TRANSCRIPT
There was no love between the Albanese government and the Coalition on Valentine's Day.
Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley started the day by saying the Albanese government needed a date with the truth, calling for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to be sacked.
Mr Giles has been under scrutiny since the release of 149 migrants, many of whom had criminal convictions, following a High Court decision which found indefinite detention was unlawful.
The future is also uncertain for Nationals M-P Barnaby Joyce, who was filmed lying on a Canberra street talking into his phone last week ((Wed 7 Feb)).
Nationals Leader David Littleproud told the A-B-C he has asked Mr Joyce to consider taking personal leave.
"Barnaby and I had a conversation yesterday about the circumstances that led to the behaviour that we saw last week. And that’s not normal behaviour. He’s embarrassed himself and he’s embarrassed his family. But it’s important to understand that there are circumstances that are greater than what has publicly been ennunciated around a mixture of medication and alcohol. There’s some family circumstances that his family need to deal with."
But the Member for New England appeared to not to have taken Mr Littleproud's advice, using a House of Representatives speech on the Albanese government's stage three tax cuts to discuss a range of issues affecting regional areas.
"If you really want to look out for people who are doing it tough. You gotta one of the core issues in their life, their power bill, their grocery bill, their capacity to pay for dangerous, the fact that it goes secondhand car and if you start changing fuel standards and saying this is going to happen, that’s going to happen. That’s all well and good where people have money, but where they don’t have money, they can’t afford the car they got and every time they go to get groceries, they can’t go to a corner store because there is no corner store."
Mr Joyce has been vocal in his opposition to the federal government's environmental policies, including their proposed fuel emissions standards.
Last week, he led a protest outside Parliament House ((Tues 6 Feb)) protesting against the federal government’s plan for the energy grid to run on 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
The protest has drawn criticism from former economic advisor to the Hawke government Ross Garnaut , who today outlined to the National Press Club a 15-step policy plan under which Australia could become the world's zero-carbon superpower.
Describing the protesters as Barnaby's angry 400, he denied widespread renewable energy would require the use of Australia's best farmland.
"We need not cover the land of any people who don’t want wind turbines and solar panels on their country. I’ve spent a lot of time in the west of Queensland since seven mayors asked me to help them think through how they could use their sun and wind. They want renewable power generation if they get sustainable income and jobs."
The coalition has attacked the Albanese government's commitment to renewables, after wild storms in Victoria caused the Loy Yang coal-fired power station to go offline, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
National Party Senator Matt Canavan says the outage showed there isn't enough redundancy in national networks, because of the government's refusal to build more fossil fuel and nuclear power stations.
At Question Time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese began by offering his heartfelt condolences to Victorians affected by extreme weather, who have already seen bushfires, extreme heat, storms and flash flooding this week.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he echoed Mr Albanese's words.
Later, he echoed Ms Ley's calls for the Immigration Minister to be dismissed, saying Mr Giles had failed to keep Australians safe after it was reported at least 18 of those released had been arrested for further offences.
"The first duty of the goverment is to keep Australians safe, and the Albanese government has failed in this duty. Mr Speaker, this minister has to go, this weak Prime Minister has to show leadership."
Mr Giles again defended his record, saying the government has always focused on community safety, after a high court decision overturning two decades of precedent required the release of the detainees.
And Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil hit back at Mr Dutton, whose own record as Home Affairs Minister has come under scrutiny, after it was revealed he had intervened to allow someone with criminal convictions to stay in Australia in 2018.
"What do we hear from the leader of the opposition in countering all of these very well-substantiated claims about him - we hear absolute crickets, and that's because this is a tough guy who doesn't want to answer the tough questions - now speaker, there is one question that matters more than all - when he cannot run a government department, why does he think he can run our country?"
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has also been challenged on a bit of ancient history between the Labor and the Coalition.
In response a question prompted by the plan put forward by Professor Garnault and former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Sims, he said the Albanese government was not considering the introduction of a carbon tax.
"We found a better way, Mr Speaker, or at least an alternative way, but we feel a better way, to implement what is already a comprehensive and ambitious agenda when it comes to clean energy, when it comes to climate change, and when it comes to those industrial opportunities for becoming a renewable energy superpower.''
