Scott Morrison taunts Labour about energy policy a day after Turnbull’s eviscerating speech about Bill Shorten. As it happened
6.49am GMT
The lower house has now adjourned people, so it is time to say goodnight and good luck.
6.18am GMT
6.16am GMT
As the country suffers a heat wave, the prime minister is really pushing the energy outrage.
Late today the cameras were invited down for him to address the energy committee of cabinet – something that happens rarely, if at all – for him to make some more remarks about what happens when governments follow an ideological approach to energy. He says Labor has been “complacently assuming that things would sort themselves out, without putting in place the measures to secure their electricity network”. Then he warned in WA the Labor opposition was also proposing a 50% renewables target.
5.31am GMT
question time is still utter crap.
5.26am GMT
5.12am GMT
There is an interesting development in the Senate. Remember the Four Corners episode on the salmon industry in Tasmania?
The Senate environment committee had questioned whether representatives of Tassal had improperly influenced a witness to the Senate inquiry into the fin-fish aquaculture industry in Tasmania.
4.51am GMT
You know how I said there was something in the water...
Labor MP Joanne Ryan: "Who put the red cordial in the PM's grange... it'll forever be known as the 'Know Your Place' speech!" pic.twitter.com/6qVQxkJhoI
4.48am GMT
@gabriellechan For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, & lose his own soul..for coal? (Matthew 16:26+) photo: @mpbowers pic.twitter.com/UGsfG1odQ2
4.43am GMT
DPM tries to keep it together.
4.34am GMT
There is much weirdness in the chamber.
4.30am GMT
Tanya Plibersek is speaking to a matter of public importance on “the government’s $30bn of cuts to schools hurting Australian children”.
She says the government has no education policy and outlines schools that have benefited from Labor’s Gonski funding.
4.19am GMT
F-F-F-F-F-Far out.
4.11am GMT
Shorten to Turnbull: Is it still your government’s policy to make Australians work until they’re 70 to get the aged pension and can the prime minister confirm that he is giving Australia the oldest aged pension in the developed world?
Turnbull flicks the question to Christian Porter, who promptly reads out former press releases from Wayne Swan and Jenny Macklin, not to mention an op-ed by the Labor economist and frontbencher Andrew Leigh.
She said increasing the aged pension age is a responsible reform to meet the challenge of an ageing population and the economic impact it will have for all Australians. Australia must move towards a higher pension age over the next decade.
He says a better approach would be to index upper age limits in all laws.
4.02am GMT
Labor’s Kate Ellis to Turnbull: In September last year, the government announced more than $3bn for its childcare policy. But legislation introduced by the government yesterday showed that this policy has now shrunk to a $1.6bn policy – half of the original amount that was promised by the prime minister. Why is the prime minister still making pensioners, new mums and over 1.5 million Australian families pay for his shrinking childcare package at the same time as giving a $50bn corporate tax cut to big business?
Turnbull says “we are delivering is exactly what we promised” but does not go to the overall cost envelope – the $3bn.
3.56am GMT
A government question on boats to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, allows him to attack Bill Shorten.
The Australian public knows – they instinctively know, when they look at this leader of the opposition – there is something that is not right. They have a hesitation about this leader of the opposition because they know that he says one thing to one part of the country and he says something very different to another part of the country.
3.55am GMT
This is the earlier question from the Greens MP Adam Bandt, which shows the very different tone Malcolm Turnbull is taking in parliament the last two days. Labor MPs are calling it the return of “Bad Malcolm” – a reference to the Annabel Crabb Quarterly Essay on the prime minister in which she said Turnbull had two sides, Good Malcolm and Bad Malcolm.
3.50am GMT
Labor’s Jenny Macklin to the social services minister, Christian Porter: I refer to his previous answer when he said, “We invest all of the money we’re saving in the family tax benefit system”. But, under the government’s policy, it’s cutting $2.7bn in family payments and only spending $1.6bn on its childcare policy. Is the minister aware he was misleading theAustralian people, or is he just plain incompetent?
Porter admits he made a mistake.
I should have said ‘almost all’. That is true, that is true.
3.46am GMT
The Kings of Coal.
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce juggles a lump of coal during #QT @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/9MAvfyWwn0
3.44am GMT
Labor to Frydenberg re South Australian blackouts: I refer to the statement recently released today by the operator of the Pelican Point power station which reads, “The second unit at Pelican Point is not able to provide a market response under the current rules of the NEM unless directed by the market operator”. Why did the federal regulator that reports to this minister force blackouts on South Australian households and businesses instead of directing Pelican Point to switch on the second unit?
Frydenberg says the energy market operator disputes Labor’s version of events.
Pelican Point could have come on with the high demand and the high prices. Now, the issue in South Australia was not Pelican Point. The issue in South Australia was the low supply from wind power.
3.40am GMT
Another government question on the South Australian blackouts and energy policy to Josh Frydenberg. The treasurer, Scott Morrison, also took a government question and brandished a block of coal at the opposition.
This is coal – don’t be afraid, don’t be scared.
3.37am GMT
Shorten to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that almost three million children are in families that receive family tax benefit part A. Prime minister, how many of these three million children are in families that will have their payments cut?
Turnbull flicks the question to social services minister Christian Porter.
All of those families with children of those ages stand to benefit from generation-changing childcare reforms.
3.32am GMT
In response to a Dorothy Dixer in Senate question time, communications minister Mitch Fifield, has revealed he’s written an angry letter to the board of Australia Post about executive pay after it was reported its chief executive, Ahmed Fahour, earns $5.6m.
Fified said that the prime minister, he and the community believe that pay packet is “out of step with community expectations”.
3.31am GMT
Greens MP Adam Bandt to Turnbull: The new United States president Donald Trump appears to be dangerously unhinged, has a sycophantic relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and is surrounded by far-right ideologues who seem hell-bent on war particularly in our region. So far, Australia has followed the US into war every time they’ve asked. Do you understand why Australians are worrying that you will lead Australia into another American-led war? Will you commit to a full parliamentary debate and decision before Australia follows the US into their next war?
Turnbull turns on Bandt. He says no party’s policy endangers Australia more than the Greens. He uses the endorsements of US politicians since the dreaded phone call as a restatement of the commitment to the Australian-US alliance and cuffs the Greens along the way.
As Theresa May said in the House of Commons, the honourable member is part of a protest movement, I’m the leader of a nation. I’m standing up for Australia’s security. You, the Greens party, would undermine it at every turn.
The American alliance is the foundation of our national security. It has been built by millions of Australians and Americans, on sacrifice, on standing shoulder-to-shoulder on every major conflict since the first world war.
3.25am GMT
Shorten to Turnbull: Kelly is a mum for Ballarat with three children in school aged 7, 8 and 11. Kelly says that she relies on family payments to keep her car on the road, which she says is her only means of getting her children to and from school. The prime minister’s cuts to family payments mean that Kelly will lose around $1,000 a year. Why is the prime minister taking money from families like Kelly, but still persisting with a $50 billion tax giveaway to large businesses, big banks and multinationals?
Turnbull says:
I assume the business tax cuts that the honourable member referred to are the ones that, in 2012, he said delivered productivity, investment, jobs and economic growth.
I mean, this leader of the opposition says one thing in one place and another in another place, depending on what the audience is, and whether it suits him.
3.19am GMT
Every government question has been about energy and affordable power so far.
3.18am GMT
Labor’s Mark Butler to Josh Frydenberg, energy minister: Why did the Australian Energy Market Operator – the federal regulator that reports to this minister – force blackouts on South Australians last night, when there was sufficient spare gas generation capacity at Pelican Point which the federal regulator refused to turn on?
The government benches roars in feigned outrage.
Wind power fell to 2.5% of supply yesterday in South Australia. At times, it can provide up to 80%. So the whole problem was the failure to provide sufficient wind. I mean, the only wind blowing in South Australia is the hot air of the Labor Party, Mr Speaker.
The reality is the market operator and the market commission actually pointed to the failure in South Australia because there is this increase in the generation of intermittent power...the market operator has made it very clear he disputes the Labor Party - Jay Weatherill and the Federal Labor Party - trying to blame the umpire for the bad game that they’ve played when it comes to South Australia’s energy mix.
3.09am GMT
There has been general argument on Turnbull’s answer. Tanya Plibersek objected to his shouting, to which Turnbull replied it was the content she was objecting to. Labor’s leader of opposition business Tony Burke described it as insane. Speaker Smith gave Burke a lecture, warning him not to reflect on his judgements.
3.05am GMT
The attorney general, George Brandis, has appointed June Oscar as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner in the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Oscar is a Bunuba woman and community leader from the central Kimberley region of Western Australia. She is currently the CEO of the Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing.
3.04am GMT
Shorten to Turnbull: After repeatedly refusing to say exactly how many Australian families will be worse off because of the prime minister’s cuts to family payments, the government today was forced to admit the 1.5 million Australian families who receive family payments will be worse off. Why is the prime minister cutting the living standards of 1.5 million Australian families?
Malcolm Turnbull is on his feet shouting.
Why is he threatening the jobs of every Australian? Do you want to know how many Australian families will be worse off under a government led by this man? Every single one. Every single one. How many South Australians are worse off because of the Labor left ideological approach to power? I tell you, every single one. Every single one that wants to turn the lights on, wants to put the air conditioner on, wants to have a job, wants to have some investment. The Labor party threats every job, every business.
2.55am GMT
Labor MP Pat Conroy has delivered his Turnbull gags.
Over the PM’s leadership, we have seen Abraham Turnbull, who grew up in a log cabin.
This government is deeply out of touch.
2.51am GMT
Labor MPs are using their 90-second statements before question time to take the mickey out of Malcolm on the speech.
Tim Watts said as a public school boy, he knows what toffs and snobs mean when they say call someone a social climber.
It means don’t rise above your station.
2.18am GMT
Excuse me, while I perambulate the building to guard against deep vein thrombosis.
1.52am GMT
Greens Rachel Siewert lost a motion to change the date of Australia Day after Labor and the Coalition voted it down.
All sides of parliament, particularly Labor, purport to advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In this instance, they have turned their back on them.
1.48am GMT
As a reminder, when Ian Macdonald suggests that former politicians should get a say, there was that case in the high court last year.
Four former federal politicians lost their high court challenge over reduced post-parliamentary perks, AAP reported.
The four – a Howard government defence minister, John Moore, the Hawke government minister Barry Cohen and Labor MPs Barry Cunningham and Anthony Lamb – had used the same legal principle made noteworthy by the Australian comedy movie The Castle.
They argued their entitlements under the Superannuation Act and to a life gold travel pass were their property which had been acquired by the commonwealth other than on the just terms required by a section in the constitution.
1.35am GMT
FYI Independent senator Cory Bernardi is directing business in the Senate from the chair. (It works on a roster system.)
1.27am GMT
LNP Senator Ian Macdonald would like to reinstate the Life Gold Pass, the free travel pass for politicians that was dumped by his government .
Earlier this morning, Macdonald revealed a few of his thoughts on the Gold card move.
As I said in our party room the other day: I do not want to indicate what was said in the party room but these are my own thoughts, not the party room’s thoughts especially. It is about time our leaders – all of our leaders, and Senator Di Natale would be a good start – started emphasising how much work politicians do, how much commitment most of the people who sit in this parliament – most, I might add – have. They are here because they believe in Australia and they believe that they can make a contribution to Australia. By the standards in the community they do not get particularly well-paid, and there are hundreds of examples of that.
Someone has to stand up, rather than just Senator Ludlam joining the populist theme and denigrating by innuendo everybody in this chamber and the other chamber, and start arguing for politicians, arguing for parliamentarians, saying why they are there.
1.11am GMT
Labor is now moving in the Senate to refer the omnibus savings-childcare bill to a committee for a short inquiry.
Speaking on the same bill, Greens leader Richard Di Natale says the tactic of combining “nasties” with some reasonable reforms is a tactic imported from the US. He also notes by calling the bill and “omnibus” it covers the fact that the bill has some fairly severe welfare cuts from the 2014 Abbott budget.
12.53am GMT
Energy policy has been a theme in this first sitting week and I am just running this up the flag because I think we could – granny pants required* – see changes in this area at some stage.
So to step back.
Now, people say, “Oh, well, they don’t own the resources.” Well, that historically is incorrect, because hydrocarbonous (sic) material – coal, oil, gas – in many instances was vested with the landholder.
It was divested from the landholder without payment by a range of acts over the last 100 years.
12.11am GMT
It is Thursday and the last sitting day so I thought I would bring you peak irony.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Andrew Forrest has warned thousands of Australians will lose their jobs if Labor continues to block the government’s company tax cuts. The report says:
Mining boss Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest said “self-interested” Labor and crossbench MPs should be kicked out of parliament if they refused to agree to business tax relief.
Andrew Forrest would say that, wouldn’t he? It is in his interests to see company taxes reduced. He is entitled to his opinion. What I think is a bigger problem, that a million Australian families will have family payments reduced. We have lost 130,000 apprenticeships in the last four years. That is a bigger problem. People have to pay upfront fees to get ballooned cancer tests. What is a problem is when we don’t have needs-based funding in schools. We have over 700,000 people unemployed, over a million of our fellow Australians who regularly record they would like more work, people who have given up looking for work. Pensioners are worried about changes to the pension assets test. Mr Forrest and Mr Turnbull can worry about large corporates, I will worry about the people of Australia.
12.00am GMT
It’s hard to look serious next to a dinosaur.
11.57pm GMT
It is disappointing that Labor would oppose the omnibus bill.
11.54pm GMT
Just let me cut away to a debate in the Senate on the national integrity commission bill. Labor received support yesterday to establish another Senate inquiry into establishing a national Icac. The Greens have today introduced their old bill, dated 2013, which would immediately establish a national corruption body. It would:
We need to shine a light we need to clean up that river [of donations] because at the moment the waters are murky.
11.36pm GMT
Shorten is asked about George Christensen’s threat to cross the floor and vote for Bob Katter’s proposed commission of inquiry into the banks.
I will believe it when I see it. George is big in Canberra, he is big in his local constituencies, but I hope he stands up for a royal commission vote in Canberra. The banks do need a royal commission. Labor will, if elected, implement a royal commission into the banks because something has to give. We see scandal after scandal in banking and there is always the apologies and ‘we have learned our lesson’ until the next time. I hope George Christensen votes for a royal commission.
11.32pm GMT
Bill Shorten:
What turns people off politics is the absolute – just yelling at each other. I am not perfect. I won’t say that. What I do understand is that we have to try and lift out of politics and go to a better place to restore confidence and politics. That is why we are seeing the rise of minor parties. People feel the mainstream politicians are always on at each other like a Punch and Judy show.
11.30pm GMT
Bill Shorten on Turnbull’s speech:
For me, what was important yesterday isn’t his name calling, what is important yesterday is that the government put forward proposals to cut the family payments to a million Australian families. That is what Labor does. We stand up for middle and working class Australians. Mr Turnbull, on the other hand, he is clearly showing signs of pressure in the job.
11.27pm GMT
I am relaxed in my own skin.
11.25pm GMT
Bill Shorten is speaking now at his press conference.
He repeats his line that he feels sorry for Turnbull because he is under leadership pressure.
I have been representing workers for years. My dad was a fitter and turner. I am relaxed in my own skin.
11.21pm GMT
Overnight, South Australia has been sweltering through more blackouts. The ABC reported:
South Australia’s energy minister is furious with the Australian Energy Market Operator after tens of thousands of South Australian homes were blacked out last night in scorching conditions.
As the temperature hovered about 40C at 6.30pm, power was cut to more than 40,000 homes for more than half an hour.
They want to blame it on everybody else. I suppose they could blame it on the wind because it wasn’t blowing yesterday. You know something, the history is in SA, which does have a history of heatwaves, when they have the biggest heatwave, there is no wind. When there is no wind, all their windmills don’t generate electricity. They haven’t planned for that. This is not an issue about the virtues of fossil fuel, one type or another, or wind energy or renewable energy, this is an issue about competence.
11.13pm GMT
One more from Paul Karp.
AG can order expenses body not to publish report on national security grounds #auspol pic.twitter.com/Ku6rKtsNpJ
11.04pm GMT
The expenses authority is not all sweetness and light. Paul Karp found these.
Pollies don't have to give new expenses authority documents that incriminate them. A right denied to workers inABCC bill! #auspol #ausunions pic.twitter.com/LhhHSlpmRG
Expenses authority can choose not to publish report based on "serious harm to individual". Does this include reputational harm? #auspol pic.twitter.com/R3PRYW1Dca
10.43pm GMT
.@TurnbullMalcolm has introduced a new expenses bill to parliament, saying ‘public money should be spent appropriately’ #auspol pic.twitter.com/Eb566ZCyN3
10.40pm GMT
Malcolm Turnbull is now speaking to the independent parliamentary expenses authority bill, the body that will manage politicians expenses. (This came about after the downfall of health minister Sussan Ley over the Christmas break.)
He said there would be monthly disclosures and the authority would start work on 1 July.
10.32pm GMT
He continues:
Politics is about many issues. It is about policies, it is about character. It is about strength of character. I back myself. I am my own man. I can’t be bought by anyone. I don’t suck up to billionaires. I look them in the eye and when I need to I take them on.
Bill Shorten sold his members out again and again and they know that. It is one of the oldest unions in Australia, perhaps the oldest, the Australian workers union. He sold their members out. That is a fact. That is not rhetoric. That is not a political line. That is fact. It is in the royal commission. He sold them out then, he is selling them out now and he will sell them out again because that is his character.
Bill Shorten has made the case for reducing company tax as eloquently as anyone. He will say anything to suit his purpose. Let’s be quite frank. Bill Shorten doesn’t have the character to be prime minister of Australia. He does not have the integrity to be leader of the opposition, to be leader of the Labor party.
10.25pm GMT
Malcolm Turnbull is going Shorten again.
He wants to play the politics of envy but he’s been a sycophant. Everybody knows. That everybody knows that. No union leader has tucked his knees under more billionaires’ tables than Bill Shorten. Everyone knows that. Those criticisms rang true and the people who know him best are his own colleagues. They know he is a fake. He has no integrity, no consistency. He doesn’t have a fair dinkum bone in him.
10.15pm GMT
Labor backbencher, Rob Mitchell, rarely sighted on the early doorstops, said this of the prime minister:
Yesterday, we’ve seen extraordinary events where the prime minister proved that he’s out of touch, arrogant and petulant.
We’ve seen the big dummy-spit as the silverspoon got spat across the dispatch box when he was questioned about his attack on families.
10.09pm GMT
Labor's @RobMitchellMP says government's changes to childcare/family payments signal "if you're not a billionaire, you're not worth s***"
10.04pm GMT
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce further defined the Turnbull message to Sabra Lane on AM.
We had to put up with Mr Shorten coming out and he knows what he’s doing, he’s creating this class warfare, calling Mr Turnbull Mr Harbourside Mansion.
And as I’ve said before, if I’m going to have a choice between someone running the country with the arse out of their pants who’s never made a buck or someone who has made a dollar, got ahead – remember Mr Turnbull owns a nice stack on the harbour because he’s worked very hard and been successful.
We’re not going to have Mr Shorten bucketing on us and take it on the chin every day. If that’s where Mr Shorten wants to go, we’re ready, willing and able to reply. He’s completely and utterly incompetent. He couldn’t run a pie shop and the thought of him running the country fills me with dread.
9.50pm GMT
There has been some reaction to the Turnbull speech from his colleagues.
Energy and environment minister Josh Frydenberg said Turnbull was talking to the people of Australia when he gave the speech because Bill Shorten was not fit to be prime minister.
He was speaking to the people of Australia, not just the colleagues in the party room. Bill Shorten is not fit to be prime minister.
9.44pm GMT
Let’s take a moment to sketch out the day.
The prime minister has a press conference this morning on childcare at 9am and Bill Shorten is at 9.30am on skills.
9.26pm GMT
Good morning blogans,
I trust you have all had a fitful sleep after yesterday and are ready to get amongst it on this, the last day of the sitting week.
Mr Turnbull was clearly fired up but that’s about saving his job. I mean this may sound a little incongruous, a little unusual, but I feel a little bit for Malcolm at the moment. He’s under great pressure. We take our orders in Labor from the middle and working class of Australia. Now, it is true that I was good friend with the late Richard Pratt. He died eight years ago. I think that Malcolm Turnbull wants to criticise our position on families and we have that argument. We should do that. But I think he was showing pressure when he referred to a bloke who died eight years ago. We’ve got to lift the tone of debate.
Firstly I thought it was shrill, desperate, un-prime ministerial. It was personal. The context here of course was that Bill Shorten had moved a motion about the government’s cuts to family tax benefits … what was Malcolm Turnbull’s speech about? Was it about Australians? Was it about the people who would be worse off? No. It was about him and Bill Shorten. The guy’s obsessed with Bill Shorten.
Bill Shorten was a pragmatic union secretary, who got things done for his members but took a sensible approach working with employers on big major infrastructure projects. Sometimes union leaders are accused of not doing enough of that.
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