PoliticsNow: Should Border Force investigation be job for A-G? US uncertainty delays PNG asylum deal
PoliticsNow: Pauline Hanson flew around the country in a plane that may yet cause her trouble.
Thanks for joining PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live coverage of the happenings in Parliament House, Canberra.
Labor used Question Time today to attack Malcolm Turnbull about revelations that the Prime Minister’s Point Piper mansion had been connected to superfast NBN after the intervention of his government department.
Primrose Riordan 11.14pm: One Nation plane under investigation
The investigation into Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party and their use of an allegedly donated plane is “very active”, the Australian Electoral Commission has said.
“What I can confirm is the matter of One Nation and the substantive issue we discussed last time...Being the plane is still underway and is still very active as we speak,” AEC Commissioner Tom Rogers told a Senate Estimates hearing.
Mr Rogers said the investigation started in May and he hoped it would finish by the end of this year.
He said the type of investigation that was ongoing was complex and required parties involved to respond, so as to allow for “natural justice”.
“We’re in an active phase of this investigation as we speak,” he said.
“I hope for everyone’s sake it concludes very quickly.”
Mr Rogers said the results of a compliance review into One Nation would be published on the AEC’s website. He said parties were selected to undergo compliance reviews based on a “risk-based matrix”.
Senator Pauline Hanson used a $106,000 Jabiru aircraft coated in One Nation branding to fly around Australia in the election campaign.
Former party officials allege the plane was donated by Victorian property developer Bill Mcnee.
Mr McNee, through his company Vicland, has been one of One Nation’s largest backers, donating $57,720 in 2014-15, and $10,000 in the lead-up to last year’s federal election.
Primrose Riordan 10.26pm: Treason laws could smash civil liberties
Labor Senator Louise Pratt has jumped on comments from ASIO Director General Duncan Lewis about the lack of interference so far in Australian elections to argue new treason laws could “smash” civil liberties.
Mr Lewis, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was asked about whether foreign states had attempted to skew Australia’s election results.
“I don’t have any evidence that it has occured to date,” he told a senate estimates hearing.
Senator Pratt said the laws - which aim to criminalise new forms of foreign interference, agencies say is rampant in Australia - may be an “overreaction”.
“We’ve got legislation before parliament that seeks to mitigate foreign interference...But that shouldn’t include smashing civil society as a overreaction to a threat you have characterised as not real or not having shown its face in Australia,” she said.
“It’s your job to balance freedoms and rights versus the sort of surveillance and interference that’s required to uphold security in this nation.”
Mr Lewis responded by saying it was ASIO’s job to identify threats.
The Turnbull government last year introduced two new bills, both updating laws to criminalise forms of covert, deceptive conduct on behalf of foreign interests and introducing a new registration scheme that would require people to appear on a public list if they acted on behalf of a foreign company or state.
Universities, charities, business, media, legal and religious groups all appeared before a parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security hearing, arguing that new foreign interference legislation was too broad and did not involve adequate consultation. Attorney General has flagged limited changes to the laws.
Mr Lewis said he had provided the government with advice over the rollout of the 5G telecommunications network to the critical infrastructure centre.
He said “quite clear” the country needed to consider the security implications of the rollout.
“I think it’s something that’s coming to light as time proceeds.Quite clearly country needs to consider how it needs to proceed and I know these deliberations are underway,” he said.
Rick Morton 9.43pm: Media report started Joyce investigation
A secret probe into the travel expenses of the then Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce began almost as soon as his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion was splashed on the front page of a newspaper, the independent expenses authority boss has confirmed.
The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority chief executive Annwyn Godwin told a senate estimates hearing that an audit into “potential misuse of a workplace resource” began “on or round the 7 of February.”
That was the same day the Daily Telegraph led its front page with news of the relationship between Mr Joyce and Ms Campion.
“When a concern regarding a use of a work resource is raised we look at a wide range of sources and in this particular case there were a number of media articles that we became aware of and as a result of those articles we started to take some initial assessments to find out if there was any credibility or substance to those,” Ms Godwin told the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee estimates tonight.
“We determine if there is anything we should follow up, we make no findings on things, there has been no procedural fairness given at this stage, we are just in the fact-finding stage.”
Ms Godwin said the authority has special powers to compel documentation and details if it discovers “adverse” information.
“If we do happen to find any adverse information, and I am making no comment at all about whether we have or we haven’t, then it would allow the parties involved, it would allow us to give the parties procedural fairness.”
Ms Godwin said it was her and her team’s decision to begin the audit when the media reported was raised with her and she was asked by staff if they should look into it further.
“I said yes, continue,” she said.
The IPEA boss said that she never communicated it to the Coalition government until Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Martin Parkinson requested a meeting last Wednesday.
That was the same day he had been asked by Malcolm Turnbull to investigate whether Mr Joyce has breached ministerial standards in his role.
Joseph Kelly 8.22pm: Nats to hold special meeting
A special 90 minute meeting of the Nationals party room will be held tomorrow from 8:30 to 10:00am to discuss a revised coalition agreement with the Liberal Party as Labor mounts a campaign to have the top secret document made public.
New Nationals Leader Michael McCormack has already said the Nationals Party will retain its five seats around the cabinet table despite losing NSW Senator Fiona Nash, but will seek input from his MPs about possible changes to the secret agreement.
The Nationals party met for five hours when it discussed possible changes to the agreement after Malcolm Turnbull was elevated to the prime ministership in September 2015, insisting that existing policies in relation to climate change, carbon taxes and emissions reduction targets were retained.
The updated agreement also included support for the government’s infrastructure investment program, including the commitment to inland rail.
Primrose Riordan 6.34pm: A-G’s role in Border Force investigation questioned
The Attorney General’s department has been questioned over why Christian Porter is now in charge of deciding if Australian Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg should be sacked.
The Border Force head agreed to take leave last May while allegations that he tried to intervene on behalf of his partner, who had applied for a job as a passport officer at Sydney Airport, were investigated. His paid leave has so far cost taxpayers about $500,000.
Two reports were completed last year investigating his conduct and parliament heard yesterday that Attorney General Porter had received one of these reports and was the one to make the decision despite Mr Quaedvlieg not sitting in his portfolio.
Mr Porter said he would decide Mr Quaedvlieg’s fate to avoid perceptions of bias “given Mr Quaedvlieg’s reporting obligations to (Home Affairs) Minister (Peter) Dutton under the Australian Border Force Act”.
Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, Chris Moraitis, said he had not seen the report handed to Mr Porter, nor the response Mr Quaedvlieg had submitted.
Mr Moraitis said he did not know why Mr Porter was involved and had not been told despite having a “quick conversation” with Dr Martin Parkinson, head of the Prime Minister’s department, who wrote the report.
“No I can’t, I don’t want to speculate.”
Mr Moraitis said he did not know what the conflict of interest was behind the decision.
Senator Derryn Hinch has asked the department whether Mr Dutton and Mr Quaedvlieg had a personal relationship as they both were with the Queensland police.
Elsewhere in Senate Estimates, Labor Senator Penny Wong has asked why Julie Bishop did not travel to the United States with Malcolm Turnbull despite her counterpart - US Secretary of State - Rex Tillerson being involved in the visit.
“Can someone explain to me why the Prime Minister’s chief of staff or senior adviser thought it wasn’t appropriate to include Ms Bishop in this meeting?” Senator Wong asked.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said she was not excluded and she had commitments elsewhere.
“But you’re framing this the wrong way. You’re framing this as if a decision was made to exclude a particular minister when, as I’m indicating to you, Minister Bishop had commitments in the United Kingdom, and if either the Prime Minister or Ms Bishop want to add anything to it I will provide that to the committee,” he said.
In a Senate Estimates hearing covering regional and rural matters, Queensland LNP Senator Barry O’Sullivan has called someone a “rude prick”. “He’s a rude prick,” he can be heard saying. It appeared Senator O’Sullivan did not realise his microphone was still on.
Greg Brown 5.24pm: ‘Fine line’ over child safety
Labor frontbencher Linda Burney says it is “difficult to accept and understand” why authorities did not take a 2-year-old girl who was raped from her family home despite receiving more than 20 reports about the household.
Ms Burney, who was the minister in charge of child welfare in the former NSW Labor government, said the Northern Territory girl who was allegedly raped by a man in his 20s was left in an “incredibly dangerous situation”.
“There is a fine line between keeping a child in the family unit and looking at the situation where it is just too dangerous, obviously there is a major issue …and community is asking why, after so many notifications, this child was left in that home,” Ms Burney told Sky News.
“I find it difficult to accept and understand, there are always resource implications and I don’t think people really understand out there in the community the amount of notifications that child welfare agencies get.
“But these were obviously serious notifications about a very young person in an incredibly dangerous situation and a dreadful outcome.”
Primrose Riordan 5.00pm: US uncertainty delays PNG asylum deal
The Home Affairs department has said uncertainty over how many refugees the US government will take has delayed the government finalising a new deal with Papua New Guinea over asylum seekers.
“It’s very difficult to finalise what that agreement will look like while we still don’t understand what the cohort of numbers are remaining in PNG at the end of the US process as well as any further people who wish to return to their own country or who will go to a third country.” an Australian Border Force official said.
The official said as many as 500 people could be left on Manus Island and in PNG after the US has accepted all the refugees they will agree to take.
“So there is a variable between 100 people or 500 people,” the official said.
Home Affairs confirmed that a new contract to provide welfare and security services on Nauru would cost as much as $385 million dollars.
The department said the contract with Canstruct International was from September 28, 2017 to October 31, 2018 and $69 million had been paid to date.
Rachel Baxendale 4.50pm: Malaysian ‘refugees’ top appeals cases
Malaysians claiming refugee status made up about 50 per cent of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s refugee caseload in the second half of 2017.
A Senate Estimates hearing has been told there has been a significant increase in migration and refugee appeals to the AAT over the past 18 months for which statistics are available, largely driven by people from Malaysia.
Centrelink and child support appeals were also up in the 2016-17 financial year, coinciding with the Turnbull government’s robo-debt push, but declined alongside all social security-related appeals in the second half of 2017.
Appeals relating to the Disability Support Pension made up the largest proportion of social security matters.
Rick Morton 4.34pm: Cormann defends $8.4bn inland rail investment
An $8.4bn equity investment for the inland rail project in last year’s federal budget has been defended by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann who has “guaranteed” a senate estimates committee the commonwealth will make its money back.
The seven-year equity investment — unusual for infrastructure projects which are usually funded by government grants — does not hit the government’s budget bottom line. Senator Cormann told a Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee estimates hearing today the federal government acted on departmental and independent advice from Macquarie Capital and has followed the charter of budget honesty in doing so.
“I am guaranteeing, I am very confident that the Australian Rail Track Corporation will continue to deliver a real rate of return,” he said this afternoon.
Greg Brown 3.54pm: Labor government would damage US relations: Bishop
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told the joint Coalition partyroom Bill Shorten would have a poor relationship with the United States because he said Donald Trump was “barking mad”.
Ms Bishop said the Opposition Leader’s comments during the last election would damage Australia’s relationship with its most important ally if Labor won government.
She also reminded her colleagues about the time Mr Shorten campaigned against Japanese-made submarines because the Japanese tried to invade Australia in World War II.
She said the government needed to remind the public of Mr Shorten’s lack of suitability for the prime ministership “every day”.
3.27pm: QT’s politics of envy
What Labor wanted to talk about in Question Time: Why does the Prime Minister get faster national broadband network speeds than other Australians?
Bill Shorten’s question: “Isn’t it clear that the only thing that the prime minister has achieved is to make the internet speeds at Point Piper the envy of the rest of Australia”?
Malcolm Turnbull hits back: “(Shorten) is trying to run his politics of envy, he is class-war oriented.”. - AAP
Greg Brown 3.08pm: Work resumes at the Oaky Creek mine
Workplace Minister Craig Laundy says workers at the Oaky Creek mine in Queensland will be back at work on Monday as he talks up his conciliatory approach in solving the dispute.
This was the same mine where Bill Shorten rallied with the union and called the industrial relations laws cancer.
“In the last couple of weeks, I have met with both sides of this dispute on several occasions ... we have urged the parties to come together and bargain in good faith,” he says.
“It is an approach that I hope in whatever time I have in this portfolio to attack it with.”
Greg Brown 3.00pm: Dutton forced to back down
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton continues the government’s attack on Bill Shorten for calling Australia’s industrial relations laws “cancer” in front of CFMEU members.
He is forced to withdraw a claim Shorten has taken money from the CFMEU.
He may just have lacked sincerity.
“I withdraw. I am sure that would have never taken place. This person is of impeccable character,” Dutton says, with government MPs laughing.
“He has broken trust with so many people across his adult life. There are many members behind him who have been double crossed by this Leader of the Opposition.
“There are many people involved in the union movement, involved in the Labor Party who cannot trust a word that this Leader of the Opposition says. You know what? The Australian public has formed the same judgement.”
Greg Brown 2.52pm: IS territory shrinks: Bishop
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop tells the House Islamic State has lost about 98 per cent of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.
She says there were once 220 Australians in the battlefield in the two countries, with about half being killed.
She says about 120 remain in the Middle East while “some” have returned to Australia and are being monitored.
Ms Bishop also says the government has cancelled about 230 passports of Australians that could pose a national security threat.
“Intelligence agencies believe 70 children are in the Middle East. They had been taken there by the terrorist fighters,” Bishop says.
“But also, disturbingly, there are more women involved than ever before in supporting terrorists and their activities.
“We are working carefully and closely with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, to share information and intelligence in the counter-terrorism (threat) whenever we can.”
Greg Brown 2.38pm: PM uses NBN labelled ‘second rate’ by Labor
Labor’s Michelle Rowland asks Malcolm Turnbull to confirm he called his department to ensure his home was connected to the fast NBN speeds of 100mbps.
The PM says his “premium service” was used by 411,000 other customers and included copper.
“This is the one the Labor Party said was second rate and outdated and should be dropped. That is what they said. They can’t have it both ways,” Turnbull says.
Greg Brown 2.34pm: Pyne’s advice for Sky News stablemate
Leader of the House Christopher House Christopher Pyne claims the Labor left is after right-wing powerbroker Richard Marles.
He gives Marles some advice on dealing with “knife-wielding state ALP members”, in reference to the stoush in Victoria between Labor MPs John Eren and Adem Somyurek.
“My strong advice to him I really suggest, because I want him to stay safe, is stay away from butter knife wielding state ALP members of parliament,” Pyne says.
“Or carry his own butter knife ... in a fast moving butter knife fight, I would back the member for Corio, because spite of his looks, he is quite fast moving.
“I believe people underestimate the member for Corio in a fast moving butter knife fight and I back the member for Corio.”
Greg Brown 2.25pm: Labor’s Deputy PM jibe
Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke asks Michael McCormack how long he expects to be Nationals leader, given Barnaby Joyce has refused to rule out returning to the role.
Speaker Tony Smith rules it out of order.
Greg Brown 2.19pm: Turnbull fights back on NBN claims
Labor’s Michelle Rowland asks Malcolm Turnbull about his Point Piper home having access to NBN with speeds of 100mbps.
“Why does the Prime Minister get that at his mansion when three quarters of premises on his copper NBN cannot get that speed? Why is it always one rule for this born to rule Prime Minister and another for Australians?”
The Prime Minister says there are also many Labor seats, including Bill Shorten’s, that have access to the faster NBN which was installed before the Coalition changed the policy.
“We know what the Leader of the Opposition is trying to do. He is trying to run his politics of envy, he is class war oriented. Anyone that wants to know what a class warrior he is, just watch his address to the CFMEU workers. The great impostor, talking about this system that he created,” Mr Turnbull said.
“And he is doing everything he can to encourage the militancy of people that threaten violence, not just against other workers, it against their children. He has no shame, no principles, no character.”
Greg Brown 2.13pm: Labor grill PM on NBN
Bill Shorten asks Malcolm Turnbull the average speed of the NBN, probably in reference to revelations in Senate Estimates the Prime Minister’s suburb has speeds of 100mbps.
Turnbull says the majority of people have NBN packages of 25mbps or less “regardless of the technology”.
We are getting on with the NBN, activating more premises in a month than the Labor Party did in six years,” he says.
“The Labor Party cannot manage an economy, they cannot manage a business, they certainly cannot manage construction of a giant projects like the NBN.”
Greg Brown 2.09pm: Shorten exposed doing bidding of CFMEU: Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull uses a Dixer to attack Bill Shorten for describing Australia’s industrial relations laws as “cancer”.
“We have now seen him exposed doing the bidding of the CFMEU. In October last year, he told striking CFMEU workers that Australia’s industrial relation laws were, like he said, like a cancer,” the PM says.
“Which is remarkable, given these laws, the Fair Work Commission in particular, the Fair Work Act, were introduced by Labor.”
Greg Brown 2.07pm: Tension over sexual harassment processes
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek asks what principles the government applies to ensure sexual harassment complaints are dealt with confidentially.
Malcolm Turnbull says MPs should not disclose the identity of the complainant.
“If the honourable member wants to make an allegation against any member of parliament, she should stand up and do so,” the PM says.
Greg Brown 1.59pm: Tax rates already ‘competitive’: Labor
Opposition assistant treasurer Matt Thistlethwaite says Australia’s effective business tax rates are competitive.
“When you factor in dividend imputation, when you factor in deduction systems, depreciation and things like that, Australia already has a very effective, competitive corporate rate of tax,” Mr Thistlethwaite told Sky News.
“And we think that that money (for tax cuts) should be kept in the budget to fund better health and education and infrastructure in Australia.”
Primrose Riordan 1.47pm: Intelligence loses out with huge delays in clearance process
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security loses 50-60 per cent of people offered roles in the agency due to long delays in handing out security clearances, a senate estimates hearing has been told.
Inspector-General Margaret Stone said applicants end up being offered other jobs while they wait.
“We lose something like 50 or 60 per cent of the people whom we offer positions because they will wait for a certain time, they don’t wait out that whole clearance and they understandably find something else,” she said.
“As far as I understand it, nothing much has changed. We still have at least one person in the clearance process for almost two years I think.”
She said she would not like to comment on their processes and would not like to see the process made less exhaustive.
“The last thing I want to do is make the system less rigorous ... I assume the issue is one of resources.”
The way the federal government hands out security clearances to public servants to protect national security was slammed in a 2015 national audit report.
The report also said the centralisation of security vetting into one federal agency had failed to recover the promised $5.3 million in savings and had made “no noticeable improvement”, with more than 10,000 people in the Defence Department agency’s backlog at the time.
The Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA) was set up in late 2010 within the department to hand out security clearances to public servants more efficiently, instead of each agency doing its own.
Greg Brown 1.25pm: Laundy slams Shorten over ‘cancer IR laws’
Workplace Minister Craig Laundy has slammed Bill Shorten for calling the industrial relations system “cancer”.
Mr Laundy said the Opposition Leader should be defending the independent umpire that was created by the former Labor government.
“These comments are wrong across the board on a few different fronts but sadly symptomatic of what you are seeing with the modern Labor,” Mr Luandy told Sky News.
“What he is conveniently forgetting is the Fair Work Act is their act, it was implemented by them between 2007 and 2009.
“They are completely beholden to the unions for not just their financial support for his support on the floor of parliament.”
Mr Laundy rejected Mr Shorten’s “lie” the enterprise bargaining system was broken.
“Apparently according to the Labor Party the bargaining system is broken yet in the last 12 months 3 per cent of terminations ..were contested, 97 per cent were not,” he said.
12.50pm: AFP to quiz Christensen
Australian Federal Police want to speak with Nationals MP George Christensen after he posted a photo of himself on Facebook holding a handgun with the caption: “Do you feel lucky, greenie punks?”
The AFP is looking to talk to the Queensland politician as it works out exactly what has occurred and which criminal offences may apply.
“We’re assessing it, and as part of that assessment we’re talking to a range of people including complainants,” AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin told a Senate committee in Canberra today.
Read the article in full here.
AAP
Greg Brown 12.25pm: ‘Pressure Assad to end war’
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has called on Russia to use its influence to put pressure on Syria to end the civil war following allegations the Assad regime used chemical weapons.
“We are aware that these allegations of the use of chemical weapons continue, it is absolutely abhorrent that chemical weapons should be used in any circumstance and Australia will continue to support all efforts to bring those responsible to justice,” Ms Bishop said this morning.
“We are supporting the investigative mechanism of the United Nations to investigate and prosecute those involved.”
Ms Bishop said Russia should “of course” use its relationship with the Assad regime to influence a solution to the conflict.
“All members of the permanent five should use their leverage, their power, their special responsibility of members of the Security Council to put pressure on the parties, including the Assad regime to find a political solution,” she said.
Greg Brown 12.10pm: PM’s first rate NBN
Bill Shorten has attacked Malcolm Turnbull for rolling out a “second-rate copper” version of the NBN when his own suburb of Point Piper has a fast version of it.
“We learned last night that the Kirribilli and Point Piper residences have 100 megabit NBN,” Mr Shorten said.
“But there are whole suburbs of Western Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane having to make do with a second-rate copper network operating at one quarter of this speed.
“Mr Turnbull says that Australian families and businesses do not need a first-grade NBN but he’s happy to use taxpayer money to look after his own suburb and make sure they do.”
Opposition Leader @billshortenmp: Kirribilli and Point Piper residences have 100 megabit fibre NBN, but there are whole suburbs in other areas with the second rate copper network. @TurnbullMalcolm is happy to look after his own suburb.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 26, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/ZqKMvfxkvy #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/fmz2f43G5b
Greg Brown 12.05pm: McCormack faces questions over rent
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack last week declared earnings from rental income for an investment property in Melbourne, despite owning the property since 2016.
Mr McCormack updated his register of members’ interests last Friday to declare the rental income – the same day Barnaby Joyce quit as Nationals leader.
Mr McCormack declared owning an investment property in 2016 but did not declare he was earning rental income from it.
“We have not had a paying tenant since purchasing the property,” Mr McCormack told AAP in a statement.
“I declared the token amount we have just started charging our daughter in the past few weeks.” According to Mr McCormack, there is no rental agreement in place and this is the first year since his daughter moved to Melbourne that she has full-time work as a teacher.
“We have not charged her in the past to enable her to get on her feet and have only this school year - beginning 31 January - started charging her the equivalent of board,” he said.
Greg Brown 11.50am: Wyatt contradicts PM on ‘voice’
Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt has contradicted Malcolm Turnbull and declared the government was still considering legislating a “voice” to the parliament.
Mr Wyatt also rejected the Prime Minister’s claim the “voice” would act as a third chamber of parliament.
“I’m still of the view that we can have a structure that will address what came out of the Uluru Statemernt, I’ve not walked away from that because voices are important,” Mr Wyatt told Sky News.
“I will continue to work with my colleagues to take a pathway through a referendum and certainly to a voice, legislatively, within the parliament.
“I hear the frustration at a community level, I’m out and around within Australia and I certainly hear the frustration of people saying we express our views about what will work, what won’t work for us but governments tend not to listen at times.”
He noted the Referendum Council’s Noel Pearson says the “voice” would not act as a third chamber to the parliament.
“Noel Person made the comment that it was not about vetoing parliament, it was not about a third chamber, it was about a voice that governments would listen to that represented a reflection of what came at a community level,” Mr Wyatt said.
“If you build the model on empowered communities right around Australia then you would have very powerful local grassroots level voices percolating to the top and informing.
“Governments make the mistake of hand selecting people that they will listen to.”
Earlier this month, Mr Turnbull said the government would not support the “voice” concept and warned it would become a third chamber of parliament.
“If it were to succeed - that national representative assembly, elected by and composed only of indigenous Australians as an adviser to this parliament on matters affecting indigenous Australians - would constitute, in effect, a third chamber of this parliament,” he told parliament this month.
“The scope of that third chamber would get wider and wider, and a fundamental principle of our democracy would be aggregated. The Coalition will not support it.”
Greg Brown 10.35am: PM ‘more inept than we thought’
Bill Shorten used his caucus address to attack the American political system under Donald Trump, declaring Malcolm Turnbull was “more inept than we thought” for trying to replicate “Trumponomics”.
The Opposition Leader accused the Prime Minister of trying to “follow President Trump’s lead” by wanting to turn Australia into an American-style system of “trickle-down economics”.
Opposition Leader @billshortenmp: If @TurnbullMalcolm thinks President @realDonaldTrump's America is the vision for Australia then he is more inept and out of touch than we thought.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 26, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/CeUW5VlCVj #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/abaXn5Krcn
“Malcolm Turnbull has had a giddy time in America catching up with President Trump and seems to be quite taken by Trumponomics. He met Donald Trump and was so excited about corporate tax cuts he said ‘we must go down the American path, we must follow President Trump’s lead’,” Mr Shorten said.
“But I make it very clear: while there are many things to admire about the United States, our closest ally in terms of security, but we do not want an American–style wages system in this country, we do not want an American-style healthcare system and we do not want an American tax system (through) the principle of trickle-down economics: if you look after the richest and most powerful in society that through the largess and generosity they will then look after everyone else.
“If Malcolm Turnbull thinks that Trump’s America is a vision for Australia he is more inept than we thought, more out of touch than we thought and he doesn’t have a proper plan for Australia.”
Greg Brown 10.00am: ‘I’ll be vindicated’
Barnaby Joyce says Malcolm Turnbull informed him he was being investigated for breaking the ministerial code, calling the probe the “Prime Minister’s prerogative”.
The former deputy prime minister said he would be vindicated by the continued audit into his travel claims following reports his partner Vikki Campion accompanied him on government travel.
“Everybody has been through every iteration, it is just another poring through what has already been gone through,” Mr Joyce said.
“We’ve had so many FOIs and discussions and this is apparently another one.”
.@Barnaby_Joyce insists he has nothing to hide, despite an investigation into the possible misuse of his travel entitlements. The former Deputy PM has also downplayed suggestions he'll return to the leadership. @BenBMurph #auspol #7News pic.twitter.com/vzSt8Qe6gS
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) February 27, 2018
Greg Brown 9.40am: Ardern on second visit to Oz
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will make her second visit to Australia, arriving on Thursday.
Malcolm Turnbull said the discussions on the two-day visit will focus on security and trade.
“Discussions will focus on the economic opportunities for both countries, and the region, that result from free trade and open markets,” the Prime Minister said.
“In our economic discussions we will also focus on how we can promote further economic integration under the bilateral Single Economic Market agenda, which is already a remarkable success story and model for the world.”
Mr Turnbull said Australia and New Zealand share the “closest of bonds”.
“Lucy and I look forward to welcoming both Prime Minister Ardern and her partner, Mr Clarke Gayford, to Australia,” he said.
Greg Brown 8.55am: Voters ‘don’t want Joyce inquiry’
Trade Minister Steven Ciobo says voters do not want the government to continue to investigate whether Barnaby Joyce broke the ministerial code.
Mr Ciobo said it was good Malcolm Turnbull launched an investigation into Mr Joyce’s conduct but there was no need to continue the probe as the former Nationals leader resigned to the backbench.
“I don’t think the voters are concerned about trawling through the entrails after the fact that Barnaby Joyce has resigned and stood down as leader, that in politics is the ultimate price that you pay,” Mr Ciobo told Sky News.
Greg Brown 8.40am: Support for Shorten over industrial relations
Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon has backed Bill Shorten for saying he would tear up the nation’s industrial relations laws.
Mr Fitzgibbon said the Opposition Leader was trying to support workers when he claimed the industrial relations laws we being distorted like “cancer” in a speech to members of the militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
“I think Bill Shorten was sending a very clear message that the Labor Party will stand behind mine workers and workers generally when they are being unfairly treated,” Mr Fitzgibbon told ABC radio.
“I absolutely support him to that extent.”
Greg Brown 8.25am: ‘I won’t snipe’
Barnaby Joyce says he does not expect to become Nationals leader again but he would not rule out another tilt for the role.
“I never rule anything in or anything out because later on in life you look like a hypocrite,” Mr Joyce said this morning.
“I don’t expect to ever return but I will do the very best job I can in any role that is given to me.”
Mr Joyce said he would not snipe from the backbench. When asked if he would take a similar approach to Mr Abbott he said: “I’ll be Barnaby”.
“You have got to remember that is where I started, I had a lot of experience on the backbench in the Senate so it is not a job I haven’t done before,” he said.
Mr Joyce said the media attention in the past few weeks had been “crazy”.
“Every day I pick up the paper and there would be some allegation that is inevitably proved wrong,” Mr Joyce said.
He said the distress caused to his family through the ordeal was an “immense” part of his resignation.
“Everybody else gets dragged into this and it is devastating, they don’t want me on the front page every day and I have a responsibility to them to get them out of it,” Mr Joyce said.
Greg Brown 8.10am: Claims leak ‘distressing’
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says it was “very distressing” the identity was leaked of a woman who lodged a sexual harassment claim against Barnaby Joyce.
Ms Bishop this morning said she hoped the person who leaked Catherine Marriott’s identity regretted their actions.
“That is very distressing for her, I don’t know her, I had no idea about these allegations until I read them in the press,” Ms Bishop told ABC radio.
“But clearly if someone wanted these allegations to be investigated and wanted them to be confidential then it is very distressing they have been made public and I certainly hope the person who made them public regrets it.”
What’s making news:
Australia’s new Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, has extended an olive branch to his main rival for the Nationals leadership, David Littleproud, in a bid to return stability to the Coalition and unify a divided party room.
Bill Shorten vowed to tear up the nation’s industrial laws, which he described as a “cancer”, during a rallying speech late last year to workers at a Queensland coalmine where CFMEU protesters were revealed to have allegedly threatened to rape the children of nonstriking workers.
The fate of border security chief Roman Quaedvlieg, who has been forced to take leave for nine months at a cost to taxpayers of $500,000, now rests in the hands of the Attorney-General despite two separate reports into whether he should be sacked being completed last year.
A secret investigation ordered by Malcolm Turnbull into potential breaches of the ministerial code of conduct by Barnaby Joyce lasted just two working days before it was stopped because the then deputy prime minister resigned from the ministry.
Bill Shorten has been sent a blunt warning from Labor’s left faction that it is opposed to business tax cuts as a matter of principle, setting up a showdown that may force the Opposition Leader to unwind tax cuts under a Labor government that are already legislated for millions of small businesses.
West Australian Nationals leader Mia Davies has refused to explain the role she played in ensuring that an allegation of sexual harassment against Barnaby Joyce was formalised last week, a move that triggered his resignation as the party’s federal leader.
Outspoken north Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen will not be sanctioned for controversially urging his party to abandon the federal Coalition.
Allowing Katy Gallagher to stay in the Senate would cause “uncertainty and instability” in parliament and encourage political candidates to renounce their citizenship at the last minute, government lawyers have argued.
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