Thank you for joining our live coverage of today’s sitting of question time, the final one for this week. Here’s what was discussed:
- A date has been announced for the Farrer byelection, after opposition leader Sussan Ley resigned from office after she was deposed by Angus Taylor. The poll will be held for the regional NSW electorate on May 9.
- Independent MP Allegra Spender called for a 50 per cent tax on oil and gas companies that push up their prices to take advantage of the turmoil caused by the war in Iran.
- A debate over when shadow treasurer Tim Wilson sold some contentious shares took place, before the Liberal MP clarified they were sold on Monday, but publicly posted online today.
- Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly defended the government’s provision of funding, after the government and the opposition made election commitments to fund an organisation that held a mourning event for the fallen Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
While this blog is closing for the day, you can continue to follow our rolling coverage of the war in Iran here.
There has been some confusion over when exactly shadow treasurer Tim Wilson sold some contentious shares, after Treasurer Jim Chalmers claimed they were sold today.
The shares were brought up yesterday, with the government claiming they were connected to a Coalition attempt to “talk down” the economy.
Following question time today, Wilson clarified that the sale took place on Monday, and attempted to table documents proving this. Leave was not granted by the government to do so.
This masthead has seen documents that show Wilson sought to update his register of interests on Monday to reflect the sale, but it was not formally reflected on the register until today.
Independent MP Allegra Spender wants Treasurer Jim Chalmers to slap a 50 per cent tax on oil and gas companies that push up their prices to take advantage of the turmoil caused by the war in Iran.
The Sydney MP, who is soon to release her own tax white paper, said there was a real risk that the disruption to global supply chains caused by the war would ultimately lead to higher energy prices for consumers.
Hitting companies with a 50 per cent tax, the proceeds of which would be used to pay down government debt, would act as a major disincentive to price gouging while improving the federal budget, she said.
“This tax on supernormal revenue will not affect investment since companies make such decisions on price expectations, not on the risk of war,” she said. “Investing in a project that would destroy value unless prices turn out to be far above forecasts would be irresponsible of any board.
“This windfall tax will, of course, be an unpredictable revenue stream for government, which is why it should only be used to pay down debt, rather than [be] regarded as a part of general revenue.”
The independent candidate for the May 9 Farrer byelection, Michelle Milthorpe, has released a statement after the date of the poll was announced in the House of Representatives.
“The byelection could not come any sooner because the people of Farrer have been forgotten,” Milthorpe said. “We are tough, and we get on with things, but everyone has their breaking point, and too many people across Farrer are reaching theirs.”
“We are the food bowl of Australia, we have given so much to this country, but party politicians in Canberra are too busy fighting each other to give us anything in return. We need a federal royal commission into water.
“Generational farmers are selling up because the price of water has tripled in just the past year. This is a national crisis, and a national crisis demands a national response. These are problems that would be fixed if we lived in the cities. For too long, politicians have overlooked our community because we are a safe seat. Last election showed there was a real appetite for change, and this election we’re ready to finish the job.”
The byelection in the regional NSW electorate was triggered by the resignation of former opposition leader Sussan Ley after she was deposed by Angus Taylor.
The opposition has returned to a line of questioning that emerged earlier in the week, about the funding of organisations that have mourned the death of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
First-term MP Leon Rebello asked Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly: “Has the minister investigated all funding commitments both secret and public made by the Albanese Labor government to extremist Islamic organisations which have mourned the death of the evil Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?”
The government offered Melbourne’s Taha Association $670,000 at the May election, which has come under the spotlight after the organisation held a mourning event for Khamenei. The local MP, Julian Hill, told the House that following the announcement of that funding, the Coalition had offered to double the funding to the organisation.
Aly said she took issue with the statement that there may be secret funding to organisations, and responded by saying: “The funding of which was spoken about earlier this week was very much publicly made, the commitment was very publicly made, much as I said in this House in response to questions from the shadow minister at the time of finding out about the incident that happened. I asked the department to stop what was an active process. That has now been stopped.”
The minister said the government takes funding of organisations seriously, and would continue to provide funds “in line with the standards that Australian taxpayers expect”.
Liberal MP Tony Pasin has been ejected from question time for the second time this week.
This is Pasin’s first week on the frontbench, and his fourth sitting of question time in the new job, meaning he has been kicked out on half the occasions he has entered question time as a shadow minister.
We will have to wait and see if he can keep the streak going, but there may be some sort of record in the making here.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has accused shadow treasurer Tim Wilson of having misled the House of Representatives over the sale of shares they said bet against the Australian economy.
Articles published by Guardian Australia and The Australian Financial Review showed that Wilson had bought shares that grew as the ASX 200 fell, which the government has sought to link to an argument that the opposition is seeking to “talk down” the Australian economy.
Wilson addressed the House yesterday after question time, saying he had bought the shares during COVID, turned a small profit, and donated that profit to a charity that supported LGBTQ rights in Iran.
Wilson said he had updated his register of interests on Monday, but it had yet to appear online. However, Chalmers cited the MP’s register of interests – seen by this masthead – that show the updates were filed today.
As Chalmers spoke, there were a number of interjections from opposition frontbenchers seeking to stop the treasurer from speaking on the matter.
Independent MP Zali Steggall has asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese whether the government will act against “dangerous far right” campaign organisations that use generative AI and deepfakes in political advertising, directly referencing the organisation Advance, which campaigned against the Voice to Parliament referendum.
Steggall cited a claim from Advance that former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s policies were more damaging to the nation than the Nazi reign.
Albanese expressed concern at the examples referenced by Steggall and offered to discuss a referral to the joint standing committee on electoral matters on the effort.
“We do need to always ensure that people have freedom of expression, including freedom of political expression,” the prime minister said.
“We also need to make sure that on the full range of issues, we ensure that disinformation and things that are simply not right are able to be called out.”
After an energetic performance in yesterday’s question time, shadow treasurer Tim Wilson has asked his first question of the afternoon.
“Can the prime minister confirm that, according to yesterday’s [national accounts] data, population growth driven by immigration has grown by 1.9 million since 2022?” Wilson asked. “At the same time, Labor has missed its housing targets by tens of thousands of homes
Anthony Albanese began his response by questioning the opposition’s credibility on housing targets, saying that it had a target in government of zero.
“The number of people arriving now is lower than it was under the Coalition,” he said. “The latest population statement released in early January confirmed population growth is expected to slow to 1.3 per cent in the current financial year and 1.2 per cent from 2026/27,” Albanese said.
“This is lower than the average of 1.4 per cent experienced during the 2010s. They are just the facts.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has asked the first question of the afternoon, on yesterday’s national accounts data. Here’s what he asked:
Can the prime minister confirm that according to yesterday’s data, since 2022 the only growth in the economy has been due to immigration and Australians working harder for less?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded by saying: “Yesterday, the national accounts showed that the Australian economy was growing at its fastest rate in almost three years, faster than every member of the G7, and on a day when the national accounts showed household incomes and living standards are going up, the opposition was talking Australia down, as they do.
“They only have two settings: tearing each other down or talking Australia down. They’re their two settings now. When the gender pay gap reached a record low, none of the blokes over there gave it a mention. When the bulk billing rate saw its biggest jump in 20 years, crickets, nothing whatsoever.”
The government has repeatedly used the argument that the opposition is “talking Australia down” when certain questions are asked about the economy.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
