PM will not commit to Indigenous recognition referendum until there is consensus – as it happened

With the day winding down, we are going to close the blog off for the night.

We’ll be back tomorrow morning for the last sitting day of the week – there’s a one week break before the next sitting, so don’t get too comfortable.

Given the mood in this place, it looks like it will be a mad rush to the airport come the Thursday adjournment.

But we have one more question time to get through before that, so brace yourself.

A massive thank you to the Guardian brains trust, and Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Mike Bowers and Paul Karp.

And thank you, as always, to you, for following along and making the day interesting. We truly appreciate it.

We’ll see you tomorrow. Please – take care of you.

Meanwhile, over in the Senate:

Question time, as seen by Mike Bowers:

Mr Self Aware:

Some special guests:

Spot the difference:

Malcolm Roberts is once again in the Senate arguing that no one has provided the empirical evidence that carbon dioxide is leading to a warmer climate.

Or something.

I was too busy reaching for my alfoil to pay much attention.

An inquiry into the auditing industry has been pushed back to September.

From finance committee chair, James Paterson:

The committee has worked hard to meet the original deadline set by the Senate and is ready to report.

We have held four public hearings and heard from all major submitters including Asic twice, Apra, the ATO, the ANAO, Treasury, the major accounting firms, two banks, standards bodies, academics and independent experts. Further hearings will not change the recommendations, and will just delay the government’s response.

Those who rely on the transparent and effective operation of auditing in Australia shouldn’t have to wait any longer for action to improve confidence in the industry.

The government is looking for a new way to deport Indigenous people who were not born in Australia, or who can not prove citizenship, following yesterday’s high court ruling.

As Paul Karp reports:

The Morrison government is looking to sidestep the high court’s decision that Aboriginal non-citizens cannot be deported using the aliens power by using other powers instead, the attorney general has said.

Responding to the high court’s landmark decision on Tuesday, Christian Porter said he found “great strength of reasoning” in chief justice Susan Kiefel’s minority judgment and the government may be able to legislate to deport the “not very large” group of Aboriginal non-citizens who have committed crimes in another way.

In a four-to-three decision, the high court held that Aboriginal people with sufficient connection to traditional societies cannot be aliens and therefore are beyond the reach of existing deportation laws which depend on the aliens power in section 51 (xix) of the constitution.

Darren Chester:

Today I felt unwell and experienced a brief moment of disorientation while sitting in the House of Representatives.

I received prompt attention from colleagues with medical backgrounds and House attendants.

After being examined by a nurse at Parliament House, and on the advice of health professionals, I attended Canberra hospital for some tests which cleared me of any serious medical issues.

I’ve been advised that my temporary condition was likely to have been fatigue-related and I’m able to continue my duties as a local MP and minister from tomorrow.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to the colleagues from both sides of the chamber who came to my assistance, the parliamentary staff and the outstanding team at Canberra hospital who treated me. My apologies for causing such alarm during the prime minister’s important speech on ‘Closing the Gap’ on Indigenous disadvantage.

Thank you to the many people who have contacted my office to express their best wishes.

In addition to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation voting with the government, Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff abstained on that motion.

Griff told Guardian Australia: “Motions are a conscience vote for Centre Alliance, they are never party votes. I absolutely support the Senate being given at least summary details of the Gaetjens report, but not actions to humiliate any member of parliament, as this motion did.”

Griff argued the motion created no real consequences for the government, because it would be free to appoint someone other than Mathias Cormann to represent the prime minister.

He suggested an alternative would have been to reorder or restrict the time for government business in the Senate, which he “would’ve been far more likely to agree to”.

“Sending someone to naughty chair is a personal attack. I supported the premise, but not the penalty of humiliating a member of parliament.”

Griff confirmed that MP Rebekha Sharkie agreed with his view, and that he had told senator Rex Patrick (who was in favour of the motion) that he planned to abstain.

He lives. Officially.

The vote is 36 to 35.

Stirling Griff was absent from the chamber from what I can see.

It probably shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a consensus in a party room of three. But it looks like Centre Alliance has managed to defy expectations.

Seems like the actual battle might be within Centre Alliance, given Pauline Hanson’s dumping there.

Pauline Hanson says she signed the motion, but it “disturbed her”.

She tells the chamber that Rebekha Sharkie came to her office expressing concern, and Stirling Griff also called her to express concern about the precedent the motion would set.

Except ... Rex Patrick just stood up to say that Centre Alliance was supporting the motion.

Hanson says she is concerned that the Senate will be “blamed for overstepping our power here” and she “won’t wear it”.

Pauline Hanson has seemingly pointed the finger at Rebekha Sharkie as the reason she has withdrawn her support:

Centre Alliance in the Senate is supporting the motion.

She said yes, then she said no. But she’s not a flip-flopper.

For the motion to pass, there needs to be an absolute majority. One Nation out makes it 38 each, meaning the motion will fail.

Mathias Cormann has argued that “selection of the leader of government in the Senate is exclusively a matter for the government”.

Cormann argued by analogy, if the principle is accepted, that a majority of the members of the House of Representatives could do the same and “remove the leader of the opposition for three weeks”.

He said:

“It would be completely inappropriate and we would never do it. Because unlike those opposite we respect the institution of the parliament.

“This is a political stunt. The fact Labor is supporting and proposing this motion reflects very badly on all of you. Let me say to those Labor senators who have not been ministers before ... who aspire to be Senate ministers in future: Be very wary of letting those who came before box you into precedents you will have to live with.”

“We all understand that this is a political stunt,” says Mathias Cormann.

“The fact that Labor is sponsoring and supporting this motion reflects very badly on all of you.”

Cormann says the Senate is boxing itself into a dangerous precedent if it passes the motion.

Mathias Cormann is continuing to claim public interest immunity.

He says in the *90-year history of the Senate, the sanctions are unprecedented, and it is the government’s view the Senate is attempting exceed its powers (they want to remove Cormann as the representative of the prime minister, if he doesn’t hand over the report).

*This previously said 190 – my fault – slip of the finger

Mathias Cormann is doing his “no, you can’t have it” speech in response to the Senate motion to hand over the Gaetjens report into the sports grant affair.

The Senate is about to vote on the motion which would strip Mathias Cormann of his ability to represent the prime minister in the Senate and estimates next week, unless the government tables the PM&C sports grant affair report.

I am going to assume this was Ed Husic, because it is always Ed Husic:

And question time ends.

Mike Kelly to Mark Coulton:

Can you explain why the government has cut Medicare bulk-billing incentives in my bushfire-affected electorate, making it harder for doctors to bulk-bill children and pensioners?

Coulton:

I will remind the member for Eden-Monaro that the changes that he is referring to passed this House on 14 October unopposed.

I welcome the opportunity on a day like today to speak about rural health. On the day where we announced another 100 training places for the Royal Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, generalist pathways putting doctors into areas such as the honourable member’s electorate ... There has been no change to the regulation.

The changes are an update from the bureau of statistics. They are agreed by both sides of this House.

It is important to remember that this policy is to service regional and rural, remote education, health and those changes are purely on the demographics of the areas mentioned. There’s been no change to bulk-billing.

Tony Burke:

The minister just referred specifically to a piece of legislation he alleged had passed this House, I ask him to table it. Because it doesn’t exist.

Chris Bowen to Mark Coulton:

I refer to his previous answer in which he claimed there have been no cuts to bulk-billing incentives. Can the minister explain what the financial incentive was in dollar terms to affected areas before the government’s change, and what it is now?

Coulton (who has been given some notes on this in between the last question and this one):

I welcome the opportunity to add to my last answer. The changes that were made were geographic changes.

They were not changed by electorate. They were changed by geographical area from the bureau of statistics.

I can confirm that – and I think it’s important to know – that rural bulk-billing incentives go to rural areas.

That’s the idea ... The idea of rural and regional incentives ... all doctors who bulk-bill, regardless of their location, will continue to be eligible for bulk-billing incentive.

These changes relate to the higher rural bulk-billing incentive.

And the government has delayed these implementations from the 1st of July 2019 until the 1st of January to allow these practices to come to terms with these changes.

And I can assure the members, if they want their doctors to find out more about this, they can go to check their modified Monash classifications on the Doctor Connect website.

Oh the lols:

Nothing is as funny as a lack of accountability within our democratic systems. Nothing.

I think Labor may have found a new target for its wounded gazelle strategy.

Chris Bowen to Mark Coulton:

Can the minister confirm that of the 14 regions affected by cuts to Medicare bulk-billing initiative, eight are in Liberal electorates, six are in Labor electorates, but none are in Nationals electorates?

Coulton:

I can confirm there has been no cuts to GP bulk-billing. There has been a change – there has been a change – to geographic location using information from the bureau of statistics.

And that is an update on information from 30 years ago. And so, areas – outer metropolitan areas that may have been regional are now part of larger metropolitan areas.

And so they are the ones that are impacted. But GPs in those areas are still eligible for district-of-workforce priority. They still can bulk-bill, and those changes have not happened.

This is interesting – from Katharine Murphy:

David Littleproud is continuing his exciting foray into the world of green ties.

Uhhhhh, no we haven’t.

That’s the point.

That’s why all of this is happening.

Literally the reason it is happening.

There are not enough evens IN THE WORLD to can’t with this.

When are we getting a federal integrity commission?

Like dinner, it will be ready when it’s ready, Christian Porter says.

Following the playbook to the letter, Michael McCormack has taken the well-trodden embattled leader’s path to a camera, to talk about how everything is just fine and there are no problems in the party he leads.

This particular camera belongs to the Nine Network, which reports the bowl of soggy Weet-Bix that serves as the deputy prime minister has told Chris Uhlmann that he’s getting on with the job and his parliamentary colleagues – a whole other 20 people – should do the same.

“I was sent here to do a job, I wasn’t sent here to lead a rabble, a destabilised rabble,” McCormack told the network.

Angus Taylor sits down, so Tony Burke asks him to table the document and the web address he got it from.

Taylor tables it.

Angus Taylor just said the words:

Mr Speaker, I have here a document ...

And the House just exploded in laughter.

Siri: show me self awareness.

Anthony Albanese stands to tell the Speaker:

You won’t be surprised we want to check the validity of the document ... we want to know if it’s real or not.

Mike Kelly to Scott Morrison:

Prime minister, the Liberal member for Bega, Andrew Constance, reflecting my own experience in the region, stated:

“At the forums I’ve been at over the past two nights, the plea for help from business is about protecting casual employees and the need for a cash injection now. People are reluctant about loans.”

On Monday, the prime minister ridiculed Labor for standing up for businesses that don’t want to take on more debt. Does the prime minister have the same response to the Liberal member for Bega?

Morrison (after updating on the uptake of government assistance):

The suggestion being made that, somehow, the government should be providing an insurance for income loss, Mr Speaker, across the country in relation to any natural disaster.

... Mr Speaker, it is not the government’s policy to provide cashflow assistance for businesses for income loss that have not had direct impact on natural disasters.

That is the policy followed by the Labor government when they were in power.

It is the policy that we applied to other natural disasters, in particular up in north Queensland, whether up in Townsville or across the areas affected by those floods, Mr Speaker, in the areas you’re talking about, there is some 165,082 businesses alone that have employees.

If we were to follow the approach that Labor seem to be suggesting, that alone would be some $8bn and, if you applied it to all businesses, it would be $22bn.

Mr Speaker, the opposition cannot be taken seriously when they’re suggesting those sorts of figures.

Winston Churchill is shaking in his grave with the oration skills being displayed by Angus Taylor here, and that noise you hear is Don Watson furiously taking notes on speech writing:

There is a blanket moratorium on gas in Victoria. When it comes to those deals – when it comes to these deals, whether it’s New South Wales or Victoria, the principle is very simple.

No gas, no cash.

That’s right, Mr Speaker. The principle’s simple – no gas, no cash.

Angus Taylor is speaking and Angus Taylor is very pleased to be hearing from Angus Taylor.

I mean....

Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:

Can the treasurer confirm that under the Morrison government annual wages growth in every single quarter has been lower than in any quarter under the last Labor government?

Frydenberg:

I can confirm – I can confirm that, today, real wages are growing at 0.6%, and that under Labor real wages were growing at just 0.4%, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, the reality is, under Labor, the real minimum wage went down in three out of the six years they were in government. Under us, real minimum wages have gone up every year under us.

Mr Speaker, the way to boost wages is through cutting taxes. And there’s only one side of this House that took to the Australian people $387bn of higher taxes. And it was the genius – the member for Rankin – together with the member for McMahon – who came up with $387bn of higher taxes, which the member for Rankin said he was proud and pleased of.

Frydenberg sits down, but the next dixer is interrupted by Chalmers and Frydenberg continuing their back and forth from the benches.

It’s like watching a cat that has spotted itself in the mirror.

Michael McCormack is saying letters in the order which form words, but no matter how hard he tries it just comes out as white noise.

Tony Burke to Scott Morrison:

Yesterday, the electricians and plumbers’ union was ordered to pay a fine for minor paperwork breaches, a fine which is double the amount that celebrity chef George Calombaris’s businesses were ordered to pay for stealing the wages of more than 500 workers. Why does the government always have one rule for workers, and another for employers?

Morrison:

Well the penalty imposed upon the CEPU was determined by an independent judge of the federal court of Australia, applying the Labor government’s own laws, Mr Speaker.

He continues, but it boils down to unions are pretty terrible, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Bob Katter said some things about risking his life and crocodiles and the over-valued dollar and the Great Barrier Reef and I can’t type any more because I got whiplash trying to follow it all.

Pat Turner, the lead convenor for the coalition of peaks, has spoken powerfully on the Closing the Gap report, saying it would be “easy to get overwhelmed” by the continued lack of progress shown in the annual report card against the targets.

“It is a widening gap in life expectancy, soaring rates of incarceration, with our people dying in custody, our children taken away from their families and culture, and the missed opportunities in education and employment through daily experiences of racism,” she said.

“At their heart, the issues our people face is a lack of recognition of our equal place in Australia as First Peoples with our own culture, language and practices.

”This lack of recognition has enabled the systemic dispossession of land, population displacement, removal of our children, and prejudice in everyday life, and outright discrimination.

“We cannot be genuine about closing the gap until we end this denial.”

Turner said government needed to be “upfront” about how disadvantage had been entrenched in the country’s institutions and structures.

She also said she hoped a new approach that gave Indigenous groups a greater say in policy development, rather than programs “designed by government for us”.

“We know that when services are delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, the outcomes are much better.”

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, said he was looking forward to a future for indigenous Australians that was “much stronger and better”, with indigenous Australians having a greater say.

Labor’s Linda Burney said she wanted to believe that “we are on the cusp of doing business differently – we must.”

“We cannot consign another generation of young black kids in this country to brutality, to sacrifice, to suicide. There has to be a new way forward.”

Labor’s second volley of questions in the Senate is from Jess Walsh to Simon Birmingham, about Matt Canavan’s interjection yesterday that the government has “not yet” funded new coal power plants.

Birmingham said the government is funding two feasibility studies for projects in Queensland: “Nothing more, nothing less.”

Labor’s Murray Watt starts interjecting in Canavan’s direction “Nothing more – don’t get too excited.” Canavan plays it cool, keeping his nose buried in a colourful copy of the Closing the Gap report.

Birmingham said if the feasibility studies show the projects stack up, that will be the time to gauge the private sector’s enthusiasm for them: “You would expect to see investment flow into projects that stack up, that is how the commercial market works.”

Birmingham objects to Walsh characterising his remarks yesterday as ruling out government funding for new coal power stations, noting he had only said it is not government policy.

Greg Hunt adds to that answer:

In terms of potable water, the prime minister has set out the position, commitment and work we’re doing on that front. In terms of keeping dialysis – I had the privilege, with the minister for Indigenous Affairs, of visiting People House in Alice Springs, focusing on a $23m announcement for kidney dialysis.

We know that renal failure and renal damage is an immensely important issue in Indigenous Australia, along with a number of areas of eradicating avoidable Indigenous blindness, eradicating avoidable Indigenous deafness, eradicating heart disease ...

What we also want to do is make sure that we help to work towards eradicating avoidable kidney failure. So the $23m to Purple House is our commitment, and we will always continue to work with them on their needs, but we know this is important. I have seen the cases. I have visited the site.

I have worked with the minister for Indigenous Affairs, as well as people on all sides, and I have to say Purple House is a great Australian initiative, supported by people on all sides of this House, and it’s about saving lives and protecting lives in Indigenous Australia.

Linda Burney to Scott Morrison:

There are Indigenous communities in remote Australia that don’t have access to kidney dialysis because they don’t have pottable water. Prime minister, I have been to these places. Will you commit to ensuring that all communities in Australia have clean water?

Morrison:

This was one of the important topics that I discussed with Pat Turner this morning. This is one of the critical things that needs to be put in place to support the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples right across the country.

As she reminded me this morning, that is made more difficult because of recent events around bushfires and drought which has complicated the water potability for Indigenous Australians in so many parts of the country.

So I can agree with the member who’s put this matter to us.

This is absolutely an issue that requires attention not just from commonwealth governments but from state governments as well, Mr Speaker.

And it will be a matter that will be getting important attention through the process which I outlined in my previous answer to the earlier question. It will also be one as we pursue our water policies across the country.

Government dixers have moved from Closing the Gap to energy.

Apparently the opposition is “riven with division” on the issue.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA. Oh the irony. It burns.

A lot of that seemed aimed at his own party room, rather than the opposition.

Anthony Albanese:

Will the prime minister hold a referendum in this term to enshrine a First Nations voice to parliament in our constitution?

Morrison says he has a broad position on the issue, but that his main goal is success of the referendum:

What I’m interested in is that such a proposition would be successful. Success is the goal that I would seek in pursuing that agenda.

And it’s an agenda that I am pursuing, and the minister for Indigenous Australians is pursuing.

And one of the things I’ve learned – carefully – from the minister for Indigenous Australians - is you need to keep walking together until you can find the point where there is an agreement that would enable such an important recognition to be achieved.

So I am not going to allow, Mr Speaker, any timetables to prevent the successful achievement of this result.

My position on this matter I’ve set out very clearly, Mr Speaker. Those opposite have a very different view as to the manner and form of this to those in the government. And I think that presents, Mr Speaker, a lack of consensus.

What we will do ... is continue to pursue the bipartisan recommendations of the joint select committee, and I thank the member for Berowra and the other members of the committee, Mr Speaker, who put forward those recommendations and put forward a process of co-design as the way forward.

That’s what we’re doing. That’s our policy. We will continue to apply ourselves to that process. I hope we’re able to achieve a consensus at an early opportunity. But, Mr Speaker, in the absence of a consensus ... I am not going to go down a path that would see something important such as this result in a failure.

Ken Wyatt takes a dixer on the Closing the Gap update today. It echoes what we have heard from the prime minister earlier.

But he finishes with this:

I’ve asked the agency now to always engage with our people on all initiatives that we do.

They are not to tell communities what they need. They are to sit, identify the challenge, work on solutions.

But I also want to ask all of us in this chamber to do the same. To engage in our electorates. To listen to the voices of the people at the local level.

Many of us do it well. Some of us, it depends on time.

But if we do this consistently and we bring in the feedback [from] ... the Aboriginal community, then let me say that we will have an outcome that is an exemplar for the future, and we can collectively take credit for the way in which we’ve engaged in a real way.

Labor’s Pat Dodson sends the first volley of questions to Anne Ruston, representing the Indigenous affairs minister.

Ruston did not commit to hold a referendum on constitutional recognition this term, saying instead that the “one thing that we’ve absolutely given categorical commitment on is to work with First Australians”. Recognition will be “informed by a co-design process”.

Dodson asks if the government has ruled out constitutional entrenchment of a voice, what form of recognition in the constitution it is proposing. Ruston dodges, arguing recognition is an “iterative process”. So she hasn’t ruled out the voice may (eventually) be included in the constitution.

Linda Burney to Scott Morrison:

I refer to the fact that five out of the seven Closing the Gap targets have not been met or are not on track. Will one of the 14 new targets set in April be a justice target?

Morrison:

I thank the member for her question and I thank her for her constructive support of the process we are now going through in the establishment of the new Closing the Gap targets.

As the member would be aware, that is a process that is a cooperative process. It’s a process that involves state governments, the commonwealth government, but most importantly it is a process which is being driven by the coalition of peak groups led by Pat Turner.

And so, Mr Speaker, it would be presumptive of me, as prime minister, as a part of this process, to be seeking to prejudice that process and not listen – not listen to what the priorities are to be set by Indigenous Australians.

And that’s exactly what we’ll be doing. As I said today in my address on Closing the Gap: we want to see the gap from the eyes of Indigenous Australians.

I want the gaps to be defined by Indigenous Australians. And so there is an engagement to that end.

There will be a discussion of these matters in March of this year. And this is a process we’ve been working to for over a year now. And so I’ll be looking to that coalition of peaks, and Pat Turner, who has demonstrated amazing leadership in bringing all of those groups together, and most recently we met in the cabinet room, as I referred to earlier today. It was a tremendous meeting.

We are making great progress. So I look forward to the shared targets with the right data that can inform us as to how we’re tracking against those targets, where the responsibilities for meeting those targets are very clearly articulated.

The suggestion that this commonwealth parliament alone can act to address all of these targets is a misplaced notion, because state governments, Mr Speaker, are equally are part of this process. That’s not me saying, it Mr Speaker. It is Indigenous Australians through the coalition of peaks themselves. And that’s why this process, Mr Speaker, is a partnership. I intend to respect the partnership with Indigenous Australians.

And finally, James McGrath suggests “open and transparent” appointments – to the woman who was the prime minister’s captain’s pick.

Ms Buttrose, the third point of my plan to reform the ABC is that you could advise the Prime Minister that all appointments at the ABC should be open and transparent.

If you have time, perhaps you could discuss with the Prime Minister how the ABC might be able to reduce its $20 million travel budget.

These are just a few ideas. They aren’t radical, they aren’t unachievable; they’re actually very reasonable and very achievable.

The ABC must show how it can manage its existing budget before asking for a bigger one. Remember: its existing budget is over $1.1 billion—$1.1 billion of taxpayers’ money.

The ABC needs to be better, must be better, because if it isn’t it will no longer be taken seriously; it will become nothing more than a joke, and Australians won’t be amused.

I am still not sure why James McGrath has been butt-hurt over the national broadcaster, but he has come up with a three-point plan to “save” the ABC, which appears to have five points.

First, you could tell the prime minister you would like a wide-ranging independent review of the ABC, including of its charter and act.

The last time there was a serious review of the charter and the act was before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

So, like President Reagan standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate saying to the East Germans and the Soviets, ‘Tear down this wall,’ Ms Buttrose, I would like you to say to the prime minister: ‘Review this charter. Please have this charter reviewed.’

You should tell the prime minister you would like to look at new ways of funding the ABC to lessen the burden on taxpayers, because you are funded by the taxpayers of Australia.

You already have ABC ads on the ABC. Why can’t you have commercial ads on the ABC as a way of funding the national broadcaster?

It gets better:

Instead of the ABC continuing its good work, the ABC has already changed its focus from journalism to lobbying. It’s a joke, and no one is laughing.

So I have some free advice for the chair of the ABC, Ms Buttrose, and I won’t even charge Ms Buttrose and the ABC for it.

I won’t even charge them and then try to charge them some more because I didn’t think I’d charged them enough already. Ms Buttrose, it’s been briefed out that you’re going to meet the prime minister.

Before you meet with the prime minister, before you put the cart before the horse, you should look at ways to reduce spending and increase revenue.

You could look at the ways the ABC could live within its means and perhaps adopt my three-point plan to save the ABC – to save the ABC from itself.

For reasons known only to James McGrath (and his bid for Senate preselection, given the lack of Liberal spots and overflow of Liberal senators at the next election), he has decided to launch an attack on the ABC, just days after MPs of all persuasions praised it for its crucial role as emergency broadcaster during the summer:

What do you call a quiet Australian at the ABC? Lonely– very lonely. I wanted to open with a joke, because I read one on Monday. The joke went like this: the ABC, funded by taxpayers, runs out of money this year and every year – no matter how much and no matter how little – so they keep asking for more. It isn’t particularly funny, is it? That’s because it is no laughing matter. The ABC has a spending problem, not a revenue one. Actually, perhaps it has both. After all, it is funded by the taxpayers.

But before I turn to ways the ABC could reduce spending and increase revenue, I want to briefly reflect on its role during the recent weather events.

I acknowledge the role of the ABC over this period. This is what the ABC should do: report and provide factual information about events such as national disasters, with journalistic independence. The ABC exists to broadcast across the nation, including –probably especially – in rural and regional areas. That’s why it’s called the national broadcaster. But too many people I know no longer see the ABC as the national broadcaster. They see it as the un-Australian broadcaster.

Linda Burney has spoken to the ABC about today’s Closing the Gap report update and what needs to be done:

I think one of the really crucial things that was made, once again, by Anthony today and the prime minister, is the importance of bipartisanship.

The social justice condition of Aboriginal people is dire. We have seen improvements in some areas, but it’s still dire.

And the only way it’s going to be fully addressed is through a partnership with First Peoples. That’s in place. And that’s very good. But it has to be a partnership, in my view, across the parliament.

Oh excellent.

Meanwhile:

Travel advice for China remains at level four: do not travel.

Over in the Blue Room (the second most serious government press conference location) Greg Hunt, Marise Payne and the acting chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, are giving an update on coronavirus, which the WHO has now officially named COVID-19.

All 13 people on the second evacuation flight from Wuhan have been found to be negative.

Bob Katter’s press conference seems to be going well.

He has just called a journalist from the Australian a “socialist” and another reporter from AAP a “lily pad leftie”.

Alan Finkel:

Hydrogen is abundant. In fact, it’s the most abundant element in the universe. The only problem is that there is nowhere on Earth that you can drill a well and find hydrogen gas.

Don’t panic.

Fortunately, hydrogen is bound up in other substances. One we all know: water, the H in H-2-O.

We have two viable ways to extract hydrogen with near-zero emissions.

First, we can split water in a process called electrolysis, using renewable electricity.

Second, we can use coal and natural gas to split the water, and capture and permanently bury the carbon dioxide emitted along the way.

I know some may be sceptical, because carbon capture and permanent storage has not been commercially viable in the electricity generation industry.

But the process for hydrogen production is significantly more cost-effective for two crucial reasons.

First, since carbon dioxide is left behind as a residual part of the hydrogen production process, there is no additional step, and little added cost, for its extraction.

And second, because the process operates at much higher pressure, the extraction of the carbon dioxide is more energy efficient and it is easier to store.

Alan Finkel:

Natural gas is already making it possible for nations to transition to a reliable and relatively low emissions electricity supply.

Look at Britain, where coal-fired electricity generation has plummeted from 75% in 1990 to just 2% in 2019.

Driving this has been an increase in solar, wind and hydro electricity, up from 2% to 27%.

At the same time, and this is key to the delivery of a reliable electricity supply, electricity from natural gas increased from virtually zero in 1990 to more than 38% in 2019.

Closer to home, look at South Australia’s success in increasing solar and wind electricity to 51% in the last fiscal year. Again, natural gas is key to the stability of the electricity supply, accounting for 47%.

I am aware that building natural gas generators may be seen as problematic, and I will come back to that, but for now let’s assume that with solar, wind and natural gas we will achieve a reliable, low emissions electricity supply.

Is this enough? Not really.

We still need a high-density source of transportable fuel for long-distance, heavy-duty trucks.

We still need an alternative chemical feedstock to make the ammonia used to produce fertilisers.

We still need a means to carry clean energy from one continent to another.

Enter the hero: hydrogen.

Alan Finkel continues his address:

I want you to imagine a highway exclusively devoted to delivering the world’s energy.

Each lane is restricted to trucks that carry one of the world’s seven large-scale sources of primary energy: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, solar and wind.

Our current energy security, and we do have energy security, comes at a price: the carbon dioxide emissions from the trucks in the three busiest lanes – the ones for coal, oil and natural gas.

We can’t just put up roadblocks overnight to stop these trucks; they are carrying the overwhelming majority of the world’s energy supply.

But what if we expand clean electricity production carried by the trucks in the solar and wind lanes – three or four times over – into an economically efficient clean energy future.

Think electric cars instead of petrol cars. Think electric factories instead of oil-burning factories.

Cleaner and cheaper to run. A technology-driven orderly transition.

Problems wrought by technology, solved by technology.

The chief scientist continues:

The stunning technology advances I have witnessed in the past 10 years make me optimistic.

Renewable energy is booming worldwide, and is now being delivered at a markedly lower cost than ever before.

In Australia, the cost of producing electricity from wind and solar is now about $50 a megawatt-hour.

Even when the variability is firmed with storage, the price of solar and wind electricity is lower than existing gas-fired electricity generation and similar to new-build coal-fired electricity generation.

This has resulted in substantial solar and wind electricity uptake in Australia and, most importantly, projections of a 33% cut in emissions in the electricity sector by 2030, when compared with 2005 levels.

And this pricing trend will only continue with a recent United Nations report noting that in the last decade alone, the cost of solar electricity fell by 80% and is set to drop even further.

So we’re on our way. We can do this.

Time and again we have demonstrated that no challenge to humanity is beyond humanity.

But we cannot be naive about the scale of the task ahead. Nor can we afford to discard any of the tools at our disposal.

I have always maintained that the focus needs to be on outcomes. The outcome in this case is reduced atmospheric emissions. We should use whatever underlying technologies achieve the goal.

No matter what you may think of politicians in general, there are those who actually care about outcomes.

Anthony Albanese finishes with this:

To Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples I say you have been patient. Patient beyond any ordinary level of comprehension.

Your tenacity and your patience have been tested and your generosity has been truly humbling.

As a nation we are tantalisingly close to the cusp of something new. Not the reinvention of Australia but the realisation of a greater one.

An Australia that draws into its heart the generosity to heal and be healed, to honour and be honoured.

To find courage to begin the process of truth telling and national treaty making.

An Australia that is closing every one of the gaps, every one of the chasms that divide and belittle us all.

When we consider all of our achievements as a nation we should be confident that these challenges are not beyond us. Let us take them up and let our modern nation stand whole, proud and reconciled alongside this continent’s many ancient ones.

As that great Yunupingu said, we started a fire. We hope it turns bright for Australia.

Anthony Albanese:

Through it, we must come to grips with the realities of our colonial past, that began with the arrival of the first fleet in 1788.

Life could never be the same again.

Not for those watching from the shore. The latest on this continent’s unbroken line of generations stretching back over so many millennia. The world’s oldest continuing culture. How proud are we of that.

Not for the new arrivals, representatives of what they thought was the old world, to a world far older as they came together that day, collisions were set in train and as a new society steadily rose to its feet the mosaic of ancient societies was brought to its knees.

From that point, for our First Nations people it was a history shaped by brutality, a brutality sometimes born of misunderstanding but more often it was not.

A brutality that has echoed darkly through every generation that has followed.

Anthony Albanese:

Embarking upon truth telling hopefully will help us all towards liberation and the betterment of our nation.

We have been moving slowly beyond our erasure of Indigenous achievement. We are putting behind us what William Stanger called the cold of forgetfulness, the great Australian silence.

Look at what Bruce Pascoe has done with Dark Emu. In this one extraordinary book, Bruce has unearthed the knowledge we already had in our possession and chose to vary along the way.

Ignorance feeds in darkness.

Bruce has simply reminded us where the light switch is.

And with the flick of the switch, the complex mosaic of ancient nations is suddenly laid before us in light as bright as those early European explorers first saw it and recorded it.

The voice cannot be the end of the story, but must be followed by truth telling, and the telling of that truth must be entire.

Anthony Albanese:

At its most basic level, the denial of a constitutionally enshrined voice is a denial of the Australian instinct for a fair go.

Despite all the tests it is put through, the instinct for a fair go remains one of the great defining points of our national character.

The voice is a modest request that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples be consulted about issues and policies that directly affect them. That’s what it is. It is not a third chamber.

It is not deliberative. It merely seeks to put a structure around what we would all regard, as Australians, as decency, as courtesy, and as respect, that where something is going to have an impact on someone else, we talk to them.

That’s what the voice is. Nothing greater than that, but also nothing less. Nothing less.

And it shouldn’t be beyond our capacity to take the hand of friendship which has been reached out to us and is waiting to be shaken.

Because that is an act of extraordinary generosity, given the history of our great nation over the last 200 plus years.

Anthony Albanese:

We have before us an opportunity for bipartisanship we cannot afford to miss. Our international credibility is linked to our integrity with First Nations people.

The minister and the prime minister had the opportunity to do something that they will be remembered for, and we will support them. However, as Linda Burney has put it, there is a danger that the Uluru statement will end up being remembered as a noble moment, but not as a turning point, and we cannot allow that to happen.

At its most basic level, the denial of a constitutionally enshrined voice is a denial of the Australian instinct for a fair go.

Despite all the tests it is put through, the instinct for a fair go remains one of the great defining points of our national character.

The voice is a modest request that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples be consulted about issues and policies that directly affect them. That’s what it is. It is not a third chamber.

It is not deliberative.

It merely seeks to put a structure around what we would all regard, as Australians, as decency, as courtesy, and as respect, that where something is going to have an impact on someone else, we talk to them.

That’s what the voice is. Nothing greater than that, but also nothing less. Nothing less.

And it shouldn’t be beyond our capacity to take the hand of friendship which has been reached out to us and is waiting to be shaken.

Because that is an act of extraordinary generosity, given the history of our great nation over the last 200 plus years.

Anthony Albanese:

Rates of First Nations people in custody are still way too high. First Nations adults are just 2% of the population, but they make up 27% of the prison population.

Suicide, particularly among young people, is still ripping families and communities apart.

The number of children being put in out-of-home care is a national shame, and is a consequence of policy failure by governments.

We want to work with the government, but we do expect some urgency, passion and diligence to be brought into this space.

We cannot keep coming back here, year in, year out, wringing our hands. The new way forward has to be led by First Nations people in meaningful and mutually agreed partnerships.

That way forward has been mapped out for us in the Uluru statement, a document of unadorned power to which Labor is fully committed.

That way forward is voice, truth telling and agreement making. When the member for Hasluck was appointed minister for Indigenous Australians, Labor welcomed it as the right decision, and we wish him well.

Indeed, when I spoke at a festival in east Arnhem Land last year, I expressed the hope that his colleagues would give him the support that he needed, and that he deserved.

I am concerned that this process may end in disappointment.

Anthony Albanese says while the national apology to Indigenous people was welcomed and well overdue, it also made clear “there was inequality and disparity that needed reconciliation”.

That there were key indicators showing the disadvantage resulting from more than two centuries of dispossession, discrimination, racism, and sometimes violent oppression.

This was an indictment upon us as a modern nation. There were many gaps, but some appeared more urgent than others. These indicators include life expectancy, child mortality, school attendance, reading and numeracy, employment, early childhood, and the attainment of year 12 or equivalent.

Practical measures with targets. After 12 years, it is tragic that we aren’t on track for five of these seven targets, including life expectancy, child mortality and employment. It is an indictment that, of all of these targets, we are on track for only two.

The problem was not that the targets were too ambitious. They were not. They were modest. And in the spirit of Paul Keating’s 1992 Redfern speech, the failure to meet the target is our failure. Our failure, not theirs. The fact is that the two targets that are being met are welcome, particularly the finishing of year 12, as the prime minister has said. What that shows is that progress is possible. But the fact is, also, we can and we must do better.

We speak of closing the gap, but the truth is that on so many of these measures, there is a gap. It’s a chasm.

Scott Morrison finishes his speech:

This goes to the heart of who we are. In partnership with Indigenous Australians, with respect for their wisdom and capabilities, and appreciation for their grace towards their fellow Australians, we are beginning this next chapter in Closing the Gap.

To see the gap, to see the challenges, to see the opportunities, to understand the hope, to see the way through Indigenous eyes.

A chapter which allows us to believe in a day when Indigenous children of this land have the same opportunities as every other Australian child.

Scott Morrison:

Finally, Mr Speaker, I want to be clear as prime minister: I respect constitutional recognition.

In 2019 the joint committee into constitutional recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples delivered a bipartisan report.

Our government adopted the four bipartisan recommendations in this report, in particular recommendation one.

In order to design a voice that best meets the needs and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the committee recommends a process of co-design between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and government be initiated in communities across Australia to design a voice that can help deliver practical outcomes for that community.

This is our government’s policy. It is clear from the committee’s report that more work needs to be done on a voice proposal.

The government has always supported giving Indigenous people more of a say at the local level.

We support the process of co-design of the voice because if we are going to change the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the ground we need [to chart] the policies that affect them.

The committee did not make recommendations as to the legal form of the voice, constitutional or legislation.

It recommended considering this matter after the process of co-design is complete, and that is what we’re doing.

We support finalising co-design.

We also support recommendations about truth telling. Australians are interested in having a fuller understanding of their history, both the history, traditions and also the culture course of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and also contact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

Scott Morrison:

Indigenous young people are almost four times more likely than their non-Indigenous peers to take their own lives. Tackling suicide, all suicides, is a national priority.

In tackling this national priority we are using targeted strategies. We have unveiled Australia’s largest ever youth mental health and suicide prevention package.

Two of the 12 trials being funded for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people specifically. In the last budget we committed $4.5m for Indigenous leaders to work on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention plan, plan that recognises the value of community and provide services are culturally safe and accessible and are well connected to each other and the broader community.

From that came a body called proud of spirit. That will support Indigenous leadership in suicide prevention.

We are working alongside community members and frontline services who serve the community selflessly with strong and open hearts. Indigenous liaison officers, Indigenous stop design nurses.

In the last three years, nearly 5,000 people in more than 180 regional and remote communities have completed mental health first aid training, a program that expanded in the last budget.

89,000 people became accredited instructors. We are creating solutions that are local and developed in partnership with Indigenous communities.

A few MPs have just told me that the MPs who are also doctors have just been called from the chamber.

I hope everyone is OK.

Scott Morrison:

Mr Speaker, in days, some in this chamber will remember the government had absolute control over the lives of Aboriginal people, where they could live, where they could travel, who they could marry.

Government files held details, often brutal in their brevity, that the people themselves were not allowed to know.

Mr Speaker, I have one such file here with me. From the native welfare department ... A file of ... the native welfare department, the file is for a boy, a teenager.

In this file are notes about for school uniforms and there is a memo to the commissioner of native welfare about whether the boy should be provided pocket money of 75 cents a week. 75 cents a week.

Bureaucrats making decisions for what they paternally call a good type of lad.

Think about a life where even the most basic decision-making is stripped away from you. By governance thinking that they know better.

Fortunately, that boy was bigger than the times.

And I am honoured that he now sits behind me as the minister for Indigenous Australians.

The chamber applauds Ken Wyatt.

Scott Morrison:

There remains much to do.

And we will do it differently by working together. By moving from a fixation with what is going wrong to a focus on strength.

By going from good intentions and sky-high aspirations to local practical action driven by local leaders and local needs with clear accountability and responsibility with a clear line of sight to the community and we are acting on a commitment by all levels of government to work together.

For federal, state, territory and local governments to work together. Not just the Indigenous portfolios but whole governments at every point of contact.

Scott Morrison:

I am saddened that we have not met the target for child mortality but I draw hope and result from the fact that we are making progress in tackling the risk factors.

More Indigenous mothers are attending antenatal care in the first trimester and more are going to at least five antenatal sessions.

Fewer Indigenous mothers are smoking during pregnancy.

We know that if we can shift these risk factors we can keep more Indigenous babies and children alive.

We may not be on track to fully close the life expectancy gap in a generation, always an ambitious target but mortality rates have improved by almost 10%.

This is mostly because we have made progress in tackling the leading cause of death, the big circulatory diseases like heart disease and stroke.

This is progress. But as I said, we have not made as much progress as we should have by now.

Scott Morrison:

This is a stark and sobering report that I have tabled. I welcome the gains.

I honour the hard work across every front, and we must be careful not to speak of our First Australians as a broken people, because they are not.

So many of our First Australians are out there making their way, despite the disadvantages that they have faced, and overcome, setting goals, making choices, living their lives, and showing bravely the way to others.

But I don’t shy away from the failures. I see the shortcomings.

The targets that was set for Indigenous Australians but not by Indigenous Australians do not celebrate the achievements and aspirations of Indigenous people.

They do not tell you what is happening on the ground or storing under it.

They don’t tell you how realistic are achievable these targets were in the first place. They reinforce the language of failing and falling short and they also mask the real progress that has been made.

We must be careful not to adopt a negative mindset because on most measures we have progress.

Scott Morrison:

Despite the best intentions, investments in new programs and bipartisan goodwill, Closing the Gap has never really been a partnership with Indigenous people.

We perpetuated an ingrained way of thinking passed down over two centuries and more, and it was the belief that we knew better than our Indigenous peoples. We don’t.

We also thought we understood their problems better than they did. We don’t. They live them.

We must see the gap we wish to close, not from our viewpoints, but from the viewpoint of Indigenous Australians.

Before we can hope to close it and make a real difference. And that is the change we are now making, together with Indigenous Australians through this process. We all have in our own way sought to grapple with the consequences of 2.25 centuries of Indigenous disempowerment.

What I know is that to rob a person of their right to take responsibility for themselves, to strip them of responsibility and capability to direct their own futures, to make them dependent, this is to deny them their liberty, and slowly that person will weather before your eyes.

That’s what we did to our first nations peoples. And mostly we didn’t even know we were doing it.

We thought we were helping when we replaced independence with welfare. This must change. We must restore the right to take responsibility, the right to make decisions, the right to step up, the opportunity to own and create Australians’ own futures.

The prime minister is about to deliver the Closing the Gap address to the parliament.

The Australia Institute has had a look at coal-fired power stations being built around the world, given the latest government party room flare up over Collinsville. Its key findings:

• Around Australia and in other developed regions such as western Europe and North America, there are virtually no coal-fired power stations being built.
• The one western European plant under construction in Germany and nine years behind schedule; the plant was originally set to open in 2011, it is now scheduled for operation in 2020.
• There are no coal-fired power stations under construction in the United States, Canada or Mexico.
• The last coal plant built in North America was completed in May 2019, a tiny 17MW combined heat and power plant on the campus of the University of Alaska.
• The last pre-construction coal-fired power project, the Holcomb Expansion Project, was cancelled in January 2020.
• There are no coal-fired power stations being built in Australia. Right to information requests reveal government advice that an ultra-supercritical coal plant in north Queensland similar to the plant being proposed would only be viable with high electricity prices and without a significant carbon price.

• Despite the coal power plant proposed for Queensland being promoted as a ‘clean’ and ‘low emissions’ coal plant, Shine Energy claims it is ‘essential’ for investor confidence that the Government indemnify them against any risk of a future price on carbon.

Nothing like doubling down.

Kristina Keneally is up in the Senate, speaking on the failure of the government to comply with Senate orders to produce documents related to the sports grant affair.

She opened with this. It might sound familiar to politic watchers:

“I’ll leave that stuff in the bubble.”

“I don’t comment on gossip or stories about other stories.”

“I just reject the premise of the question.”

“I’ll put your editorial to one side and your commentary on it.”

These aren’t my words – they are the words of prime minister Scott Morrison.

From AAP:

The Morrison government has been “missing in action” as racism worsens in Australia, says Labor’s multicultural affairs spokesman Andrew Giles.

Giles will use a speech in Sydney to warn against the “creeping normalisation of hate and racism in Australia”, and call on the government to back a new national campaign to combat growing xenophobia.

“Australia’s government has been missing in action,” the federal Labor MP will say on Wednesday.

“Whether it’s on Facebook or in the supermarket, whether it’s on the football field or on the street, or the disadvantage experienced by our First Peoples – racism persists in Australia.”

He will say there had been attacks on people of Asian appearance in Melbourne and Sydney, a spike in attacks on Australian Muslims, and “near-constant denigration” of African-Australians in the media.

Businesses in a predominantly Chinese community in Melbourne’s east have seen a 70% drop in business.

“No doubt because of fear and misinformation about the coronavirus,” Giles will say. “The truth is that racism in Australia is on the rise.”

Not even parliament was immune, he said, pointing to the support Coalition senators gave to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s “it’s OK to be white” motion.

“These actions carry heavy consequences,” he says. “Without doubt racism can take a real and lasting toll on individual lives and communities.”

Giles will also point to Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Blair referring to former race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane as “race hustler Tim Sudafednasalspray”.

Soutphommasane has continued to remain outspoken on race issues in Australia.

“At first, I thought it was a mistake,” Giles will say. “It was racism, pure and simple.”

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, spoke to the ABC this morning about why there has been so little progress in Closing the Gap:

Well, there’s multiple factors. We don’t deliver the services on the ground. We’ve got to work much more closely with states and territories. The Aboriginal communities must be involved in this process; our peaks is certainly involved. But at the local levels, that’s where we have to turn our attention to, because parents are the first educators in a child’s life. Community is important. We don’t engage with them as well as we should. And certainly in the refresh of the Closing the Gap, working with the 47 peak organisations, we’re having very real talks around how do we change the agenda.

In the Senate, senators are arguing over the government not producing documents related to the sports grant affair.

The government has missed another deadline, by refusing to put in documents, including legal advice, of the sports grant program. It’s all being covered under cabinet-in-confidence.

Most of the government senators have left the chamber.

Given the government is still arguing about building new coal-fired plants, Sabra Lane asks Alan Finkel what he thinks about new coal-fired plants in general.

New coal-fired plants would be probably generating electricity with emissions levels, not dissimilar to the average emissions on the Australian electricity system today, but that average is going to be going down and down and down, so you would have that coal-fired station operating at a higher level.

I think the attention really should be on low-emissions technologies, such as solar and wind, but they need to be supported.

In the long term, they will be supported by batteries and pumped hydro, and hydrogen which has been stored to regenerate electricity, but that takes a lot of time. So for 10, 20, maybe even 30 years, the most efficient way to bring a lot of zero-emission solar and wind into the system is to support it with natural gas. Because natural gas is a much lower-emissions technology, even though it’s a fossil fuel, it’s much lower than coal, and it’s much more flexible in terms of only being used when there is a shortage of solar and wind.

On his role, Finkel says it is to advise the government based on “the science and technological evidence”.

The scientific recommendation is that the planet needs to decarbonise, needs to reduce its emissions. In Paris, the accepted position was to achieve zero emissions by the second half of this century.

Not specifically 2050. Actually decarbonising the whole planet by 2050 would be very, very difficult.

On the argument that “Australia’s emissions are too small to matter”, Alan Finkel said if we took that attitude to everything – for example, ignoring water restrictions because we were just one household – “all of a sudden we would have a water shortage”.

He said our contribution might be small, but when it has been done, globally, it has been “very well regarded”.

Alan Finkel was asked what the “circuit breaker” was for the climate fights in parliament and said he hoped it was “evidence-based, technology driven”.

Finkel said he came at the issue “not from a political perspective” but based on his experience as a scientist and engineer.

“The main point I will make in my speech today, is the sweet spot for attention is the energy sector. I don’t mean energy as in electricity, I mean the petrol we use in our vehicles, and the natural gas we use for heating up our buildings, as well as the electricity sector itself. They represent nearly three-quarters globally, of emissions of carbon dioxide,” he told AM.

“Three-quarters of global warming gasses, actually. So if we could reduce that down to zero, that would have a massive positive benefit for us.”

Australia’s chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel is delivering today’s National Press Club address.

He spoke to Sabra Lane on ABC AM this morning and was asked what impact climate change had on the summer bushfires:

Climate change of course is driven by global warming and we have seen temperatures in Australia rise nearly 1.5C above the mid-century average from last year and associated with that, we have also seen the national forest fire index increase since it was done in 1950. The number of fire hazard days is continually increasing.

Also associated with that warming, you see more growth in winter, so the undergrowth load is heavier, it is a little bit faster, because of the increase in carbon dioxide, which plants of course use as food.

Ultimately when the dry conditions of summer arrive, you have a very large fuel load, ready to burn.

... Climate change is driven by that steady rise in global temperatures. That is a link between climate changes and bushfires. You can’t say there is a link between climate change and all events, in particular individual cyclones and individual droughts, but the steady rise in fire hazardous days in Australia, is in the opinion of people I respect and speak to, is linked to climate change.

Jacqui Lambie has called a press conference for 10am, to talk about veteran suicides.

She will be joined by three mothers who children suicided.

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14;Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78

Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy spoke on the Closing the Gap report due today, outside parliament:

Today is a significant day, as it is every year, in the report of First Nations people to the parliament. It’s the 12th anniversary of the Close the Gap Report and I certainly understand from all reports that we’re not doing well and I think that there is greater work to be done in this space.

There is a connection that with the policies of the Morrison government in terms of improving the lives of First Nations People. There is a connection, and in fact that connection is not being met. When we look at policies like the CDP [Community Development Program] policy, the cashless debit card, which entrenches First Nations people in poverty in this country, then of course we’re not going to see the outcomes that we want to see in health, in education, in housing, in life expectancy.

I call on the Morrison government to connect these very important policies. It’s been five years when Tony Abbott got rid of $500m to the Aboriginal Affairs budget in this country, and we have seen year after year, a breaking down even further into poverty, into disadvantage for First Nations people. And the Coalition government has to see this connection. There’s also a connection between calling for a voice to the federal parliament, calling for a voice to be in the constitution. All of these things are connected to Closing the Gap and improving the lives for First Nations People.

And I call on the federal government, I call on Ken Wyatt as the minister for First Nations people in this country to be serious about this job, to be very serious. There is no doubt no doubt, there is sincerity in terms of Ken Wyatt’s push to see a better way of life for people. But it’s not happening, and the reason why it’s not happening is because of the chaos and the dysfunction in the Coalition party, the fact that the Nationals can go away and worry about themselves and not care about the people of the land and the country.

The fact that they’re so obsessed with their own concerns when there are people in desperate need, not just First Nations people but people who are recovering from the bushfires who are wanting to know what their future is.

That dysfunction is being carried out in what we saw take place in the Coalition party room yesterday when senators opposed a move of, any move, for a referendum for First Nations people in this country and that’s an absolute disgrace.

It is an absolute disgrace. And I call on those senators to stand up in the Senate today and have that debate. And they know who they are.

The Mineral Council of Australia says it is happy to meet with Adam Bandt (see previous post).

Chief executive officer Tania Constable said:

The MCA supports continued action on climate change, Australia’s participation in the Paris agreement and a technology-neutral transformation to a low-emissions global economy. Accelerating investment in low-emissions technologies such as carbon capture and storage and nuclear energy is crucial in meeting the Paris agreement’s climate goals.

Australian mining businesses are working together to make our contribution to lowering emissions, including reducing the emissions from minerals extraction and processing, investment in low-emission technology, energy-efficiency initiatives and increasing the use of renewable energy in operations. All sectors of the economy need to contribute to reducing emissions.

The MCA will soon release a detailed climate action plan which complements the already strong efforts by our members on climate change.

It represents a long-term commitment by the MCA to help support members manage and reduce their emissions.

The global transition to low emissions technologies – including solar, wind, batteries, gas, advanced coal and nuclear energy – depends on the metals and raw materials provided by the minerals sector.

A thriving minerals sector focused on effective and pragmatic climate action is essential to mobilise the solutions required to address climate change.

Asked on Adelaide radio 5AA’s two-tribes-which-became-one-tribe segment (doesn’t look like the Coalition put another person up after Christopher Pyne retired) if Labor was helping the rebel Nationals “destabilise” the government, Anthony Albanese said:

Well, the fact is this is the Muppet Show, the sequel, is what we’re seeing here. After Scott Morrison himself, when he became prime minister, described their operation as the Muppet Show. And it just continues on and on. The Liberals are fighting each other. The Nationals are fighting each other. And the Liberals are fighting the Nationals. It is chaos, the Coalition, here at the moment. And it’s not up to us to unify them. That’s the job of Scott Morrison. It seems he’s incapable of doing so.

The toxic battle between the McComacks and the not-McCormacks in the National party room continues.

Nationals leader Michael McCormack’s office has been subjected to another damaging leak.

The Courier Mail reports McCormack’s office had supported MPs slugging taxpayers for flights and accommodation in Melbourne for the Nationals centenary celebrations, by scheduling a party room meeting in the city for the same time.

That looks like it has been put on hold now, with McCormack telling the paper through a spokesperson that the trip was dependent on advice from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority.

There are a lot of moving parts in climate change at the moment. The government is having another round of ructions about whether to pivot to more credible policies or provide taxpayer support for coal-fired power.

The business groups who once played a prominent role in scuttling climate action are performing a significant about face, demanding government put Australia on the path of net zero emissions by 2050.

Labor is creeping towards some broad statements of principle in its post-election policy.

The independent Zali Steggall has produced a climate policy bill she hopes can be a grand bargain – in the event it can ever get to the floor of the parliament. The Greens have shifted too.

The new leader Adam Bandt is talking about a green new deal– which pushes climate action into a broader economic framework.

With business shifting, Bandt has decided to fire off a letter to the major organisations: the BCA, AI Group, the Minerals Council, seeking backing for a new green deal to (as he puts it) “address the twin crises of economic stagnation and the climate emergency”.

The deal would see the phasing out of fossil fuels. (One suspects the Minerals Council may have some reservations.)

Bandt’s letter says:

We want to work with you to create an environment where business can flourish with cheap energy and government on its side. I urge you to be part of developing an agreed roadmap so that it can be implemented when the Greens are again in balance of power. People are sometimes unsure what the Greens think about jobs and the economy. My goal is to make it clear that a Green New Deal means jobs and prosperity.

Labor and the Greens are not letting up as they pursue the government for copies of its legal advice on the bungled robodebt program.

Last week, it emerged the government was told in legal advice that the scheme was “unlawful” – though it remains unclear when it was received.

This is vital because it would indicate whether the government continued to operate the scheme in the knowledge it was potentially unlawful.

Last evening, the Senate passed an interim report from the ongoing inquiry into the robodebt program, demanding copies of the legal advice and other records.

The Coalition argues that it should keep the documents secret because it is facing ongoing legal action in the form of the Gordon Legal class action, and that past Coalition and Labor governments have generally declined to provide privileged legal advice.

It can choose to defy the order – as occurred in November over a regional grants program.

This is the motion, supported by all the non-government senators, which will strip Mathias Cormann of his role representing the prime minister in the Senate, if it is passed (which it will be, given all the minors have signed it too)

I give notice that, on the next day of sitting, I shall move that:

(1) the Senate notes:

(a) On 5 February 2020 the Senate ordered the minister representing the prime minister to table the final report provided by the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Mr Phillip Gaetjens, to the prime minister in relation to the application of the statement of ministerial standards to the former minister for sport, the honourable senator McKenzie’s, award of funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Program, (b) On 6 February 2020 the minister representing the prime minister tabled a letter making a public interest immunity claim grounded in the preservation of the confidentiality of cabinet deliberations,

(C) The document is a final report prepared outside of the cabinet room and has no capacity to reveal deliberations inside the cabinet room,

(d) The Senate does not accept the public interest immunity claim made by the minister representing the prime minister; and (2) Until the final report provided by the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Mr Phillip Gaetjens, to the prime minister in relation to the application of the statement of ministerial standards to the former minister for sport, the honourable senator McKenzie’s, award of funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Program, is tabled, or 6 March 2020, whichever is the earlier, senator Cormann be prevented from:

(a) being asked or answering questions which may be put to ministers under standing order 72(1) where such questions are directed to the minister representing the prime minister,

(b) representing the prime minister before a legislative and general purpose standing committee, including during consideration of estimates, and

(c) sitting at the seat at the table in the Senate chamber that is ordinarily reserved for the leader of the government in the Senate.