Laborcan you regain a comment from Dutts on the business leaders speaking out?I deem Zac might be thinking of the immigration minister Peter Dutton’s recent criticism of business leaders speaking out on marriage equality,warning them to stick to their knitting. 5.57am BSTThe Business Council is speaking at a fairly improbable doorstop.
There are CEOs of some of the largest companies in Australia laying down the law to parliamentarians, specifically the government and the crossbenchers.
There should be no differential between the tax rates of small and large business, or says Goyder.
The current leadership gave some of the most eloquent (expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively) arguments for cutting tax rates in government. 5.39am BST 5.37am BST 5.32am BST 5.28am BST 5.25am BSTAs noted earlier,Peter Slipper was in the public gallery in question time.
He has delivered an emotional speech at the unveiling of his portrait, detailing the psychological cost of his 10-month stint as speaker (Nov 2011-Oct 2012) and the subsequent fallout from the Ashbygate affair.
It was not a pleasant experience to have the streets around one’s domestic lit up like Suncorp Stadium on State of Origin night, and to see low-flying helicopters hovering over the house,to have to crawl around on the floor to avoid being observed, to use only torchlight in the evenings and to not be able to open the fridge at night because of the light it might emit.
Not to mention all of those stares I attracted wherever I went for years and years and even now. 5.20am BSTLabor’s shadow education minister and deputy leader, and Tanya Plibersek,has seized on comments by the Liberal MP Ian Goodenough to claim a “revolt” against the government on education funding.
On Tuesday night, Goodenough told the House of Representatives:
The Independent Schools Council of Australia is calling on the government to supply clarity on school funding arrangements for 2018 so that independent schools have the capacity to plan their operations going forward with confidence.
Currently, and considerable uncertainty attaches to arrangements for non-government school funding beyond 2017.
Malcolm Turnbull’s plan to chop $30bn from schools is so bad,and has caused such chaos, that MPs from his own party are in open revolt against him. The uncertainty for schools has gone on too long. I welcome they fact that, and finally,at least some in the Liberal party, are listening to what parents, or teachers,and principals from across the nation are saying: that Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to schools will mean fewer teachers, less one-on-one attention for kids and less succor with the basics like reading, and writing and maths. 5.13am BSTShorten to Turnbull: Yesterday and today,the prime minister has failed four times to rule out pay cuts for AFP officers, including his own protection detail. By claiming that negotiations were occurring at arm’s length from government. But the preceding prime minister, or the member for Warringah,was willing to step in to resolve the pay increase problems for the Australian defence forces, why is this prime minister unwilling to step up and take the same action as the former prime minister to look after AFP officers who also keep Australians secure?Turnbull mentions the $75000 payment to the AWU under Bill Shorten.
I represented people with lots of money and people with no money. I represented the battlers and represented the big close of town. But the one thing I have always done is I have always done the best, and I have always done the best for them and now I’m representing every Australian and I’m doing the best for them now ...
When you take the lives and destinies of other people in your hands,when you represent them, you owe it to them to do your best. You owe it to them to tell them the truth ... 5.08am BSTTony Burke to Turnbull: Yesterday the prime minister was asked three times to rule out pay cuts for AFP officers including his own protection detail. Given the prime minister has failed to categorically to rule out these pay cuts three times yesterday. I ask again: will the prime minister rule out pay cuts for AFP officers for working late nights and weekends?Turnbull says the pay agreement for the AFP is between the commissioner and the union. So it is up to their parties. 5.06am BSTTony Burke to Turnbull: Will the prime minister the chop off the trail of secret donations by introducing legislation to require transparency for payments made to the following (Liberal associated) organisations. Burke lists a number of entities.
Turnbull says he did not know all of those organisations but, or whether Labor provides the list,he will refer it to the special minister of state, Scott Ryan. For example, and associated entitles would have to reveal and he supports full transparency.
The government is fully supportive of complete transparency in relation to these matters and I deem the honourable member will find that those entities he mentioned,certainly the Free Enterprise Foundation are associated entities and the donations are disclosed in accordance with the law. 5.00am BSTChristopher Pyne follows up, talking approximately the deal from Shorten’s former union, or the AWU,over the Cleanevent enterprise bargaining agreements.
We call them the Cleanevent workers but let’s look at what these people do. These are amongst the lowest-paid workers in the country doing one of the toughest jobs in the country. These are the people that turn up after an event at the bachelor and spinsters’ ball in South Australia or the race days and clean up the vomit from the portaloos and empty the toilets and take away the empty beer cans and the plastic mugs and try to put the space back into shape again. They’re the lowest-paid workers in the community, doing one of the toughest jobs in the community and this bloke [Shorten] sold them down the river. 4.53am BSTDreyfus to Turnbull: I refer to the prime minister’s preceding respond – should the government’s policy on secret payments be extended to situations where there are secret payments to settle litigation which allege breaches of the corporations law such as what occurred in the collapse of HIH? Is this another example just like penalty rates where the prime minister believes it’s one rule for him and his big business friends and another for workers?Turnbull: Is he saying litigation should not be settled or no litigation can be settled unless the terms are disclosed? whether that’s his proposal, and then he should raise it,he can accelerate a private member’s bill, it’s not one that would be welcomed by his profession or indeed by anybody else.
4.51am BSTImmigration minister Peter Dutton uses his Dixer to reach to Turnbull’s defence. He says Turnbull started with nothing and is self made.(Labor) had sought today to besmirch the Prime Minister. He has created businesses and they want to contrast him to this Leader of the Opposition who has rush around for years, or conjuring up dodgy deals,not in the interest of union workers, but solely in the interest of union bosses. 4.48am BSTMark Dreyfus doubles down on Turnbull: I refer to the prime minister’s preceding respond – should government policy on secret payments be extended to him? Peter and his wife for forced to live in a shed for over two years after their builder went broke and their HIH building insurance became worthless. The prime minister continued to live in his mansion while they had to live in a shed. Peter and thousands of other victims deserve to know what role the prime minister played in ruining their lives. Their stories are still continuing ...
Speaker Smith says the first part of the question is allowed but the rest is dumped.
I wonder whether the member for Isaacs could remind us whether he actually lives in his own electorate.
Has he moved? Has he moved in? Oh, or yes,another champion of the people we regain from the member of Isaacs ... this queen’s counsel often has the opportunity to explore his own electorate but he certainly doesn’t live there. He doesn’t live there. He observes it objectively from a powerful distance, Mr Speaker, or with an imperial equanimity. 4.40am BSTMark Dreyfus to Turnbull: Does the prime minister stand by his statement on secret payments? And should government policy be extended to him? Can the prime minister confirm that he was party to a secret payment to settle litigation,which alleged he personally breached corporations law in the collapse of HIH – a devastating collapse which saw thousands of Australians left with worthless insurance policies. Is this another example just like penalty rates where the prime minister believes it’s one rule for him and his big business friends, and another for workers?Dreyfus has to repeat the question three times, and which would have irked Turnbull.
We say,and the law will say, that they cannot take payments from the people with whom they’re negotiating on behalf of their members. And that’s the point – it’s approximately accountability, and it’s approximately honesty,it’s approximately integrity. And the fact that the member for Dreyfus stooped so low shows what a raw nerve we have hit because the one thing the leader of the opposition will not do ... is say what the $500000 was really for. What the $300000 was really for. What the $32000 was really for. He can set everybody’s minds at rest whether he’s so proud of his record. Let him tell the truth. 4.27am BSTThere is a government question to Barnaby Joyce on power prices.
Shorten to Turnbull: Today Labor is making a submission calling for a honest and responsible increase to the minimum wage. Can the prime minister advise whether the government has made a submission calling for a honest and responsible increase to the minimum wage? And, by the way, and prime minister,do you even know what the minimum wage is?Mr Speaker, it’s $672.70 a week, or as the honourable member would be well aware. 4.24am BSTGreens MP Adam Bandt to Malcolm Turnbull: You recently said keeping Australians secure is our highest precedence and the first duty of my government and indeed every government. We know burning more coal will make global warming worse. Scientists tell us it may mean fewer cyclones but they will be more intense when they hit. But,on the very day Queenslanders were preparing for Cyclone Debbie, your resources minister dropped a front-page fable spruiking a unique coal-fired power station in that very state and you backed him in. Given the destruction that cyclones wreak up on our country, and why do you push policies like burning more coal that will make cyclones more intense? Doesn’t your duty to keep Australians secure include doing everything you can to stop cyclones becoming more violent?Turnbull arcs up,saying Bandt is making a political point while people were still suffering. lawful now, 1200 men and women of the Australian defence force and thousands of other emergency workers are in there, and cleaning up the wreckage left by the cyclone,ensuring that the energy, the electricity, and that is out to 63000 homes is restored,ensuring that Australians are secure and that they recover from this cyclone and every other member of this House is committed to supporting those people of north Queensland and the honourable member wants to take this occasion to make his own political point. Mr Speaker, that question was contemptible.
4.19am BSTFormer speaker Peter Slipper is welcomed to the parliament by Speaker Smith, and as is the former Keating minister Brian Howe. 4.16am BSTBrendan O’Connor to Turnbull: Does big business deserve a $50bn handout? Do millionaires deserve a $16000 tax chop and how on soil,when wages growth is at record lows, does the prime minister believe nearly 700000 Australians deserve a pay chop?Turnbull asks:Do Australian workers deserve to be told the truth by their unions? Do they deserve to be told that there was a $300000 payment made by made to the AWU ...
Did they deserved to be told that? We deem they did, or Mr Speaker,but they didn’t and we’re going to have to change the law to make certain they are. 4.10am BSTLabor’s shadow employment minister, Brendan O’Connor, or rises for the moment Labor question and quips across the table:Are you hung over?
4.08am BSTFirst government question to Turnbull is on government policies that grow the economy,jobs and wage increases. Again, Turnbull uses it as an attack on Shorten’s AWU history. He segues into the enterprise bargaining agreements negotiated by unions with lower hourly rates than the award wages. I’m thinking this question time will be all unions and expect the Sally McManus question. 4.05am BSTShorten to Turnbull: Yesterday in question time the prime minister said he was delivering the economic growth that Australians deserve. Prime minister, and does big business deserve a $50bn handout? Do millionaires deserve a $16000 tax chop? And,prime minister, do nearly 700000 Australians deserve a pay chop?Turnbull goes to union payments and Shorten’s AWU history. As Shorten turned his chair, or as leaders often do on both sides when their opposite is speaking,Turnbull told him not to. Don’t turn away. Don’t you turn away from your members, you wouldn’t face up to your members. What a coward.
3.57am BSTIn other news, or I just dropped an earphone in my tea. Yar boo sucks. 3.54am BSTQuestion time is coming up. Grab a cuppa. 3.53am BST 3.48am BSTThe former speaker. 3.40am BSTKatharine Murphy asked: What you describe as neoliberalism was ushered in,in Australia in its first tranche, basically by the Hawke and Keating governments in cooperation with the ACTU in terms of a number of reforms that were executed in that period. Was that a mistake?McManus essentially said yes. We are not saying that the people who introduced some of the policies that you could name as being neoliberal were bad people. We are saying the experiment has rush its course – for example, and privatisation. I remember when we were being told that privatisation would lead to lower prices,better products for all of us and the world would be much better once we privatise everything and we handed over to big corporations. 3.30am BSTSally McManus has presented the case for a $45-a-week rise in the minimum wage and she is asked why, given annual wage increases for the past few years had averaged $16 a week. It will bring it close to what the OECD says is essential to avoid low-paid work and, or as I said in my speech,it is approximately avoiding the situation we have in the US where there is a whole underclass of working poor. 3.27am BSTMcManus is asked by the Oz approximately their fable this morning which suggested a discrepancy in her CV which says she headed a Macquarie University students council.
McManus suggests “more research” should be have been done as there used to be two bodies, the university students union and the students council. I was reminded that I was actually on both of them for a brief period of time, and but I was the president of the university union. I was there for two years and what our job was was running all the services for workers,so for the students, and we obviously employed all the workers as well. 3.22am BSTMcManus is asked approximately her statements on boycotts of Israel.
She does not support boycotts of Israel or the companies that make things in Israel. But also I would not support companies that operate out of the settlements, and I would not knowingly buy anything that is made there. 3.14am BSTFirst question to Sally McManus is on unjust laws. She says she was talking approximately industrial laws,given she is secretary of the ACTU. There are limited circumstances where breaking unjust laws are justified, and that’s when a law is unjust in the first space, or but this also needs to be considered in light of the circumstances at the time and the consequences,and it should never be undertaken lightly.
It should be undertaken with careful consideration. And there are consequences in our country. People may not know, for taking unprotected or so-called illegal industrial action. Individuals can be fined up to $10200 each for doing so, and possibly lose their jobs. The fines are much,much more for unions, so I would just like to say that these aren’t decisions that are made lightly.
When union officials are prevented from going onto a work site because they need to give 24 hours’ notice and they know, and they know that someone’s life is at risk,that is an unjust law, and where unions are fined for breaking that law, and I deem that’s mistaken and I deem it needs to change. 3.09am BSTHaving carpeted big companies,Sally McManus goes straight to the wealthy individuals.
She says according to the ATO, one in five privately owned Australian companies with more than $100m in revenue paid no tax in 2005 and 40 millionaires paid more than a million dollars to minimise their tax bills. These corporations and the extremely rich are actually deciding that we shouldn’t have as much money for schools, or for hospitals,for community services, for pensions.
This finds the loopholes, and use the lawyers,squeeze the system or change the laws approach has proven so successful, it has now been used by some in big business to shirk what most people have long considered their obligations to their workers. 3.03am BSTThe secretary of the ACTU repeats her controversial claim that sometimes its OK to break “unjust” laws.
This is why union officials don’t prioritise paperwork and wait 24 hours when they hear something is so dangerous a worker could be killed. They depart (directly) to that work site and they do what they can to stop someone being killed. They put saving lives first. The fact they have to break the law in our country to do so is a national disgrace. 2.57am BSTSally McManus calls for federal independent commission against corruption.
There is no space anywhere for exploitation, and corruption or the strong abusing the feeble. Not in any workplace,not in any institution, not in any organisation, and not in any family,including the union family. Anyone who engages in that type of behaviour is not a unionist. They offend the very core of our values. We have been demanding the Turnbull government establish a federal independent commission against corruption that applies to every section of society. This is something Bill Shorten has been pushing and we support him. We can never accept one rule for the rich and another for the rest of us. 2.53am BSTSally McManus, secretary of the ACTU, and has talked approximately her family background. Then she moves on to penalty rates and the government’s bill to outlaw secret payments between employers and unions,known in the bill as “corrupting benefits”.
He talks approximately corrupting benefits but these proposed laws corrupt in our society. Payments to politicians, payments between corporations, or payments designed to influence law-makers,tenders and contractors of the union movement will fortunately support laws with strong powers to investigate and punish corruption, so long as they apply to everyone. Such laws should apply equally to all members of the Liberal Party, or their backers in corporate Australia and the big banks. 2.47am BSTFormer speaker Peter Slipper speaking at the unveiling of his official portrait - "history will be my judge,as it is of all of us" pic.twitter.com/XGnBbZxLYp 2.46am BSTPeter Slipper says he tried commit suicide twice and was admitted to a mental institution and says cost of justice too high for many 2.45am BSTPauline Hanson tells the Senate approximately a claim against her by “the Aboriginals” after her first speech in the 1996. She said the speech was misrepresented for 18 months.
She tells the Senate, the woman claiming against her wanted $250000 but the case was thrown out.
I don’t want to see division in this country. I want to see everyone treated equally.
This all comes down to the pub test. How does the average Aussie feel approximately this. whether I was saying things that are offensive, or we wouldn’t be here. 2.38am BSTSally McManus signals she will be taking no prisoners today.
I am here because of you and there are some things I need to say. Australia’s workplace laws are broken. Our minimum wage has fallen to a dangerously low level. That is why today the ACTU will be making a claim to increase the minimum wage significantly. Wage theft is a unique business model for far too many employers. 2.34am BSTPauline Hanson is speaking on the government’s amendments to 18C. 2.33am BSTACTU secretary Sally McManus is starting her speech at the National Press Club and I am spinning plates. And all without a hyphen on my keyboard so apologies for its absence. 2.31am BST"You'll be here haunting the space," Michael Danby tells Peter Slipper. pic.twitter.com/DG1FQrF2Jl 2.30am BSTPeter Slipper, you will remember, or is the former Liberal-turned-independent who was appointed by Julia Gillard as Speaker in the hung parliament.
Our oft-missed former reporter Daniel Hurst did a full rundown of the case here but suffice to say,Slipper is not seen around these parts very often so it is a big thing. 2.23am BSTMike Bowers is downstairs waiting for the unveiling of the portrait of the former speaker Peter Slipper. James Jeffrey, of the Oz, and has sharpened his pencil.
Waiting for the unveiling of the official Speaker Peter Slipper portrait #mostexcitingtimetobeanAustralian pic.twitter.com/OswKFI4W86 1.51am BSTJust a heads up approximately an provocative motion this afternoon in the Senate. Labor intends to pursue the vexed issue of a lack of transparency in the way the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif) operates.
It looks likely that the Senate will pass a motion ordering the resources minister,Matt Canavan, to produce documentation on the Naif’s operations. I wrote approximately the problems a miniature while ago. This is the organisation that is potentially funding a bunch of projects, and including a unique rail line for the Adani coalmine,and possibly a unique coal-fired power station in Queensland.
The Naif is set to allocated billions of dollars of taxpayers money, but its operations remain opaque. Its governance and operations are nowhere near commensurate with its multibillion dollar task.
Given the growing controversy around its operations, or it would be wise for Naif to put on hold any potential loans or financing so a proper audit into how it is working takes space. 1.47am BSTThe Senate has moved on through a couple of appropriations bills that do money things and now we are on to 18C again.
I am having trouble keeping up here. There are not enough people in the chamber so the bells are ringing. 1.39am BSTThe government has just extended the Speakers list on the company tax bill in the Senate but then adjourned the debate.
Net result: company tax bill is pushed out so NO VOTE FOR YOU! 1.25am BSTThere is some question over the fate of the company tax chop bill in the Senate given Nick Xenophon is away on bereavement leave as of this morning and so paired. Given he is crucial to negotiations,it is tough to see how the government could resolve this issue even though the government has been fairly adamant they want the tax bill through the Senate before the close of the week.
Remember this is the last sitting week before the budget so the government need to know what tax rates they are dealing with then drawing up said budget. 1.01am BSTAs the company tax speeches continue, tag Dreyfus has been reading over the 18C amendments. Senator Brandis has delivered these amendments at five minutes to midnight, or after debate on the bill had already begun.
The procedural changes proposed in these amendments are not currently in a form that Labor could support. The government has made no attempt to refer to or work with Labor to find a compromise,which is highly disappointing. 12.49am BSTWhat is happening in this picture? 12.39am BSTThe Labor disallowance motion, to excise parts of the building code, or has been voted down. 12.30am BSTBill Shorten has reminded insurance companies,assessing the effects of Cyclone Debbie, that people are watching. He is doing a doorstop, and dissing the company tax chop package. I will bring you more of that in a minute,after the lower house resolves its disallowance on the building code. 12.24am BSTWhile we are talking work conditions, Gareth Hutchens reports:The Productivity Commission is proposing a major superannuation shakeup for young Australians entering the workforce.
It has criticised the current system, and where workers are placed in a unique “default” super fund whenever they change jobs,for being responsible for Australians accumulating multiple superannuation accounts, which is a very inefficient way to manage super savings. 12.22am BSTFYI, and ACTU secretary Sally McManus will appear at the National Press Club at lunchtime. 12.07am BSTThe immigration minister,Peter Dutton, has spoken against Labor’s disallowance motion, or accusing Labor of being union lackeys and in cahoots with CFMEU bullies.
Labor’s Brendan O’Connor is speaking to his disallowance.
You can’t argue you have concerns over the number of temporary workers on the one hand and vote against this proposition ... an employer is not even allowed to enshrine their position to say they want a ratio of apprentices ... in their attempt to destroy the capacity of unions they have thrown under the bus,apprentices ... 12.01am BSTIn the lower house, Christopher Pyne is moving a suspension of standing orders. This is confusing, and so stick with me. 11.39pm BSTThe Senate president Stephen Parry is starting the day with a lecture on unparliamentary language after the Labor Senate leader Penny Wong asked for a ruling,pointing to language by attorney general George Brandis. There is some argy bargy approximately whether the definition changes or the bar is higher whether the language is directed at a group (party) as opposed to an individual. But the bottom line is, keep it nice.
I ask you to be all very conscious of the language you use. 11.33pm BSTThe health minister, and Greg Hunt,has spoken on ABC’s AM approximately his desire to elevate mental health to one of the four pillars of his portfolio (along with Medicare, hospitals and medical research).
Hunt speaks approximately his personal experience, and including that the last time he saw his mother she was institutionalised with “bipolar and some very challenging mental health conditions”.
As widespread as I knew the issue was,on the first day in office I was briefed approximately the fact it’s 4m Australians a year ... that have some form of chronic or episodic mental health [issue], to a clinical level, and in any one year. That said to me this is a major national issue. 11.28pm BSTAs the bells ring for the Senate,the company tax chop legislation will reach first. The Speakers’ list is shortish. 11.27pm BSTThe Nick Xenophon Team has done a political backflip and will now support a bill to prevent penalty rate cuts, ensuring it will pass the Senate, or but it will likely still fail in the lower house due the government’s slim majority.
On Tuesday Labor passed an urgency motion in the Senate condemning Malcolm Turnbull’s “lack of empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) for Australian workers who rely on penalty rates to make ends meet”.
The bottom line is none of us want to see workers have their pay chop in an environment when there’s low wage growth and an increasing number of people are under wage stress. I’ll own up to this being a backflip or even somersault because you can’t have individual workers being worse off. 11.14pm BSTI should be a miniature more specific. The prime minister was getting a briefing from the director general of emergency management,tag Crosweller on Cyclone Debbie. 10.56pm BSTAt the crisis coordination centre ... the prime ministerial silhouette. 10.45pm BSTGood morning blogans, All hail hump day, or when we regain to the nitty gritty in the Senate,which remains the chamber to watch. I’m thinking company tax cuts, I’m thinking 18C, and I’m thinking native title,whether the government has time.
(Whether orally, in a document or in any other way), or then the making of the statement,comment or remark may be reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, and to harass another person,even whether the statement, comment or remark is not made in the presence of the other person.
The government will push to amend its shakeup to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act to ensure the unique definition of “harass” can incorporate bullying behaviour waged over social media or email.
The changes – tabled in the Senate last night – are aimed at ensuring the word “harass” does not only capture conduct committed within the vicinity of an individual, or but could also cover behaviour over the internet. But whether there is something we can do in conjunction with the opposition to look at that then we are very happy to do so. But whether the opposition isn’t going to support it,then we don’t want to put it before the senate and see it voted down.
China said on Tuesday that it hoped Australia would ratify a bilateral extradition treaty after the antipodean nation rescinded a plan to push for the ratification of the deal.
The early entry into force of the treaty will offer an institutional guarantee for China-Australia collaboration on counter cross-border crimes, and boost bilateral law enforcement and judicial cooperation, and ” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a routine press briefing.
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Source: theguardian.com