source : the age
In Victoria, Barnaby Joyce has claimed multiple state Coalition MPs have canvassed defecting to One Nation.
Speaking to the Herald Sun, Joyce said “of course” they were talking to opposition MPs about following his example in fleeing to Pauline Hanson’s party, but didn’t guarantee they would be permitted.
“Just because you want to jump doesn’t necessarily mean we want to catch you,” he said.
Joyce made the comments before speaking at the Across Victoria event in Horsham, which will include discussions about renewable energy and transmission lines, alongside other issues in regional communities.
Newspoll results published on Sunday night showed that nationally, the Coalition’s vote has dropped to 18 per cent, while One Nation is polling a primary of 27 per cent.
But Victorian Nationals MP Danny O’Brien, who spoke at the same event, said there were zero chances of defections.
“I don’t believe for a second that any Victorian Coalition MPs will be joining One Nation,” he told the Herald Sun.
Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio seized on Joyce’s comments, accusing the Liberals of having a “toxic workplace”.
“She needs to come clean immediately and reveal which Liberals are in discussion with Barnaby Joyce,” she said.
The word “dishonest” has twice stopped responses in the House today, after Treasurer Jim Chalmers said opposition MPs were being dishonest in their quoting of Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock.
In a response to the shadow treasurer earlier this afternoon, Chalmers was forced to withdraw a comment about Ted O’Brien being “deliberately dishonest” after a protest from manager of opposition business Alex Hawke.
Asked about Bullock’s comments by Cook MP Simon Kennedy, Chalmers again accused the MP of “dishonesty”, this time without using the word “deliberately”.
Hawke once again objected, accusing Chalmers of “impugning a motive to a member asking a question”.
Speaker Milton Dick said there was a difference between the two uses of the words, but asked the treasurer to “change that wording” so the process could continue. Dick encouraged Hawke to “make sure you listen carefully” before objecting.
Independent MP Sophie Scamps has asked the government about potential sanctions on Israel over settlements in the West Bank. Here’s Scamps question:
“Overnight, Israel approved new measures that attempt to legalise settlement expansion and land confiscation in the occupied West Bank. Given Australia has recognised the State of Palestine, that these settlements are illegal under international law, and that Australia has used targeted sanctions elsewhere, will the prime minister sanction Israeli institutions and officials linked to the settlement expansion, and strongly reiterate Australia’s commitment to the two-state solution?”
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles responded, saying he noted “the timing of the question”, as Israeli President Isaac Herzog is currently in Australia.
Marles did not reference sanctions, but rather offered support for Israelis “to be able to live with security” while supporting “the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people to have statehood”.
He said Herzog’s visit to Australia was “very significant for our nation” and Australia’s Jewish community.
Back to question time, where Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has thrown the government’s support behind Angus Taylor’s expected challenge of Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s leadership this week, as he accuses the defence spokesperson of underperforming over his parliamentary career.
After saying Taylor had not been honest about delays to the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project and accusing him of poorly spending money on energy production, Bowen quoted unnamed Liberals who told the media Taylor was a “disaster” as energy minister and shadow treasurer.
“The member himself said at the election campaign ‘you know the best indicator of fiscal performance is past performance’, that’s 100 per cent right,” Bowen said.
“Which is why we on this side of the House wish the member for Hume the best wishes for this week. We have fully got his back.”
Leaving question time briefly, as police have issued a pro-Palestinian protester a move-on direction under the Major Events Act.
Amber Schultz, reporting from the scene, spoke with the man who yelled “shame” as Israeli President Isaac Herzog left Bondi Pavilion.
The use of the act on the president’s visit is being contested in the NSW Supreme Court today by the Palestine Action Group. The judge is expected to hand down a decision by 4pm today.
A protest is planned for 5.30pm at the Sydney Town Hall.
A specialist officer, who called the man an “agitator”, briefly placed him under arrest. Police said his comments and behaviour may have incited fear.
Under the move-on order, the 25-year-old man, who is a Bondi local, may not visit areas in Pyrmont, around the International Convention Centre, and in Bondi with the intention of behaving in a way that may incite fear or intimidation. The order lasts for three days.
The man complied with police direction, and said he came to the pavilion to take photos and didn’t plan to protest.
“Herzog’s visit causes fear,” the man said. “He is the agitator … I want to be on the right side of history.”
The government has returned to attacks on the potential leadership challenge from defence spokesperson Angus Taylor against Sussan Ley, in a question on the sell-off of Defence land announced last week.
“Faced with the prospect of spending $2 billion over the next 25 years on Defence sites that we barely use now, the Defence estate will be completely focused on giving Defence what it needs to do its job, in defending Australia,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said.
“What is most astonishing is given this major Defence announcement, over the last few days, we have heard barely anything from the shadow minister for defence [Angus Taylor]. Not a press conference, no analysis, not even a bar,” Marles said.
“When it comes to building defence capability, all of this is a long way from the shadow minister’s thoughts. I think lately, maybe, just maybe, the shadow minister has been a little distracted. Distracted by matters which are a bit closer to hand. Matters such as that seat right there,” Marles said, pointing at the chair Ley was sitting in.
Backers of Taylor’s leadership have said a challenge to Ley’s leadership this week is inevitable.
Nationals MP David Batt has asked a question on one of the opposition’s favourite question time topics: the government’s promise of a $275 reduction in household energy bills brought to the 2022 election.
Batt asked Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bown to “name a single Australian” who has seen a reduction in their power bill.
Bowen rose and said he could “name 225,531 households that have reduced their bills to zero” under the government’s home battery subsidies.
“I can name every single Australian household that’s seen their energy prices fall by 44 per cent in the last quarter, thanks to record renewable rates that have been introduced by this government’s policies, after a decade of denial and delay,” Bowen said.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has pushed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to confirm that interest rates had gone up 13 times on his watch.
“And the average mortgage holder is now paying $23,000 more every year in repayments?” she said.
But Albanese rebuked, saying when he came into office, “inflation had a six in front of it and was rising, it now has a three in front of it”.
The prime minister acknowledged the rise in inflation before being interrupted with a point of order of relevance from Ley, which was dismissed.
“What we have done is to make sure, as well, that we have provided for cost-of-living support, something opposed to by those opposite,” Albanese said.
“Those opposite … whose energy for opposing our cost of living measures is only exceeded by their energy with fighting each.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has used a question from the Labor backbenchers to twist the knife into Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, facing a potential leadership challenge from defence spokesperson Angus Taylor.
In response to what the government has done to support Australians with cost of living, Chalmers began sledging the opposition, saying they wouldn’t be taking lectures from the Coalition on the budget or taxes.
“They may change their leader this week but they can’t change their record,” he said.
“At the same time we got the budget in better nick, we’re cutting income taxes so more people can earn more and keep more of what they earn,” Chalmers said.
Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien has questioned Jim Chalmers on last week’s interest rate rise, referencing “finance guru” television host David Koch.
O’Brien said: “Following last week’s interest rate rise, respected TV finance guru Kochie sent a direct message to the treasurer saying, ‘Mate, you’ve got to tighten your belt’. You’ve told all of us to tighten our belts to fight inflation. You didn’t and so you are responsible for this interest rate rise.”
“The treasurer has dismissed the views of scores of economists and now even the Reserve Bank governor. Will he at least concede Kochie has a point?”
Chalmers said that O’Brien was being “deliberately dishonest”, a comment he was then asked to withdraw.
“[The Coalition] just took to the election a policy for bigger deficits and more debt. [That] means they are conceding that if they had won the election, inflation would be higher and interest rates would be higher … They can’t have it both ways,” Chalmers said.
“The more divided [the Liberal Party] gets, the more dishonest and desperate they get over there. I saw Senator Hume say this morning that they had to reach for the rabbit [in the hat], in her words,” Chalmers said.
“There he is over there, Mr Speaker. That three-ringed circus already has a clown [Ted O’Brien] and now it has a bunny [Angus Taylor] as well, and they are the two reasons why nobody takes them seriously on the economy any more.”
