Rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs welcomes parliamentary inquiry into free speech. Follow the day live …
4.32am GMT
Bowers really is enjoying the new senate photography rules.
4.28am GMT
Malarndirri McCarthy has asked attorney general George Brandis what the government has done to ensure Andrew Robb keeps to rules about lobbying in his new gig at the Landbridge Group.
Brandis replied that - absent any evidence that Robb hasn’t complied - he’s not really sure what McCarthy is referring to. Robb has already said he understands his obligations and will abide by them.
Don’t seek to besmirch by innuendo an honourable man.
4.26am GMT
4.24am GMT
4.23am GMT
4.18am GMT
I feel they should be singing ...
4.13am GMT
I have a power of Bowers to share now ...
4.12am GMT
A government question to assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer: Is the Minister aware of any (Labor) threats to improving superannuation balances?
See Labor superannuation policy announced overnight.
4.10am GMT
Labor to Turnbull: Why did the PM decide to keep (Bob Day’s Senate eligibility) information secret from the Australian people? Surely the Australian people have a right to know that there was doubt over whether the composition of the Australian Senate was constitutional?
Turnbull says the government proceeded:
The suggestion that the special minister of state should have gone off half-cocked without knowing the facts, without knowing the law, that’s the sort of incompetence you would expect from a Labor government.
4.06am GMT
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, gets a government question on alternative (Labor) threats to Australia’s AAA credit rating.
4.05am GMT
Shorten to Turnbull: the PM has claimed he wasn’t personally aware there was a potential issue under section 44 of the constitution in relation to former Senator Day until around mid-August this year. If this was the case, did the PM or his office seek advice from his department or other sources about whether and when to make this information public? If not, why not? How could the PM keep something like this secret?
Turnbull goes through the previously published timeline and says special minister of state Scott Ryan was getting appropriate legal advice.
The government proceeded diligently, carefully on a complex matter, considered diligently and sought advice and when that advice was received, gave it to the president of the Senate and as a consequence the matter has been referred to the high court.
3.58am GMT
Just for a change, the government has moved to a CFMEU question for the trade minister, Steve Ciobo.
Labor to Turnbull: Can the PM confirm that the minister for finance was aware before the election the bank account nominated to receive rental payments for Senator Day’s electoral office was linked to Bob Day? Isn’t it clear from the statement of the finance minister that the government knew before the election that the deal was completely inappropriate? The statement does not go to when the PM was personally aware of these circumstances and I ask him to advise the house?
The fact that there was an issue relating to Senator Day’s office was drawn to the attention of my chief of staff by Senator Ryan on 18th of August, as set out in his statement, and my chief of staff was asked by Senator Ryan if Senator Day sought to raise the matter with him or my office, to refer it to him. Senator Ryan passed on the substance of that conversation to me shortly there after, some days after, and that was the beginning of my awareness that there was any issue about Senator Day’s office.
3.53am GMT
Labor asks Turnbull more details about when he and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, knew of some of the arrangements around Bob Day’s electoral office.
Malcolm Turnbull again says the previous statements answer the question.
3.50am GMT
Tanya Plibersek asks a question regarding whether there was a connection between the education minister, Simon Birmingham, knew about the North East vocational college. To visualise the point, Labor MPs hold up photos of Birmingham. It looks as though he is on the site of the training college.
Speaker Smith gets upset and cancels Labor’s question.
3.45am GMT
Government question to Malcolm Turnbull: How will the government’s migration legislation amendment regional processing cohort bill protect our borders? Are there any alternative views?
Malcolm Turnbull:
We know the leader of the opposition is giving in again to the left of his party, just as Kevin Rudd did in 2008 and 2009. Mr Speaker, he talks about a unity ticket, he talks about being tough on borders. The fact is he trivialises it, talking about people smuggling as tourism.
3.42am GMT
Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: I refer to reports that the government awarded a college linked to former Senator Bob Day a $1.84m grant despite the fact he only asked for $1.4m. Why did the college give the college almost $500,000 more than was requested?
Turnbull flicks the question to the defence industry minister, Christopher Pyne.
It’s absolutely remarkable, Mr Speaker, that the Labor party, the party of the home insulation scheme, the party of the school halls debacle, the party of the cash for clunkers, FuelWatch as the deputy PM points out, GroceryWatch, would have the gall to ask this government.
There was absolutely no financial connection between former senator Bob Day and the North East Vocational Educational College. It went through all the normal processes that such a grant would go through, and was awarded on its merits, and Mr Speaker, the Labor party stands condemned for trying to play politics with it.
3.38am GMT
Fifth government question on border security to justice minister Michael Keenan: Will the minister update the house on the threat of terrorism? What is the government doing to keep our community safe and the Brisbane community safe and our borders secure?
3.36am GMT
Labor to the assistant treasurer, Kelly O’Dwyer: The collapse of former Senator Day’s building empire has left hundreds of people who are building houses facing an uncertain future with the prospect they will lose not only their savings, but their dream homes. Can the minister confirm that the tax office and the National Australia Bank will be paid ahead of these people in the liquidation of Bob Day’s building empire, and that no action has been taken to recover former Senator Day’s donations of over $2m to Family First, a party which preferenced the Liberal party at the last election.
O’Dwyer says check out the Corporations Act because she cannot talk about individuals.
3.34am GMT
Labor to Turnbull: Documents tabled in the Senate confirm that the minister for finance agreed to back pay rent on Bob Day’s electorate office from 1 July 2015. More than a year before the rent was legally required under the lease. The question is why? Why did the minister for finance attempt to back pay over $30,000 in rent when the commonwealth was not legally obligated to do so, and, no, PM, the matter is not fully dealt with in the minister for finance’s statement.
Turnbull says the matter is dealt with in the finance minister’s statement.
3.32am GMT
Warren Entsch to Barnaby Joyce: Will the Deputy PM outline to the house how the Indigenous ranger program assisting to protect Australia from biosecurity threats and is the deputy PM aware of any alternative policies?
Joyce notes:
The $12.4m to be put to the Indigenous rangers program that is so vitally important, how we keep our borders strong and protected. We note also in the member’s electorate ... you can see the boats leaving Papua New Guinea.
But it’s very important to remember that it’s not just the people who come in, it is the things that they might be carrying which would cause our nation such a catastrophic outcome if these diseases were to outbreak.
3.26am GMT
A third question on refugees to the foreign minister, Julie Bishop.
Labor to Turnbull: Why do documents tabled in the Senate confirm that the minister for finance agreed to back pay rent on former Senator Day’s electorate office, effective from 1 July 2015,which was more than a year before rent was legally required under the lease?
3.22am GMT
Labor senators Katy Gallagher and Alex Gallacher have targeted the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, over what he knew about the lease at the centre of Bob Day’s eligibility.
Gallagher asks about why the government didn’t know Day was linked to Fullarton Investments, which bought the property where he housed his electorate office from Day’s family trust, given an Asic search would have turned the link, and Bob Day was emailing from bobday@fullarton77.com.au.
3.21am GMT
Bob Katter asks a question of Scott Morrison regarding the sale of S Kidman and Co. Why have you, minister, refused to give any guarantee that a majority shareholding in Kidman will not shift to foreign control over the sale to the Shanghai Cred?
Scott Morrison:
Any proposal that triggers the foreign investment threshold review, which a parcel of that size certainly would always have to come back and be considered by Firb [Foreign Investment Review Board] and by me as treasurer, and I remind the member that on the two occasions that I was asked to consider the sale of the Kidman land, I rejected it. I note that the shadow treasurer indicated that he would have approved it of about the last election.
3.18am GMT
Mark Dreyfus to Malcolm Turnbull: This morning the member for Bennelong said that watering down section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act was not a good use of the government’s time and is causing fear. Why is the PM opening the door to changes that even his own MPs think are a waste of time?
Turnbull:
The honourable member is obviously not paying any attention to what is now a very lively and active debate about the application of the provisions that he spoke about, the application of the provisions to some university students, to a cartoonist from the Australian. There is a lively debate about that, and as a barrister, he would well understand the importance of free speech.
The Labor party cannot escape the consequences of its failure, and what we have done, we have stopped the boats. We’ve stopped the drownings. We have ensured that children are not in detention, and we will continue to do that, and we won’t be lectured on human rights. We won’t be lectured on human rights by a party that was so neglectful, so careless of the human rights of those who lost their lives at sea.
3.15am GMT
Just back on Dutton. His postscript is that he will tell Labor the details of the travel lifetime ban shortly (presumably regarding third-country destinations). Just support the bill.
Trust me.
3.14am GMT
Government question number two on boats to immigration minister Peter Dutton.
Cory Bernardi, in his weekly Common Sense email, says we need to "drain the swamp" in Australia too pic.twitter.com/n7qWAymhCr
3.12am GMT
Shorten to Turnbull: On 17th October, the PM right here ruled out changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Less than a month later, the PM has opened the door to changes. PM, what change between then and now, what insults do you want people to be allowed to say?
Turnbull says to Shorten, let the committee do its work.
Talk about post-truth politics. The leader of the opposition has no regard for the record. No regard for consistency and his attempts to mischaracterise, to caricature anybody that stands in his way of inventing his Shortonian reality, which has no reality, no connection to the real world.
3.06am GMT
As flagged earlier, the first government question is on refugees.
Malcolm Turnbull tries to execute the political wedgie.
What Labor needs to recognise is that the complacency they are exhibiting today is exactly what led [Kevin] Rudd into his mistakes some years ago. Now, during the election, the leader of the opposition said he was on a unity ticket with us in terms of border protection policies.
3.04am GMT
QUESTION TIME!!!
Labor’s Anne Aly asks Malcolm Turnbull: The former prime minister, the member for Warringah, cited national security concerns as the reason for dumping charges to section 18C saying, and I quote, “When it comes to cracking down on terrorism and cracking down on things that aid and abet terrorism,the 18C proposal was becoming a needless complication.” Has the current PM sought the advice of the AFP or any other security agency on the implications of watering down section 18C?
It is perfectly appropriate for a committee of this parliament, the human rights committee, no less, to consider those matters. And the honourable member may reflect that only this morning the president of the Human Rights Commission, Prof Triggs, welcomed such an inquiry and recognised that there should be changes. So the fact of the matter is ... there is a broad array of opinion.
2.59am GMT
Paul Karp reports:
The government has set up an inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, whether it unreasonably burdens freedom of speech and how the Australian Human Rights Commission deals with complaints.
2.55am GMT
But Scott Morrison was not going prejudge the outcome of the inquiry. Orderly process. No distractions.
I look forward to that. It won’t distract me or Kelly [O’Dwyer] from a day’s work as we continue through the midyear uptake and the budget next year and won’t distract the government in any way shape or form.
2.49am GMT
Scott Morrison is asked about the 18C inquiry, in terms of distraction.
Q: You said a couple of months ago when 18C was being kicked around to create a single job ... it now has been referred to a committee and there will be some form of debate over the next few months and presumably after the reports, are you worried this could start to intrude on your economic message?
I don’t think so. I think the timetable and the process that the cabinet endorsed last night and went through the party room today, I think is a proper and effective process to work through this issue.
2.46am GMT
Scott Morrison confirmed that if Labor successfully amended the backpacker tax to 10.5%, the change would not be supported when the bill came back to the house.
(In other words, two government MPs would have to cross the floor for that to happen.)
2.43am GMT
Scott Morrison says under the same working arrangements:
In Australia, a backpacker earning $13,000 in Australia takes home $10,530.
So the package we’ve put in ensures that backpackers working in Australia will be at least on the same wicket as if they’ve chosen to go to one of the other countries. And Labor is saying, ‘No. Foreign workers deserve a bigger tax cut than that and we’re going to make small businesses in this country, and Australians who work for a living, pay for it.’
2.34am GMT
Scott Morrison is asked, “If I’m a Swedish backpacker, what tax rate will I be paying if I’m here for a year starting January 1. I have an option of 32, 19, 10.5?”
You have to ask Joel Fitzgibbon because we’re offering 19 cents. Under the Labor party they’ll be paying 32.5. At the moment it is 32.5. If these bills are not passed then what they will be paying is 32.5.
2.28am GMT
Scott Morrison is continuing apace so hopefully I can cover most of it.
Remember that when Labor and the Coalition did the deal on the some $6bn of savings, a month or so ago, there was great hope in government ranks that Labor would do a deal on superannuation – given Labor supports limiting generous superannuation concessions.
Discussions have been going on for some time in this issue. Remember, Labor only raised one concern with this package and that was on the issue of the lifetime non-concessional cap. That was the only issue.
If you go back to the budget-in-reply, that was the matter that was raised by the leader of the opposition and that matter has been totally dealt with. So, all I can assume, from this latest announcement, is that Labor, once again, is choosing to play politics with a very serious issue, not addressing the substance.
2.20am GMT
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, and the assistant treasurer, Kelly O’Dwyer, are doing a press conference, pushing back at Labor over their superannuation proposal, which winds back some of the government’s latest package.
Just to recap, Labor had yet to decide on its final position.
2.12am GMT
The Coalition will establish an inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by the parliamentary human rights committee.
This has been flagged for the last few weeks. Malcolm Turnbull has pretty clear about it.
IPA welcomes inquiry on free speech #18C #auspol pic.twitter.com/9mrnvZvvMT
2.03am GMT
I consider Shalailah still with us ...
The joint party room meeting adopted a proposed lifetime ban on refugees without further discussion.
2.01am GMT
.@PeterDutton_MP says the people smuggling trade hasn't gone away as he introduces new immigration legislation https://t.co/1B9WCntu2h
1.52am GMT
We are the most compassionate nation, says Barnaby Joyce.
1.47am GMT
The changing face of Labor’s asylum policy.
1.42am GMT
1.33am GMT
In other news, the Parliamentary Friends of Shooting group is getting together tonight in the house. Bring your own Adlers.
1.29am GMT
Senior Labor frontbenchers Chris Bowen, Anthony Albanese and Joel Fitzgibbon are all speaking about backpackers tax but I cannot see them so will report back shortly.
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, is holding a press conference at 12.30pm.
1.24am GMT
There are a couple of points around costings regarding Labor’s policies on superannuation and backpackers tax.
Bill Shorten was asked about superannuation.
Of course there is changes. Now the government has had to change a lot of its policies...You are saying that even if the government changes everything it does, we have to be static and not respond at all to the changing circumstances brought by a promised break in government. If the government put up its policies that it was said before the election, maybe I could see some of what you’re saying then.
Your question assumes that the government will stick to their latest position of 19%, doesn’t it?
1.08am GMT
Peter Dutton is introducing the legislation for a lifetime travel ban now.
1.08am GMT
I’ve just had a quick word to Nick Xenophon about whether he will support the government’s ban on asylum seekers entering the country – given that the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has said a couple of times now that it doesn’t matter what Labor does on this issue, he has the numbers on the crossbench.
Right now, I’m not certain that he does. Xenophon says he has told the government the NXT bloc will look at the forever ban proposal but this is a “conscience issue” for his parliamentarians. By this he means the NXT bloc may split on this issue. In any case, they are not yet set in stone about which way to go. Xenophon is sounding relaxed about his people voting in different ways on this proposal.
12.56am GMT
On the backpacker tax, Bill Shorten wants us to wait for Chris Bowen, the shadow treasurer, who has a press conference coming up shortly. But in general terms, Shorten says:
They have a situation where they have taken themselves hostage, where from 1 January, they haven’t repaired their own 32 cents tax in the dollar, we will see further problems with getting backpackers to Australia. New Zealand has a system of just over 10%.
12.55am GMT
Bill Shorten says he takes no comfort from the lifetime ban bill having a ministerial discretion clause.
He says if the government has third-country agreements which require that particular ban, he will hear what the government says at that time.
12.52am GMT
Bill Shorten says he specifically asked the prime minister, “Are there discussions about third-party nations? How is that process going?”
He has refused to tell me point-blank. I have no idea how their discussions are going.
12.50am GMT
Labor will not try to amend the refugee bill.
Shorten:
This is rushed legislation and the government said they’re not interested in amendments, so we will vote it down.
12.48am GMT
Bill Shorten is asked about Labor’s various changes on its asylum seeker policies.
Labor’s policy, which the Liberals have subsequently adopted, is working. We believe that the people smugglers are pernicious, cynical criminals.
I recognise that hundreds upon hundreds of people drowned making that dangerous voyage.
12.45am GMT
Shayne Neumann, Labor’s immigration spokesman, said while Labor had been briefed on the issue, he saw nothing that would warrant changing.
There is no credible evidence from the department in the briefing that we had that any country had sought this legislation or any requirement covered by this legislation. The government also has failed to provide us with any evidence there that they have got any arrangement spending in respect of a third-party arrangement as well.
12.42am GMT
Bill Shorten is speaking now.
He says Labor is on a unity ticket with the government to stop the people smugglers, they are not on a unity ticket to stop the tourists.
Under the laws which the government is proposing and seeking Labor’s support for, someone who is found to be a genuine refugee, who subsequently settles and becomes a Canadian or an American citizen can never even visit Australia in 30 or 40 years’ time, a lifetime ban on genuine refugees who become citizens of other countries from ever visiting Australia as a tourist or as a teacher or as a business person.
12.31am GMT
From Gareth Hutchens: Labor will amend the tax rate and it will oppose the $5 increase on the passenger movement charge paid by all people as they leave Australia.
The Coalition’s backpacker bill has passed the lower house and is sitting, waiting for the report of a Senate committee.
12.23am GMT
Labor to move amendments on #backpackertax to lower tax rate from 19% to 10.5%
Ping @stephanieando
12.16am GMT
Bill Shorten and the Labor immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, are holding a press conference on the decision to oppose the lifetime ban on refugees at 11.30am.
12.15am GMT
The Greens caucus has met and decided it will back Labor’s censure of the attorney general, George Brandis, on the basis he misled the Senate. Brandis claims he did consult the solicitor general but the Greens disagree with his definition of the word.
They will also push for a new select committee to consider government claims for public interest immunity, citing Brandis releasing a heavily redacted version of Gleeson’s letter to him.
12.13am GMT
The government is open to talking to Jacqui Lambie and Pauline Hanson, or anyone else for that matter, on any future same-sex marriage plebiscite.
Scott Ryan says he's open to negotiations with crossbench in the future on same-sex plebiscite #AMAgenda https://t.co/JrrOhODbVQ
11.56pm GMT
Phil Coorey of the Fin has got his first take off the blocks:
Labor will vote against the government’s legislation to impose a lifetime ban on asylum seekers who arrived by boat after July 2013 but the government says it has the support of the Senate crossbench anyway.
As caucus met to formalise its opposition to the bill, immigration minister Peter Dutton confirmed what had long been speculated – the measures in the bill were linked to pending deals with other countries to resettle a significant number of those languishing on Nauru and Manus Island.
11.47pm GMT
The president of the human rights commission, Gillian Triggs, has flagged she is open to overhauling the Racial Discrimination Act, including replacing the terms “offend” and “insult” with “vilify”.
Triggs said in an interview with the ABC on Tuesday morning she was open to the parliamentary inquiry that has been telegraphed by the prime minister and believed inserting “vilify” into the legislation would represent a strengthening of the current regime.
11.43pm GMT
It would appear there are duelling tweets between Coalition and Labor party rooms.
As nothing much is happening in Canberra atm, here is a photo of the carpet from the Coalition Party Room. #auspol pic.twitter.com/TV6VbUySUj
Oh come on. We want a photo of George and Russell sharing tea and bikkies. https://t.co/ssM2x4L9i3
@JamesMcGrathLNP Coalition party room carpet leans right, Labor's leans left. This can't be a coincidence. pic.twitter.com/IRBC6Ds28r
11.33pm GMT
Stand by for every government question in question time.
Today's visa legislation is a matter of national security. A test for @billshortenmp. Does he stand for strong borders?
11.32pm GMT
Lyle Shelton of the Australian Christian Lobby says the death of the plebiscite “might work to secure the preservation of marriage in the long term”.
Australians have had enough of the same-sex marriage debate. After six years of relentless activism in the parliament, it should be time to move on. I think that’s what most people want – it is not a high-priority issue.
11.27pm GMT
The independent senator Jacqui Lambie had dinner with Pauline Hanson last night. No halal snack packs.
They want multiple plebiscites.
I was fortunate to have dinner last night with Senator Pauline Hanson – and after our conversation I believe there’s an opportunity to put a private member’s bill before the Senate which gives the people at the next federal election – to have their say on three very important social and moral issues, Lambie says.
11.17pm GMT
Labor’s caucus has debated the government’s proposed lifetime travel ban for refugees now in Manus Island and Nauru offshore detention.
Paul Karp reports that opposition leader, Bill Shorten, spoke against the bill in the party room and it will be voted down.
It’s an action in search of a problem, says one MP from the party room.
11.14pm GMT
The trade minister, Steve Ciobo, has doubled down on Human Rights Commission president, Gillian Triggs, saying: “There seems to be a pattern of deceptiveness.”
.@StevenCiobo says there seems to be a lot of deception coming from @AusHumanRights https://t.co/W4ioxrJEsC
11.07pm GMT
Our press gallery Financial Review colleague Laura Tingle has a good column today in which she ponders the lack of curiosity within the Coalition regarding the Bob Day electorate office deal. She writes that One Nation had similar signals that Rod Culleton was not a viable candidate for the Senate.
Statements from the current special minister of state, Scott Ryan, and his predecessor, Mathias Cormann, reveal the details of a seriously concerning lack of curiosity about Day’s circumstances.
Cormann told the Senate that ‘a few hours’ after he had been sworn into the job on December 29 last year, Day emailed him quizzing him about whether the government would be paying him rent on his offices.
11.02pm GMT
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, says the Guardian and activists are encouraging asylum seekers to stay in Manus and Nauru rather than go to third countries or go home.
10.43pm GMT
This from the ABC national rural reporter Anna Vidot:
The Senate is gearing up for a showdown on the backpacker tax, amid the strongest sign yet that Labor will join with crossbenchers and the Greens to block the Coalition’s compromise proposal.
Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie claims she has the numbers to amend the Government’s 19% backpacker tax proposal to 10.5%.
Even if Labor & crossbench amend #backpackertax in the Senate, they'd need to flip 2 Coalition MPs in HoR to make it law. Unlikely: #auspol https://t.co/JxAQQAMHFf
10.38pm GMT
After the Russell Broadbent intervention, the Labor MP Tim Watts reminds us that the former National senator Ronnie Boswell named his fight against One Nation as his biggest achievement in politics.
George Christensen is no Ron Boswell.
Why are the Qld Nats so weak these days? pic.twitter.com/2HEvnZnvdN
10.34pm GMT
Oh Lord, give me strength
DPM Barnaby Joyce on Labor and #backpackertax just now: "All they want to do is open the wound up, pull the scab off." #auspol
10.17pm GMT
George Christensen, unplugged on Facebook. The big man of Queensland hits back at his colleague Russell Broadbent, who gave Christensen a character reading yesterday.
Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent told parliament last night that I had given a speech recently that was a ‘diatribe about the rise of Islam’.
It seems Mr Broadbent is suffering the same problem many other politically correct hand-wringers suffer: they do not hear the word ‘radical’ when I talk about ‘radical Islam’.
10.09pm GMT
Some housekeeping first.
Remember there were cabinet and shadow cabinet meetings last night and there will be party-room meetings this morning.
9.44pm GMT
As I said yesterday, the Liberal moderates are coming out slowly, slowly. Which places Malcolm Turnbull between a rock and a hard place. Turnbull is firmly entrenched in the NSW moderate position. He has the conservatives continuing their fulsome contributions and the moderates increasingly pushing back.
Last week Fairfax reported that the new Berowra Liberal MP, Julian Leeser, told the Chinese Australian Services Society there was no case for change to 18C. He said there was a procedural fix to the problem, such as a part-time judicial member of the commission to initially consider complaints so those with little prospect of success could be stopped.
We’ve got to look at this systematically.
If you did a ranking of the top 10 ... it wouldn’t be in the top 100.
[The party has] a broad church. We have a range of opinions. I dare say there will be big discussion about it but for my money I am happy where [18C] is at.
9.20pm GMT
You may have already seen Katharine Murphy’s story on the intervention by the Liberal MP Russell Broadbent overnight, chastising those who seek to divide.
He helpfully names the LNP MP George Christensen, who shares his party room. Broadbent, who has a long history of opposing hardline asylum seeker policies, said the Coalition would hurt if it took the low road towards One Nation.
Broadbent warned that “diatribes” against Islam, such as interventions from the LNP backbencher George Christensen, would only hurt the Coalition in the long run.
“Those propositions and policies will only hurt the Coalition parties in the long run in the same way the once great Labor party now is the captive of the Greens, relying on their preferences to win 31 of their seats in this House,” Broadbent told the chamber on Monday night.
In 1996, Pauline Hanson claimed, falsely, that Australia was being swamped by Asians. Now she claims, falsely, that Australia is in danger of being swamped by Muslims. One Nation wants to shut down migration to Australia based on racial and religious prejudice. It wants to turn back history, to restore Australia to some imagined earlier state as a uniform, homogeneous, static society. This is not just a narrow-minded and impoverished vision for the future. It is also based on a myth about Australia’s past.
8.58pm GMT
Good morning,
The plebiscite bill is dead. The votes, 29 to 33. If you are confused about the numbers, given there are 75 senators (with Bob Day gone), there were lots of pairs for completely unrelated reasons. The Liberal senator Dean Smith abstained – a position he flagged well ahead of the vote. He called the plebiscite an attack on parliamentary sovereignty.
Stop playing politics with gay people’s lives, because that is all that you are doing. A vote against this bill is a vote against marriage equality. And those who claim to believe in marriage equality but nevertheless, for their own cynical, game-playing reasons, are determined to vote against it, should hang their heads in shame.
This is not where the fight for marriage equality ends. We now need Malcolm Turnbull to do what the old Malcolm Turnbull would have done … a free vote.
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