PoliticsNow: Bill Shorten under fire over climate policy cost
Bill Shorten is under fire for refusing to detail the cost of Labor’s new climate plan.
- Shorten won’t outline energy cost
- ‘Re-Rudd of failed policy’
- Butler dismisses ‘carbon tax’ talk
- ‘I’m in for the long haul’
Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live blog on the happenings at Parliament House in Canberra.
Top story: Scott Morrison has labelled Bill Shorten’s climate plan a “re-Rudd of failed policy”.
4pm: PNG Paladin deal faces scrutiny
Australia’s top auditors will investigate the decision to give controversial company Paladin a $423 million security contract on Manus Island, AAP reports.
Auditor-General Grant Hehir confirmed today his office would investigate whether the Home Affairs Department “appropriately managed the procurement of garrison support and welfare services for immigration processing centres”.
The audit is expected to be tabled in parliament in January 2020.
— AAP
Rick Morton 3.30pm: Cost of ageing revealed
Australia’s ageing population will cost the federal budget more than Medicare in a decade.
That will mean an annual cost to the budget of about $36 billion by 2028/29, which is larger than the expected cost of Medicare that year. Read more here
Richard Ferguson 2.25pm: ‘This is not a carbon tax’
Environment Minister Melissa Price and Energy Minister Angus Taylor have dismissed suggestions the current safeguard mechanism for big polluters equates to a “carbon tax” like the one they claim Labor is pursuing.
Under a Labor government, the threshold for the safeguard mechanism would be reduced to 25,000 tonnes and cover a broader range of industries and businesses.
“It is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the safeguard mechanism was meant to do,” Ms Price said.
“The intention is to deal with heavy polluters. That has been the policy it is working and we are committed to 2020 and reviewing that.”
Mr Taylor said: “What drives the outcomes here is the target. When you have a 45 per cent emission reduction target (like Labor), you are demanding almost half, half the emissions go. And that is going to cost a lot.”
Richard Ferguson 2.15pm: Shorten ‘won’t come clean’
Energy Minister Angus Taylor has blasted Bill Shorten and Labor for not outlining the costs of their new climate policy.
“He refuses to outline the impact on hard-working Australian and businesses,” the Energy Minister said in Canberra today.
“He has laid out a tax, not a plan, and refuses to come clean on the impact.
“We know, when you want to almost halve the emissions in the economy and you have a series of exclusions, then, the impact on those affected sectors will be enormous.
“No way around that, and independent modelling has told us that.”
Richard Ferguson 12.51pm: Shorten won’t outline energy cost
Bill Shorten has declined to outline the cost his climate policy will have on the economy, business, electricity prices or total GDP growth.
“What is the cost of not taking action on climate change? It is huge,” he said in Canberra today.
“It was estimated that last year, $18 billion is the cost of the extreme weather events we’ve been having in insurance, in property values, in damage, in lost production.
“I have no doubt that we will put downward pressure on energy prices.”
His climate spokesman Mark Butler then said there would be no change to real GDP growth.
“Over the course of the 2020s, real GDP growth will be around 23 per cent,” he said.
“If anything, energy costs under our target will be lower because there will be much bigger drives to energy efficiency and there will be a substantial positive investment under our policy as well.
“So there is no difference in real GDP growth over the course of the 2020s. The difference, though, is that we’re taking action consistent about what is necessary to keep global warming below two degrees and realising that damages bill for future generations.”
Richard Ferguson 12.41pm: ‘No threat to fuel excise’
Bill Shorten says he will not touch the fuel excise despite wanting to move Australia to 50 per cent electric cars.
“We’re not touching the fuel excise. But we do need to talk about an electric vehicle future,” he said in Canberra today.
“I’m certainly a convert to that being a part of our automotive and climate future … do we want to be a country stuck in the past? Or a country joining the rest of the world in the future?”
Mr Shorten did not answer questions on whether he could consider a future road usage charge if revenue from fuel excise falls due to more electric cars on the road.
Richard Ferguson 11.45am: ‘I’m desperate to turf the conservatives out’
Greens MP Adam Bandt has promised his party will “toughen up” some of the “good ideas” in Labor’s climate policy in the Senate after May’s federal election.
“There are a couple of good ideas here, but overall this is a dog’s breakfast of Liberal Party leftovers, with no plan for coal and no hope of meeting the Paris Agreement goals,” he said today.
“I’m desperate to turf the conservatives out … The Greens will work towards a change of government then, in the Senate, toughen up Labor’s poorly cobbled-together patchwork of Liberal Party policy rejects.”
The Greens put an immediate ban on coal exports and an 100 per cent renewable energy target front and centre of their election manifesto last week.
Richard Ferguson 11.29am: Labor plan ‘land locks’ country
Scott Morrison has taken aim at federal Labor’s plan to crack down on states with ineffective regulations for broadside land clearing.
The Prime Minister said Bill Shorten’s proposal were an extension of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s native vegetation laws and would “land-lock the country.”
“Let’s not forget what they’ve announced today is the extension, effectively, of the native veg laws in Queensland,” he said in Canberra.
“(These are laws) from the Queensland Labor Party which is basically going to land-lock the country and tell farmers and graziers and pastoralists around the country what they can do, or rather what they cannot do, on their own land.”
Richard Ferguson 11.19am: ‘Are you for national security?’
Scott Morrison has again called on Labor to preference the Greens below the Liberals based on the former’s calls to ban US military bases on Australian soil.
“Labor think that the Greens are actually a more viable and more reasonable and an aligned
party when it comes to their outlook on the world other than another mainstream party, which is the Liberal Party, which stands for the US alliance,” he said.
“The Labor Party have got to apply their own rule to their own decisions. If they want to have this rule which says minor parties should be considered separate to the mainstream parties, well it seems that the Labor Party doesn’t think the Greens have these extreme views
“The challenge is on Labor now: Are you for national security? Are you for the US alliance? Are you for border protection? Are you against death taxes? If that’s your view, if you’re for all of those things, then by all means put the Greens ahead of the Liberal Party.”
Richard Ferguson 11.17am: PM rules out saving Sharrouf children
Scott Morrison has ruled out saving the children of notorious Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf from a Syrian refugee camp.
“I’m not going to put one Australian life at risk to try and extract people from these dangerous situations,” he said in Canberra today.
“It’s appalling that Australians have gone and fought against our values and our way of life and peace-loving countries of the world in joining the Daesh fight, I think it’s even more despicable that they put their children in the middle of it.
“We currently have legislation we have been seeking to pass on temporary exclusion orders which would enable us to manage effectively, like a parole scheme, if people were to come back into the country.”
Richard Ferguson 11.08am: No detail in Labor plan: PM
Scott Morrison has defended the Coalition’s own record on growing the electric car industry and says Labor’s plan does not have enough details.
“If you buy an electric vehicle, one of the things you don’t pay is fuel excise. That is already a major advantage for those buying electric vehicles, a big significant leg-up,” he said in Canberra.
“We’re also investing in ensuring, through the CEFC (Clean Energy Finance Corporation) and other projects, that we’re putting in place the charging stations and the other infrastructure you need around the country to see that growth in the electric vehicle industry to be realised.
“But Labor, as I understand it, are talking about taking in 10 years 0.2 per cent of the market to 50 per cent. Now, he needs to explain how he’s going to make that happen because you know what happens if he doesn’t? It means, because he’s legislated his reckless target, he has to come back and get that money off you.”
Richard Ferguson 10.57am: A ‘re-Rudd of failed climate policy’: PM
Scott Morrison has labelled Bill Shorten’s climate plan a “re-Rudd of failed policy” and says it would cost businesses $35 billion to buy international “carbon credits from Kazakhstan”.
“Bill Shorten does not have a plan, he just has another tax,” he said in Canberra today.
“What we’ve got here is a re-Rudd of failed policy that cost jobs, that cost businesses, that will cost Australians at least $9000 a year with the reckless targets that Bill Shorten will make law.
“It’s a massive tax on jobs. It’s $35 billion that Australian companies, companies are going to have to spend, sending money offshore to foreign carbon traders, carbon credits from Kazakhstan.”
Richard Ferguson 10.54am: No ‘cash splash’
Scott Morrison has dismissed accusations of a “cash splash” in tomorrow’s budget after it was revealed pensioners would receive one-off payments to help with their power bills
“No, I wouldn’t describe it like that at all … Our government has the lowest growth in Commonwealth public expenditure of any government in 50 years,” he said in Canberra today.
“It’s been about keeping expenditure under control and it’s been about supporting the growth in the Australian economy and getting Australians off welfare and into work.
“We believe it’s only fair, it’s only fair, that we share that dividend with Australians who need it most.”
Richard Ferguson 10.07am: Pyne’s budget prep
Politicians will be wearing their budget best when they come to parliament and Defence Minister Christopher Pyne is getting ready.
The man in charge of Australia’s army, navy and air force has released an Instagram video of himself singing the 1980s hit Spirit in the Sky while ironing his shirts.
Spirit in the Sky is a song all about dying, which seems apt as Mr Pyne’s 25-year-long political career will come to an end next month when he retires.
Richard Ferguson 8.10am: Butler dismisses ‘carbon tax’ talk
Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler has dismissed Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s claims Labor’s new climate policy is a new “carbon tax”.
Senator Cormann said today Labor’s plan to allow businesses to trade in international carbon credits would send “tens of billions” of taxpayers’ money overseas.
“What a surprise. What rubbish,” Mr Butler told ABC radio.
“Maybe he (Senator Cormann) should go talk to every single business, including all big businesses in his own state of Western Australia, that cannot understand why a supposedly pro-market party has an objection to business trading in international carbon markets.
“We allow business to trade in every other robust international market. Why on earth would we not allow them to trade in international carbon markets?”
Richard Ferguson 8.04am: ‘I’m in for the long haul’
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says he will serve out the remaining three years of his Senate term if the Liberal Party end up in opposition at next month’s federal election.
“I’m absolutely in it for the long haul,” he told ABC radio this morning.
There has been speculation the Finance Minister and other senior Liberal senators like Foreign Minister Marise Payne could move on from politics if Scott Morrison loses the election, despite not being up for re-election themselves.
Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, Jobs Minister Kelly O’Dwyer, Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion and Human Services Minister Michael Keenan announced their plans to retire earlier this year.
Former foreign minister Julie Bishop, ex-defence industry minister Steven Ciobo, and former frontbencher Craig Laundy will also leave politics in May.
Richard Ferguson 7.55am: Labor policy a ‘new carbon tax’: Cormann
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has labelled Labor’s climate change policy a new “carbon tax”.
“Labor talks a lot but what they’ve put out in the papers today would harm the economy, would harm families, would cost jobs, would drive up unemployment and indeed Labor would bring back a carbon tax,” he told ABC radio.
“They would force people across Australian to pay tens of billions of dollars in higher taxes, only for them to send that money overseas to buy international carbon credits.
“If Labor wants to buy international carbon permits as they’ve said they would, they will have to increase the tax burden … that’s clearly going back to the discredited carbon tax arrangements of past Labor governments.”
Richard Ferguson 7.20am: Butler won’t commit to an electric car
Labor wants half of all vehicles sold in Australia to be electric cars by 2030, but its climate change spokesman Mark Butler will not commit to buying one himself.
Mr Butler said the opposition would reveal more today about how they would build the infrastructure necessary for the electric car industry to flourish in Australia.
“Across the world, the car industry is shifting very, very quickly to electric vehicle technology and that’s because the rest of the world is putting in place policies to encourage that,” he told ABC News.
When asked if he had an electric car himself, Mr Butler said: “No, I don’t.”
When asked if he will commit to buying an electric car, Mr Butler did not answer and said: “Thank you.”
Richard Ferguson 7.13am: ‘We’re interested in real cuts’
Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler says Labor will not use Kyoto credits to meet Australia’s Paris commitments because he believes we will not even meet the former treaty’s carbon targets.
“We’re interested in real cuts in emissions, not dodgy accounting tricks and not fiddling the books as Scott Morrison would have us do,” he told ABC News.
“The first point to make is that we’re not going to meet the Kyoto commitment in 2020 — certainly not going to beat it.
“The bipartisan commitment was to reduce pollution by 14 per cent by 2020. But because pollution has been rising under this government, the government’s own data released several weeks ago says we’ll only have cut pollution by 11 per cent.”
Richard Ferguson 7.07am: No ‘cap and trade scheme’
Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler has rejected suggestions Labor’s new climate change policy is a “cap and trade scheme.”
“No, I don’t think it is. What we’re doing is extending the safeguards mechanism that was introduced by this government, that is operating right now,” he told ABC News.
“I think that the important thing, like our policy around the National Energy Guarantee, is that that provides a foundation for possible bipartisanship in the future.
“We think that we can work with business. We’ve been working with them over the last 18 months to make sure that those arrangements are put in place to allow them to cut pollution in the most efficient way possible.”
Richard Ferguson 6.45am: Budget week begins
It’s the beginning of a very big week in the capital — budget papers are being prepared, Labor’s climate policy is being launched, and everyone is waiting for Scott Morrison to call a federal election.
What’s making news:
• Scott Morrison will inject an additional $1 billion into boosting freight networks across Australia in an election pitch aimed at shoring up the regions, including a $510 million investment in road upgrades in a 1450km corridor between Queensland and Victoria.
• Most Australians earning less than $125,000 are ahead of where they were four years ago thanks to last year’s tax cuts, but the benefits won’t be realised before the federal election.
• Bill Shorten will impose an aggressive pollution cap on industry and business if elected, in a bid to meet Labor’s ambitious climate change targets, and will push for half of all new cars sold in Australia to be electric within a decade.
• New analysis shows growing global demand has more than doubled NSW coal export volumes since 2001, from 75 million tonnes to more than 164 million tonnes last year.
• A growing army of voters are ignoring how-to-vote cards at the polling booth and making up their own mind on directing preferences in a behavioural shift that could have significant implications for the federal election.
• Billionaire Clive Palmer has failed to deliver on a promise to donate $100 million of his wealth to Aboriginal communities, despite budgeting to spend at least half that amount on an advertising blitz ahead of the federal election next month.
• Federal Labor has moved to shore up the Jewish vote in retiring MP Michael Danby’s seat of Macnamara, pledging $5 million for a feasibility study into a plan that would see Melbourne’s most prestigious Jewish school move its main campus to the site of the Caulfield Hospital.
• The Liberal Party has launched its campaign in Christopher Pyne’s South Australian seat of Sturt with a warning that Labor’s property policies may “trigger a recession”.
• Dennis Shanahan writes Scott Morrison has launched the budget as a targeted weapon to make economic management the centre of the election campaign.
• Graham Richardson writes cheap bribes won’t save the Prime Minister.
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