5&5: No straight answers
Every single day this week Scott Morrison proved he can’t give straight answers to simple questions. Here’s the #5and5:
BEST
No straight answers
Talking points
Area 51 and the Illuminati
Climate emergency
Nova Peris
WORST
Economic woes
Asbestos snub
Ben Chifley was no Tory
The Minister for Youth
Porter has another shocker
BEST
1. Increasingly the PM won’t answer basic questions. Previously he has flatly denied that he said something and then the footage turned up of him saying exactly those words on camera. This week he would not answer a simple question about who he sought to have invited to the White House. It continued as bad economic data keeps turning up and the PM refuses to address basic facts. It goes to his character. More and more our questions to the PM return to the same theme “Why can’t the PM give a straight answer to a simple question?”
Scott Morrison walks into Question Time, where he refuses to give any straight answers. Photo: Nine/Alex Ellinghausen
2. I reckon a junior worker somewhere in the Government had a very bad Monday. The government’s sixteen page guide to MPs and Senators on how to spin during media interviews was accidentally sent to … the media. The talking points mentioned Labor nearly 40 times – which shows where their priorities are. By Question Time we all had copies. As each minister tried to answer questions MPs would find the page of the spin document they were using and would announce to everyone “page 3 para 2”, or “page 8 down the bottom” so we could all read along as they parroted off their lines. At one point a Minister went through three consecutive bullet points almost word for word and Linda Burney called out “Bingo!”
Labor MPs with the Government’s talking points – which are meant to secret. Photo: The Guardian/Mike Bowers
3. Scott Morrison was challenged to explain what he meant when he had referred to international organisations trying to undermine our sovereignty in his recent conspiracy theory speech at the UN. As Morrison tried to defend his theories, Labor MP Graham Perrett started speculating on what organisations he might be talking about, calling out “Is it the Illuminati? Is it Area 51?”
4. Mark Butler has put a motion on the notice paper declaring a climate emergency. As we watch the predictions of climate scientists turn to lived experience on the news each night, the time for climate deniers has to be long past. Mark Butler and Josh Burns made the first speeches on the issue for us, in a debate where speakers in favour included Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent MP Zali Steggal. There was one speaker against … the one and only Angus Taylor. More about him later.
Nova Peris unveils her new portrait in Parliament House. Photo: The Guardian/Mike Bowers
5. Very few members of Parliament are chosen to have their portraits hung in the building. As the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Senate, Nova Peris was honoured this week with an extraordinary portrait painted by Aboriginal artist Jandamarra Cadd. The photo below gives an inkling of how impressive the portrait is, but if you get to Canberra I’d encourage you to have a look at the original. It’s a powerful work for a great Australian.
1. Wednesday and Thursday were two of the strongest days we’ve had since the election; and two of the worst days for Scott Morrison. The global growth forecasts had been updated by the International Monetary Fund. The downgrades for Australia’s economy were four times worse than the downgrade to other advanced economies. For two days, every question was on the economy, with Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers going through the avalanche of poor economic data that keeps emerging. And two days in a row Morrison refused to debate the economy. That’s right, the Government that used to claim economic management was its strength ran from a debate on the economy. Have a look at just how bad the data is, all of which we included in a motion in the House on Wednesday:
- the International Monetary Fund has slashed its growth forecast for the Australian economy for this year by almost 20 per cent
- the slowest economic growth in a decade
- the worst wages growth on record
- a record 1.9 million Australians being unemployed or underemployed
- a decline in GDP per capita last year, with flat growth in the last quarter
- record levels of household debt
- consumer confidence at a four-year low
- business confidence well below average
- sluggish productivity growth.
2. This was disgusting. On Tuesday the AMWU was at Parliament House with victims of asbestosis. I asked the Minister for Industrial Relations Christian Porter about the fact that the campaign the unions ran against James Hardie could have resulted in the unions being deregistered and James Hardie getting off scot-free if the so-called “Ensuring Integrity Bill” which is now before the Senate had been law at the time. Porter had some opening comments refusing to acknowledge the impact of his own legislation and then he went back to his usual tired riff about the CFMMEU. He couldn’t even offer victims of asbestosis the decency of talking about their situation for three minutes. The whole time, Morrison swung his chair around so his back was turned to the union and the victims who were in the chamber watching.
3. Every week there seems to be something absurd from Angus Taylor. This time he tried to claim Snowy Hydro was a legacy of the Liberals. In a point of order that was completely out of order – but needed to be said nonetheless – Anthony Albanese simply replied “Ben Chifley was no Tory.”
Angus Taylor reckons the Snowy Hydro was a Liberal achievement. What the? Photo: The Guardian/Mike Bowers
4. In the Senate, Labor’s Louise Pratt asked Richard Colbeck a question about the number of young people seeking work going from 12 per cent to 20 per cent. Maybe not everyone would be ready for this question but Colbeck had reason to be a little bit prepared: his job is meant to be Minister for Youth. Watching him take forever to find a piece of paper to answer a question central to his job is extraordinary. And watching the faces of his colleagues behind him says it all. Penny Wong put it perfectly by asking if a young person took that long to answer a question in an interview, “Do you think you’d get a call back?”
Watch him struggle here.
5. I’m not sure how to explain this one because I still don’t understand what happened. On Thursday Anthony Albanese moved a motion for a debate on the economy and then Jim Chalmers stood up to second the motion – as is usual procedure. But then Christian Porter – who you will remember replaced Christopher Pyne as the Leader of the House – took one of the strangest points of order in history. He started talking about something that had happened the day before, then about the questions that had been asked and then claimed there was no motion before the House. It was weird. You could see the Speaker trying desperately to show respect for the position of Leader of the House while actually having no idea what Porter was going on about. It was one of those occasions where you could have arranged Porters words in any order and it would have made just as much sense. Eventually he was sat down. Jim Chalmers seconded the motion and Porter was back on his feet moving that Jim not be allowed to speak. Watch the whole embarrassing episode here.
Special mention goes to the Speaker this week. There was a special award made this week for integrity in politics. The two winners were former independent MP Cathy McGowan and the Speaker Tony Smith. The Speaker was acknowledged for his handling of the chair and in particular of the Medevac legislation. It also noted he was the first Speaker to have a nomination seconded by the Opposition. At a time where people are understandably pretty cynical about the state of politics it’s important to congratulate Tony Smith on the award.
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‘til then,
Tony