Question time begins
Peter Dutton kicks off question time with:
Over the last two years, the Albanese government has brought in almost 1 million people into our country. Only 265,000 homes have been built. Building activity is at an 11-year low.
We have people who are living in cars and tents at a record level and yet nothing in this budget provides support to those people. At the same time the prime minister is giving billions of dollars to billionaires.
Prime minister, why does this government have the wrong priorities and why is this prime minister so weak that he can’t provide support to Australians in need?
Anthony Albanese:
The only thing that is broader than our support for cost-of-living relief is that question from the Leader of the opposition. Because it was all over the shop.
Albanese then goes through past quotes from coalition figures including Dutton, Dan Tehan and David Littleproud talking about the challenges of migration and the need to bring people in for the workforce.
Key events
![Caitlin Cassidy](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/04/21/Caitlin_Cassidy,_L.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4e50b2e4e7d1ea268f8a714d346ec620)
Caitlin Cassidy
University of Melbourne protestors have occupied a building at the Parkville campus and unofficially renamed it after a prospective Palestinian student who was killed in Gaza.
Mahmoud Alnaouq was a young Palestinian student who was to start his studies at the university this year, according to protestors, but was killed with his family in an Israeli airstrike last year.
Arts West no more – this is now Mahmoud’s Hall in remembrance of Mahmoud Al Nouq, a prospective unimelb student who was murdered in Gaza. He should’ve been with us here today. pic.twitter.com/qZizJ466un
— Unimelb for Palestine (@Umelb4Palestine) May 15, 2024
Hundreds of students have unfurled a banner in honour of Alnaouq at the university’s Arts West building, unofficially renaming it “Mahmoud’s Hall”.
The protestors are chanting “Palestine will be free” and “we will not stop, we will not rest”.
Hundreds of University of Melbourne students and community members are sitting in and occupying Arts West, and intend to do so ‘for as long as possible’. pic.twitter.com/O6iPIMwHzT
— Matt (@MattH093) May 15, 2024
LNP MP Luke Howarth, who I always forget is still in the parliament, asks Anthony Albanese:
My question is to the Prime Minister, respected economic journalist Alan Kohler has said it’s a big picture [budget]. Numbers that confirm this government to be an amazingly and unexpectedly big spending one. Why are Australians paying the price for the Prime Minister’s weak economic leadership?
Albanese:
I thank the member for Petrie for his question. The best response to that question is to respond with some facts in the LNP last budget in 2022, prior to the election, spell. Adding spending was provision for a 27.2% of spending as a percentage of GDP during Covid. After…after….
There are so many interjections I can’t hear Albanese or what any of the objectors are saying. Paul Karp who is in the chamber says the opposition is yelling “during covid” which leads to arguments about Labor supporting the spending.
Milton Dick tells them all to can it.
Albanese:
It’s anger overload over there today.
…In that budget, they predicted – bear in mind in the March 2022, budget they projected in 2023/24 spending of 27.1% of GDP and going forward in 2024, 25, 26.6% on all three years.
Our spending in the 2023/24 budget compares 24.5, compared with 27.2 25.4 under labor, compared with their projections of 27.1 and 26.4, compared with 26.6 under the Coalition.
The biggest, the biggest ever tax take by a Federal Government in a single year was 2005-2006, at 24.2% of GDP.
And guess who the Minister for revenue was? This bloke here, this bloke here, he was in their last budget (Peter Dutton)
They had not a single saving, not one. Nothing whatsoever, nothing whatsoever. Our budgets have delivered $77 billion in total savings, $77 billion in total savings, including $27.9 billion in the budget.
That was handed down last night and last night. In terms of revenue. We banked almost all the revenue upgrade in 2023-24.
The former government averaged just 40% of revenue upgrades. Those opposite promised to deliver a surplus in their first year and every year, and delivered a big duck egg.
Nothing, nothing zero out of nine. We’ve been in government for two years, and last night the treasurer announced a projected surplus of $9.3 billion.
Independent MP Zoe Daniel asks Jim Chalmers:
Since the Budget all I’ve heard from domestic violence services is outrage. Women can’t access help yet the government chose not to allocate new funding to services like Safe Steps that see more than 200 women put in motels across Victoria every night. Lack of front-line services has led to several suicides this year. I’m launching a petition seeking both government and opposition support to properly fund programs to end violence against women.
Treasurer, how many signatures do I need for Government to fund these programs?
Chalmers:
Thank you to the member for Goldstein, not just for her question, but for her genuine interest and passion and compassion for women who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing domestic and family violence. I think we all understand in this House that violence against women is a national shame and it requires national action and leadership and we are prepared to provide that leadership.
In the Budget last night, we invested almost $3.5 billion in addressing violence against women, since coming to office, including that $925 million the Prime Minister and some of the colleagues announced for the permanent leaving violence program.
I do want to say and I do want to acknowledge that even with that substantial investment, we all have much more work to do. We all have much more work that we need to do together because women still aren’t safe in our communities and we acknowledge that.
I think the Prime Minister and others have acknowledged that on multiple occasions as well.
Chalmers goes through the budget measures as well as the previously announced plan, which included previously announced measures.
![Daniel Hurst](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2020/03/30/Dan_Hurst.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=841ba2989a73d161b6a26127a9274808)
Daniel Hurst
Newly sworn-in Greens senator attacks Labor’s ‘subsidising’ of fossil fuels in budget
The newly sworn-in Greens senator for Victoria, Steph Hodgins-May, has made her presence felt in the Senate during question time.
After making clear “this is not my first speech”, Hodgins-May told the Senate:
My question is to the minister representing the prime minister. This weekend I’ll be door-knocking in my home area of St Kilda and I’ll hear from community members about the Albanese government’s decision to prioritise budget surplus over helping them. I’ll hear about your decision to have the budget pump almost $50bn into subsidising fossil fuels over the next 10 years when we are veering towards environmental and climate collapse, because you prioritise your corporate mates over the people who voted you in.
Minister, what should I tell my community when they ask me about this government’s betrayal of those doing it tough and selling our kids’ futures to big coal and gas companies?
The government’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, replied:
I thank the senator and congratulate her on her first question and to her swearing-in to this place.
If I may hasten to add: you are door-knocking but I suspect you’re also putting a view in that door knocking, which was as expressed in the question.
What I would say to them is this [Labor] is the only party that is offering energy price relief, this is the only party which is providing rent assistance, on the back of the biggest increase in many years another increase. This is the only party that is actually offering a transition to the clean energy future that will be implemented because, with respect, senator, your party [the Greens] thinks you can do it by press release … and slogans.
And the hard job of actually transitioning what has been a fossil fuel-dependent economy to a renewable energy economy is one we understand. And this budget invests in a future made in Australia. And do you know what that is about? It is about grasping the opportunities of net zero.
Fletcher makes dig at Parramatta MP Andrew Charlton in question on energy rebate
Paul Fletcher then gets the fun question. Poor Angus Taylor. He would have loved this.
Fletcher asks Anthony Albanese:
If we take a typical Australian, let’s call them Andrew, who recently had to relocate to Parramatta … and happens to own five houses and a newly acquired $12m beach house, will he be eligible to receive the rebate on all five houses?
Will he be eligible to receive the rebate on all five houses?
(This is a dig at Labor’s Parramatta MP, Andrew Charlton, who has one of the most diverse (and expensive) property portfolios in the parliament.
Albanese says he was “asked about energy prices” and Peter Dutton begins heckling him from across the table. Albanese says:
He’s full of hubris and anger today [Dutton]. A very bad combination, Mr Speaker. A very bad combination. Because when we had the previous energy price relief plan, they opposed it. They voted against it. When it went just to people who were on payments, when it went to low income earners. Now that we have an energy price relief plan, that goes to all Australians, they’re going to vote against that as well. They’re going to vote against that.
Last night I watched … the shadow treasurer on 7.30 … I wanted to see the treasurer on 7.30 and he was on afterwards. They gave him 30 seconds afterwards on the 7.30. And he made it very clear that he was opposed to the Future Made in Australia plan, opposed to manufacturing. But he did actually say, I thought, that he supported some of the measures.
… It was in there. But now today they are finding a way to crab walk away from giving any support to Australians. Just like when we announced our tax cuts for every Australian, first of all they said they hadn’t seen it but they were against it. Then they said they’d roll it back. Then they said we should go to an election on it. And then they voted for it. And then they voted for it. But they’re still bagging it.
Chalmers brings up Coalition record after shadow treasurer attacks ‘tax credits for billionaires’
Angus Taylor is back with another question What a day!
My question is to the prime minister. Under Labor’s budgets to date, the typical Australian household with a mortgage is more than $35,000 worse off. Why is the prime minister spending $13. 7bn on tax credits for billionaires at a time when ordinary Australian battlers are struggling to make ends meet?
There honestly has to be someone within the LNP tactics team who lives to troll Angus Taylor.
Jim Chalmers:
Spare us the questions about billionaires when those opposite, those opposite called for an election because we wanted to give Gina Rinehart a $4,500 tax cut instead of a $9,000 tax cut.
And the leader of the opposition was so furious on behalf of his mate, he called for an election over the changes we made to the tax cuts in January of this year. Spare us the pretend outrage.
They had a lot to say about class warfare in the past. This goes to the shambolic response we have seen to the budget last night, Mr Speaker. They’re casting around for all kinds of excuses, to oppose energy bill relief like they voted against it last time, Mr Speaker.
They’re looking around for all kinds of excuses, to prevent the renewable energy superpower ambitions of this country being realised in the years and the decades ahead. Now this is now two questions that the member for Hume has asked the prime minister. And it’s hard to work out, Mr Speaker, which one was worse. The first one, the first one which quoted hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, inadvertently contained that spending contains indexation of the aged pension. The member for Hume thinks this is overspending.
Taylor has a point of order that is not a point of order.
PM dodges question from Monique Ryan on ‘$5,000-per-head post-budget dinner’
Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan has the first crossbench question and she gets a bit spicy with it:
My question is for the prime minister. Prime minister, I understand that last night you attended a $5,000-per-head post-budget dinner which was hosted by the Federal Labor Business Forum. For the benefit of the house, were any fossil fuel industry lobbyists or other fossil fuel industry representatives in attendance?
Milton Dick says it is not in the standing orders and asks her to rephrase the question. Ryan does, taking out “fundraiser”.
OK. My question is for the prime minister. I understand that you attended a $5,000-a-head post-budget dinner last night. Can you tell the house, were there any fossil fuel industry lobbyists or other fossil fuel industry representatives were in attendance?
It is still barely within the standing orders, Dick says, but he will allow the prime minster to answer the parts of the question that are allowable:
Anthony Albanese:
I’ve stood and had the great honour of being the Australian Labor party candidate in 10 elections. During those 10 elections as the candidate for Grayndler, I have spent less money, less money on those 10 campaigns than the member for Kooyong did in her one.
The Labor benches (and some of the Coalition) find this hilarious.
Dick calls for order as Ryan has a point of order:
My issue, Mr Speaker, is that the prime minister has not in any way addressed the substance of my question.
Dick says that is not a point of order.
Chalmers: ‘We won’t be lectured about debt’ by opposition
Angus Taylor gets a question! What a lucky day.
After three Labor budgets, this government has added $315bn of spending, throwing more fuel on the inflationary fire. Standard & Poor’s has confirmed as a result of this budget there is almost no chance of an interest rate cut for struggling families this year. Why are Australians paying the price for this prime minister’s weak economic leadership?
Jim Chalmers is thrilled:
He’s got a lot of nerve asking about responsible economic management after the mess they left us to clean up in the budget. We won’t be lectured about debt or spending or responsible economic management from the party that left us more than a trillion dollars in Liberal party debt that we have spent our two years in office trying to clean-up, Mr Speaker.
They would not know the first thing about responsible economic management. The least familiar words in the budget last night to those opposite were the words surplus. They had nine cracks at it, Mr Speaker. They promised the surpluses in their first year and every year there after. And they came up with doughnuts, Mr Speaker. None from nine.
We have been here for two years and we’re delivering two surpluses at the same time as we provide cost-of-living relief for people and invest in the future of our economy, Mr Speaker.
If they had their way, inflation would be higher, debt and deficits would be big, wages growth would be lower and tax cuts for middle Australia would be smaller, Mr Speaker.
He then goes to the same things we have heard many times before today.
People accusing pro-Palestine protesters of stirring up disharmony are ‘gaslighting’, Faruqi tells Nakba rally
The deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, also addressed the Nakba rally out the front of Parliament House in Canberra a short time ago. The Nakba, meaning “the catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians around the time of the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Faruqi told the rally – attended by about 200 people – that Australia’s major political parties should focus on stopping the violence against Palestinians in Gaza rather than attempting to discredit the Greens and student protesters:
They want to say to those who stand up for justice for Palestine that we are stirring up community disharmony. That is shameless, it is shameful. It is blatant hypocrisy, and it is gaslighting of the worst kind. That is what they’re doing in there [referring to Parliament House].
The prime minister feels that a phone call, a few words of concern, some mild-mannered criticism, and a press release is enough. Well, I think that is just pathetic – that isn’t leadership.
Faruqi also spoke out against “the media complicity that dehumanises Palestinians”. She said:
We see young people setting up Gaza solidarity encampments in campuses across Australia, in campuses across the world – they are demanding that we build peace, not war. Communities are organising across the world … and this must be the longest running weekly protest movement in Australia’s history and you should all be very proud of being part of that history.
The first dixer is a version of “Just how amazing is this budget, treasurer?” to which Jim Chalmers is giving a version of his “It is very amazing, thanks for asking” answer.
We’ll hear this a few times, so I’ll mostly save you from the ins and outs.
Question time begins
Peter Dutton kicks off question time with:
Over the last two years, the Albanese government has brought in almost 1 million people into our country. Only 265,000 homes have been built. Building activity is at an 11-year low.
We have people who are living in cars and tents at a record level and yet nothing in this budget provides support to those people. At the same time the prime minister is giving billions of dollars to billionaires.
Prime minister, why does this government have the wrong priorities and why is this prime minister so weak that he can’t provide support to Australians in need?
Anthony Albanese:
The only thing that is broader than our support for cost-of-living relief is that question from the Leader of the opposition. Because it was all over the shop.
Albanese then goes through past quotes from coalition figures including Dutton, Dan Tehan and David Littleproud talking about the challenges of migration and the need to bring people in for the workforce.
Anthony Albanese addressed that travel advice ahead of question time:
Australia values our relationship with both New Caledonia and the French State. We respect and support the process and the discussions under way between all parties.
Peter Dutton agrees and urges people to heed the advice given how quickly the situation on the ground could change.
The travel advisory for Australians headed to New Caledonia has been upgraded to ‘exercise a high degree of caution’.
That is because of the protests and demonstrations taking part in the capital. From Smart Traveller:
Political demonstrations and protests are occurring and may turn violent at short notice. A curfew has been issued for the Noumea metropolitan area from 6pm on 14 May to 6am 15 May.
There’s potential for demonstrations in other locations. Essential services are impacted and flights have been cancelled.
The La Tontouta International Airport has closed. Avoid demonstrations, public gatherings and roadblocks. Minimise movement, monitor the media and follow the advice of local authorities (see ‘Safety’).
Australians needing emergency consular assistance should contact the Australian Government’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135 (within Australia) or +61 2 6261 3305 (from overseas).
![Daniel Hurst](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2020/03/30/Dan_Hurst.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=841ba2989a73d161b6a26127a9274808)
Daniel Hurst
CFMEU says freedom of speech ‘inalienable’ after ANU direction to pro-Palestine protesters
The CFMEU’s national secretary, Zach Smith, has criticised the Australian National University’s directions to pro-Palestine protesters, saying freedom of speech is “inalienable”.
Earlier today, pro-Palestine protestors at the ANU were advised to vacate their encampments or risk breaching the university’s code of conduct.
Smith, addressing about 200 people at a pro-Palestine rally out the front of Parliament House in Canberra this afternoon, said the ANU “should be condemned in the strongest terms” and he called “for the courage of our political leaders to call the ANU out as well”. Smith said:
I think it’s important, in that spirit, to acknowledge what happened at the ANU earlier today.
Just over the lake, only a matter of kilometres from here, the ANU, a university which is meant to be a pillar of freedom of speech, threatened student activists engaged in peaceful protest and peaceful resistance. They threatened activists engaged in peaceful protest. That is an assault on those activists but, more importantly, it is an assault on each and every one of us. And it is an assault on anyone who values democracy, who values freedom and values the right to protest and the right to resist.
Earlier today, a spokesperson for the ANU said the university expected participants to follow reasonable directions:
The university supports students’ right to protest but these activities must be safe and not cause unnecessary harm or damage to our campus or community
![Caitlin Cassidy](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/04/21/Caitlin_Cassidy,_L.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4e50b2e4e7d1ea268f8a714d346ec620)
Caitlin Cassidy
Vice-chancellors urged to protect right to public assembly on campus
Leading human rights organisations have written to a dozen vice-chancellors today urging universities to protect the right to public assembly on campus.
The 10 human rights and civil liberties organisations wrote to universities where pro-Palestine student encampment protests have been established and the chief executive of the Group of Eight, urging them to respect the right to public assembly and refrain from inappropriate suspensions of students, penalties on protestors or police intervention.
Signatories include Human Rights Law Centre, Australian Democracy Network, Amnesty International Australia, Grata Fund, Liberty Victoria, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, Rights Resource Network South Australia, New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project and Melbourne Activist Legal Support.
In a statement, the groups said students protesting on campuses around the world were part of a “cherished tradition” of young people leading protest movements to create positive change in the world.
That these students are facing violence for simply exercising their right to protest is an affront to the protection of human rights. Amnesty is concerned by reports that fireworks have been fired into the University of Adelaide camp and of repeated attacks on the Monash University camp. Their right to protest should be protected and students should be able to peacefully and safely protest on campus.
We are just under 15 minutes away from the budget wash up question time.
Look – let’s be honest, it is not going to be exactly edifying. We’ll cover it so you don’t have to watch –but grab what you need to get through the next hour and a bit.
The never ending war on woke means National MPs continue to forget that the people who grow soy for tofu and milk are also farmers and supposedly part of their constituency.
And also that it is farmers (backed by Nationals MPs like Bridget McKenzie) who want non-animal products labelled something other than “milk” or “meat”.
And that some of us can not process dairy and dietary requirements are just that?
![Sarah Basford Canales](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/08/01/Sarah_Basford_Canales.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5e1ba75fa72eea4b851d7dbb67ae83c4)
Sarah Basford Canales
Jordon Steele-John says budget shows Labor has abandoned disabled people
The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has responded to Labor’s plans to use $14.4bn in savings from curbing NDIS growth over the next four years to fund other key federal budget measures.
The NDIS actuary in December 2023 estimated the scheme’s payments would increase by $15.9bn from 2023-24 to 2027-28 but, with government intervention, that figure will reduce by $14.4bn over the next four years, bringing the increase down to just $1.5bn.
The savings, revealed in last night’s federal budget, will come from changes proposed in a bill introduced in March that will allow tweaks to rules targeting plan inflation, clarifying entry pathways for the scheme, and how funding can be used.
The papers show funding for the scheme will still increase from $44.3bn in 2023-24 to $60.7bn by 2027-28.
The Western Australian senator said the changes will lead to disabled people “not getting the support they need when they need”, accusing Labor of choosing to “abandon” them.
Steele-John said:
This government have chosen to abandon disabled people, they have abandoned NDIS workers and they are passing the buck to the millions of Australians who undertake informal carer roles.
The ALP have decided that it is more important to fund billions in handouts to weapons manufactures than it is to support our community and the many disabled people that rely on the NDIS to live happy and healthy lives.
It’s clear there is not an essential service that Labor won’t cut to fund nuclear submarines and fossil fuel handouts. This government has betrayed the disability community and they should be ashamed of themselves.
Read more about how the NDIS fared in the budget below:
Turns out one of Australia’s billionaires isn’t too happy with the $300 energy rebate
The $300 energy bill rebate announced in the federal budget is nothing more than an Albanese stunt which proves how out of touch the government really is.
It will do little to ease the cost-of-living pressures for ordinary Australians. It should be means tested so it goes to…— Clive Palmer (@CliveFPalmer) May 15, 2024