Xenophon shoots down Abbott's proposal on 18C with 'no, no and no' – as it happened - Digital Innovation for a Sustainable Future

The Coalition prepares to bring registered organisations bill to crack down on unions while the windfarm commissioner will appear before Senate estimates. As it happened

8.05am BST

Estimates will continue into the evening, until 11pm. So let’s wrap for today:

8.00am BST

The lively day in Canberra is powering right through to close of business. As we speak the Labor left is having a specially convened caucus meeting to deal with tensions that have boiled over since Bill Shorten last Friday night backed his friend and factional ally, the controversial lawyer Kimberley Kitching, to replace the departing Stephen Conroy.

Let’s keep this as simple as possible. Tensions in the Victorian left have been bubbling away for months, ever since the majority of the faction tried to run the veteran leftwing powerbroker, Kim Carr, off the front bench. Folks aligned with Carr have been cranky that some of their Victorian colleagues lined up with colleagues in Sydney to try and remove Carr from the frontbench after the election.

7.12am BST

Nick Xenophon has responded to Tony Abbott’s suggestion that changes to section 18C would “readily” pass if the Nick Xenophon Team supported them.

Asked if his party was considering supporting a change, Xenophon told Guardian Australia: “the answer is no, no and no. I’ve spoken to my colleagues and we agree: not only is there no proposal, there is no pipeline.”

I am deeply offended at the suggestion of any change in section 18C – but I realise my complaint is not actionable.

6.52am BST

Tony Abbott has regularly come back to his proposal to amend 18C post prime ministership, despite having dropped it from his government’s agenda in order to deal with national security issues.

Now he is seeking what is known around the traps as a more minimalist proposal, which would remove the words insult and offend from section 18c, notwithstanding the free speech provisions in 18d.

6.45am BST

Re. 18c: if the Nick Xenephon Team put up a proposal, reform could readily occur.

6.24am BST

The independent national security monitor Roger Gyles is in finance estimates committee now. He has confirmed he will be leaving for personal reasons. Brandis says he doesn’t want to be tied down as to a timeframe for a replacement.

6.18am BST

MacGibbon agrees that he assumes ministers do not share classified information over such apps.

6.17am BST

Alastair MacGibbon, cyber security special adviser to the PM, has told Wong that prior to James Massola’s Fairfax story about minister’s usage of Whatsapp among others, he had not sought regarding security advice on Whatsapp for cabinet ministers.

6.02am BST

Wong: Personal safety? He likes strawberries not rasberries?

The wonderful farce of the defence department redacting Malcolm Turnbull’s dietary preferences on privacy and “personal safety”. pic.twitter.com/mNIEMAQL4S

5.48am BST

5.46am BST

Marathon men

5.44am BST

COAG will hold a National Summit on Reducing Violence against Women and their Children in Brisbane next week #auspol pic.twitter.com/u4mVu6RfF8

5.39am BST

Katharine Murphy reports that Bob Day’s chief of staff Rikki Lambert intends to put his name forward to fill the vacancy. She has a full story on the Day development here.

5.35am BST

Wong vs. Brandis + Paterson #characteristicallydishonest #estimates #auspol pic.twitter.com/EC1fCTaxLa

5.32am BST

Jenny Mcallister and Penny Wong are asking about Malcolm Turnbull’s food choices for overseas travel #esimates

5.25am BST

Stay…awake…stay…awake…zzzz

5.23am BST

Death stare Olympics

5.19am BST

Ministers emoticons

5.16am BST

5.14am BST

All very well in the Bar common room

5.12am BST

Talk to the back.

5.10am BST

Dreyfus to Turnbull: I again refer to reports the government is preparing to strip a dual national of Australian citizenship for the first time and that it expects the legislation to be challenged in the high court. Given this is the same legislation where a letter the attorney general provided to the intelligence committee incorrectly represented advice from the solicitor general, what are the risks to national security in the event of a successful legal challenge? What is the reason for the government misrepresenting the advice of the solicitor general?

Turnbull says he does not comment on the government’s legal advice. He also says if he has concerns he should raise it in the joint committee and talk to the attorney general.

If he has those concerns, I would suggest he holds his nose and does the unspeakable thing of talking to the attorney. I’d suggest he does that. I suggest he puts his personal animosity aside and speaks to the attorney general if he has real concerns. He’s got to get over these petty personal animosities and get on our team, get on Australia’s team, to ensure that we have the right legislation.

5.06am BST

In the finance committee:

Penny Wong has asked George Brandis if the prime minister has had any conversations with cabinet members about potential diplomatic or other appointments for Brandis.

Not that I’m aware … and as you know conversations between ministers on such matters are never an appropriate matter for public discussion.”

5.04am BST

Health minister Sussan Ley gets a Dixer question on Medicare and drugs on the PBS list – in response to the current Labor attack.

5.03am BST

Dreyfus to Turnbull: I refer to reports the government is preparing to strip a dual national of Australian citizenship for the first time and that it expects the legislation to be challenged in the High Court. Is this the same legislation where a letter the Attorney-General provided to the joint committee on intelligence and security incorrectly represented advice from the Solicitor-General?

Turnbull takes the mickey out of both Dreyfus and Brandis by the sound of it. Don’t take my word for it.

All of us understand that the ShadowAttorney-General likes to engage in a sort of Guthrie Featherstone QC MP versus Rumpole with the debate of the Attorney-General. I think we know those two learned gentlemen do not see eye to eye. There is from time to time what can be best described as a disturbance in the Bar Common Room and the less erudite members of the parliament are happy to let these great advocates get on with it.

There is nothing more important that the shadow attorney-general gets over his spat with the attorney-general and focuses on the real issue which is not the dispute in the bar, which is ensuring that our laws keep us safe and give our police and our intelligence services and our ministers the powers to keep us safe.

We have seen him today stirring up an issue about the powers to revoke citizenship from terrorists. This is a very important power. He sat on the Parliamentary joint committee. He brought his legal eminence to that committee. If he has a concern, he should be raising it within that committee or, if he can bear to speak to him, raising it with the attorney-general or the minister.

4.57am BST

Financial services minister Kelly O’Dwyer gets a question on financial advisors.

4.55am BST

Shorten to Turnbull: In newspaper reports today, the member for Warringah says that the existing protections against racist hate speech under s.18C of the Racial Discrimination Act are “getting completely out of hand”. Does the prime minister agree with the views of his predecessor? Do these views reflect government policy?

Turnbull:

The honourable member for Warringah is, like all honourable members, free to express his views on the issues of the day but as we recall when the honourable member was the prime minister, my distinguished predecessor, the decision was taken by the government not to proceed with changes to section 18C. That decision has not been reviewed or altered.

4.53am BST

Next Dixer question is to justice minister Michael Keenan. Again, unions. This time Kathy Jackson and Kimberly Kitching.

4.50am BST

Dreyfus to Turnbull: I refer to the prime minister’s answer just now and ask again. Can the prime minister advise the House whether he donated $2m or more than $2m to the Liberal party during the election? The prime minister knows the answer, why won’t he tell us?

Christopher Pyne says the question is a red herring and is not within the prime minister’s responsibilities.

I have been scrupulous in disclosures of donations and receipts of donations under the Electoral Act. I don’t wish to make a big point of it but the honourable member opposite, of course, overlooked a donation for eight years.

Now what the honourable member is asking me to do is to make a disclosure in advance of it being disclosed under the act. Any disclosures I make were made in accordance with law and to the Electoral Commission and are then disclosed by the AEC at the normal time. I comply scrupulously with the law and the honourable member would be well advised to look to his own party to ensure that they do so too.

4.45am BST

Peter Dutton gets a question purporting to be about cancelling visas but it is on Bill Shorten’s links to the CFMEU.

This goes to the registered orgs bill, which is due in the parliament on Wednesday.

4.43am BST

Back to the House question time.

Mark Dreyfus for Labor to Turnbull: I refer to the reports the prime minister donated $2m to the Liberal party during the election. Given the deadline for lodging AEC returns has now passed, what donations has the prime minister disclosed to the AEC?

All will become clear when donations are revealed in accordance with the act.

4.34am BST

Elizabeth Kelly says while DPMC staff had seen the Coalition agreement between Turnbull and former National party leader Warren Truss, she was not aware whether anyone had seen the Turnbull-Joyce agreement.

4.32am BST

Labor MPs have asked Malcolm Turnbull to repeat a promise he made on Channel Seven the day before the election that patients would not pay more to see a doctor because of the Medicare freeze.

Turnbull sticks to the government’s strengths on health, including that the number of bulk-billed services has increased and its record listing drugs on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. He stops short of repeating the promise.

Malcolm Turnbull would rather call 000 here than repeat his election promise that Australians won’t pay more to see the GP #qt

4.31am BST

The estimates committee is onto the Coalition agreement under questioning from Penny Wong. This is a result of the return of those pesky supplementary questions this morning.

We learn that the Agreement is in the fiscal branch of economic division of the DPMC.

4.20am BST

Paul Karp will be providing some reports out of question time in a minute as we press on with the estimates on DPMC.

4.19am BST

Senator Wong asks Paterson about the return of questions on notice, given how late the last ones came back.

Wong to chair James Paterson:

Did you roll your eyes at me? Did you roll your eyes at me?

Really Senator Wong, behave like an adult.

4.12am BST

First question from Shorten to Turnbull: On the day before the election, the prime minister was asked by Sam Armytage on Sunrise “You have committed to a freeze on the GP rebate. Can you guarantee our viewers will not pay more to see the doctor due to this freeze?” The PM responded “Sam, absolutely”. Does the PM stand by his absolute guarantee that Australians will not pay more to see the doctor as a result of his freeze?

4.11am BST

Penny Wong asks whether the PM’s department is considering or involved in a new VIP plane. This is taken on notice.

4.08am BST

Bill Shorten is speaking to the condolence motion.

4.08am BST

National senator Bridget McKenzie asks about Craig Emerson and whether prime minister Rudd asked for advice on whether Emerson had complied.

It was before Kelly’s time.

4.06am BST

Question time begins with a condolence motion on the King of Thailand.

I will stick with the estimates committee on lobbying for a while longer.

4.05am BST

Under questioning, we learn:

Former assistant minister Bob Baldwin is a registered lobbyist even though he retired at the 2016 election.

3.54am BST

The prime minister has not requested any advice about Ian Macfarlane’s position relating to the ministerial standards.

Labor senator Jenny McAllister wants to know whether there have been any meetings between Macfarlane and anyone in government.

3.51am BST

There is an 18-month cooling off period for ministers. Allegedly.

Elizabeth Kelly says the department of PMC only provides advice when asked on ministerial standards.

I do senator Rhiannon, Brandis says.

A distrinction is drawn between professional lobbyists and industry peak bodies for a start, says Brandis.

3.43am BST

Lee Rhiannon wants to know if George Brandis would meet with Macfarlane about matters before cabinet.

Brandis says he does not discuss matters before cabinet with anyone.

3.41am BST

This is the issue Rhiannon is getting at – is he a lobbyist and what are the rules? I wrote about it at the time …

Former resources minister Ian Macfarlane said he checked with the prime minister’s office prior to accepting a job as chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council, following accusations he had breached the ministerial code.

The Coalition government’s statement of ministerial standards says ministers should not “lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government” for 18 months, on any matters for which they were responsible.

3.38am BST

Finance committee is back.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon is questioning Elizabeth Kelly of the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on former resource minister Ian Macfarlane taking up a job with the Queensland Resource Council (QRC).

3.19am BST

Penny Wong’s eyebrows deserve their own Twitter account. You can tell when she is dubious about a certain claim. The left eyebrow jumps at the slightest provocation.

Senator Wong has busted out her left “Oh really?” eyebrow @ estimates-@ rest & factor 5 Oh Really. @gabriellechan pic.twitter.com/AWAoQPvR7m

3.12am BST

Reports that Bob Day’s Home Australia company is in liquidation. A reminder that Day’s private company made large payments to FF since 2011 pic.twitter.com/ojyXKmthrW

3.10am BST

The main contenders to replace Bob Day are also free-market. Expected to take the same stance on ABCC, Registered Organisation Commission.

3.10am BST

As Day leaves a casual vacancy, Family First gets to choose the next senator. Who may not have the IR bent.

3.08am BST

During an at-times heated, consistently partisan, and frequently juvenile legal and constitutional affairs committee estimates hearing, we learned little, though one astonishing fact did emerge: Senator Ian MacDonald does not read The Guardian. [Irony font]

(It should also be remembered he famously claimed not to have read an Australian Human Rights Commission report about which he was questioning the commission president – because he’d already decided it was biased).

3.05am BST

Katharine Murphy has confirmed the resignation. We are awaiting a statement from Day regarding the resignation.

Needless to say, the Coalition has lost an advocate for their IR reforms, given Day is a former member of the Liberal party and a zealot on IR reforms that suited the Coalition.

3.03am BST

For those who have not been watching the travail’s of Bob Day – building tsar and Family First senator, you may be confused by Day’s decision.

This is an example of some of the reports regarding this matter. As of last week from the Oz:

Family First senator and businessman Bob Day is being sued for $2 million by the former owners of Huxley Homes, the troubled NSW arm of his embattled house building empire.

Graham and Bryan Huxley told the NSW Supreme Court that Senator Day’s Home Australia group was slow to pay the $14.7m price for Huxley and welshed on office rental deals.

Full statement that was sent to the Australian newspaper regarding their Home Australia stories. I stepped back in to help out. pic.twitter.com/cFhzNZ54wY

2.52am BST

Bob Day has confirmed he is quitting the Senate.

2.48am BST

As the finance and public administration committee goes off to check their Whatsapp messages and find a bite, here is a lunchtime summary of what we know.

2.27am BST

AAP:

Laws protecting Victorian CFA volunteers engaged in a long-running dispute with the firefighters union will be challenged in the High Court.
Changes to the Fair Work Act passed federal parliament last week as the Turnbull government delivered on its election promise to intervene in the dispute.
United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall has told the Australian Financial Review on Monday the union will launch a constitutional challenge against the laws.

2.25am BST

Alastair MacGibbon says he communicates with several people – including the PM – on Whatsapp.

Wong goes in further but Brandis steps in.

So its entirely unremarkable but you don’t want it exposed to the public

2.20am BST

From AAP:

Federal police are not investigating Wyatt Roy’s unofficial visit to an Iraqi war zone.
The former Liberal MP was caught in the crossfire between the Islamic State group and Kurdish Peshmerga forces near an area Australians are legally banned from visiting.

Australian federal police commissioner Andrew Colvin said his organisation had done “due diligence” into the matter but there was no open investigation.
“Based on the public reporting we did form a conclusion that we didn’t believe any offences had been committed,” he said.
Roy’s trip was widely condemned by federal politicians including the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

2.20am BST

Alastair MacGibbon, the PM’s special advisor on cyber security has shimmied into the chair to answer the tech-head questions on secure communications.

This is all about the use of Whatsapp and other platforms. Generally the message from PMC is giving is that any technical communications should be done over the government’s secure platforms.

2.06am BST

Penny Wong is question the PMC about the prime minister and ministers use of communication apps like Whatsapp. This follows a story by James Massola in Fairfax.

Allan McKinnon of PMC says that he did not raise any issues following the report.

1.58am BST

Lodge renovations and the cost of upholstery from supplementary answers.

The total cost of refurbishing the original Ruth Lane-Poole lounge and two matching chairs was $11,524.22 (GST inclusive).

1.47am BST

Exhibit A. Heritage stairs. Precarious and valuable.

No other prime minister needed this, says Wong.

1.43am BST

Penny Wong wants to know about what a luggage lift looks like. Paula Ganly says it’s a bit like a dumb waiter, certainly not for people.

1.42am BST

The lift:

Senator Jenny McAllister is asking about the luggage lift. Kelly says the luggage lift was installed to protect the staff, one of whom was injured lugging suitcases up the heritage stairs. There was also the heritage value of the stairs.

1.39am BST

Senator Wong is now expressing her “disappointment at the discourtesy” shown by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in returning the aforementioned supplementary answers late.

Kelly says the tardiness was due to the caretaker period.

1.34am BST

1.32am BST

1.31am BST

1.29am BST

Elizabeth Kelly notes staff changes in the past six months, including the appointment of former Greens senate candidate Lin Hatfield Dodds as as deputy secretary for social policy in the department of prime minister and cabinet.

Chris Uhlmann reported this fact on the eve of the election:

Cabinet ministers, senior bureaucrats and Coalition backbenchers are outraged at the appointment of a former Greens candidate to a senior position in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on the eve of the federal election…

A spokesman for the department told the ABC: “Ms Hatfield Dodds was appointed following a merit selection process conducted in the usual manner and consistent with the Public Service Act.”

1.24am BST

Attorney general George Brandis is in the seat to steer the department of prime minister and cabinet.

Elizabeth Kelly is in the chair for the department. Grab your popcorn.

1.19am BST

Good morning from Matt Hatter:

@gabriellechan I suppose it’s too late now to add ‘Official Lodge
Luggage Hauler’ to Eric Hutchinson’s nebulous job description? #estimates pic.twitter.com/KchbZlWXEt

1.16am BST

Xenophon shoots down Abbott’s proposal on 18C with ‘no, no and no’ – as it happened