Senator Jim Molan refuses to accept Adam Bandt apology
Senator Molan says all options are on the table after Adam Bandt’s apology for suggesting he committed war crimes.
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5.20pm: Molan refuses to accept Bandt apology
Senator Jim Molan has upped the ante in his row with Greens MP Adam Bandt, who has issued an apology after suggesting the former general may be guilty of war crimes.
Speaking on 2GB radio this afternoon, Senator Molan said the apology was inadequate.
“I think it is (flimsy),” Senator Molan said. “I was deeply disappointed in the apology.
“There seemed to me to really be no contrition that I think was proportional to the serious allegations that he made. As we’ve received in the office here, the reaction of men and women, particularly those in uniform, and their families, indicate that Adam really should really reconsider his apology, given the people that he’s impacted on.
“I want him to reconsider it (the apology) and I consider that all my options are still on the table, so I’m not accepting it.”
On comments made by Senator Di Natale, who accused him of overseeing a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Iraq in 2004, the former general was slightly less combative.
“Oh yes (I would like an apology) but I’m not going to fight for that. That’s the rough and tumble of day to day rhetoric within (parliament).
“I was deeply concerned by those comments but what Adam said outside ... anything goes within this place, almost anything goes within this place but what Adam said in public on Sky is something that I think needs to be dealt with in a different way.”
4.45pm: Dutton weighs in on Bandt
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has described Senator Molan as a “hero” who’d put his life on the line while people like Mr Bandt were “back home burning flags”, AAP reports. “He wouldn’t have the guts or the capacity or the ability to serve his country like Jim Molan did,” Mr Dutton told 2GB radio.
“Adam Bandt is a horrible individual. He demonstrates it on a daily basis in parliament and frankly this just exemplifies it again in his pathetic comments about Jim Molan this week.” Senator Molan has attracted widespread criticism after re-posting anti-Islam videos by far-right group Britain First on his Facebook page last year.
Greg Brown 4.15pm: Molan slams ‘apology’
Liberal senator Jim Molan has savaged the apology delivered by Adam Bandt, declaring he was still considering launching defamation action against the Greens MP.
Senator Molan said the “three-word apology” delivered by Mr Bandt was not proportional to the accusation the former army general may have committed war crimes.
“I’m quite disappointed in the apology, there seems to be no real contrition proportional to the serious allegations made and the reaction to men and women in their uniforms to us,” Senator Molan told The Australian.
“When I said I would accept an apology I didn’t mean a three-word apology.”
Greg Brown 3.45pm: Bandt apologises to Molan for comments
Greens MP Adam Bandt has apologised to new Liberal senator Jim Molan for his comments suggesting the former army general could have committed war crimes.
Mr Bandt released a statement a short time ago apologising to Senator Molan, who told The Australian last night he would consider suing the Greens member for Melbourne unless he received an apology.
“Yesterday I made statements about Senator Jim Molan on Sky TV,” Mr Bandt’s statement said.
“Mr Molan has stated: ‘I would invite Mr Bandt to offer me a public apology... If he publicly apologised to me for the statements that he made, then that would end the problem.’
“I hereby apologise for those statements.”
Greg Brown 3.20pm: A-G criticises delays joining redress scheme
Attorney-General Christian Porter speaks about the redress scheme for child abuse, calling on churches and the states to stop delaying joining.
“Reasons for delay are now starting to look, for any independent observer, as if minor details are being manifestly and deliberately used as excuses for needless delay,” Porter says.
“Excuses are what created this problem and they should not prevent the churches, the charities, the states and the territories from joining the redress scheme.”
Bill Shorten spoke on indulgence to support Mr Porter.
“No more excuses, no more delays the opposition will work with the government,” he says.
Greg Brown 3.15pm: Hunt labels Labor ‘Medifrauds’
Health Minister Greg Hunt says Labor “not only hates private health” but they are “Medi-frauds as well”, after being asked about worse health outcomes in Tasmania under the Turnbull government.
Hunt says health spending under the Turnbull government had increased by $103 billion in the past five years, compared with an increase of $73 billion in the six years of the former Labor government.
“How much money did they commit to hospital funding? Zero dollars. They didn’t contribute, propose, budget for an extra single dollar for hospital funding - not one extra dollar,” he says.
Greg Brown 3pm: Labor will go soft on smugglers: Dutton
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claims Bill Shorten will go soft on people-smugglers to win the seat of Batman.
“When it comes to border protection, we know that the Leader of the Opposition is down in Victoria in the inner-city seat of Batman, where the Labor Party feels the Greens will win that seat from the Labor Party, he’s telling them that the Labor Party will go soft on border protection,” Dutton says. “They will abandon policy which will stop people drowning.”
ON-AIR BREAKDOWN: Peter Dutton wept as a man whose son died in a one-punch attack thanked him for deporting the killer’s accomplice
Greg Brown 2.50pm: Turnbull defends company tax cuts
Bill Shorten asks if Malcolm Turnbull will take his “$64 billion” company tax cuts to the next election.
The Prime Minister responds that he wants them passed in this parliament.
“We are looking forward to our company tax cuts being passed in this parliament,” he says. “We will go to the election with the benefit of those tax cuts flowing through to the economy in thousands of new jobs.”
Greg Brown 2.45pm: Labor tax attack continues
Labor MP Sharon Bird asks Malcolm Turnbull why the government is raising income tax for workers, saying it will hurt people in regional NSW.
The PM answers that the Medicare levy increase is needed to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
“The honourable member no doubt has many families in her electorate who are clients of the NDIS and look forward to having services paid for through the NDIS. No doubt those very people would be concerned that the NDIS is actually paid for, because they will want certainty,” he says.
“And when they say to the honourable member, ‘How can we be sure it’s paid for?’, if she told the truth she would have to say, ‘Labor has no plan to do so’.”
Greg Brown 2.39pm: ‘He wrote a whole book’
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen asks why the government voted today to cut business tax while they also have a policy to raise the Medicare levy.
Malcolm Turnbull reminds Mr Bowen that he wrote a book that proposed cutting company tax, before the US cut its company tax.
“He wrote a whole book about the need for following in the footsteps of his mentor, Paul Keating, and cutting company tax precisely for the purpose of being competitive with the rest of the world,” the PM says.
Greg Brown 2.35pm: ‘Why the big end of town?’
Bill Shorten goes on the government’s support for company tax cuts, asking why the Coalition is only in favour of the big end of town.
Malcolm Turnbull says businesses needed a reason to invest, expand and hire people.
“The Leader of the Opposition said 2017 was going to be about jobs, jobs, jobs. Well, the government delivered on jobs. And we have more to do. But we need to give business the incentive to invest,” the PM says.
He says Shorten is impersonating British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn with his war on business rhetoric.
“I will remind the Leader of the Opposition that there was a time when he knew that cutting tax on businesses created more jobs. He said so and he and all of his side of politics voted for it again and again. Because it was common sense and orthodox economics,” he says.
Greg Brown 2.30pm: Joyce heckles labor on Adani
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce heckles Labor for its scepticism on the Adani mine, declaring central Queensland needed more jobs.
“The Galillee basin is a vital precinct and helps the wealth of the nation. Today we are talking about Closing the Gap and the best way to Close the Gap for people to have a job,” Joyce says. “We need the Labor Party in the current Batman by-election to stand behind the coal workers of the Galilee Basin, to stand behind the coalminers of central Queensland, to stand up for their core constituency.”
Both the government and the Greens are seeking to wedge Labor over the Adani issue, which had caused fears last year that overt opposition to the mine could have cost Labor seats in the Queensland election, and more recent fears that any perception of support will cost Labor votes in inner-city Batman.
Greg Brown 2.23pm: Greens, Labor same on economics: Morrison
Treasurer Scott Morrison uses a Dorothy Dixer to say there is no difference between Labor and the Greens on economics.
“There is no difference between the Greens and the Labor Party now when it comes to economic policy,” Mr Morrison says. “Higher taxes, more regulation, higher deficits, uncontrolled spending, anti-trade, anti-mining, anti-jobs. That’s the Greens’ agenda. That’s the Labor agenda.”
Greg Brown 2.20pm: PM questioned on Closing the Gap
Labor frontbencher Linda Burney asks if the government would rule out giving up on achieving the seven Close the Gap targets,
She asks why the government had cut $500 million from the indigenous affairs budget.
Malcolm Turnbull denies the government had cut spending on indigenous issues.
“We are putting more resources into indigenous advancement all the time,” the PM says.
He says the government is in talks with indigenous leaders and state governments to improve outcomes for indigenous Australians. “It is a shared objective,” he says.
Rosie lewis 2.10pm: McGowan: I’m happy to begin this conversation
Looks like independent MP Cathy McGowan is the crossbencher Bob Katter suggested might move to prohibit MP-staffer relationships. Before question time she suggested Australia could follow the example set by the US and “address personal relationships” between MPs and their staff in the wake of revelations Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is having a baby with an ex-employee.
The US House voted unanimously this week to ban sexual relationships between politicians and staffers, and Ms McGowan said she wanted to have a similar conversation here.
“There is a belief the parliament is behind community expectations and corporate practice,” Ms McGowan said.
“The parliament is a place of work and good workplace practice includes clear expectations about behaviour. There are examples set by the process undertaken by the United States Congress and in the Australian corporate sector, including the action of the AFL in July last year regarding relationships in the workplace. I’m happy to begin this conversation ahead of potentially tabling a motion in parliament.”
Greg Brown 2.05pm: Question time gets under way
Bill Shorten opens QT on indigenous affairs, arguing the Close the Gap report showed outcomes for First Australians had gone backwards under the Turnbull government.
Malcolm Turnbull says the government is working to improve the lives of Aborigines but there was a long way to go. “We are doing things with them, not doing things to them,” he says.
The Prime Minister was criticised earlier today for leaving early from a Closing the Gap event in Parliament House.
Greg Brown 1.55pm: Bandt could have ‘chosen words differently’: leader
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says Adam Bandt could have “chosen his words differently” when he suggested Liberal senator Jim Molan may have committed war crimes.
With Mr Bandt facing a threat of defamation action, Senator Di Natale said the Melbourne MP should not have said Senator Molan, a former army general, would “probably be up for prosecution” if there was an independent review into his actions in the Iraq War.
“If Adam had his time again he would have chosen his words differently,” Senator Di Natale said.
But Senator Di Natale, who made criticisms about Senator Molan in the Senate under parliamentary privilege, had no apologies for his own comments.
“We’ve got a former senior commander in the defence force and now a senator for the Liberal Party who supported what are effectively white supremacist views,” Senator Di Natale said.
In an interview criticised by Bill Shorten and former prime minister Tony Abbott, Mr Bandt criticised Senator Molan for failing to speak out against the far-right group British First after sharing two of its social media posts showing Muslims involved in violence.
1.45pm: Crossbench bill to ban MP-staff relationships?
Bob Katter has told Sky News that an unnamed crossbencher is planning to introduce a bill to parliament to prohibit sexual relationships between MPs and staffers.
Asked whether Australia should follow the lead of the US House of Representatives voting to ban members from having sexual relationships with their employees, he said: “We are going to know very shortly, because one of the crossbenchers this morning said to me that they are going to move along these lines here.”
Katter separately said that “people’s private lives are their private lives, but I do make the comment, not staff. Please, fellas, not staff. You’re in a very powerful position.”
1.20pm: Greens condemn arms export aims
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson had no luck this morning when moving to condemn the government’s plan to put Australia into the ranks of the world’s top 10 defence exporters.
The Greens just moved this motion to condemn the Govt's plan to become a world leading arms dealer and not a single other party supported it. Labor and NXT both support profiting from the export of human suffering. pic.twitter.com/SAjMncgY5o
— Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) February 8, 2018
Greg Brown 1.05pm: Shorten welcomes change to spy laws
Bill Shorten has welcomed the government’s plan to change to its espionage laws to make it harder to prosecute journalists for publishing sensitive information.
The Opposition Leader said the original drafting of the laws could have led to journalists jailed for doing their job.
“Freedom of the press is one of the values of Australia that we’re fighting for. So therefore, I am pleased that the government has taken a backwards step, we will of course, work with them,” Mr Shorten said this morning.
“I think the media quite rightly raised a concern about the potential imprisonment of journalists. So I thought we just had to put up a little stop sign to the government and say, ‘hey, perhaps we need to go back and redo that’. And we’ll work with them on that.”
Attorney-General Christian Porter said journalists who publish sensitive information that could impact national security would have a defence as long as they believed it was reported in the public interest.
“We have given instructions to separate out the offence that would apply to non-commonwealth officers, so journalists, lobbyists, academics, and strengthen the defence for journalists,” Mr Porter told ABC radio.
“So we would remove any requirement that reporting be fair and accurate but rather if a journalist reported something that was reasonably believed was reported in the public interest then they would have a very broad defence.”
Greg Brown 12.50pm: Kearney doesn’t live in Batman
Labor’s candidate for Batman, Ged Kearney, lives outside the inner Melbourne electorate she is fighting to win in an upcoming by-election.
Ms Kearney confirmed she lives in the suburb of Brunswick, in the neighbouring electorate of Wills, which is represented by Labor MP Peter Khalil.
The former ACTU president, who was Bill Shorten’s captain’s pick, said she had a long history in the Batman electorate, despite not living there any more.
“I lived in Northcote, Alphington and Thornbury for 35 years – my kids grew up and went to school there and my family still lives there,” Ms Kearney said in a statement.
“I now live about one kilometre outside the electorate and I’ve always been upfront about that. This community is in my blood.”
Labor faces a stiff contest to hold onto the seat because of the growing popularity of the Greens in inner Melbourne.
Earlier deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek admitted that Ms Kearney has a “better chance” of winning Batman than its former Labor MP David Feeney.
Mr Feeney resigned from federal parliament last week after he could not find any evidence he had renounced British citizenship in 2007.
“I don’t agree (the Batman by-election is) probably lost, I was saying it’s a tough one to win and we’ve got a real fighter who is campaigning for the seat and she gives us the best possible chance of winning it. I’ll be down there, I’ll be campaigning with her,” Ms Plibersek told Sky News.
Asked if Ms Kearney had a “better chance” of claiming the seat than Mr Feeney, Ms Plibersek responded: “I think so. Because David’s going out in these circumstances where he’s not been able to locate the documentation that he has to show that he’s renounced citizenships that he might be entitled to. I think that would be a very hard background to run a campaign on.”
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said over the weekend Ms Kearney was a “better fit” for Mr Feeney’s former seat.
Mr Plibersek also questioned why Labor would refer the member for Longman Susan Lamb, who is under increasing pressure because she did not complete her British citizenship renunciation, to the High Court.
“It’s only fair that people are subject to the same degree of scrutiny if they have similar circumstances, similar questions around their eligibility,” she said.
“We say she’s fine but we’re willing to have that tested in the High Court. People on the other side who are in very similar circumstances should submit to the same scrutiny. Job lot, let’s send them all.”
- Additional reporting: Rosie Lewis
Joe Kelly 12.30pm: Corporate tax cut passes lower house
Scott Morrison has got legislation through the lower house to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 per cent for all businesses by the year 2026-27, arguing the measure will help to create jobs and grow wages for workers.
The Treasurer this morning blasted Labor for opposing the measure, saying Bill Shorten was responsible for a “disturbing” shift away from previous support for corporate tax reductions implemented by former Labor governments.
“I cannot understand how keeping taxes high for these businesses helps them employ more Australians or boost their wages,” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense…. keeping business taxes high is a numpty of an idea.”
Mr Morrison said Labor had “lost their economic compass in opposing this bill” and were moving “ever closer to the cohabitation of economic policy with the Greens” – a trend he said would be exacerbated by the upcoming by-election in the Melbourne seat of Batman.
He quoted from Mr Shorten, when he was assistant treasurer in March 2012, saying that “corporate tax reform helps Australia’s private sector grow and it creates jobs up and down the income ladder.”
The legislation passed the lower house 75 votes to 71 votes with Greens MP Adam Bandt and independents Cathy McGowan and Andrew Wilkie voting against the corporate tax reductions. Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie also voted against the legislation.
The bill will extend the lower 27.5 per cent corporate rate to all businesses by the 2023-24 financial year before it is phased down to 25 per cent by 2026-27.
My Labor team and I are in the parliament right now voting against Turnbull's $65 billion tax giveaway to the top end of town. Australia should be investing in schools, skills, health and housing, not handing-out taxpayer money to multinationals.
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) February 7, 2018
Rosie Lewis 11.50am: Court ‘could stop’ Lambie successor
Jacqui Lambie may be able to “stop” Steve Martin from being elected to her former Senate seat through High Court action, according to one of the country’s top constitutional law experts.
University of Sydney constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said there were similarities between the Lambie case and the matter of former Nick Xenophon Team senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore, which will go before the court on Tuesday, after Mr Martin was “expelled” from the Jacqui Lambie Network.
Mr Martin has claimed Ms Lambie dumped him from her party last night after demanding he step aside to allow her to take his upper house seat.
Read Professor Twomey’s reasoning, and Martin’s comments this morning, in full here
Greg Brown 11.10am: Citizenship brawl like ‘the summer break never happened’
Bill Shorten says the public must think the “summer break never happened” as he claims the only way to end the citizenship brawl is by referring questionable government and opposition MPs to the High Court.
The Opposition Leader said Labor MP Susan Lamb shared her emotional story in parliament yestrerday because she was “an upfront, courageous woman”, arguing her story showed she had taken all reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship.
“She has taken all reasonable steps but because she is an upfront, courageous woman she has explained her backstory,” Mr Shorten said this morning.
“I don’t think anyone who is fair dinkum wouldn’t have been moved by what she said, I think she was very strong, she has taken all reasonable steps.”
Mr Shorten said Malcolm Turnbull should take up Labor’s offer to refer questionable MPs on both sides of the chamber.
“I think Australians are rightly angry that we are still arguing over citizenship, it is as if the summer break never happened and we are stuck in this endless loop,” he said.
“So what we suggested to Malcolm is that we have concerns about a couple of his people, he says he has concerns about a couple of our people …let’s cut out the nonsense.
“He just wants to have one rule for Labor and another rule for themselves.”
11.05am: Organisers knew PM’s ‘unfortunate’ schedule
This morning Pat Dodson hit out at Malcolm Turnbull for walking out early from a Closing the Gap event in Parliament House.
“It’s indicative of the deafness, the absolute derision and the contempt which this government is meting out to the Aboriginal people,” the Labor senator told reporters afterwards.
However, organisers were aware of the Prime Minister’s schedule and that he would leave at the time he did. “The Prime Minister listened to the keynote address and left as scheduled,” a spokesman told AAP.
Reconciliation Australia co-chair Tom Calma later conceded the gathering had been aware of Mr Turnbull’s schedule but said it was “unfortunate he had to leave, it’s never a good look when we’ve all come together”.
Congress of Australia’s First Peoples co-chair Rod Little said Mr Turnbull would “now be judged by his actions” in leaving before the event was finished, a phalanx of news cameras trailing his departure from the venue.
Stephen Fitzpatrick and AAP
Greg Brown 10.55am: Dreyfus warns against US MPs sex ban
Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus says the issue of “sex in the office” is problematic but he has warned against any move to ban MPs from sleeping with their staffers.
Mr Dreyfus said it would be a mistake for Australia to follow the lead of the US and ban parliamentarians from having relationships with staff.
“I’d be hoping that no Australian, state or federal parliament, would ever go down that path because I think legislating about those matters is fraught with difficulty. I do think there should be codes of conduct. I do think people have got to behave themselves and I do think sex in the office is always going to present problems, but whether we need to legislate is quite another question,” Mr Dreyfus told ABC radio.
He said Barnaby Joyce was one of the worst deputy prime ministers “in Australian political history” but his private life should be off-limits.
“The only issue that needs to possibly be considered is use of public money or whether or not there was something improper about the obtaining of a job in another MP’s office. Those are properly the subject of public examination, but private lives of politicians should stay private. That’s their personal business and none of the business of the media,” he said.
On ABC’s 7.30 last night Mr Joyce called for his personal privacy to be respected amid revelations he is expecting a child with a former staffer, rejecting suggestions he misused taxpayer funds to pursue the relationship.
INSIDE STORY: Barnaby Joyce’s secret
Greg Brown 10.25am: Shorten: mum helped me avoid priest
Bill Shorten has revealed he was asked to be an altar boy by notorious pedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell, only to be stopped by his mother because she did not like the man.
The Opposition Leader said he was “lucky” to have not fallen into the trap of the disgraced priest, who abused two of the daughters of sex abuse campaigners Anthony and Chrissie Foster. O’Donnell died in 1997 and was a child abuser from 1942 to 1992.
It came as Mr Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull called for the states to help fund a national redress scheme for victims of child sex abuse, while the Prime Minister promised a national apology for victims by the end of the year. Both leaders said institutions they should take responsibility for the abuse that occurred and help fund the scheme.
Mr Shorten said his mother used to take him to the Polish version of mass at Sacred Heart in Melbourne’s Oakleigh because she did not like O’Donnell.
“I used to say to my mum ‘why don’t we go to (another) mass, there are four other sessions?’ It turned out she took us to that service because she didn’t like the priest, Father O’Donnell,” Mr Shorten told the House.
“He approached us to become altar boys, I said: ‘what do you think mum?’ She said no. How lucky was I.
“Chrissie and Anthony Foster were not so lucky at that same church and hundreds of other families affected by this monster.”
10.15am: Dutton not backing down
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is not backing down from his persistent criticisms of Australian courts after copping a political clip around the ears from retiring colleague George Brandis.
In a valedictory speech yesterday, the former attorney-general scolded “political colleagues”, including Mr Dutton, for failing to understand the courts and attacking the rule of law.
“People can criticise. It can be veiled. They can have the determination to try and undermine what I’m doing. All of it makes me more determined to make sure we keep going,” Mr Dutton told Sydney’s 2GB radio today.
AAP
9.45am: Turnbull to apologise to abuse victims
Malcolm Turnbull will make a national apology to victims of institutional sexual abuse.
A “survivor focused” reference group will advise the government on the form and content of the apology, the Prime Minister revealed in parliament this morning.
“On behalf of the nation I will deliver that apology before the end of the year,” he said.
.@TurnbullMalcolm: There is no more important obligation for any Australian adult than keeping our children safe from harm. MORE: https://t.co/ZqKMvfxkvy #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/LXhaHU1DgZ
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 7, 2018
#BREAKING: @TurnbullMalcolm says he will deliver a national apology to victims of child sexual abuse in Parliament before the end of 2018. #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/VFlpXXZCX1
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 7, 2018
In today’s paper we report that Victoria is yet to commit to the national redress scheme for institutional child sex abuse victims and has held open the option of creating its own independent compensation scheme.
A a Senate committee inquiry examining the proposed redress scheme, has received several submissions raising concerns about it, including a submission from a West Australian organisation that reported abuse survivors were borrowing money in the belief they soon would receive redress payments.
Stephen Fitzpatrick 9.30am: Turnbull leaving ‘a disgrace’: Dodson
Federal Labor indigenous affairs spokesman Patrick Dodson has slammed Malcolm Turnbull for walking out of a prestigious annual function reviewing the massive failures of the Closing the Gap program at Parliament House this morning.
Senator Dodson said it was a “disgrace” the Prime Minister had left an international event with the eyes of the world on him before the Close the Gap Steering Committee’s sharply critical report was handed down by indigenous reconciliation giant Tom Calma.
Mr Turnbull earlier sat stony-faced as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner delivered a litany of failures in the decade-long scheme to address indigenous health, education and housing targets.
June Oscar called for “greater accountability” across all jurisdictions in how indigenous affairs funding was spent, and greater policy making input from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Patrick Dodson slams Malcolm Turnbull for walking out of annual function reviewing the massive failures of the Closing the Gap program at Parliament House, says he hopes eyes of world were on that moment: “I hope we get criticizedâ€
— stephen fitzpatrick (@svfitzpatrick) February 7, 2018
Greg Brown 9am: ‘What have we become?’
Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke says the government should question “what have we become” if it continues to pursue Labor MP Susan Lamb over citizenship issues after her emotional speech in parliament yesterday.
“I think the government just has to question, what have we become if you hear a speech like that and it makes no impact on you,” Mr Burke told Sky News.
Mr Burke said Ms Lamb “clearly satisfies” the reasonable steps test and was eligible to sit in parliament. He said the government should take personal circumstances into account like Labor did when it decided to drop its pursuit of Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, whose parents arrived in Australia stateless after fleeing the Holocaust.
“If even with all the legal advice the government says that they still think there is a problem they need I think to think about how we ended up handling the situation with Josh Frydenberg,” Mr Burke said. “The government was right to say to us the personal circumstances of Josh Frydenberg were so appalling that you really needed to look beyond the legality of his circumstance and back off.
“We pursued it for a while, as they have with Suan Lamb, and we ended up saying we should back off on that, and we did.”
Greg Brown 8.40am: ‘What kind of people are Libs?’
Labor’s legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus has questioned “what kind of people the Liberal government are” for continuing to pursue Labor MP Susan Lamb over her citizenship concerns despite her delivering an emotional speech in parliament yesterday.
Mr Dreyfus said it was “clear” Ms Lamb took all reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship before the last election after she explained yesterday she was estranged from her mother and had no legal right to obtain her parents’ marriage certificate, which was requested by the British Home Office during her renunciation process.
“She has provided a more than adequate explanation, you’ve really got to ask what kind of people the Liberal government are that they are pursuing her and continuing with this in the face of that extraordinarily moving speech that she gave yesterday,” Mr Dreyfus told ABC radio this morning.
“What kind of people are they? It’s clear that she took all reasonable steps and that is so for the other two Labor MPs that the government has said that they want to pursue unilaterally.”
Greg Brown 8.10am: ‘Lamb’s story won’t change law’
Attorney-General Christian Porter says the difficult childhood of Labor MP Susan Lamb “won’t change the law” as he called on her to refer herself to the High Court.
Mr Porter said Ms Lamb’s emotional story of her estranged mother delivered in parliament yesterday did not mean she should be exempt from upholding section 44 of the constitution. But he would not say if the government was prepared to use its numbers in the House of Representatives to refer her if Labor refused to.
“We can’t change the law no matter how empathetic we are,” Mr Porter told ABC radio.
“The government’s view about what the High Court said is this: they said that there is a reasonable steps test that applies specifically, and is activated only in circumstances when a foreign government makes it impossible or near impossible to renounce.
“This should be referred by Susan, as difficult as her situation is, or by Bill Shorten as the leader of that party because others in very similar circumstances have referred themselves.”
What’s making news:
The Turnbull government went to enormous lengths to keep the Barnaby Joyce affair secret, a process that deserves scrutiny, writes Caroline Overington.
Barnaby Joyce last night said he was sorry for “one of the greatest failures of my life” — the end of his 24-year marriage.
Labor MP Susan Lamb’s emotional appeal to the government to back off pursuing her dual-citizenship case has failed to shift the Coalition’s position that she should be referred to the High Court.
The Turnbull government will rewrite its treason laws to offer a limited freedom-of-speech defence for journalists and media companies obtaining classified documents, while elevating the crime for a commonwealth officer to leak them, potentially restricting access to sources.
New Liberal Party senator Jim Molan is considering defamation action against Adam Bandt unless the Greens MP apologises for suggesting the decorated army chief could be a war criminal.
Former attorney-general and Australia’s incoming high commissioner to the United Kingdom George Brandis has warned colleagues against attacking courts and judges as he farewelled federal parliament after nearly two decades in the Senate.
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