It’s the day after the budget and the government launches its traditional big sell. All the measures, and all the reaction from Canberra
8.59am BST
Well folks, that’s about as much as I can manage this evening. Thank you for your delightful company over the past ten hours. Another big day tomorrow, I look forward to seeing you then.
8.35am BST
The Labor MP Alannah McTiernan, in her valedictory, has told the chamber she’s leaving because she didn’t feel like she could influence policy, she felt something like an extra in a blockbuster.
8.33am BST
8.20am BST
Bishop gets a bit emotional at the close. She says she has the greatest gift as an Australian woman: freedom.
I will miss this place, but as I said, it is not the end, it’s simply a change of course.
8.15am BST
There was an expense problem or two .. but it was a wonderful opportunity.
Bronwyn Bishop lets one barb go. She says she was asked to resign from the speakership to protect Tony Abbott. She says there’s more to this saga, but not for now. A little coat trail, then back to dignity, always dignity.
8.11am BST
Bishop has arrived at the speakership. A great privilege, she says. Bishop says she came to like the recalcitrants in the parliament. There’s some nervous laughter on the other side.
8.09am BST
Aged care now.
There was a difficulty in the aged care area. Standards were appalling.
8.04am BST
I did get to fly an F111.
Bronwyn Bishop is recounting exciting times in RAAF planes. The only stipulation from the pilots was no pins, no hairspray. A bombing raid ensued, with Bishop dropping the payload and pulling the plane into a barrel roll. (Presumably this adventure happened outside a war zone but I’m not sure.) She was determined, she says, not to throw up. Someone told her Kim Beazley had thrown up.
8.00am BST
7.57am BST
Bishop left the Senate for the House because, as she says, there was talk about her becoming the first female prime minister of Australia. She says neither John Hewson, nor Paul Keating, wanted that outcome.
She says someone told her Keating described her as a Catherine Wheel. She returns the favour, describing Keating as a sparkler, burns bright but reduces down to a thin black stick.
A mistake, however, one does make mistakes in this place and in life.
7.51am BST
We are lingering presently in the history of Senate estimates committees.
7.45am BST
Bishop says the dirtiest fight she’s ever been in in politics was to become president of the Liberal party. She got there in the end.
7.43am BST
Bishop is going through her path to politics. She became a lawyer she says to understand the process of lawmaking. She became a Liberal because she agreed with the philosophy of enterprise which is immutable as the law of gravity.
Bishop says she met Philip Ruddock when they were both in the young Liberals. Women weren’t permitted to be presidents of the youth branch.
But I set out to change those things.
7.39am BST
The member for Mackellar has the call now.
Bronwyn Bishop rises in her place.
Can I begin by saying the timetable has become a little disorderly today.
7.38am BST
Labor’s Bernie Ripoll is saying farewell in the House at the moment. He’s very emotional.
7.29am BST
Before we move on to Bronwyn Bishop just a segment of the treasurer’s conversation with Ray Hadley from earlier today that I thought I might share.
Let’s call this class warfare is unAustralian. And Abs. It will make sense. Trust me.
I think people are so over these, these left-right arguments and all of this sort of thing, honestly, I think people are so over it, I mean Bill Shorten’s out there saying, “oh you know millionaires and all the rest of it”, tell you what Bill Shorten hangs out with a lot more millionaires than I ever have, I mean, he went to Xavier, I think in Victoria, I went to a public school, so mate if he wants to have that argument, well I suppose we can, but I’m frankly, if people get to go to private schools, good for you, your family has invested and giving you the opportunity to go there, I mean honestly, these people have just got to move on.
I think the class war is crass, whoever enunciates it, whether it’s you or Mr Shorten, the class war is crass, and it is beneath contempt.
Well it’s just not us, it’s not us.
It’s not Australian.
No.
The class war’s not Australian, it belongs on another planet, not this planet, anyway I think we’ve just about covered everything we needed to cover, and congratulations on the budget and one of the things I’ve said to you previously is that, um, you are you know, for all your other faults, a polished media performer, and you present particularly well, however, have you seen the front page of the Daily Telegraph, today, and I saw Lisa on the Today Show this morning take you to task about the 007 photograph, someone at the, at News Limited, has conned you and I don’t know who it was but obviously, you know the holding of the tie like James Bond, 007, and we had a bit of fun with that yesterday.
My collar was down Ray, my collar was down.
I know the collar was down, I know the collar was down Treasurer, but the caricature, that is written about an illustrator on the front page of the Telegraph, in case you haven’t read the side of the paper, where you’re adorned as Superman, Clark Kent, ScoMo, in brackets abs not to scale.
I can’t.
So the abs are not to scale.
Just in case anyone needed that, are in doubt.
In case his wife or family parents, loved ones think that all of a sudden he’s been working out in the federal parliamentary gym, it’s not the case, the abs are not to scale.
That is absolutely right.
All right then, nice to talk to you.
6.49am BST
The ABC has some breaking news.
More than 700 asylum seekers held on Manus Island have launched legal action calling on the federal government to immediately move them to Australia. The application for an urgent injunction was filed with the High Court on Wednesday by human rights barrister Jay Williams. It follows last week’s decision in the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court which ruled that the Manus Island detention centre breached the country’s constitution.
6.36am BST
While still on valedictories, Magic Mike took some terrific shots of Bill Heffernan’s farewell which happened just before question time.
6.31am BST
Coming up within the next hour or so, we expect Bronwyn Bishop to bid her farewell to politics. Compulsory viewing, that.
6.25am BST
The mildly random Palmer beat downs on former colleagues roll on.
Cliver Palmer on Glenn Lazarus:
We will talk about Senator Lazarus if you want to, and he won 6,000 votes in his own name for the election, while our party won 225,000 votes for our party. Senator Lazarus would not be in the Senate without those votes.
He crumbled and couldn’t take the pressure, he was chairman of the Queensland inquiry which got rid of Campbell Newman in Queensland, and if you went to any of those inquiries you would have seen all the senators from the LNP screaming and shouting and abusing him. I guess, when you play football a lot you like to see how your game is going, so he is used to good publicity. In my case I am used to bad publicity so it doesn’t worry me.
6.21am BST
Down in the courtyard, Clive Palmer is apologising to the people of Tasmania for Jacqui Lambie’s “behaviour” when she left the PUP.
6.17am BST
Just because, really.
6.13am BST
In the House, further questions have been placed on the notice paper.
6.11am BST
Meanwhile, outside the House.
Clive Palmer announces Tas & WA Senate team at "farewell" presser. Says PUP will scrap pollie entitlements. #auspol pic.twitter.com/0uEzFbZKjs
6.08am BST
Labor now wants to know why Australian’s have to wait longer for new childcare benefits while millionaires get an annual tax cut worth $17,000 a year.
The prime minister says this question is about the deficit levy. Turnbull says there is no change in this budget to the deficit levy. It was introduced for three years, it adds two percent to the top marginal rate and now it’s going. It was always going to go this budget. Labor now wants to keep it. Turnbull says that’s fine, if Labor wants to increase the top marginal rate, then propose that. But the government is sticking with the status quo.
6.03am BST
Health minister Sussan Ley.
Mr Speaker, we are in the dying days of the 44th parliament and we don’t have a single health policy from Labor. Not a single health policy! We haven’t heard one!
5.58am BST
Bowen is back asking why the treasurer told Ray Hadley last year that super changes shouldn’t be retrospective and then made retrospective super changes in the budget.
Scott Morrison says he did no such thing.
5.57am BST
5.55am BST
We are currently hearing about a tax cut for the Great Northern Laundry.
5.47am BST
Bowen is back on the corporate tax cuts. Are you seriously trying to tell us there’s no costings on a key budget measure, Bowen asks?
Scott Morrison says of course there’s a costing.
Our plans are fully costed, Mr Speaker.
They are fully costed and they are accurate and they can be relied upon.
5.44am BST
A Dorothy Dixer on innovation from Jamie Briggs, once a minister, now a backbencher. Briggs holds the seat of Mayo. I’m told the Liberals have been robocalling in Mayo in the past few weeks, which is a seat they normally wouldn’t plough resources into. It’s considered safe. Interesting they are flinging some Dorothy Dixers Brigg’s way, and putting resources into the seat. He might be in a spot of bother.
5.40am BST
The shadow treasurer Chris Bowen persists on the ten year costs of the company tax cut. Morrison persists on the blocking motion. Aren’t you the people with the $20bn black hole, the treasurer wonders? Didn’t you get your tobacco excise costing wrong?
5.39am BST
The deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has just invoked a corridor of commerce from Melbourne to Brisbane. Hopefully no carp are cluttering the corridor. Then things could get weird real quick.
5.36am BST
Labor is back seeking the ten year costs of the government’s plan to cut business taxes. The treasurer Scott Morrison defends on that question by quoting Chris Bowen to Chris Bowen. “We don’t need to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the world. We do, however, need to be concerned if our company tax rate is on the higher side of the world’s advanced economies. While 30% sounds low, compared to the rate that Paul Keating inherited, it is how the rate compares to those of our competitors to what counts.”
Morrison says Bowen wrote this in one of his books. And it’s quite right. Bowen has certainly floated a company tax cut in the past. The shadow treasurer’s argument now is it’s not the right time.
5.29am BST
Greens MP Adam Bandt, to Peter Dutton, immigration minister.
Q: With two refugees setting themselves on fire after being sent to offshore detention camps, will you finally accept the consequences of putting desperate people in a situation even worse than the trauma they are fleeing? Minister, aren’t you just showing pure cowardice by blaming the advocates helping the vulnerable, instead of accepting responsibility for your actions? Can’t we do better than this Labor-Liberal policy of not drowning, but burning?
We are working on third country settlement options, but we need to structure any arrangement in such a way that it will not create a pull factor opportunity for people smugglers to get back into business. We have dozens of health workers working on Nauru at the moment, including mental health workers and including support people who are spreading support to refugees and to people on Nauru to try and provide them with support, but to deliver a very clear message and that is they are not going to settle in our country.
We are not going to tolerate a situation, Mr Speaker, which allows people smugglers to get back into business. It does mean that we need to take tough decisions to ensure that we don’t see women and children going to the bottom of the ocean, as they did only a few short years ago, and we should speak for the 1200 people who drowned trying to make the journey across to our country and we should never allow that to happen again.
5.21am BST
Q: My question is to the prime minister. How can the prime minister justify giving someone earning $1m a tax cut of nearly $17,000 every single year confirmed in last night’s budget?
Malcolm Turnbull gestures that one to Scott Morrison. Much haw hawing ensues on the opposition benches.
“The government”, the then Labor government, “recognises that higher taxation reduces incentives to work, save and invest!”
That’s what he said!
5.17am BST
Back to jobs and growth.
5.14am BST
Q: My question is to the prime minister. Can the prime minister confirm that in the past two weeks his advice to young Australians struggling to buy their first home is to have rich parents or to have parents who buy you a home when you turn one? Prime minister, just how out of touch are you?
Malcolm Turnbull, with possibly the most Malcolm Turnbull response in recent memory. You have to imagine this with a Rumpolian inflection.
There has never been an opposition that has surrendered so totally to a budget as this one. Here we are, the day after the budget, the day after the budget, and not yet one question on the budget itself.
The Labor Party is sneering at the aspirations of parents. Sneering at the hard-working Australians who seek to make something for their children and they dare to talk to us about being out of touch.
Mr Speaker, this a war, a political war, they want to commence against aspiration, against ambition, against enterprise. Mr Speaker, we stand up for enterprise. We stand up for family businesses. We don’t put family businesses out of business. That is the Labor party’s way. We are for enterprise.
5.08am BST
First Dorothy Dixer is, of course, jobs and growth.
5.07am BST
Labor opens today with the prime minister’s comments on housing on the Jon Faine program this morning about tipping in for the kids.
Q: On ABC radio this morning when Jon told the prime minister his children were locked out of the housing market the prime minister replied and I quote: “We should shell out for them. You should support them. A wealthy man like you.” Is that really the prime minister’s advice for young Australians struggling to buy their first home? Have rich parents?
4.59am BST
To my great horror I have missed the Liberal senator Bill Heffernan making his farewell speech. I’ll see if I can reconfigure that if time permits.
4.48am BST
Meanwhile on planet #Cliev
Clive Palmer says he has to talk more with his wife about whether to run for the Senate at the election, but it's a "live option" #auspol
4.47am BST
Question time coming up, just time for a quick down dog.
4.45am BST
Quick backtrack before question time. Green Sarah Hanson Young bids farewell to Labor’s Melissa Parke after her valedictory.
4.42am BST
4.33am BST
This is how Morrison wraps at the NPC.
We have got to stop looking at the economy as if it’s a whole bunch of individuals, and they are all looking for their little bit out of the government. If that’s the sort of country we are going to run, we’ll run it into the ground and we’ll run each other into the ground. Australians are over this class warfare, they are over the us and them. They are over it. They know the big economic challenges that are out there facing them and their future. What they want from us is a stronger economic plan that gets them to that other side.
4.31am BST
Q: There was a cracking front page on the ‘Courier Mail’ with a picture of you and a headline: “Hello ladies”, talking about how the budget was to woo women. Sydney University and ANU have done some analysis and they say only 29% of people who benefit from the tax cuts will be women, they say it’s a budget for blokes. So, which is it?
Scott Morrison:
Again, I noticed the interest in the sort of winners and losers analysis, but the changes that we made particularly to superannuation, I think are very important for women.
4.28am BST
Next question is seeking clarity on the backpacker tax. It isn’t forthcoming. Morrison says that issue remains “live.”
4.26am BST
Mal Farr from news.com wants to know why the government won’t scrap the five cent piece given it costs more than five cents to make. The treasurer says he’d like some questions on the budget.
4.25am BST
Q: Your budget contained $857m for the Melbourne Metro under the asset recycling initiative. Given that the port hasn’t been sold and we don’t have a final price, would you commit to increasing the allocation if a higher price was achieved to ensure Victoria gets its full 15% privatisation bonus?
Scott Morrison:
We’d have to address that if that eventuated.
4.21am BST
The treasurer is then pointed to previous remarks of his supportive of foreign aid. Why is the government cutting aid? Because of Labor, Scott Morrison says, setting fire to the budget. That’s why. Because of Labor’s fiscal vandalism.
It’s regrettable, it grieves me, I know it grieves Julie [Bishop, foreign minister] terribly.
4.19am BST
Another question on retrospectivity and superannuation.
Scott Morrison:
The simple thing is I have not changed the tax treatment of retirement accounts. Those retirement accounts remain tax free. We are not taxing the earnings out of retirement phase accounts. Full stop.
What we have done is we have set a limit on what can go into those retirement accounts. That’s a different position. And it’s one I’m very comfortable with.
4.17am BST
On the Kidman and Co sale.
Q: I wonder whether FIRB gave any advice second time around on this matter?
They always give advice, but it’s my decision.
I am surprised that Labor had a different view. But if Chris Bowen is the treasurer on the other side of the election, I suppose we know what he’ll do.
4.13am BST
The next question concerns nothing for people earning below $80,000.
Q: Those people are going to be paying $5 more on prescriptions, they are going to pay a larger gap at the GP because the Medicare rebate is being frozen, they’ll wait longer for increased childcare benefits, the Family Tax Benefit changes are going ahead, the school kids bonus is being abolished. Is this the price that those families have to pay for jobs and growth?
4.10am BST
The next question is also about super: won’t the super changes direct savings out of super and into negatively geared property?
Scott Morrison says initially he doesn’t agree with the premise of the question. Then he says this. People who engage in negative gearing are engaging in legitimate activity.
If they can do that, to provide for a better retirement income for themselves outside of superannuation, well, good for them. They are the decisions they are making and I don’t intend to get into the way of that decision. We know that they are doing that to support themselves and their families over time.
4.07am BST
They are into questions now at the NPC. The first question is on retrospectivity in the super changes.
Q: Your $500,000 lifetime non-concessional cap is going to apply to fund balances from 2007. Your $1.6m cap on balances will impact savings built up under the existing rule. How do you justify those two changes when you’ve said in the past you absolutely guarantee no retrospectivity on superannuation?
I don’t believe this is retrospectivity, others can have a view they may wish to argue for.
4.04am BST
Every treasurer has their own style. Morrison loves to present like a motivational speaker. Businesses just want young people to get ahead. Yes they do. I’ll allow the treasurer to take up the story.
Scott Morrison:
Business people in this country, there is nothing more that pumps them up than seeing young people get - a young person getting a job and actually succeeding in that job. It’s not all about the profits. We all know that. It’s not all about the sales and about the revenue. The thrill of seeing a young person come into your business and get that opportunity and succeed, you can’t match, I don’t think, when it comes to creating those opportunities for our future. So we are going to back that in. We are going to invest in it. We are going to give it everything we have got.
3.59am BST
Content warning. Apparently raising taxes to fund spending comes to a grisly grisly end.
Scott Morrison:
What we do is we save, spend cautiously and reduce the deficit.
You’ll never chase the higher levels of spending that everybody would like with higher taxes. It’s a self-defeating purpose.
3.56am BST
A zinger! Good grief, it’s catching.
Scott Morrison, on the new Google tax:
The only penalty rate you’ll see in the budget is the penalty rate we are putting on multi-nationals who seek to shift profits offshore and not pay tax in Australia.
They’ll pay 40%. They won’t pay the corporate rate, they’ll pay 40%.
3.54am BST
The treasurer is sticking to the jobs and growth script at the NPC. He’s on to company tax cuts at the moment. You cut tax for business so they invest and create jobs. Anyone who doesn’t get that is a bum. No, sorry that was Bob Hawke, after we won the America’s Cup.
Back to the treasurer.
Anyone who wants to do that, doesn’t get what’s driving this economy. They don’t get what’s going to drive jobs and growth into the future.
This government does get that, and that’s why we have done it and that’s why we’ll continue to lift that threshold over time to ultimately extend it to a position where the company tax rate will be able to reach 25% and ensure that we sit in a competitive position right across our region and right across the world.
3.48am BST
I’m sorry of course I’m listening to the treasurer, and still to Melissa Parke in my other ear, but unfortunately Magic Mike just flashed this picture across my desk.
3.42am BST
The treasurer is underway now in his traditional post budget address at the NPC. Scott Morrison opens the address on the welfare package in the budget, with an anecdote about a young homeless man who had managed to turn his fortunes around with the help of a medium sized business.
Scott Morrison:
He is no longer homeless, he is in private rental accommodation and he is supporting himself. Small business growing, backing young people, giving them the chance - everybody wins. Everybody wins.
3.31am BST
Parke also calls for a standing national integrity commission to look under rocks at the Commonwealth level, to obviate the need for expensive, ad hoc, royal commissions.
3.24am BST
Parke doesn’t miss in this farewell. She decries the boats debate. She says it’s infused with faux concern for people drowning at sea in order to justify draconian policies.
Melissa Parke:
Offshore detention is a festering wound that is killing people and eroding our national character and reputation.
3.21am BST
Labor MP Melissa Parke is making her valedictory now. Presumably this is why Sarah Hanson-Young is in the chamber. Parke has been a consistent critic of her own party’s positions on asylum policy and on national security. A number of colleagues from Parke’s Labor left faction are there to hear her farewell.
3.18am BST
Sharman Stone tears up at the end of her contribution, saying she leaves parliament happy with the achievements and sorry about the problems that persist.
3.15am BST
Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is in the chamber. So is a certain lady in blue.
3.10am BST
2.57am BST
While I’m in foreshadowing mode, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, is coming up at lunch time. He’ll be addressing the National Press Club.
2.55am BST
Another valedictory is underway in the House of Representatives – Liberal Sharman Stone. We expect Bronwyn Bishop to make her farewell today also.
2.46am BST
The member for Herbert @EwenJonesMP asks the question while Clive speaks @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive #Reps pic.twitter.com/zcei6KB7px
2.45am BST
Sometimes I wonder
Where I’ve been
Who I am, do I fit in?
Make-believing is hard alone
Out here, on my own
We’re always proving
Who we are
Always reaching
For that rising star
To guide me far
And shine me home
Out here on my own ..
2.42am BST
Clive Palmer, rounding out his contribution:
I feel with the love and support of my wife Anna I can contribute further to our great country. Public service is not just about parliamentary or government service. There are thousands of Australians serving our country all over Australia. I hope I can go in serving our country in the future.
We need to have courage to let go and move on.
2.37am BST
Clive Palmer:
Time remains one of the most important things we have.
2.35am BST
We are onto the PUP’s achievements now. And Clive Palmer’s analysis about the political debate.
The prime minister believes in innovation, but innovation doesn’t put food on the table.
2.32am BST
Palmer says the PUP will be aiming at the coming election to get Senate balance of power to break up what sounds to be a conspiracy between the Liberals and the trade unions, through superannuation funds. A new conspiracy, that one.
2.30am BST
Palmer says the attacks in recent times have centred on Queensland Nickel, and the attacks have been unfounded. The various allegations being made are false, Palmer says.
2.27am BST
Palmer says he has been the subject of unprecedented personal attacks during his political life. The attacks related to his business interests, he says. Media attacks and attacks by the two party political system, which is hostile to outsiders, he says.
2.25am BST
But before he does that.
Clive Palmer:
I will not seek re-election to this House at the next election.
2.24am BST
Palmer is on his feet now in the House. He wants to reflect on what his party has contributed to the debate.
2.18am BST
Clive Palmer is remaining in the House, waiting for the call. We are waiting for Clive, who is waiting for the call.
2.14am BST
I see there’s a fair amount of interest among readers about Malcolm Turnbull telling Jon Faine to shell out for his kids if they are locked out of the property market. I pointed you towards this exchange earlier today. The full sequence, courtesy of my colleague Paul Karp, who has transcribed that section.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Well you should shell out for them – you should support them, a wealthy man like you.
Well exactly, there you go, you’ve got the solution in your own hands.
You can provide a bit of intergenerational equity in the Faine family.
2.05am BST
Meanwhile, another showman, cooling his heels in the House.
2.03am BST
Sticking with the thing we aren’t watching. This is the RNC chairman, confirming Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee.
.@realDonaldTrump will be presumtive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton #NeverClinton
1.54am BST
Meanwhile to that other thing we all aren’t watching.
Ted Cruz ends campaign by accidentally hitting, elbowing his wife in the face pic.twitter.com/epO1tzKgTT
1.49am BST
Meanwhile, Clive being #Cliev.
Palmer press conference delayed until 3PM AEST pending "more details to come". Hmm.
1.34am BST
Cruz is suspending his campaign.
Team Trump watching Cruz suspension speech pic.twitter.com/kRKioeX5FW
1.33am BST
In case you are sticking exclusively with Politics Live (bless you) and not secretly watching events in the US, (which of course I’m not doing, because you know, the budget): Donald Trump has won in Indiana, not Ted Cruz.
Drink em if you got em #nevertrump pic.twitter.com/iQIDzMTavZ
1.24am BST
No, Clive Palmer will not announce he’s about to win the election. He will confirm shortly he won’t recontest his House of Representatives seat.
Goodbye Clive Palmer, goodbye pic.twitter.com/hyeeh5z1LF
1.19am BST
Given the gushing torrent of words since dawn, let’s pause for a moment and take stock of the major breaking news points of the morning.
12.56am BST
Regular readers of Politics Live will know we are serially unhappy with the bizarre photographic restrictions in the Senate that prevent us documenting what our elected representatives do. A small war has broken out between photographers, including our own Mike Bowers, and the Senate on twitter this morning, about a curious photograph that has been published by the red room online – a picture that appears to breach the chamber’s own guidelines.
@AuSenate under your rules how is the 1st shot legal, was @MathiasCormann given the call on his way into the chamber? Please explain
. @AuSenate @mpbowers @MathiasCormann so when the Senate is adjourned, photography of Senators without the call in the chamber allowed?
12.50am BST
Here’s a compelling sort of graph.
The government has also projected a very long road to a very small surplus #budget2016 https://t.co/RtxSQKpWcr pic.twitter.com/PMtSTc5AoT
The treasurer said before budget day that it would not be a typical budget and he was right, because – unlike any budget before – the big economic news of the day came from Martin Place with the Reserve Bank cutting the cash rate to a record low 1.75%.
And crucially, the RBA decision highlights the common theme throughout the budget papers – that the economy is not about to get greatly better any time soon.
12.38am BST
Faine thinks the government isn’t stimulating the national economy with the infrastructure spend. He says the Victorian government is stimulating the local economy with transport projects. Turnbull says this is, effectively, a $50bn spend. (It isn’t this year. The new spend this year is about $700m).
Faine wonders why the government is backing the boomers against aspirational youth in this budget. The inter-generational wars. Turnbull suggests Labor isn’t backing young people with its negative gearing policy.
Yes.
Well you should shell out ... and provide some inter-generational equity in the Faine family.
We know this is a tough policy but the alternative is thousands of people dying at sea.
The melancholy reality of this is we have to be very strong in terms of our border protection because we know what the alternative is.
Jon, Jon, we are are focused on forming a government after the election.
12.20am BST
Faine also isn’t sold on the welfare changes. He thinks the new internships might keep kids from getting a proper job. The prime minister thinks the new scheme will be transformational. Faine thinks probably not. The prime minister thinks he’s being cynical. Faine thinks he’s holding the prime minister to account. The prime minister thinks the radio host doesn’t need to get defensive. Faine thinks the prime minister needs a glass of water and if he was in an ABC studio instead of his office someone would be able to help him.
12.15am BST
Faine is on to multinational tax avoidance now. He says rich people will always find evasion and avoidance worth their while, it makes good business sense. He suggests the prime minister knows about managing his tax affairs from his business days.
The prime minister isn’t impressed.
Jon, I have always paid tax in Australia. I’ve always paid a lot of tax. I don’t have a family trust. I’m very conservative in the management of tax affairs, I assure you, and the innuendo you made there was unworthy.
12.11am BST
Jon Faine wants to know where the evidence is that a 1% cut in company tax will boost economic growth. Turnbull says the advice is the tax cuts will boost GDP by 1%.
Faine is caustic.
Over decades, don’t mislead us.
That’s over decades.
12.09am BST
The prime minister is now doing ABC radio in Melbourne. Host Jon Faine says the basis on which the government is going to call the double-dissolution election this weekend – the ABCC – didn’t get a mention last night.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Well Jon as you know restoring the rule of law is a very important reform.
It didn’t require expenditure Jon.
12.07am BST
Bill Shorten:
We’ll have a look at [the budget] with a very open mind but let’s also recognise, this is a government who takes out a bucketful then hands back a cupful.
12.03am BST
The Labor leader Bill Shorten has dusted off the sandwich and a milkshake tax cut for 2016.
What Mr Turnbull is giving you is a cup of coffee and a biscuit.
11.49pm BST
Up the corridor ...
11.40pm BST
My colleague Lenore Taylor (bless her) has been making calls about the prime minister’s remark during the Fran Kelly interview that the personal tax cuts would be delivered through an administrative measure.
Turnbull told Kelly it will be covered administratively.
11.34pm BST
While Turnbull was on Nine, the treasurer was on AM. AM host Michael Brissenden pushed Morrison on the 10-year horizon for the company tax cuts. That means the cost of the big tax cut – the tax cut applying to all companies – is outside the forward estimates. Labor is making quite a bit of that in its critique of the budget. Don’t you worry about that, Morrison tells his host.
Q: You have put a 10-year plan in what is essentially a four-year document. Labor says it’s costed and unfunded outside the forward estimates?
What we have done with our tax plan, we have got tax increases in some areas like multinationals in particular. That is $3.9bn over the budget and forward estimates. Those revenues continue out beyond the forward estimates. The tobacco excise, I admit the figure is a lot lower than the Labor party had. I know they have got a $20bn hole in their funding commitments because they want to use higher taxes to pay for their commitments.
We are making savings in the budget to pay for our commitments in health and education and roads and all of these areas. That’s real money because we found it in savings, not by jacking up taxes.
It’s covered in the forward estimates because the multinational tax arrangements, the superannuation tax incentives that have been closed off for those on high incomes, they continue beyond the budget and forward estimates.
What the difference is, where we are putting the proceeds from those changes in the tax system supporting small and medium-size businesses and middle income earners to make sure they can work hard, continue to invest and not be taxed more for the privilege.
11.19pm BST
Stefanovic asks Turnbull whether he’ll have to move money out of his super fund to comply with the new cap of $1.6m. Turnbull says all of the provisions apply to every superannuant, including him.
Given Karl led with his chin, the prime minister doesn’t decline the opportunity to return friendly fire. These changes apply to all high-income earners, Turnbull says, and indeed yourself Karl.
I’m quietly confident, but you can’t take anything for granted.
11.13pm BST
The prime minister tells Karl Stefanovic the election will be about who do you trust to manage our economy in this time of transition.
Party like it’s 2004.
Around $300 a year better off.
11.10pm BST
The prime minister is now on Nine and the treasurer, Scott Morrison is on the ABC.
Malcolm Turnbull is asked again when he’ll call the election. Chill, Karl.
All in good time, in days, for sure.
11.08pm BST
Kelly pushed the prime minister on asylum policy. The prime minister responds with empathy first, then sinks the boot into the political opponents. The asylum seekers are waiting, waiting for a change of government.
Q: Did you ever think you would be in a position where you would be defending keeping people in a situation where the desperation is so intense they are killing themselves?
Fran, the misery that many of those people are in, the mental anguish that many of them are in is something that we sympathise with, we grieve for them. But we have to recognise this, that if we want to stop people drowning at sea, 1,200 people drowned at sea under the Labor party’s administration.
If we want to keep our borders secure, if when want to stop the people smuggling, then those people who seek to come to Australia with people smugglers by boat cannot settle in Australia.
The people that are on Nauru and on Manus will have the opportunity of settling – they are free, the ones in Nauru are free to move around. They are not in detention at all.
The people that have been given refugee status in PNG that have been assessed as refugees can settle in PNG. There are third-country options and we continue to work to encourage them. Those that have not been given refugee status can return to their country of origin.
Labor’s track record in government is not one that would encourage anyone to believe they can be safely relied on to keep our borders secure.
11.00pm BST
The prime minister doesn’t bite when Kelly asks him whether he will be more free to be the real Malcolm Turnbull if he wins the coming election.
10.59pm BST
(Turnbull told David Koch earlier he would call the election this weekend, just in case you were wondering. That’s when we expect the election to be called – Friday, Saturday or Sunday.)
10.58pm BST
Q: Prime minister, when are we going to the polls?
Malcolm Turnbull:
There will be an election, on on 2 July.
Between now and 11 May.
I think that is something for you and Michelle to talk about.
I sleep well.
10.55pm BST
Kelly notes the government has performed a massive U-turn on its attitude to welfare, from punitive in 2015 to active management in 2016.
Q: The measures you both supported in the 2014 budge were incredibly arduous and penalising?
And Scott Morrison acknowledged they had not been sufficiently successful and we are trying something new that is going to ensure that young people who are unemployed get the skills, get the skills that they need to be an effective employee and then get the internship with the employer – there is an incentive for them and the employer, and that gives them the experience, the engagement with the workforce.
10.52pm BST
Kelly pushes Turnbull on the company tax cut.
Q: Under the 10-year enterprise plan, big businesses will get their tax cut eventually, it’s 10 years hence, it’s aspirational and according to Labor, uncosted?
Neither of those points is correct. It is a commitment, it is a plan ...
Absolutely, of course it can be. The legislation will enable us to deliver those cuts into the future. Obviously a future parliament could change that.
All of this has been carefully costed and that is set out in the budget, that’s the Treasury’s job, you don’t have to rely on politicians to do that. The Treasury has done that.
10.48pm BST
Labor, Malcolm Turnbull says, is setting itself up for a war with business, for some kind of class warfare.
That’s the type of war of envy, the politics of envy which absolutely stands in the way of aspiration and enterprise and growth.
10.46pm BST
Turnbull notes Labor wants the deficit levy to continue.
So Labor wants to go to the election saying they want to increase income tax.
10.45pm BST
Q: I will come to small businesses but I want to nail down this tax cut thing. It will affect a lot of people who aren’t going to benefit from the company tax cuts. You are unlikely to be able to legislate this tax cut before parliament is dissolved, before the election. How will they be introduced by 2 July?
Malcolm Turnbull:
That is really up to the Labor party whether it’s legislated but certainly it will be covered administratively and after the election, we expect the parliament to come back and ensure all of the legislation supporting the budget measures is passed.
That is exactly the goal.
10.43pm BST
Q: You do appear to be playing to your base here?
Malcolm Turnbull:
We are focusing on ensuring that middle-income Australians, those that are on average full-time earnings, which, as you know, is nudging $80,000, don’t move into the second top tax bracket. It is a modest personal tax cut.
It is a modest aim to ensure that middle Australia does not move into the second-top tax bracket so they are not moving into that 37% tax bracket and that change will achieve that.
But the most important issue here is that we are ensuring that all of the measures in the budget are consistent with our plan for jobs and growth.
10.40pm BST
The prime minister is now in the Radio National studios with Fran Kelly, who wants to know how the budget is going to get the government re-elected. This is a long-term plan, Malcolm Turnbull says, this is a plan for the future.
Q: The government is still very much trying to get out from under the 2014 budget which was tagged as unfair. You put fairness as one of the tests of this budget. If fairness is the test, why is it fair to deny those on the lower wage ... why is it fair to deny them a tax cut?
Let me make it clear, Fran, everybody benefits from stronger economic growth and jobs.
10.33pm BST
Blue ties, blue books, left, right, left, right.
10.30pm BST
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, on ABC News Breakfast. Growth isn’t all about cutting taxes for business.
Unless we help reduce the deficit, unless we make sure we have world-class schools, unless we make sure that working-class kids can afford to go to university, unless you take real action on climate change, these are all handbrakes on growth.
10.27pm BST
There has never been a more exciting time to catch the sunrise.
10.18pm BST
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, is over on the Nine Network. In a tone of incredulity Shorten notes that in a beauty parade between hospitals and schools and big companies, the government chose big business in this budget.
Shorten is asked can he win the coming election. Yes we can, Shorten says. Nine host Karl Stefanovic looks not entirely confident.
10.14pm BST
Hello good people and welcome to Wednesday on Politics Live, which is the day after Tuesday, which this week happened to be budget day, which is a few days before the calling of a double-dissolution election.
As we go live this morning the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, is chipping away relentlessly on ABC Radio National, and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is sweeping down the parliamentary forecourt to speak to breakfast television presenters camped out in live broadcast tents down the front.
There’s stronger economic growth.
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