5 hours ago
Labor MP ejected as Sussan Ley asks about the CFMEU
Sussan Ley starts and asks the government about the CFMEU administration.
The Coalition is calling for an inquiry into the CFMEU administration after the Nine newspapers reported its efforts have been hampered by a lack of investigative capability.
Before she can even finish her question, the Speaker boots out Labor MP Rob Mitchell (fastest booting I’ve ever seen in QT!)
Employment minister Amanda Rishworth says the government has “no tolerance” for criminal conduct, and backs the work the administrator has done so far.
I have spoken with the administrator on numerous occasions about just how difficult this work is, and for him, he is absolutely committed to clean out this union and I just want to go through some of the work that he has already been doing. He has taken significant steps to either remove or accept the resignation of over 60 staff. Over two-thirds who were in leadership positions or organisers.
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Josh Butler
There’s not much that unites the Labor and Coalition benches these days, but the unintentionally perfect timing of House speaker Milton Dick was one of them just now.
Labor MP Josh Burns was ejected from Question Time after interjecting during a question from Liberal deputy Ted O’Brien. This is a real bugbear of Dick’s, who admittedly gives a fair bit of leeway during the QT interjections, but gets unhappy when a question is interrupted.
“I don’t know why this is so difficult. When people are asking questions, don’t interject,” Dick called out, in an angry voice.
“There’s a lot of intelligent people here...” he continued, letting that remark hang in the air for a moment - until nearly the entire chamber cracked into laughter.
O’Brien himself, at the dispatch box, put his hand to his forehead as if shielding his gaze from the sun, looking around in the chamber in mock confusion, mouthing: “where?”
Dick continued, amidst the laughter: “Well, in the [public] gallery, there are...”
Treasurer attacked over super tax U-turn
It’s starting to get snarky in QT, shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien asks the treasurer whose “rejection most influenced his decision to dump his [super] tax”.
Was it (a) the Coalition? (b) industry experts and economists? (c) the prime minister? (d) his own Labor colleagues and Labor luminaries Paul Keating, Bill Kelty and Peter Beattie, or (e) all of the above?
(In the middle Labor MP Josh Burns gets kicked out of the chamber by Milton Dick – more on that in a second!)
But first, a recap of the government’s backflip on the super tax bill here.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says “I’ll make it really clear to the House that I didn’t take the advice of those opposite.”
They [the Coalition] are always trying to undermine and diminish and come after the superannuation that the working people of this country need and deserve for a decent retirement. Also, don’t forget that the question comes from the same guy who wanted to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to build nuclear reactors to push power prices up, not down.
Andrew Wilkie calls for hospital funding fix, saying ‘people are suffering needlessly’
Back to the crossbench, Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie asks if the government will take action to fix hospital funding. He says:
People are suffering needlessly and far too often dying prematurely. Only the commonwealth has the financial and policy heft to turn things around.
Health minister Mark Butler, who’s been out spruiking the upcoming listing of contraceptives into the PBS and bulk-billing incentives for GPs, says it’s a “particularly weird week for the member to suggest this is not a government focused on bold reform”.
Wilkie stands up on a point of order and says the questions isn’t about bulk billing or urgent care clinics but about hospitals. Butler continues:
The member for Clark knows that the health and aged care system is an integrated ecosystem, and when bulk-billing is not working, when people are paying too much for their medicines, they don’t fill the scripts their doctors have said are important. They don’t go to the GP when they need to go to the GP, and the member for Clark knows that means they end up in hospital far more regularly than they should.
s ask about possible closure of Gladstone power station
s MP Colin Boyce gets the next question, and takes a turn from prosecuting on action against the CFMEU.
He asks the minister for industry how many jobs will be lost with the possible closure of the Gladstone power station.
Pat Conroy (the minister representing the industry minister who sits in the Senate), hesitates for a minute before answering. He starts off saying a question on energy should be directed to the minister for energy.
We’ve been pretty clear that the energy sector is going through a transition as ageing coal-fired power stations close down. Unlike those opposite, we have plans in place to drive investment into the sector.
Deputy s leader Kevin Hogan gets up to make a point of order on relevance, arguing his question was “tight” (and there’s been no potential job loss numbers disclosed so far). After a bit of back and forth, Conroy finishes his question and hands the baton to energy minister Chris Bowen.
There are about 200 direct employees at the Gladstone power station, and others have worked on a contract basis indirectly, and obviously that’s a significant number for the people of Gladstone.
Bowen then goes to the unreliability of coal-fired power.
Today, we had two units of the Callide power station which the honourable member would know well out, out and non-operating. And we have a total unplanned outage across the national energy system of 3.4 gigawatts of coal-fired power. Not planned, not maintenance, coal-fired power stations that were working and all of a sudden break down. It’s the biggest threat to the reliability of our energy system and that in turn is a threat to energy prices.
Tim Wilson asks about journalists exposing CFMEU ‘corruption’
Tim Wilson is back and asks what the government is doing to protect journalists who are threatened while exposing “CFMEU corruption”.
Nine Newspapers reported over the weekend that police are investigating the targeting of the home of journalist Nick McKenzie, who has been investigating the CFMEU.
Amanda Rishworth says there’s “absolutely no tolerance for intimidation of journalists or indeed anyone in this country.”
She then talks about protections for whistleblowers more generally.
Not only are there protections in the registered organisations act but our government specifically built in whistle-blower protections in the administration …
In my conversations with the administrator, the action that he has taken ensures first and foremost the safety of his staff. That’s the seriousness that he is undertaking with his work, that the safety of his staff and in the course extends to all Australians.
Tim Wilson accuses Labor of not doing enough to tackle CFMEU
Shadow employment minister Tim Wilson heads to the dispatch box next (no prizes for guessing what issue he’ll press the government on).
He accuses the government of not doing enough to tackle the CFMEU, and asks if it’s “because the prime minister’s Labor leadership, under his leadership, those opposite have received almost $7m in CFMEU donations?”
Leader of the House Tony Burke tries to get Wilson to withdraw the accusation (he does).
Employment minister Amanda Rishworth says she “outset reject[s] the assertions that were in that question.”
She lists the work the administrator has undertaken – including the Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work Commission, state and territory police forces, and regulators.
I can reassure this House that we have done more in our term in government than those on the other side. We are taking this seriously. The shadow minister might want to pretend he’s in university politics, throwing around accusations, while we’re the adults in the room - and we’ll continue to be so.
Housing minister rejects claim 5% deposit scheme pushing up prices
Over to the crossbench, Elizabeth Watson-Brown says the median house price in capital cities has increased by $35,000 over the last three months “as a result of the government’s 5% house deposit scheme”.
She asks the government whether it will admit that it’s driving unsustainable house price growth.
Housing minister Clare O’Neil defends Labor’s 5% deposit scheme (and won’t agree with the Greens MP that Labor is driving up house prices).
O’Neil says the scheme has significantly dropped the number of years that young couples have to save for a housing deposit, from 11 to just two or three.
We now have 190,000 Australians who have been supported into their first home because of our government’s program, 190,000 Australians that the Greens political party are saying should never have got government support to buy their first home.
Josh Butler
Barnaby Joyce still sitting with Coalition
Barnaby Joyce isn’t sitting in the s party room at the moment, but he’s still sitting with the Coalition in the parliament.
The maverick s backbencher has taken his normal seat in question time, perched alongside fellow Nat MP Colin Boyce right up the back. He and Boyce have been chatting quietly, with Liberal MP Aaron Violi – the only Coalition MP further away from the action – right behind them.
Joyce and Violi exchanged a few quick words, and passed a paper back and forth.
The back rows of the Coalition benches are a bit of a rogue’s gallery at the moment. There’s Joyce alongside Boyce (who Pauline Hanson has said would be a good fit for One Nation) next to another Nat, Llew O’Brien, who told The Australian today that the Coalition could split if they didn’t dump net zero.
A row back and behind is Andrew Hastie, who recently quit the frontbench, next to Tony Pasin, who this morning spoke in favour of Joyce’s anti-net zero bill, and next to him is Garth Hamilton, who is also pushing against net zero.
Action taken against CFMEU ‘strongest’ a government can make, minister says
I’m sensing an early theme – opposition leader Sussan Ley is back at the dispatch box and asks if the government will deregister the CFMEU, as the Coalition has been calling for.
Amanda Rishworth argues the action Labor has taken has been the “strongest” a government can make, as opposed to the former (and now abolished) Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
If she [Ley] had been following the debate while we were putting the CFMEU into administration, she would know the strongest possible action you can take, in terms of transparency and in terms of ensuring that there is accountability, is to put the CFMEU into administration … And if we look at some of the incidents and allegations that are being exposed at the moment, they happened under the ABCC and indeed the Coalition’s watch.
Rishworth then accuses the shadow employment minister, Tim Wilson, of making “baseless claims” against the administrator, Mark Irving.
Labor MP ejected as Sussan Ley asks about the CFMEU
Sussan Ley starts and asks the government about the CFMEU administration.
The Coalition is calling for an inquiry into the CFMEU administration after the Nine newspapers reported its efforts have been hampered by a lack of investigative capability.
Before she can even finish her question, the Speaker boots out Labor MP Rob Mitchell (fastest booting I’ve ever seen in QT!)
Employment minister Amanda Rishworth says the government has “no tolerance” for criminal conduct, and backs the work the administrator has done so far.
I have spoken with the administrator on numerous occasions about just how difficult this work is, and for him, he is absolutely committed to clean out this union and I just want to go through some of the work that he has already been doing. He has taken significant steps to either remove or accept the resignation of over 60 staff. Over two-thirds who were in leadership positions or organisers.
It’s question time!
Richard Marles is in the hot seat today, while Anthony Albanese is overseas. (He gets a few jeers from the opposition benches as he stands up to say he’ll be representing the PM).
