Source : the age
Welcome to our live coverage of question time in the House of Representatives. My name is Nick Newling, I’ll be taking you through the afternoon’s proceedings.
You can watch a livestream of question time below from 2pm, and follow along with our blog for updates.
While today’s blog coverage focused on activity in the House of Representatives, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s photographer Alex Ellinghausen captured newly minted Nationals leader Matt Canavan took his seat in the Senate for the first time under his new role.
Upon his entry to the upper house he was congratulated by the Coalition’s leader in the Senate Michaelia Cash and the government’s Senate leader Penny Wong, among others.
Canavan is the 16th leader of the National Party, but only the first to come from the Senate.
Over in the House of Representatives, former Nationals leader David Littleproud and former deputy leader Kevin Hogan remained on the opposition frontbench as they hold shadow ministerial portfolios.
However, Darren Chester took Littleproud’s seat behind Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, after being elected the new deputy leader of the Nationals this morning.
Question time has ended for the day with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offering a broadside attack against the Coalition and One Nation following a change in leadership of the National Party. Here’s what he said in response to a question from his back bench.
The surest thing [is when] something important is happening in Australia and the world, those opposite turn the spotlight on themselves.
On the national day of mourning for victims of the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack, they announced they were splitting the Coalition again. On the day of the funeral of the former member for Higgins, the members for Hume and Canning publicly plotted against their leader.
On the day Israel’s President was in Canberra to support grieving members of the Jewish community, the member for Hume resigned and called for a spill. Now with Australians feeling the impact the war in the Middle East, the Nationals have elbowed their way to centre stage.
[Instead of] focusing on fuel security for regional communities they are focused on their front bench security … the fact is we will continue to govern in the national interests … there will be a different front bench when we get back here … maybe tomorrow, who knows.
Maybe by the time we come back in a week it will be different again. One thing will remain the same – same old Liberals, same old Nats, same old One Nation. Just three right wing parties not standing up for Australia
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy has told Liberal front bencher Andrew Hastie that a question about the war in Iran is better directed to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after he was asked about the end of conflict in Iran.
“The Strait of Hormuz been closed to shipping since the start of the war in the Middle East. Given 20 per cent of the world’s oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz alongside LNG and alumina, can the minister advise how long he expects military effort also take critical choke point is reopened,” Hastie asked.
Conroy, who is representing Defence Minister Richard Marles while he is on a diplomatic trip to Indonesia, immediately responded by slapping down the question.
“I thank the member for his question, although I point out he’s probably directing the question at the wrong person. He’s effectively asking me to predict when the conflict between Iran and the United States and Israel will end. And I would submit there’s a question best directed to President Trump, the rulers of Iran and the Prime Minister of Israel,” Conroy said.
“In terms of what the broader question went to, which was the potential interruption to our supplies, I can report to the House that as a response to a recommendation of defense strategic review, we’ve doubled the fuel holdings for the Australian Defense Force,” he said.
“That’s something that should have happened under your watch, which you failed to do. And the latest advice from the chief of Defence Force is that our fuel supplies to the ADF, including from the Middle East, aren’t interrupted. So instead of scaremongering, they should ask constructive questions.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has used his opportunity to speak during question time to ask Treasurer Jim Chalmers to organise a meeting on fuel supply issues between independent distributors, the ACCC and relevant ministers.
Joyce said any assertions by the government that there was not a fuel shortage was “ridiculous” and “patently absurd”.
Chalmers said the government was already working to crack down on issues in the industry, including through increased penalties for fuel suppliers undertaking “false and misleading conduct, and cartel behaviour”.
“I say this respectfully to the member for New England … we don’t need his invitation to engage with the industry. We’ve been doing that all along, and we’ve been engaging with the ACCC as well,” he said.
Nationals MP Allison Penfold has returned the opposition to yesterday’s attack on the government over claims of a fuel shortage across the country. The government has repeatedly rebuffed this claim, saying panic buying is increasing demand, but that there is no supply issue.
Penfold asked Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen why businesses were struggling and “running out of fuel”.
Bowen responded, saying: “We recognise fully that in regional areas in particular, there are shortages in particular areas, and that the supply chain is under huge pressure, as we have seen a massive increase in demand.”
The minister criticised the Coalition’s policy of holding fuel reserves in the United States, saying it was a policy pushed by now Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.
Transport Minister Catherine King, in response to a subsequent question, said the opposition was acting irresponsibly and contributing to panic buying.
One member of the Iranian women’s soccer team delegation has sought to return to Iran after being provided a humanitarian visa, and members of the delegation were moved by the government after Iranian officials became aware of their location, Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke has told the House of Representatives.
Burke said he travelled to Brisbane and Sydney to see if anyone from the team was interested in taking up Australia’s offer to remain in Australia. Two members of the delegation – one player and one support person – requested to remain in Australia and were issued with humanitarian visas, as already reported.
“I would advise that one of the two who had made the decision to stay last night, had spoken to some of the teammates who had left and had changed her mind. In Australia, people are able to change their mind. People are able to travel. And so we respect the context in which she has made that decision,” Burke told the House.
“Unfortunately, in making that decision, she’d been advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy and to get collected. My officials made sure that this was her decision, and every question you would want asked, was asked,” he said.
“As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was. I immediately gave the instruction for people to be moved, and that’s been dealt with immediately,” Burke said.
The minister said “we can all be very proud of the Australian Federal Police” and members of the Department of Home Affairs for supporting the provision of humanitarian visas to those who sought them.
“Australia is a country where they can see there is freedom of choice for women as well, and a country where those who have made the decision to stay will be very welcome and very much the rest of the Australian people will be wrapping them in our arms.”
Just after Husic was expelled, shadow treasurer Tim Wilson was able to ask his question, imploring Treasurer Jim Chalmers to apologise to Australians for the economic difficulties they are facing.
“After 13 interest rate rises under Labor, the average Australian mortgage holder is paying more than $23,000 a year in interest than when the Coalition left office. With National Australia Bank now predicting the 14th rate rise under Labor next week and the 15th when they meet again in May, will the treasurer apologise to struggling mortgage holders for the pressures he is imposing on them,” Wilson asked.
Chalmers rose and immediately began sledging Wilson as unqualified for his shadow portfolio. In particular, Chalmers argued that Wilson was against the Reserve Bank’s dual mandate – which, in brief, is the mandate to balance inflation between 2 and 3 per cent while maintaining full employment.
“He’s got a lot of nerve asking about interest rates, when only a couple of days into his pretty disastrous step as shadow treasurer, he called for the end of the Reserve Bank’s dual mandate. And when he called for the end of the Reserve Bank’s dual mandate, what he was calling for was higher interest rates and higher unemployment,” Chalmers said.
We have already had our first expulsion from question time before we reached the third question of the afternoon.
Labor backbencher Ed Husic was kicked out of the chamber by Speaker Milton Dick after calling out “sing a song” to shadow treasurer Tim Wilson as he rose to ask a question.
The heckle was a reference to a performance from Wilson last week, when he sang a rendition of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire about inflation.
Don’t worry, we won’t try to explain it. Roll the clip…
Question time has begun for the afternoon with Opposition Leader Angus Taylor asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese whether government ministers had dropped the ball on standards of living.
“Last year, the treasurer told us he had beaten inflation. Yet even before the fuel crisis, inflation had beaten the treasurer, and now the minister for energy has been caught unprepared for Australia’s energy shortages, further punishing Australian households at the bowser and at the supermarket,” Taylor said.
“Will the prime minister confirm that Australia’s living standards have fallen under Labor?”
Albanese responded by saying the opposition was pretending there wasn’t a war going on in the Middle East, which was affecting oil prices, before sledging today’s change to the National Party leadership.
“I would have thought that the last few months might have taught the Liberal Party and the Coalition that trying to turn everything into a political opportunity doesn’t end well. It didn’t end well for the former leader of the Liberal Party. It didn’t end well for the former leader of the National Party,” he said.
“The opposition come in here, and they practice, they practice: How can we divide? How can we create a political advantage out of what is a difficult situation that the Australian government is dealing with?”
The federal Liberal Party is in a death spiral due to its shrinking “grumpy, old and very right wing” support base, its support for immigration and climate policies championed by One Nation and its capture by conservative “angertainment” media outlets, according to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
He said he expects the party is likely to cut a preference deal with One Nation in the upcoming Farrer byelection, seen as a crucial test of new Liberal leader Angus Taylor, which would be “poison” in urban seats of the sort already lost to Teal independents.
This would be one of the “final nails” in the coffin of the Liberal Party, said Turnbull, but he did not rule out “the vampire” somehow escaping.
Turnbull told an audience at the Climate Action Week Sydney conference this morning that the Liberal Party’s decision to focus on One Nation’s issues, such as immigration, was destroying the party because it elevated those issues in the minds of parts of the electorate, which then chose to back One Nation over Liberals.
This was not only a danger to the broader community because it amplified divisive and destructive ideas, but to the Liberal Party which had not only lost urban seats, but a generation of talented potential candidates.
He said the presence of Teal MPs like Allegra Spender or Sophie Scamps in his cabinet would have improved its intellectual firepower as it tackled crucial issues like tax reform and climate change, to the benefit of the nation and the party.
