PoliticsNow: Union integrity bill passes Lower House

Proposed laws making it easier to deregister unions and disqualify officials pass the Lower House.

Michaelia Cash at Parliament House in Canberra today. Picture: Kym Smith

Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live blog on the happenings at Parliament House in Canberra.

Labor expected to keep the heat on ministers like Stuart Robert and Angus Taylor, even as Anthony Albanese warns his colleagues Scott Morrison is in as good a position as John Howard after 2004.

The federal government has resurrected the “dole bludger” stereotype as it pushes back against a growing chorus of calls to increase the Newstart unemployment benefit,

Ewin Hannan 5.06pm: Union integrity bill passes

Proposed laws making it easier to disqualify union officials and deregister unions have passed the Lower House but will not be voted on by the Senate before late October.

Lower House MPs voted 75-67 in support of the Coalition’s Ensuring Integrity Bill today with the government now facing the challenge of meeting concerns expressed by the Senate crossbench about the proposals.

In Parliament today, Attorney-General, Christian Porter, sought to rebuff ALP and union claims that unions could face deregistration by the Federal Court for relatively minor civil breaches.

Mr Porter also again denied Labor and union claims the legislation would open the way for the nurses’ union to be deregistered if members took unprotected industrial action in support of better staff ratios.

The opposition and the ACTU insist passage of the Coalition’s Ensuring Integrity Bill would allow the Federal Court to deregister the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation if nurses took unprotected action to protest unsafe staffing levels at a hospital or aged-care facility.

But Mr Porter said today the claim was patently absurd, saying no nurses’ union had engaged in the type of systemic unlawful conduct that would provide the basis for a court to deregister them.

In considering whether it would be “just, in all the circumstances” to deregister an organisation, the government says the bill expressly requires the Federal Court to consider the nature of the matter giving rise to the application and what is in the best interests of the members of the organisation as a whole.

Mr Porter also rejected claims by Greens MP Adam Bandt that industrial action by bus drivers was potential grounds for deregistering their union under the bill.

The bill will be subject to a Senate inquiry reporting by October 25 before being voted on in the Senate.

The Lower House will tomorrow vote on a second workplace relations bill to apply tougher governance rules to worker entitlement funds

Olivia Caisley 3.15pm: Flood victims’ robodebt

Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten asks Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert why he gave an “absolute assurance” that victims of the Townsville floods hadn’t received debt recovery notices when some received letters as recently as July 8.

Mr Robert fires back: “During natural disasters — such as cyclones, bushfires or floods — it is routine practice of the Department of Human Services to temporarily suspend all complaints activities within an affected local area.

“As a general rule this suspension is in place for six months unless extended.

“I have asked the department to extend the absence of debt recovery in northern Queensland for the foreseeable future until I’m satisfied the region has recovered.”

“If there is a discrepancy between what your assessment is and what the ATO has told us please call us,” Mr Robert says. “I reiterate to all Australians if you receive a letter like that call the department because it is here to assist.”

He asks Australians to head to the Department of Human Services’ MyGov site.

Olivia Caisley 3.05pm: $1.5 million for homelessness

The member for Blaxland, Labor’s Jason Clare, asks Communications Minister Paul Fletcher why the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs claimed the rate of homelessness was “not ahead of population growth” when homelessness was growing twice the rate of Australia’s population.

“I think our government has a strong track record when it comes to housing, including a strong track record,” Mr Fletcher says.

He refers to the $1.5 billion set aside under the national homelessness agreement to support homelessness services.

“One of the very practical ways in which we are responding to the challenge of homelessness is $60 million in grants to eligible organisations to provide new or expanding emergency accommodation facilities.”

“We have a strong program and commitment when it comes to homelessness — $1.5 million — and of course, funding of which can be provided thanks to our strong management of the economy.”

Olivia Caisley 2.57pm: Submarine jobs

Labor’s member for Burt, Matt Keogh, directs his question to the Minister of Defence Industry, Melissa Price, and asks why the government said 90 per cent of the work on submarine projects would be Australian when it “won’t be.”

“Back in 2016 we announced a $200 billion Australian defence white paper — included in that is our $90 billion naval shipbuilding project,” Ms Price says. “There will be thousands of opportunities within that naval shipbuilding program.”

She continues: “With respect to jobs for Australians and small businesses — there is an enormous supply chain with respect to shipbuilding and we aren’t done yet.”

Olivia Caisley 2.51pm: Coulton unmoved on trade

Mr Albanese asks the Assistant Minister for Trade and Investment to correct the record after he said Labor didn’t sign a single trade agreement while it was in power.

But Mark Coulton refuses to respond and returns to his seat.

“I just want to give the Minister the opportunity to correct the record,” Mr Albanese says. “That is a misleading comment and he can fix it up.”

Olivia Caisley 2.40pm: Fair Work funding

Labor’s “search for truth” continues with a question from Labor’s manager of Opposition business in the house, Tony Burke, who asks Industrial Relations Minister, Christian Porter, to explain why he said the former Labor government cut funding to the Fair Work ombudsman by 70 per cent.

“In fact it (Labor) increased funding by 96 per cent,” Mr Burke says. “Why did he also claim staff were cut by 20 per cent when in fact staffing rose by 97 per cent?”

“The reason I advised the house of that is because it is true,” Mr Porter says.

“What happened with the funding is that there was a time when it reached a peak and when you were struggling around for your four surpluses … you cut the funding from underneath them.”

“The funding and staffing went radically down and the number of investigations went radically down, and Australian workers who wanted a robust organisation to investigate underpayment were left in the lurch.”

“That is what happened, and that is why I informed the house of that,” Mr Porter says. “The reason you raise this now is because we have two bills before the house today that are actually there to demonstrably help workers.”

Olivia Caisley 2.32pm: Hunt queried on MRI licence

Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen, asks Health Minister Greg Hunt why he claimed the granting of a Medicare MRI licence to a radiology clinic operated by the vice-president of the South Australian Liberal Party, Cara Miller, was an “independent process”.

Mr Bowen tells the house the application was signed off by Mr Hunt’s office.

The health minister says the application was assessed by the department against a “mandatory and substantive criteria”.

Olivia Caisley 2.22pm: Frydenberg lists why we’re better off

Another question addressing “untruths” as Labor’s Richard Marles asks why treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Australians were “better off” today than in 2013.

“Data shows that since 2013 wages have been stagnant, household debt has written, growth has slowed and median household income has declined,” Mr Marles says.

Mr Frydenberg fires back. “Well, Mr Speaker, Australians are better off than they were in 2013 because we have created 1.4 million new jobs.”

“Thank you for that question because unemployment was 5.7 per cent in 2013. Today, it is 5.2 per cent. When we came to government the gender pay gap was 17.2 per cent. Today it is 14.2 per cent and that is a record low.”

“The other reason why Australians are better off today is because tax cuts have passed this parliament. 13 million Australians are getting tax cuts because of what we have done on this side of the house.”

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg during Question Time. Picture: Gary Ramage

Olivia Caisley 2.15pm: Robert defends Robodebt

The government’s controversial Robodebt program — used to recoup alleged debts from Centrelink clients — rears its head again as Labor’s member for Barton, Linda Burney, asks why the Minister for Government Services said the department wouldn’t collect debts that were more than seven years old.

“Why did the minister say that when he knew at the time it was untrue?” Ms Burney asks.

“If people fail to come to an arrangement to settle their debts, the government has a responsibility to taxpayers to recover that money,” Stuart Robert says.

“ … Income compliance and data matching was started by those opposite and now they seek to stop it in some faux degree of indignation.”

Olivia Caisley 2.05pm: PM quizzed on tax

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese kicks off Question Time by asking prime minister Scott Morrison whether any of its pre-election commitments were true.

“The prime minister said tax cuts would be legislated before the 1 July. He said that member for Durack would remain environment minister and he said the government would create a national integrity commission,” Mr Albanese asks. “Were any of those commitments true?”

Mr Morrison thanks the Labor leader for raising the issue of the Liberal party’s “commitment” to tax cuts.

“Mr Speaker, those tax cuts that not only provide tax relief today but provide tax cuts for Australians in the future as well … That is what we promised and that is what we delivered and the Labor Party sought to oppose us every step of the way.”

12.10pm: Cash’s ‘dole bludger’ call

The federal government has resurrected the “dole bludger” stereotype as it pushes back against a growing chorus of calls to increase the Newstart unemployment benefit, AAP reports.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has released figures showing a majority have payments suspended because the recipients missed appointments.

Nearly four in five of 744,884 Jobactive participants had payments suspended at least once in the 12 months to the end of June.

Payments can be suspended if people miss or turn up late to appointments with their service provider, or behave badly during the meeting.

One in 12 jobseekers racked up 10 or more suspensions in the year, and one person had payments suspended 52 times.

Senator Cash said the figures showed the penalty and demerit system was working as intended, pointing out people re-engaged after copping the punishment. “When participants have their payments suspended up to 52 times in less than a year, they are not living up to what the taxpayer, who are giving their hard- earned money to the government, expects,” she said.

Labor frontbencher Jason Clare said while people on Newstart should follow the rules, the government was casting recipients as “dole bludgers”, “surfies up the coast” or “pot smoking hippies”.

“The truth is very different,” Mr Clare told Sky News. “The biggest group of people on Newstart are older people in their 50s, in their 60s. They are not old enough to get the pension but they are finding it really hard to get back into the workforce.”

Jobactive is a government employment program and places requirements on job- seekers such as attending regular meetings with providers and applying for 20 jobs a month in order to keep their welfare payments.

The program has been criticised for wasting jobseekers’ time, and a Senate committee in February slammed it as “not fit for purpose”.

In many cases, participants were missing paid employment to attend appointments with their Jobactive provider, the committee found.

And a March survey of people looking for work found two-thirds said Jobactive hadn’t helped their situation.

The release of the Jobactive figures by Senator Cash comes as momentum continues to build for a push to increase the $277-a-week Newstart payment.

Several coalition backbenchers, including former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, have added their voices to those from Labor, the Greens, business and welfare lobby groups, seniors, doctors, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Country Women’s Association in saying the payment is inadequate.

— AAP

Richard Ferguson 9.52am: Activist threatens to sue Keneally

A British far-right activist has accused Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally of “defamation” after she called for him to be banned from Australia.

Senator Keneally told the senate last night that Global Events editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam should not be allowed to enter Australia over a string of misogynistic and racist comments, including calling on Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to tie up her legs so she could not procreate.

Raheem Kassam is a former London editor of the right-wing website Breitbart.

“Mr Kassam has an extensive history of vilifying people on the grounds of their race, religion, sexuality and gender,” she told the senate.

“He has described the Koran — the holy book of the Muslim faith — as quote, ‘fundamentally evil’. Mr Kassam has campaigned for ‘limited migration’ against what he describes as ‘large-scale Muslim immigration’.

“He has regularly attacked the LGBTI community with homophobic and transphobic comments on social media.

“And, this one, after the Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon suffered a miscarriage, Mr Kassam tweeted, and I quote: ‘Can someone just like … tape Nicola Sturgeon’s mouth shut? And her legs, so she can’t reproduce.’

“The question is simple. Why is the Home Affairs Minister allowing this individual into the country?”

Mr Kassam, a former chief adviser to ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage, is due to visit Australia next month for the Conservative Political Action Conference, due to be attended by Liberal backbenchers Craig Kelly and Amanda Stoker.

Australian senator @KKeneally wants me to freak out publicly over her lies about me in her Senate.

I got a massage and played ping pong instead.

I'll see her in court if she repeats her defamation outside the chamber, where she currently hides behind parliamentary privilege.

— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) July 30, 2019

He tweeted last night that he would still be coming to Australia.

“Australian senator @KKeneally wants me to freak out publicly over her lies about me in her Senate,” he tweeted.

“I got a massage and played ping pong instead.

“I’ll see her in court if she repeats her defamation outside the chamber, where she currently hides behind parliamentary privilege.”

Richard Ferguson 9.15am: Shorten keeps up robo-debt assault

Bill Shorten has kept up his political assault on Government Services Minister Stuart Robert over the controversial robo-debt scheme this morning.

The former opposition leader says Mr Robert did not do enough in question time yesterday to assuage fears that the automated debt system is avoid targeting vulnerable Australians, despite the minister apologising to a woman who received a debt notice for her dead son.

“When the Minister was asked how many robo-debt notices had turned out to be wrong he responded: “Of the 800,000 income compliance reviews since 1 July 2016 that have been finalised, 80 per cent have resulted in a debt being collected.’” Mr Shorten said today.

“He would not say how many of that 80 per cent had erroneous debt claims reduced. But that still leaves 20 per cent — or 160,000 debts — that the Minister has confirmed the Government got wrong.

“The robo-debt farce needs to be addressed not denied. We support legitimate debt recovery but not for inaccurate debts and not without human oversight.

“Time’s up for this harsh and inaccurate system. The Government needs to go back to the drawing board.”

Mr Shorten has re-entered the political fray this week in his new role as opposition government services spokesman, with his first interview and question time appearance since he lost the election.

What’s making news:

Aboriginal parents with children at boarding school will be an average $6000 better off under a push by the Morrison government to increase the high school completion rates of indigenous Australians.

Former High Court chief justice Robert French has laid out a way to enshrine an indigenous voice to parliament in the Constitution without creating a “third chamber” — a strategy that could eliminate some of the most strident objections to the new body.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has labelled Labor calls for a bigger boost to public sector wages to stimulate the economy as reckless and irresponsible after the opposition pounced on new survey data that found living standards had stagnated since the global financial crisis.

Josh Frydenberg has been accused of failing to “fully” deal with one of royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s key recommendations that sought to rid the financial advice sector of conflicted remuneration by banning grandfathered trailing commissions.

Anthony Albanese has told his MPs to get used to backing flawed legislation as he compared Labor’s position in parliament to that of 2004, when the Howard government held a majority in both houses.

Bill Shorten says Labor’s surprise election loss was “very disappointing for the nation” but has vowed to remain in parliament, arguing it is time for the party to move on and challenge the government.

Chinese Australian MP Gladys Liu has backed anti-government protesters in her birthplace of Hong Kong, lauding their “passion and commitment to democracy”.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has confirmed the US military is set to spend more than $300 million in Darwin on naval construction as she prepares to sit down with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for talks.

The political system is not broken, outgoing Liberal senator Mitch Fifield declared yesterday as he bid goodbye to 15 years in federal parliament.

Simon Benson writes: Anthony Albanese has directly challenged the Labor Party’s national platform.

Alice Workman’s Sketch: Bill Shorten stumbled as he asked his first question in 117 days since he last stood at the dispatch box.