1 month ago
Wong says Labor has 'no plans to touch negative gearing'
Josh Butler
With the House of Representatives not sitting this week, the sometimes attention-starved Senators in the upper house seem to be enjoying their time in the spotlight. It’s getting a bit theatrical on the red leather this afternoon as the Coalition opposition focus their questions on housing - including whether Labor has a “secret plan” to change negative gearing settings.
As shadow finance minister Jane Hume asks about Greens’ leader Adam Bandt’s “demands” in the event of a potential hung parliament, some of the Coalition senators make conspiratorial “oohs” or hide their faces behind their faces in mock terror at Greens’ plans.
But at the same time, as Hume talks about Bandt’s calls for tax changes, the Greens at the other end of the chamber cheer and shout “yes!” I think we saw Tasmanian senator Nick McKim raising his fist or punching the air in support as Hume reads out their policies.
Foreign minister Penny Wong says, for the record, “we have no plans to touch negative gearing”.
One voice on the Coalition side (we didn’t catch who) calls out in response “refuses to rule out!”
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Here is how that vote went down:
Greens call snap press conference
They say they have moved to delay the vote in the Senate to “give the government more time to negotiate” with the party on the housing bills.
So what has happened?
The government tried to suspend standing orders to bring help-to-buy to a vote. Every non-government senator, other than Tammy Tyrrell voted no.
So the motion is lost.
That means the government can’t bring on the bill for a vote, which it wanted to do to prove that the Greens and Coalition were voting together to defeat the bill.
Paul Karp
Just expanding on what opposition leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, has said:
He said:
The Albanese government cannot execute its strategy to have one of its own bills defeated ... It has so lost control of the way its legislative agenda operates, they managed to convince just one non Labor senator to vote with them [Tammy Tyrrell].”
Birmingham said Labor had “tried to impugn” some on the crossbench for voting with the Coalition but only one non-Labor senator voted with them “because you are failing to convince people of the merits of the policy”.
Simon Birmingham can barely contain his glee
He says the Labor government can’t even strategise a way to have their bill defeated.
There is an absolute sea of gloating as Birmingham accuses Labor of “failing in different directions”.
If of course hot air and rhetoric were homes, the housing crisis would be solved!
Paul Karp
Labor’s Murray Watt is attacking the Greens for voting against help-to-buy
He said:
The Greens party who say they care about young people, care about housing. Look at them scurrying away from what the’ve done: Voting not just with Peter Dutton and the Coalition, but also Senator Hanson and One Nation … the extreme right and extreme left of Australian politics pair up … voting together to stop young people being able to buy a home.”
Watt said the Greens have “let the perfect be the enemy of the good”, because the help-to-buy scheme doesn’t help every renter get into the scheme they voted against.
Watt said the Greens have the “hide” to campaign in the inner-city saying they are in favour of housing.
Watt is now attacking Greens MPs for opposing developments in their electorate.
Murray Watt is furious and is now going through a list of developments the Greens are opposing in Brisbane.
Paul Karp
Penny Wong’s motion to suspend standing orders to bring Help to Buy on was defeated 41-19
Tammy Tyrrell is voting with the government but she is the only crossbencher to do so. Labor will lose this on the numbers.
Paul Karp is in the chamber and says on this motion, the Greens are sitting with Coalition, Hanson, Malcolm Roberts and Ralph Babet - voting against.
Lidia Thorpe and David Pocock are also voting against the motion.
Penny Wong has to move the help-to-buy bill again
Pauline Hanson said that she denied the original motion but wasn’t heard.
There is a back and forth and then the senate president decides to just start again.
Wong moves the motion. Hanson denies it. So Wong moves to suspend standing orders to debate her original motion.
The senate is dividing and is being very loud about it, while someone yells about “socialists”.
Adeshola Ore
Ousted Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming agrees, under cross-examination, that her views on transgender and gender-diverse people were controversial within the Liberal party.
Deeming is giving evidence in the defamation trial brought against opposition leader, John Pesutto.
Pesutto’s barrister, Matthew Collins KC, asks Deeming if she understood her views of transgender and gender-diverse people to be controversial in the party.
Deeming replies: “yes”
Penny Wong has taken a dixer to speak about the “unholy alliance” of the Greens and Coalition on the housing bills.
She then calls time on question time and in the same breathe moves that the help-to-buy bill vote be called up.
