corruption, and standover actions”.
“But I also have made clear that business groups also need to work with government to stamp out white collar crime and make sure they deliver fair wages and conditions for their employees,” she said. “It is only fair that all sides of the work and employment sector all improve their behaviour.”
Greg Brown 11am: ‘Our friends in the Pacific’
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese have addressed the launch of the Parliamentary Friends of the Pacific group at Parliament House in Canberra. The Prime Minister said the initiative was “engaging all Australians” in the nation’s relationship with the Pacific. “We have a unique history with the Pacific, not just in times of World War II but over a long period of time,” Mr Morrison said. “It is very difficult to go beyond the great debt we owe to our friends in the Pacific for the way they stood with us and by us and cared for us, particularly our serving men and women during those darkest of times.”
Mr Morrison said there was a “great community of faith” in the Pacific. “Then of course there is sport, and there is rugby league, and I note the Fijian team coming into the Metropolitan Cup next year, will actually be sitting under the Sharks banner,” he said.
“I’m sure I will get out to a few games and see them play when they come into that competition.”
10.15am: Farmers to protest
Farmers are descending on Parliament House to demand the Murray-Darling Basin Plan be scrapped. The man responsible for implementing the plan acknowledges it is causing significant economic pain to some farmers around the basin.
But Phillip Glyde, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s chief executive, has described the impact as “immediate pain for long term gain”.
Protesters say the plan has devastated regional communities, leaving them without schools, doctors and sporting teams. The Convoy to Canberra group said there was water available but government policies were denying farmers access.
The trucks are rolling into a packed Yass service centre, the meeting point of the #cantheplan rally before the convoy to Canberra pic.twitter.com/tPlnPXyNWQ
— Olivia Calver (@OliviaCalver1) December 1, 2019
Mr Glyde said the plan would mean some farmers would have to leave their land but the industry as a whole would survive. “I think the broader Australian community is unaware of the sacrifices that the farm community, the irrigators and agriculture community, is going through,” he told ABC radio. But Mr Glyde also pointed out it was the states that were responsible for allocating water.
Monday’s protesters want the basin plan fixed or scrapped, more dam infrastructure and other measures like carp control to help improve conditions in the Murray-Darling.
9.50am: Payne’s concern over writer
Foreign Minister Marise Payne has voiced serious concerns about the “unacceptable” detention of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun in Beijing.
Senator Payne said Dr Yang was being kept in isolation from the outside world, with restrictions on his communications with family and friends, and being subjected to daily interrogation while wearing shackles. “This is unacceptable,” she said in a statement on Monday. “We have made repeated requests to the Chinese authorities for an explanation of the charges against Dr Yang. We have also made repeated requests for him to be afforded basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment, in line with international norms, including access to his lawyers and to his family, both of which continue to be denied to him.’’ — AAP
Read more on Australian writer Yang Hengjun here.
Joe Kelly 9.15am: ‘Greens really need to make a decision’
Labor Senator Jenny McAllister has lashed the Greens ten years after the minor party voted against Kevin Rudd’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, arguing that it has advanced its political interests over helping the environment.
“Progressive voters who put their confidence in the Greens political party are right to ask the question — what do we get from all of this? Because we get a stronger vote for the Greens, because their vote has gone up a little bit over time but we don’t get any serious action on climate change,” she said.
“And the Greens party really need to make a decision. Do they want an outcome on environmental issues that they claim to care about so much, or do they continue on their current path?
“Attacking the Labor Party, shouting at Australians that don’t agree with them — because the consequence of that strategy is (a) continuation of the last years and Australians can’t afford for that to happen.”
Joe Kelly 8.50am: Medivac laws ‘a poor move’, Joyce says
Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon says he is “very hopeful” that Jacqui Lambie will vote against the government’s Medivac repeal with Barnaby Joyce warning the existing laws open up a “backdoor” entry to Australia.
Mr Joyce — the former deputy prime minister — told the Seven network’s Sunrise program that the government needed to take a hard stance on border protection and warned the Medivac laws were a “very poor move.”
“What we have to do is make sure that it’s absolutely without dispute that if you don’t follow the appropriate channels of coming to our nation as a refugee, which we do all the time, then you are not going to find a backdoor by going to Manus, going to Nauru and then saying now I want to be evacuated to Australia. We can’t let that happen,” he said.
Mr Fitzgibbon rejected the argument, saying that Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton “maintains the right under the current Medivac legislation to deny anyone entry into this country on national security grounds.”
“Everything Barnaby Joyce just said is absolute hogwash.”
Joe Kelly 8.28am: ‘Our position in relation to Paris is strong’
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has dismissed the idea of Australia buckling to pressure over its climate change targets in negotiations with the European Union for a free trade agreement.
Senator Birmingham said that he would explain Australia had met its Kyoto 1 target and was confident it was on track to repeat that success in relation to its Paris target.
“I am confident that our position in relation to Paris is a strong one,” he told ABC radio.
Senator Birmingham said he would not “play out negotiations” with individual crossbench Senators over the government’s Medivac repeal, but said it was possible the Coalition could accept suggestions that aligned with the government’s values.
Joe Kelly 8.15am: ACTU president denies deal with Hanson
ACTU President Michele O’Neill has denied that Pauline Hanson struck a deal with the CFMEU to vote down the government’s union busting bill.
The Australian has reported this morning that the CFMEU will consider not campaigning against One Nation at the next Queensland election after Senator Hanson voted against the government’s legislation.
Ms O’Neill told Sky News the union movement had heavily lobbied the crossbench ahead of the vote, arguing the changes would have imposed unfair obligations on unions that could punish them for paper work breaches.
“We spoke to all the cross bench senators and we did so over a long period of time,” she said. “We had people in Canberra who were nurses, paramedics, firefighters, flight attendants, factory workers — all of which were saying to Pauline Hanson, Malcolm Roberts, Jacqui Lambie — that this was a problem because this was going to hurt every union, every worker in the country.
“This was a union-busting bit of legislation.”
She said there was “absolutely not” a deal struck with Senator Hanson over the legislation.
I want to thank every single union member who fought with such strength & determination to defeat the Ensuring Integrity Bill. You were magnificent.
— Michele O'Neil (@MicheleONeilAU) November 28, 2019
Joe Kelly 8.05am: Medivac legislation before Senate this week
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has flagged that the government will put its Medivac repeal legislation to the Senate for a vote this week as the Coalition seeks to win the support of Jacqui Lambie for the bill.
The Government Senate Leader also said that no law-abiding union had anything to fear from the government’s Ensuring Integrity bill, which was voted down in the Senate after Pauline Hanson sided with Labor to deliver the government a shock defeat.
Senator Cormann said the industrial relations shake-up was an “important economic reform” and that every law abiding union would “continue to be able to advocate on behalf of their members and do their job.”
“We will be progressing it as swiftly as possible into the future,” he said.
“It is a reform designed to ensure that our economy can continue to grow more strongly, that more jobs can be created and that Australian taxpayers don’t have to continue to pay the price for militant unionism which is adding up to 30 per cent to the cost of construction.
“It’s not unusual actually for contested reform legislation to have to be put to the Senate on a number of occasions.”
Senator Cormann also argued that it was the government’s view that the Medviac legislation was undermining third country resettlement options after The Australian revealed that more than 20 refugees slated for transfer to the US had instead come to Australia.
“We are very mindful of making sure that we maintain strong border protection arrangements and we don’t provide an incentive for the people smugglers to get boats going again. That has consistently been our position,” he said.
“We will not be making any changes to our strong border protection arrangements. And we will not be making any changes to the way we’ve been dealing with Labor’s legacy caseload.”
Joe Kelly 7.45am: Huawei enlists Xenophon’s law firm
Huawei Australia has appointed the law firm headed-up by former South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon as its new strategic counsel.
Huawei has been excluded from participating in Australia’s 5G network but has hired Xenophon-Davis to defend the company against “malicious and false attacks designed to cause us reputational damage.”
Mark Davis is a former investigating journalist who has worked for the ABC, with the company saying its aim was to ensure Australians were “given the truth and factual information about Huawei rather than lies and slurs driven by conflicts of interest.”
Huawei’s Australian director of Corporate and Public Affairs, Jeremy Mitchell said the company was “delighted” to have Xenophon-Davis as a new strategic counsel.
“The Huawei Australia staff are proud of the contribution they have made to the Australian economy over the past 15 years,” he said.
“Every smear against Huawei is also a smear against our hard working staff and we want to make sure the important discussion around Cyber Security is based on facts and not baseless innuendo that is unfortunately dominating the current discussion.
“We owe it to our staff and our customers to push back against these baseless and sensationalised slurs on our good work and history.”
Joe Kelly 7.30am: Hanson gives Medivac guarantee
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says she has given Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton a “guarantee” she will support the government’s Medivac repeal bill despite voting down the Coalition’s industrial relations legislation last week.
“I have given him my guarantee that I will back it. He knows my word is my bond,” Senator Hanson said.
However, Senator Hanson said that she would not flag in advance how she would vote on other key measures before the parliament.
“I don’t intend to tell them how I’m going to vote on anything in future,” she said.
The government needs to win over the support of Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie to win support for its Medivac repeal. Returning to Canberra for the final sitting week of the year, Senator Lambie said she was looking forward to “really getting our teeth into it.”
The Australian has revealed this morning that more than 20 refugees approved for relocation in the US had been transferred to Australia under the medivac regime, fuelling concerns the laws were undermining third country resettlement efforts
Joe Kelly 7am: What’s making news today
An elite intelligence taskforce led by ASIO, the Australian Signals Directorate and Defence intelligence will be created to put the country on a virtual war footing to combat national security threats from an unprecedented level of foreign interference and espionage.
EXCLUSIVE | An elite intelligence taskforce led by ASIO, will be created to put the nation on a virtual war footing to combat national security threats from an unprecedented level of foreign interference and espionage #auspol https://t.co/VGwwDGrJoC
— The Australian (@australian) December 1, 2019
More than 20 refugees approved for relocation in the US have instead been flown to Australia under the medivac regime, fuelling concern that the laws are undermining third-country resettlement efforts.
Former PM Malcolm Turnbull has reignited Liberal tensions with a call to arms speech telling party members they must never be Scott Morrison’s “quiet Australians” and must instead be “loud Australians” who stand up for their values on climate change.
Malcolm Turnbull has reignited Liberal tensions with a call to arms speech telling party members they must never be Scott Morrison’s 'quiet Australians' and must instead be 'loud Australians' who stand up for their values on climate change #auspol https://t.co/90a3fzKLHm
— The Australian (@australian) December 1, 2019
The government’s push for a surplus as “recession insurance” has been backed by Deloitte Access Economics, which has rejected calls from the Reserve Bank and others for greater spending on infrastructure to boost economic growth.
Angry irrigators will march in Canberra and establish a “water embassy” in a push to pressure the Morrison government to reform or axe the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
The CFMEU has rejected accusations it did a deal with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to convince her to vote against the government’s anti-union legislation, but will consider not campaigning against the party at the next Queensland election.
Attorney-General Christian Porter was with Scott Morrison when the Prime Minister phoned NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller. This comes as Labor plans to maintain its attack on Energy Minister Angus Taylor in the year’s final week of parliament.
“Progressive forces” must share responsibility for Australia’s lack of action on climate change, Labor frontbencher Pat Conroy will claim, declaring the Greens’ decision to block Kevin Rudd’s emission trading scheme had increased carbon pollution by 218 million tonnes over a decade.
Liberal National MP Ted O’Brien says there has been “movement in people’s views” on nuclear energy as the minerals lobby releases polling showing 40 per cent of people want the ban on the energy source lifted.
Chinese security authorities have intensified their efforts to “break” Australian writer Yang Hengjin, stopping messages from his family, interrogating him daily and forcing him to take drugs.
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