The prime minister is inching away from contentious measures in the May budget, but the beleagured treasurer is standing his ground. Tony Abbott will meanwhile release the annual closing the gap report charting indigenous disadvantage. All the developments from Canberra, live
11.08am AEST
It could have been predicted that the former Labor frontbencher Craig Emerson would make a pitch to be Australia’s representative at Eurovision. Yes, you have to endure this because what has been seen cannot be unseen.
11.05am AEST
Still feel discomfited by Abbott telling indigenous people they were responsible for closing the gap, just quietly.
11.00am AEST
Back quickly to the terror raids. Police are alleging an attack was imminent. Thanks to my colleague Bridie Jabour, who has filed a news update.
Two men planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia have been arrested in raids, police say. NSW deputy police commissioner Catherine Burn said police seized a machete, a hunting knife and a home-made Islamic State flag in raids in the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield on Tuesday. She said police will allege the men, aged 24 and 25, were planning to carry out the attack on Tuesday. They were denied bail and will appear in Fairfield court on Wednesday on charges of undertaking acts in preparation or planning for a terrorist act.
10.53am AEST
Apparently a number of Liberals walked out during Shorten’s closing the gap speech. This happened when Shorten raised the issue of budget cuts. Mr Bowers, who was in the chamber, says it was quite clear this a protest.
10.46am AEST
Having transacted that – the prime minister is off to a farm in Murrumbateman. We will be defending the homeland and the farm land around noon. Foreign investment is on the agenda. (Very odd how politics has lost the art of just sticking to one topic on a day and talking that one through. Everything gets lost in the confetti.)
10.40am AEST
Shorten says much work would need to be done to land a justice target properly – coordination with tiers of government and with police.
Above all, we need to listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and empower them to control their own futures.
This is the approach that Labor will always take. We believe in partnership, we believe in community, we believe in local expertise. This is the promise that we make to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today.
10.38am AEST
Shorten says it is not too late to reverse cuts to programs – and the closing the gap benchmarks need to be broadened.
Incarceration is a misfortune that blights the lives of too many. The rate of jailing indigenous Australians has almost doubled in the last decade. It is time to speak out against this silent emergency.
It is time for the closing the gap framework to include a justice target.
10.33am AEST
The Labor leader Bill Shorten adopts a different tone. This report, he says, confronts us with a tale of two Australia’s.
This report confronts us with two nations, two Australias. One Australia is the country that we experience, the one we live in. The place where our children go to school and our partners go to work. In this Australia, we plan for a long life. And for two decades or more of retirement. In this Australia, we encourage our children to study hard, to seek a degree or learn a trade. And to find fulfilling and rewarding work.
The other Australia is a nation that most of us in in place have little knowledge of or rarely glimpse. In this other Australia, life is harder and shorter. Poverty and disadvantage are rife. Depression, iliteracy, depression, addiction and suicide are common. Home ownership is a distant dream.
10.27am AEST
I don’t buy the cynicism about the prime minister and indigenous policy – I believe he is absolutely genuine. And that contribution came 100% from the heart – it’s what he believes.
He wants progress, he’ll be frustrated by the lack of progress, he imports his ‘can do’ up by the bootstraps attitude into the discussion. It’s who he is. I applaud him for speaking from the heart.
10.22am AEST
The prime minister becomes quite emotional by the end of the speech, recounting the story of Richard Norman Kirby. Kirby ..
.. joined the first AIF in July of 1915 and served at Gallipoli and in France. For his actions in 1918 he was awarded the distinguished conduct medal. The citation read for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an attack.
He rushed a machine-gun post single handed and although wounded in the attempt, succeeded in capturing and holding two machine-guns and 14 of the enemy until the remainder of his section came up. He set a fine example of courage and initiative to the men with him.
10.18am AEST
Ok, so this speech started in the bunker, with a reference to legacy wars that noone is actually prosecuting. Now, Abbott is saying if we are to close the gap, indigenous people must step up to the plate.
He’s absolutely right, progress can’t be mandated by government – but in my view, the tone here is abrasive and ill judged.
Government programs can be a catalyst, but success, where it is achieved, is due to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who want better for themselves. Governments can fund and governments can urge, but governments can’t change attitudes and behaviours.
It’s those who make the choice to send their children to school, those who make the choice to attend school and stick at it, those who make the choice to get a job and stick at it, and those who choose to abide by the law who are the ones closing the gap.
10.10am AEST
Abbott isn’t gilding the lily.
Much more work is indeed needed. Because this seventh closing the gap is report is in many respects profoundly disappointing. Despite the concerted efforts of successive governments since the first report – we are not on track to achieve most of the targets.
10.08am AEST
The prime minister is making an address to parliament concerning the closing the gap report. I know what he means here in this opening of course, but it sounds a bit defensive. Who is playing legacy wars in indigenous affairs right now? Perhaps I’m over thinking this.
Tony Abbott:
Improving the lives of Australia’s first people is a challenge beyond partisan politics. Two centuries of occasional partial success and frequently dashed hopes has taught us that neither side of politics can achieve meaningful progress without working with the other. So none of us should seek to score a point or defend a legacy here. Just to reach out across the aisle, because that is the only hope of lasting success.
10.04am AEST
Police are currently briefing the media about the terror raid in Sydney. I’ll double back when I can. My colleague Michael Safi has shared the police press release.
Here's the press release from police pic.twitter.com/TvIs3UTP8N
10.00am AEST
The treasurer departed the 3AW booth for a more dignified encounter with the assembled journalists. Unfortunately his staff placed the treasurer directly under the exit sign.
#pressadvisorfail Treasurer Hockey speaks to the media under an exit sign @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/wbfaZBahhl
9.45am AEST
Meanwhile, submarines remains a rolling debacle.
I'm told Prime Minister's National Security Adviser Andrew Shearer has met with Senator Edwards on whether PM's offer was a change in policy
9.39am AEST
One of these people is enjoying the current political climate more than the other.
9.35am AEST
Clive Palmer on Joe Hockey.
Mansplaining.
The treasurer needs to get some proper advice. He can’t rely on treasury, they’re just after a money grab to save their own jobs. They will eat their own young, they will cut the wages of other public servants, anything at all. They’ve got no vision for this country.
He’s got no economic background, he’s never been in business to any extent, he’s never created any wealth for this country. So why does he want to destroy it?
9.33am AEST
Politics is divided into people enjoying the current climate and people who are not enjoying the current climate. Clive Palmer is enjoying the current climate. Here he was, in the corridor just before, passing Queensland backbencher Mal Brough, a man he knows well.
Keep the chaos going Mal.
9.28am AEST
Mitchell plays Hockey a clip of Clive Palmer saying this morning he wasn’t interested in Hockey’s budget and the treasurer knew nothing about economics.
How about that?
He (Palmer) wants to borrow more money, he doesn’t have to pay it back. The Australian people have to pay it back.
9.24am AEST
Hockey is digging in behind the copayment, at least for wealthier people. Cleaners shouldn’t pay for rich people to go to the doctor, he says. The higher education reforms are good too, he thinks, or better in any case. It’s ok to spend on childcare, because that will boost participation.
Mitchell wants to know if there will there ever be a surplus?
We’ve been working towards a medium term date. I can’t specify a date because I can’t control external forces.
9.18am AEST
The treasurer thinks people play politics in the building: polls and gossip. He wants them to play policy.
9.18am AEST
What have you done that’s hard, Neil wonders? Hockey says the government repealed the carbon tax. That wasn’t hard, Neil observes. How do you fix things?
Hockey:
We have to engage in a deeper conversation with the Australian people. The world is changing Neil, it is changing quite rapidly.
We’ve got the political will to do what is right for the nation.
9.13am AEST
3AW host Neil Mitchell is dragging Hockey behind the ute. Five minutes of different constructions of why are you silly and why are your colleagues coming after you and will you do the job long term (Hockey hopes to, but that’s up to the people), and why and why and why.
The current reports are just gossip, Hockey says. He doesn’t listen to gossip.
Someone has to make the right calls for Australia
9.10am AEST
Good morning treasurer, you’ve been Mitchelled.
Oh, that’s a bit unfair.
9.07am AEST
The treasurer Joe Hockey is coming up shortly on 3AW. Stopped somewhere this morning, the man who is most assuredly still here, with his hand down, Malcolm Turnbull – is non-plussed at the notion he may be stalking Joe Hockey, or someone else might be stalking Joe Hockey in an effort to clear the path for him. News reports since the weekend have put Turnbull in the frame as an alternative treasurer to Hockey.
Turnbull has said this morning he has never suggested or asked that he be appointed treasurer, and the prime minister has never suggested to him that he be treasurer.
I have complete confidence in Joe Hockey.
8.54am AEST
Put up your hand if you are still here.
8.44am AEST
On Sky News, Mal Brough, (the Queenslander who blew up last week on the copayment in order to presage the leadership discussion), is confident that the current differences between the prime minister and the treasurer can be bridged.
Brough:
I’m very positive we’ll achieve what Joe Hockey wants and what the prime minister wants.
8.38am AEST
Of course the greatest news of the day is completely outside politics. WE ARE GOING TO EUROVISION PEOPLE.
This didn’t take long.
Team Australia is ready for Eurovision #auspol pic.twitter.com/ze2zHyyN7N
8.32am AEST
The Labor leader Bill Shorten started his speech at the breakfast with a reference to a rainbow, which is always a bit worrying if you are outside the Tuesday mums and babies session at Dendy. The rest of the speech sounded good – but I’m going to have to chase it, apologies, I was multi-tasking. I’ll bring you some of that when I can.
I note that Warren Mundine, who is the chairman of the prime minister’s handpicked advisory council on indigenous affairs, has expressed some alarm over the data in this latest closing the gap.
Warren Mundine, chairman of Abbott’s handpicked advisory council on Indigenous affairs, said Australia was going backwards in a number of very important areas. We have to turn that around now.
The life expectancy figures have only improved slightly over the past year, the early childhood target was not met, and there has not been any overall progress to halve the reading and numeracy gap for indigenous students. No progress has been made on halving the gap in Indigenous employment outcomes, but the Government has argued that is because figures have not been collected during the period of measurement.
8.20am AEST
The Daily Telegraph is pointing to terror related police raids in Sydney, yesterday, resulting in a court appearance this morning. There’s not much detail. If this is correct, I’m sure details will come to hand in the course of the day.
8.15am AEST
The prime minister injects a personal note into his speech at the closing the gap function this morning. He says his approach to indigenous engagement has been practical, personal and experiential.
Tony Abbott:
We’re not here today just because party politics or political advantage brings us here. We are here today as human beings, not as politicians. We are here today because our hearts tell us we need to be here because making a difference is something that is important, not just for us and our political advantage, it’s important for our country – for the honour, the decency and the long-term glory of our country.
That’s why we’re here. Many people in this room have been on a long journey. I know myself ever since entering this parliament I have been on a journey of understanding and increasing commitment.
There is improvement but we have so much more work to do. Mortality rates are down, child and maternal health is improving, heart disease rates are down, and as Mick Gooda noted earlier, indigenous people are leading healthier lives. Smoking rates are down and in remote parts of our country community stores are now stocked with better food.
But good health depends upon so much more than just the best possible health services, important though they are. Good health takes place in a social context and if we are going to ensure that indigenous health approximates that of the Australian community, there is so much that has to be done across a whole range of policy areas.
8.09am AEST
Good to have friends in trouble times. The former treasurer and current Future Fund chairman Peter Costello is out this morning giving Hockey (or more likely the position Hockey is adopting in the current debate) some cover.
Costello has told The Australian the government has to live within its means.
We have to do this because the situation is going to get more challenging, and unless we get our expenses and revenue back in equilibrium now, those changes will completely break the budget and the country in the years ahead.
7.56am AEST
While Hockey is our moving current, the big set piece event of the day is the release of the closing the gap report – which charts a number of benchmarks concerning indigenous Australians. Judging by the previews this morning, the news isn’t great. The prime minister and the opposition leader are in position at a breakfast associated with this report launch now.
7.47am AEST
Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. It might feel like Friday but it is, in fact, Wednesday.
It must feel like Friday for Joe Hockey, who keeps reading in the newspapers that various people want to throw him under the proverbial bus. Let’s make a couple of points and then attempt to look through the current chatter to the interesting point of substance.
Well, we are and we - we are, because we have no choice, Leigh. We have no choice. Economic growth is not going to deliver a surplus when Australia’s government starts to live within its means.
Continue reading...