Asked about CGT backdown, Chalmers says opposition trying to distract from vote against tax cuts
“How many more humiliating backdowns will it take for the treasurer to admit his budget is a failure?,” asks Nationals MP Alison Penfold, who says the treasurer yesterday defended the inclusion of the “widow tax” in the legislation because the rule was consistent with the current CGT settings.
Jim Chalmers starts with a bit of an odd rebuke, saying “I’ll tell you what’s humiliating, Mr Speaker. The shadow treasurer’s inability to ask me a question himself”.
Chalmers says that the government took “particular care” in its response yesterday because it was still considering amendments that were being put forward in the Senate.
I think everybody here, and everybody watching at home and in the galleries as well, knows what’s really happening here. They are trying to distract from the fact that when the bills come back down from the Senate, that they will vote against tax cuts for workers.
And that’s what they’re trying to obscure, they’re desperately hoping that nobody notices that the three rightwing parties and their divisive anti-worker agenda will see them vote against tax cuts once again.
The opposition says that the question was about a “humiliating backflip” and Milton Dick agrees the treasurer should talk about the policy, not the opposition.
Chalmers ends his answer calling the legislation a “win” for first home buyers.
Question time ends
After a final dixer to education minister, Jason Clare, the PM calls time on QT for the week.
Before we get out of the chamber, I’ll leave you with this sledge from Clare to the opposition:
You’ve got the Liberal party, you’ve got the National party and you’ve got One Nation all competing against each other to see who can be the most extreme.
Whether it is on education or multiculturalism or anything else. They’re like the Neapolitan ice-cream of Australian politics, Mr Speaker. The problem is they all want to be vanilla!
Allegra Spender asks if Labor will force social media companies to allow users to opt out of algorithms
Allegra Spender, now of the Community Strong party, asks the prime minister if the government will force social media companies to allow users to opt out of algorithms as part of its digital duty-of-care legislation. She says “social media algorithms feed extremism and polarisation”.
Anthony Albanese says the government needs to do more to protect people and children from harm online.
He says the government will continue to consult on its digital duty-of-care legislation to figure out how best to do that.
We know that, as the member has said, algorithms drive people towards more and more extreme positions, so they start off in a mainstream position, talking about ethnicity, perhaps, or faith, and they end up over a period of time receiving in their inbox, not just children, adults as well, of course, can be impacted by this with Nazi-level propaganda, with calls for violence.
We’ve increased the funding for the eSafety Commissioner by four times. We’ve introduced fines of $49.5m to be available for breaches of the social media ban aimed at young people, but clearly we are going to need to do more, and that’s what the digital duty-of-care is about.
O’Neil dodges question on CGT legislation
Liberal MP Leon Rebello wants some clarification on exactly when the government knew about issues that the CGT legislation would have on spouses affected by divorce or death.
He asks the housing minister, Clare O’Neil, if she knew before or after the budget was handed down.
O’Neil’s response is even shorter this time, but she won’t say exactly when she was made aware of the issue.
We are aware of the issues that the member is raising. We are working through them in the usual way. This will be resolved in a future piece of legislation. I look forward to engaging with the member when it comes forward.
Australia Post ‘running licensees out of business’, Andrew Wilkie says
Independent MP from Tasmania, Andrew Wilkie says he’s spoken to many post office licensees “and it’s clear that Australia Post is running them out of business as it morphs into a parcel delivery service”.
He asks the communications minister, Anika Wells, if the government will stop that from happening.
Wells says under government rules there must be a minimum of 4,000 post offices around the country.
But she adds:
Australia Post is working with its licensees to modernise the arrangements that govern those commercial relationships. The licensing model is decades old … You only need to look at the mobile phones in your pockets to understand why. There is a dramatic decline in the letter business, there is a dramatic decline in the retail foot traffic, all that must be considered.
Opposition questions Labor on CGT changes and effect after divorce or death
When did the government first realise its legislation would “impose a new death tax on widows, divorcees and victims of domestic violence?”, asks Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie.
Clare O’Neil gives her shortest answer yet, and says vaguely the government “has been aware for some time”.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, told the Senate earlier today the government would change its legislation to protect partners affected by divorce or death from CGT changes in its subsequent tax legislation.
O’Neil says:
I think the government’s made clear in several statements that this is an issue that we’ve been aware of for some time, and the treasurer has spoken about the government’s deliberations.
‘Listen to the people’: Greens push for plebiscite on gas export tax
Over to the crossbench, Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown asks the prime minister if he’ll “listen to the people” and hold a national plebiscite for a 25% gas export tax.
It feels like it’s been a minute since the debate was catching fire in parliament.
Anthony Albanese says he disputes suggestions from the public campaign for the tax that gas companies aren’t paying levies already.
He then talks about Australia being a “reliable partner” in the region, linking gas exports (and not taxing them) to receiving petrol from our neighbouring countries when the world has been facing a shortage during the crisis in the Middle East.
Albanese says:
Some of the campaign (suggests) somehow gas companies or other companies in the resources sector do not pay tax and that there is no company tax, there is no resources tax, the PRRT does not exist, and will not grow in the future. It also ignores … the work that we’ve done on the gas reservation of 20% of exports, which is very important in Western Australia.
Asked about CGT backdown, Chalmers says opposition trying to distract from vote against tax cuts
“How many more humiliating backdowns will it take for the treasurer to admit his budget is a failure?,” asks Nationals MP Alison Penfold, who says the treasurer yesterday defended the inclusion of the “widow tax” in the legislation because the rule was consistent with the current CGT settings.
Jim Chalmers starts with a bit of an odd rebuke, saying “I’ll tell you what’s humiliating, Mr Speaker. The shadow treasurer’s inability to ask me a question himself”.
Chalmers says that the government took “particular care” in its response yesterday because it was still considering amendments that were being put forward in the Senate.
I think everybody here, and everybody watching at home and in the galleries as well, knows what’s really happening here. They are trying to distract from the fact that when the bills come back down from the Senate, that they will vote against tax cuts for workers.
And that’s what they’re trying to obscure, they’re desperately hoping that nobody notices that the three rightwing parties and their divisive anti-worker agenda will see them vote against tax cuts once again.
The opposition says that the question was about a “humiliating backflip” and Milton Dick agrees the treasurer should talk about the policy, not the opposition.
Chalmers ends his answer calling the legislation a “win” for first home buyers.
O’Neil promises changes to ‘widow tax’
Liberal MP Mary Aldred is next and asks if the government will confirm thousands of women including widows, divorcees and victims of family violence will be disproportionately affected by the government’s tax changes. It’s been dubbed a “widow tax”.
Clare O’Neil returns to the despatch box and answers that the government has promised to make more changes to the legislation so those groups aren’t unduly affected.
I think she’d be aware that the minister for finance has clarified the government’s pathway on this in the Senate earlier today.
We intend to address the arrangements for jointly owned assets in circumstances like inheritance and divorce in subsequent legislation.
Clare O’Neil defends tax changes as number of MPs ejected rises to three
During the previous dixer, Nationals MP Jamie Chaffey gets warned by Milton Dick for interjecting too much. Then, before he can be formally ejected, he walks himself out.
Just a couple of minutes later, Nationals frontbencher Darren Chester is booted for also being too loud.
The current tally is one Labor and two Nationals MPs out of the chamber.
Anyway, back to questions – shadow treasurer Tim Wilson asks housing minister Clare O’Neil how many home owners “will become poorer because of Labor’s deliberate correction in house prices”. He says O’Neil yesterday said prices could drop 20%, which O’Neil labels “characteristically dishonest”.
I’d say to those opposite, if you can’t win a political debate without misrepresenting the position of the people that you’re arguing with, then you don’t have a very good argument. That’s just a hot tip.
She then spends the rest of her answer defending the government’s policy.
Those opposite may think that a 400% increase in house prices is a sustainable and good thing for the country, but let me be clear with you, the result of that is that home ownership rates for the young people of this country are falling through the floor.
As she speaks, the Senate has just passed the tax reforms.
Steggall questions Labor on truth in political advertising
When will the government legislate truth in political advertising, asks Zali Steggall, who has her own bill before parliament.
She says her legislation would “require AI content watermarking, establish an ethical political advertising code an independent political advertising standards board to regulate complaints and introduce penalties for misleading and deceptive political content”.
Anthony Albanese says the issue of truth in political advertising is “very real” but doesn’t promise legislation is coming soon.
The issue of use of artificial intelligence is something that should be of concern across the parliament. The images, which people can see in videos, for example, that have been published recently, showing various members of parliament and ministers when it isn’t actually them.
I convened a meeting of half a dozen ministers just this week across portfolios looking at the challenges that it represents. It represents a real opportunity for growth, and you can’t stop these technologies from emerging, which is why we need to make sure that we shape them rather than allow them to shape us.
The PM has some personal experience of this – with AI generated images him used recently on social media to protest the government’s CGT legislation.
Tom McIlroy
Taylor says public perception is intelligence agencies have ‘dropped the ball’ on screening of migrants
Before question time, Angus Taylor told a conference in Canberra the public believes Australia’s security and intelligence agencies “dropped the ball” on screening of migrants, a reference to last year’s Bondi terror attack.
“There is a very strong sense, and I think it was particularly exacerbated, obviously, by what happened with Bondi in December last year, there’s a sense that the screening for this – given that one of those people is not a citizen – the screening for this is not happening, and that the intelligence and security agencies have dropped the ball on this,” he told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia conference at Parliament House.
The truth is the perception is that they have dropped the ball, and I think this has got to be fixed.
Taylor asks why Labor is ‘rolling out welcome mat’ for Isis-linked women
Angus Taylor is back and changes tack to the return of the Isis-linked woman to Australia.
Taylor asks why the government is “rolling out the welcome mat” for the cohort, at the same time the the director general of Asio has declared Islamic State and Al-Qaeda and their affiliates are growing their capability to conduct and inspire attacks.
Anthony Albanese calls Taylor the “self described newly elected member of parliament”, a jibe at the opposition leader’s comments to the CEDA event earlier and tries to make a point about his use of language.
Taylor directs Dan Tehan to stand up and make a point of order, who says that the PM should use correct titles to address members.
Milton Dick says he couldn’t agree more.
That’s a good cue to remind everyone that language matters, so no matter what descriptors are being used. Great, we’re going to keep everyone just to their titles. Fantastic.
The PM then starts reading from Mike Burgess’s address right now, and then the opposition makes another point of order, saying the PM isn’t answering the question about laying out the “welcome mat” for the Isis-linked women.
Albanese then continues:
The leader of the opposition couldn’t have more effectively outlined what the problem that the director general of Asio was identifying, because the idea that anyone in this parliament is not totally opposed to Isis and terrorism is something that has no place in this parliament, and what the leader of the opposition knows is that one of the things that defines our country and distinguishes us from authoritarian regimes is the rule of law.
Karl Stefanovic won’t appear on radio show with Eddie McGuire tomorrow
Amanda Meade
Jumping out of QT for a moment … Karl Stefanovic won’t appear on his scheduled Friday afternoon radio show with Eddie McGuire after widespread criticism of his podcast interview with UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Nine Entertainment is expected to sever ties with Stefanovic but is yet to make public the details of the separation.
ARN Media recently signed Stefanovic and McGuire for national program The Long Weekend on Gold FM, but decided to ask him not to record the show from the UK. Sources told Guardian Australia he was unlikely to return because the threat of an advertiser boycott over anger with Stefanovic was too high.
ARN has only just settled a legal case with Kyle Sandilands, who was similarly targeted by online activism which hit Kiis FM advertising revenue hard.
Earlier in the week a spokesperson for ARN distanced the company from Stefanovic’s podcast and choice of guests.
His external media activities, including his podcast, are undertaken in a personal capacity and are entirely separate from the network, which we have no control over.
They do not represent ARN’s views, editorial standards or programming.
Question time begins and Labor’s Mark Dreyfus gets immediate boot
We’re about 60 seconds in and, after Angus Taylor’s first question, the former attorney general Mark Dreyfus gets the boot from the speaker. He slowly collects his papers, which leads Milton Dick to tell him to get out faster.
Taylor asks the prime minister why does the “leader of the dishonest Labor government want to pull up the ladder on hard-working Australians?”
The PM says the bells are ringing (due to divisions in the Senate for the tax legislation), but he says they’re ringing for the opposition:
We understand that Australians are under financial pressure, which is why we’re not just identifying issues, we’re actually doing something about it. And in the Senate right now, there are bells ringing, the bell is tolling for all those opposite, because those opposite are voting in the Senate, all three rightwing parties, against tax cuts for every Australian.
The tax changes also include the $250 tax cut that the government announced in the budget.
Coalition’s move to delay tax vote fails
The Greens have teamed up with the government to block the Coalition’s attempt to delay a vote on the capital gains tax and negative gearing changes.
The opposition were pushing for debate to be extended.
It means question time in the Senate will be delayed – until after all the amendments and the bill are voted on.
Despite a couple of amendments being withdrawn (including David Pocock removing his amendment dealing with the widow tax after the government said it would fix the issue in future legislation), there are still more than a dozen amendments, which will take some time to get through!
Once the bill passes the Senate, it will have to go back to the House to be passed in its amended form.
Coalition moves to suspend vote on tax changes in the Senate
The Senate had voted earlier this week to guillotine debate on the tax changes to 1:30pm today, which would bring on a vote of the bills.
It’s not 1:30pm and debate on the bills have been cut short and the Coalition isn’t happy about it.
Shadow finance minister, Claire Chandler, moves to suspend standing orders to keep interrogating the legislation and the 20 or so amendments from the opposition and crossbench that have been listed for a vote.
Chandler tells the chamber:
We are a chamber of scrutiny, and this is where scrutiny actually happens. But what we are seeing today is the exact opposite of that process. As I said, this bill has been rushed from the start. It has the hallmarks of legislation that has been written in haste, and when legislation is written in haste, it demands deeper scrutiny, it does not demand less.
Now the government doesn’t have the numbers in the Senate and the Greens have promised them a pathway (but the minor party have also complained heavily about how “unambitious” the reforms are), so we’ll see how this vote shakes out.
Angus Taylor says he’s ‘relatively new’ to politics
Angus Taylor says he’s relatively new in the job, particularly compared with his political rivals, Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson.
He says both were first elected in 1996, which is mostly true – Albanese certainly was – but Hanson was in federal parliament from 1996 to 1998, and then only re-entered in 2016. She did spend some time in Queensland state politics in between.
So is Taylor a newbie?
He was elected in September 2013 – nearly 13 years ago – you be the decider.
He told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia event at Parliament House today:
I’m relatively new as a politician. I only came in 2013, my two big rivals in the parliament came in in 1996, the same year. So I’m relatively new to this, and my whole career before that was in the private sector.
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