The Australian parliament hosts its second world leader in as many days as the Indian prime minister delivers a special address. Modi’s visit coincides with bad polls for Tony Abbott and a new free trade deal with China. All the developments from Canberra, live
5.32pm AEST
We decide who comes to Indonesia, and the circumstances in which they come. The old Howardism is becoming more and more ambitious.
5.04pm AEST
A statement has just lobbed from the immigration minister, Scott Morrison. If you registered with the UNHCR in Indonesia on or after 1 July 2014 – you will no longer be eligible for resettlement in Australia. The Morrison statement says the change is part of the government’s ongoing work in the region to strip people smugglers of a product to sell to vulnerable men, women and children.
Morrison:
While nine of ten months of 2014 have passed without a successful people smuggling venture to Australia, we know smugglers continue to encourage asylum seekers to travel illegally to Indonesia for the purpose of seeking resettlement in Australia. These changes should reduce the movement of asylum seekers to Indonesia and encourage them to seek resettlement in or from countries of first asylum.
4.53pm AEST
There was Lazarus, speaking just before.
4.49pm AEST
Liberal senator Ian Macdonald says he likes to be the voice of reason in debates. He’s surprised by Senator Back’s breaking news of the politician’s pay freeze.
I hadn’t focussed on it. I hadn’t realised it.
4.46pm AEST
Now who says there’s trouble in the PUP kennel? The brick with ties, Senator Glenn Lazarus, is rising now to speak to this defence pay motion.
He’s lending Jacqui a hand. Possibly. Lazarus repeats a Lambieism in the debate – why do we give all this aid money to Indonesia when we could be giving some money to our diggers. Indonesia has a perfectly good army. (Let’s not get bogged down in facts here, like we don’t give aid money to fund armies in other countries. It’s not helpful.)
I think the Abbott government has taken advantage of the ADF becuase it doesn’t have a union or an association to speak for them.
The Palmer United Party is determined to see this insulting pay deal reversed.
4.33pm AEST
Senator Back in the senate’s defence pay debate says he’s been getting emails, from soldiers, presumably, complaining that politicians get generous pay increases despite all the alleged belt tightening. In June 2013, the Remuneration Tribunal increased the base salary of Australian parliamentarians by 2.4% to $195,000.
But Back insists hard times have come for honest politicians.
Our salaries were frozen on the 1st of July.
We have had our salaries frozen.
4.18pm AEST
The prime minister will be doing yoga next. You heard it here first.
@narendramodi it was real honour to host your visit. I Iook forward to seeing you at the @MCG tonight!
4.00pm AEST
As I mentioned before – very glad our visitors have left the building, even if Narendra Modi is keeping up his diplomatic end in the Twitterverse.
Liberal senator Chris Back, in the defence pay debate in the senate.
I will allow the Labor party to burn slowly over the next few minutes.
3.57pm AEST
The fact that both PM @TonyAbbottMHR & I had reciprocal visits in the same year indicates our commitment to strengthen India-Australia ties.
3.52pm AEST
That serial liar, Mr Abbott ..
That’s Labor’s Stephen Conroy, speaking in a motion in the senate about defence pay. For a moment I thought he was going to get away with this unseemly flourish of unparliamentary language – but no, the senate president is awake.
3.46pm AEST
Oh dear. The G20 isn’t very popular in Essential land. 62% were more likely to agree that “the G20 is an expensive talk fest, it’s unlikely to change anything.”
Harsh.
3.38pm AEST
Tuesday is poll day. We began with Newspoll. Now we have Essential.
Helpfully, Essential has dived head first into the China FTA. (I refuse to call this thing CHAFTA, and if anyone else does, that purple bear is coming back. You have been warned. Maybe you like the bear. I have an irrational fear of purple bears. Anyway, enough about the bear.)
3.18pm AEST
President Xi & PM Abbott chat on live #Antarctic sat. link with Davis & Zhongshan expedition era pic.twitter.com/Q31t486i17
3.16pm AEST
President Xi and the prime minister are currently in Hobart. I beleive there’s an event intending to hook the two leaders up with respective scientific teams in Antarctica.
3.09pm AEST
Question time is now over.
Want to know what Kevin Rudd thinks of the China FTA? Here you go.
You know something ..
2.57pm AEST
Sorta PUP senator Jacqui Lambie has the ‘why aren’t you paying our diggers more’ question. (Surprised? No? Me neither.)
Thank you senator Lambie.
Senator Lambie, I’m sorry, but I can’t accept the premise of your question.
2.50pm AEST
Ok, the minister for veterans affairs Michael Ronaldson has now joined many others in calling the new free trade CHAFTA.
This terminology sounds completely unbearable.
2.44pm AEST
Mitch Fifield, the minister representing the communications minister Malcolm Turnbull in the red room, is asked why the government said very clearly before the election there would be no cuts to the ABC and SBS – and now there will be a cut to the ABC of around 9% of its budget. Fifield says it was never the government’s intention that the ABC and SBS wouldn’t make a contribution to fiscal repair. (Which begs the obvious question, why tell voters there would be no cuts?)
2.39pm AEST
Do I look like Colonel Klink to you?
2.38pm AEST
So pleased the visitors have left. Downstairs in the red place, Labor’s Sam Dastyari has referred to Abetz as Colonel Klink. The attorney-general George Brandis has, meanwhile, branded the Greens dogs in the manger. Greens just hate prosperity, Brandis says, and hate commerce. Brandis is throwing around generalities in somewhat dangerous fashion. He suggests that ISDS clauses are part of all respectable trade agreements. That’s not quite reflective of contemporary thinking (which is my polite way of saying the impression being created there ain’t so accurate.) But go with the feels, George. Most everyone else does.
2.25pm AEST
I know I’ve been drawing heavily on The Economist today (one of my favourite publications). One more reference. It’s just occurred to me that today at least, I haven’t really explained what an ISDS clause is. This is a neat backgrounder from the magazine on the clauses and why they are increasingly controversial in trade deals. Put simply – an ISDS clause gives overseas investors a mechanism to sue governments if the company’s business interests are adversely affected by national policy. One example: the Asian arm of the tobacco multinational Philip Morris is challenging the Australian government over plain packaging laws – even though Philip Morris lost a case in the Australian courts.
2.13pm AEST
Penny Wong opens the batting for Labor. She’s seeking details on the labour mobility provisions of the China FTA: is there market testing?
The question is to the government senate leader, Eric Abetz.
.. immature and very unAustralian.
2.01pm AEST
Hear ye, hear ye.
It being 2pm – and the senate sitting – here cometh the question time.
1.40pm AEST
Shadow trade minister Penny Wong couldn’t give a toss about the pub test. She’s on Sky News now. Wong says she’s concerned the Abbott government has done it again: set an arbitrary timetable for wrapping up a free trade deal with India – twelve months hence – rather than just progressing negotiations in a natural way. She says arbitrary timetables don’t always deliver the best results. Wong is repeating Labor’s two areas of concern on the China FTA – labour market testing and the ISDS clause. She says a Labor government would not have granted China an ISDS clause.
1.32pm AEST
Back to Barnaby for a moment. Just listening through his press conference from just before.
Q: Does the China FTA pass the pub test?
It will go down differently between 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock and 9 o’clock.
But let’s try the 7 o’clock pub test where basically people will say “I will believe it when I see it”.
1.28pm AEST
My joint press statement from Tony Abbott and prime minister Modi – distributed by the prime minister’s office – got lost in the mail.
It’s a great shame that this happens every now and again, stuff getting lost in the mail, because it’s hard to report things accurately if you don’t have facts. Anyhow – I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been in search of some basic particulars regarding the defence MOU Modi clearly briefed the Indian media about before today’s set piece events. This is the relevant material from the joint statement. It’s basically what Team Modi told The Hindu.
Prime minister Modi and prime minister Abbott decided to extend defence cooperation to cover research, development and industry engagement. They agreed to hold regular meetings at the level of the defence minister, conduct regular maritime exercises and convene regular Navy to Navy, Air Force to Air Force and Army to Army staff talks.
1.18pm AEST
Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce thinks there’s more good than bad in the China FTA. Way more good than bad. He’s addressing reporters now.
Joyce:
The sugar industry, I suppose, is one area where there is a form of disappointment, I acknowledge that, and we will continue to work hard to make sure we get a better outcome for the sugar producers – but we can’t let the whole deal fall over because we haven’t got a perfect deal.
A lot of people say I don’t watch polls, of course I do, I’m not a fool. I watch polls but I keep working diligently to try and show the Australian people we are turning things around. I’m not for one moment saying I disregard polls, I don’t, I take it as a cue to work harder.
1.11pm AEST
Let’s take stock.
12.57pm AEST
The senate is sitting now to clear a backlog of business. The current topic is education funding. I’ll post a summary shortly so we can take stock of the morning.
12.26pm AEST
Man of the peeps. A gesture to vocal supporters in the gallery.
12.20pm AEST
Meanwhile, snapping the kiddies.
PM Abbott & I turned photographers! #Australia #Canberra #IndiaAustralia #Friendship #Photography @… http://t.co/NVXJJ6gVCB
12.19pm AEST
One curiosity of the day. The Indian delegation was obviously eyes on the new defence agreement with Australia – sufficiently eyes on to brief the deal to The Hindu in advance of the day’s festivities (I mentioned this in a post around 8.30am this morning.)
But this, from the press event from Modi, was the only explicit reference to that new MOU today.
I welcome the new framework of security cooperation. Security and defence are important and growing areas of the new India/Australia partnership for advancing regional peace and stability and combating terrorism and transnational crimes.
12.01pm AEST
It’s been an interesting 48 hours. The Abbott government has set its framework for a free trade deal with China – a pact the prime minister was cool about during opposition.
In Battlelines in 2009, Abbott acknowledged China’s economic power in the region, but he said that development didn’t have to change anything for Australia. The communism was a problem for Abbott. “Although China has had to become less repressive to accommodate more economic freedom, the long term ability of what’s still a communist government to maintain legitimacy and to satisfy popular aspirations is far from clear.”
There’s no reason other countries of our region could not also advance economically at much the same pace as China, or even faster. Despite its caste system, India has some key advantages – democracy and the rule of law besides the English language.
11.21am AEST
Now we are through the various set pieces, I want to deal in the next post with Tony Abbott and his relationships with India and China. His evolving attitudes. Just a bit of analysis. Shortly.
11.09am AEST
Modi points to terrorism, a threat India deals with constantly. Combating terror, the Indian prime minister says, will require global security cooperation but even more, a policy of no distinction between terrorist groups of discrimination between nations.
He rounds out thus:
It has taken a prime minister of India 28 years to come to Australia. It should never have been so long. This will change.
Australia will not be on the outer of the region but at the centre of our talks. So we stand together at the moment with enormous opportunity and great responsibility. I see a great future of prosperity, a partnership between India and Australia and a shared commitment.
11.04am AEST
Modi moves on to security: practical security and economic security. He argues that closer ties between Canberra and Delhi are positive for regional security. (Again, you can see that big guy in the region hovering just out of sight, can’t you?)
Our region has seen huge progress on the foundation of peace and stability but we can not take this for granted. Preserving it will be the most important task in the region. India and Australia can play their part in it by expanding our security cooperation and depending on international partnerships in the region.
But we do not have to rely on borrowed architecture of the past, nor do we have the luxury to choose who we work with and who we do not, but what we do need is to work together and with others to create an environment and culture. That promotes the currency of coexistence and cooperation in which all nations, small and big, abide by international law and norms.
11.00am AEST
You get a sense from this address of the power of Modi’s change narrative. He’s got that appeal to hope down pat.
Modi is like Obama, before the exhaustion set in.
Australia has immense opportunities participate in India’s progress. In turn, India will be the answer to your search for new economic opportunities, and your desires to diversify your global economic engagement. India’s development, demographic and demand provide a unique long term opportunity for Australia and all in the framework of democracy.
There is no other example of this nature in the world.
10.54am AEST
Modi delivers a polite backhander among the compliments. He’s pleased to see Australia seeking a bigger role for itself in the region – more meaningful engagement.
There was a time when for many of us, Australia was a distant land on the southern edge of the world.
Today, the world sees Australia to be at the heart of the Asia Pacific and Indian ocean region.
Energy that does not cause our glaciers to melt.
Clean coal and gas, renewable energy, a fuel for nuclear power.
10.49am AEST
After the inevitable cricket anologies, Modi pays tribute the the nation he is visiting, and to the contribution played by the Indian diaspora.
A beacon of democracy and rule of law. A nation that leads the search of lost aircraft, one of the most prosperous nations in the world. Among the best in human development index, a nation with some of the best cities in the world, some of the most wonderful minds and advanced technology base and a nation with great sporting skills.
Not just immense beauty, Australia, but also of a great quality of life. Today, its cities are alive with the richness of the world’s diversity and it is home to 450,000 Indians who are as proud to be part of Australia as they are of their Indian heritage.
10.44am AEST
Modi is now at the podium. He opens with a shirtfronting quip.
Modi notes that he’s now the third head of the government that Australian parliamentarians are listening to this week.
I do not know how you are doing this. Maybe this is prime minister Abbott’s way of shirtfronting you.
10.42am AEST
Shorten wound out of cricket to Modi’s domestic agenda for economic and political transformation. He ended with a quote from Ben Chifley. India will show the way to peace.
10.37am AEST
Of course I’m listening very attentively but some pictures have to be shared just as soon as they hit the desk.
10.34am AEST
The Labor leader Bill Shorten is firmly in cricket territory with his welcome remarks.
One of the firmest and fastest bonds that Indians form with Australians comes from our love of cricket. Prime minister Modi, in Australia we sometimes say that being captain of our test team is the second toughest job in the country behind prime minister.
Some would say we should never compare cricket with politics. After all, one is the cause of great national debates, the intense passion, endless media commentary on controversial decisions and leadership speculation. And the other is just about deciding who governs Australia.
10.31am AEST
The Australian prime minister drops a news point into his welcome. In noting how the economic relationship with India has been underdone in the past – he says the two countries have now turned the corner.
It’s shoulders to the wheel, apparently. There are two can do types in this chamber, Abbott says.
By the end of next year we will have a free trade deal with what is potentially the world’s largest market.
And I want to make this declaration here in this parliament, there are two can do prime ministers in this chamber today – and we will make it happen.
10.28am AEST
Abbott is back now in the Anglosphere – the shared history. India didn’t reject Britain. It reasoned with Britain.
Australians admired the way India won independence, not by rejecting the values learned from Britain but by appealing to them. Not by fighting the colonisers but by working on their conscience.
With China, India is the emerging super power of Asia. The emerging superpower that is already a democracy.
10.22am AEST
Well, here comes the set piece. Prime minister Modi is getting a very warm welcome as he enters the House of Representatives chamber.
Tony Abbott opens proceedings.
It is long overdue for an Indian prime minister to address this parliament given that the leaders of the US, China, Indonesia, Britain, Canada, Japan and New Zealand have already done so. But I am personally delighted that this omission is at last corrected.
It is fitting that in the home of our democracy we should be addressed by the leader of the world’s largest democracy. Madam Speaker, there is so much that we can learn from a prime minister who must try to reach some 830 million voters.
10.15am AEST
Early submissions on yoga ministry: Clive Palmer and Peter Garrett.
Coming up in a sec, Modi’s address to the Australian parliament.
10.06am AEST
My former colleague and great friend Mark Skulley reminds me via Twitter that Modi recently appointed a minister for yoga. I confess I missed this development, but I salute it to the sun.
Thanks again to The Economist:
Until this week India had somehow got by without a minister for yoga, ayurveda and other traditional medicines. Now it can breathe easier. On November 11th Shripad Naik took charge of a new ministry to promote them. His boss, Narendra Modi, the prime minister, is a yoga enthusiast. He also wants local manufacturers, such as of homeopathic potions, to tap a global market for “alternative medicine” that is said to be worth some $100bn.
9.56am AEST
Modi references the MOUs signed this morning and addresses security issues, before ending his remarks.
No questions.
9.53am AEST
Modi lobs a yoga reference.
Yoga. Yeeesss.
I know yoga is enormously popular here.
We need to connect our people more.
9.52am AEST
Prime minister Modi is addressing reporters in English. This is not his usual form. The Indian prime minister says he’s confident aspirations can turn into outcomes in India. He also indicates negotiations concerning a new economic partnership will be split – presumably making a pact easier to achieve.
Modi:
There are huge opportunities for a partnership in every area we can think of – agriculture, resources, energy, finance, infrastructure, education and science and technology.
The economic climate in India has changed. I believe it will be a lot easier to convert opportunities into concrete outcomes. Prime minister Abbott and I discussed what we should do to impart real momentum to our economic partnership. Reconstituting the forum is an important partnership.
9.48am AEST
If I may say so ..
(you may, prime minister .. )
we’re not resting on our laurels.
We want to go further and that’s why the next priority for Australia is a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with India.
If I may say so, this is a moment in time. This is the time to get this done. This is the time to turn the warm friendship between Australia and India, the long history that Australia and India have together into something that will be meaningful, more meaningful for us and significant for the wider world. I think this Australian government has the runs on the board when it comes to free trade. I know prime minister Modi has the runs on the board when it comes to getting the officialdom of India to actually respond to government, to making the Indian bureaucracy work for the people and the nation of India.
9.45am AEST
The two leaders have packed up their MOUs and have stopped by the podium for a chat with reporters. Tony Abbott is pleased with Indian democracy. India has democracy, so that helps I dare say. He also has breaking news: India has smart folks, not just cricketers.
India, as we know, is one of the world’s emerging super powers. India, I often say, is the emerging democratic super power of Asia.
We in Australia tend to associate India with cricket and with sport. That’s important. But we can never forget that India is an intellectual powerhouse, a potential economic powerhouse, IT, science, medicine, research – these are all great strengths of India’s and they can be great strengths for Australia as well if our relationship develops as it should.
9.37am AEST
Meanwhile, some open mouthed hugging. The best kind, I find.
I feel my friendship with @TonyAbbottMHR will further strengthen India-Australia ties in the years to come. pic.twitter.com/3NJAiBSqtg
9.35am AEST
Downstairs, we are beginning a sign-off. Tony Abbott and prime minister Modi are now singing a number of agreements with relevant portfolio ministers. There is clapping and gripping and grinning and flashing of flash bulbs. And throat clearing.
9.28am AEST
Gosh, things must be bad. Peter Costello is actually being nice to Tony Abbott.
The former treasurer makes something of a small specialisation of using a regular column in the News Corp tabloids to tell Abbott regularly enough that he’s the younger foolish brother to Costello’s elder statesman. But this morning he’s been charming about Abbott and treasurer Joe Hockey’s effort at the G20 at the weekend. He saves his disdain for Barack Obama. (Oh, that guy.)
When Barack Obama strode on to the platform at the University of Queensland he placed the issue of climate change firmly on the summit agenda. He received the kind of rapturous applause that is given to an international celebrity, which he is. He is an accomplished performer and does oratory well. Since he has lost a majority in both Houses of the US Congress his chances of meaningful domestic legislation back home have diminished. He will use his two remaining years in office to focus on the international stage, where he carries much more influence and respect.
9.18am AEST
Went to get a quick coffee.
8.49am AEST
8.41am AEST
While I’m doing the rounds of the regional media, democracy doesn’t get a look in in the Xinhua report of president Xi’s address to the Australia parliament yesterday. (There are a lot of reports of the visit – perhaps it’s elsewhere and I haven’t found it yet.)
Xi pledged that China will continue to follow a win-win strategy of opening-up, both uphold justice and promote cooperation, develop an open economy and strengthen and expand all-round mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries.
This is wrong.
8.32am AEST
The Hindu tells us the two leaders will upgrade defence ties as part of the day’s announceables.
India and Australia will commit to an “enhanced strategic partnership” when Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott in Canberra on Tuesday. Sources told The Hindu that the two sides will announce an “action plan” for cooperation in defence and other areas. This will include exercises between armies, navies and air forces, as well as counter-terrorism, maritime security, non-proliferation and cyber security.
8.26am AEST
Again, some useful background on our guest – this time from The Economist.
This piece departs from the usual ‘here comes the rockstar’ journalism that inevitably follows the Indian prime minister – it looks at the two insiders behind the Modi juggernaut.
Even the mightiest cannot rule alone, and Mr Modi relies on two old allies, both crucial. One, Amit Shah, engineers the electoral victories that give Mr Modi his authority. The other, Arun Jaitley, must take that authority and out of it craft policies and decisions that will launch the economic recovery which Mr Modi has promised and by which he will be judged.
These two men are Mr Modi’s enablers.
8.22am AEST
If you need some background on Modi, do have a look at this profile by my colleague Ben Doherty.
Modi is a genuinely fascinating mix of populist and economic reformer. Ben’s piece tracks Modi from the controversies of the Godhra riots to last weekend’s G20 meeting.
Modi was ostracised for his actions, or inactions, during the Godhra riots, sectarian violence that roiled across his state for a month in 2002 in which 1,000 or more people, largely Muslim, died.
As a neophyte chief minister, he was accused of allowing the riots to rage, even of actively fomenting the violence of Hindu vigilantes. Modi has always denied the allegations and none have ever been proven against him.
8.12am AEST
Lots of gripping and grinning down on the forecourt right now. There will be anthems. Ah yes, here they are. Let the music play. Tony Abbott and Narendra Modi are standing together in front of the trombones. And the soldiers.
7.58am AEST
For folks wanting to plan their blog watching when the boss isn’t watching – let me help with Modi facts.
7.53am AEST
On cue, the ACTU president Ged Kearney is on another ABC radio outlet talking about people movement and labour market testing.
Andrew Robb says the trade union movement has been scaremongering on this issue.
I don’t see how it is. Are we actually inflating what is going to happen from this agreement?
7.46am AEST
The Chinese president incidently is on his way to Tasmania, continuing his Australian visit. The newspapers and morning radio current affairs are dominated by the China free trade deal. The interesting question now, apart from the concrete details about various in-principle agreements not yet supplied, is will this trade pact win bipartisan support? The China FTA has the potential to spark the biggest internal bunfight within Labor since the US free trade agreement in 2004. It may not, but it’s certainly possible.
The shadow trade minister Penny Wong has hit the ABC early. She says Labor in-principle supports trade liberalisation, but she notes key details concerning this pact are not yet in the public domain. Labor is concerned about two things: the people movement provisions in this deal, and the investor state dispute resolution mechanism. Wong was asked about the people movement provisions on the ABC. Wong says the government needs to clarify whether this proposed agreement will safeguard Australian jobs. She says the key to this is labour market testing. Wong says the trade minister Andrew Robb needs to clarify this provision. If there’s labour market testing, make that clear. It’s not clear in the framework text circulated yesterday.
7.26am AEST
Good morning everyone and welcome to Tuesday. Yesterday was China day. Today, Tuesday, it’s all about India. Parliament will host the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.
We are underway slightly early this morning because Modi is underway slightly early. He’s already stopped by the War Memorial, and he’s on his way into the building. Possibly he’s powered by the crowd – the Indian prime minister is getting a huge reception from the expat community.
Mr Abbott has clearly got carried away in projecting his own understanding of democracy and rule of law to what he heard from President Xi. What President Xi referred to could be seen as ‘democracy with Chinese characteristics’ and ‘rule of law with Chinese characteristics’.
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