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Bill Shorten begins valedictory speech
The NDIS minister and former Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has begun his valedictory speech in parliament.
He will retire from politics next year before taking up the role of University of Canberra VC next February. His family is in parliament to watch the speech, as are various other luminaries – as we’ve outlined in previous posts.
Shorten began with thanks to his families, and opened with:
Political life is indeed tough. Election defeat, scandal, illness, Section 44. I stand here neither defeated or disposed, lucky to have served, fortunate to be able to say goodbye.
Key events
Bill Shorten has been speaking about his time serving as Labor leader, and what it has meant for him being a member of the party.
All of us in the parliamentary party, we are merely the tip of the spear [and] march at the head of a movement. We carry the hopes and aspirations of millions of working people who want better for their families and our country and we champion the cause of the most vulnerable.
These are the values and policies that the Albanese government will take to the next election … I’m confident that my colleagues will continue in government after the next election.
Bill Shorten argues there should be “no dividing line” in parliament any more between “those who are pro- or anti-employer, between those who are pro- or anti-union”.
This country no longer has the time to waste on that false choice. We can work together. Our nation needs this. It is what I’ve always sought to do.
There is a degree of irony of all the effort that I put into ensuring that both workers and companies benefit from negotiating better agreements, my reward was to be asked a thousand questions for two whole days at the now discredited Trade Union Royal Commission.
[I was asked] more questions than any CFMEU official. Although to be fair, none of them were leader of the Labor party.
The NDIS minister is now speaking about the Beaconsfield mine collapse – he was the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union at the time.
Bill Shorten:
I was witness outside the superintendent’s office when a salt of the earth AAW miner from Rocky Cape looked at everyone – the police, coroner – and he said this is not a recovery operation, it is a rescue mission, until we know different, there are men down there still alive. And so a group of modest heroes dug through hard rock and saved their mates. When Brant and Todd emerged from the mineshaft, I certainly made sure they got paid for every day they were trapped down there.
Shorten: democracy ‘under greater challenge than any time since the second world war’
Bill Shorten says that, on an occasion like this, “a measure of nostalgia is impossible to resist” – but that he wants to speak about the future.
Shorten says that right now, democracy is “under greater challenge than at any time since the second world war”, and we “cannot dismiss these threats just because we are the fortunate possessors of an island continent far away, hoping that our distance makes us immune from troubles elsewhere.”
We Australians, by and large, are a pragmatic bunch. We don’t tend to think in terms of isms or ologies. We don’t have time in our day for every new outrage and shock. Most Australians focus on the fundamentals – family, health, home and community.
Josh Butler
Bill Shorten’s speech is drawing laughs early on as he talks about his wife, family and his bulldog. There’s an Auslan interpreter relaying Shorten’s speech in sign language on screens in the parliament too – a nod to Shorten’s longtime advocacy for disability rights and the NDIS.
We can see numerous current and former Labor staffers in the public galleries watching his speech. Senators Helen Polley, David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie have also made their way into the chamber to listen.
Let’s go back to Bill Shorten, who is continuing his valedictory speech in Canberra – thanking the 196 staff members who have worked for him during this 17 years in parliament.
Now it’s a bedrock convention in this place that we don’t mention, we don’t name all the staff. They don’t seek the spotlight. We don’t put it on them. Now I wanted to upend that and name them all.
But rather than name them all, he tabled a list of the 196 names.
Sarah Basford Canales
Fatima Payman says proposed electoral reforms a ‘major party conspiracy’
Independent senator Fatima Payman has described her former party’s proposed electoral reforms as a “major party conspiracy” and a “cynical attack on the diversity of the political landscape” in Senate question time.
There are audible groans from the government’s benches, who are obviously still bitter about Payman’s split from the party.
Payman begins positively, saying there are positive aspects of the bill such as lowering the disclosure threshold, before twisting the knife. Payman asks how the proposals can be seen as “anything other than a cynical attack on the diversity of the political landscape”.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, says Payman’s understanding of the bill is “not accurate” before saying she took these pledges to the people of Western Australia who elected her in 2022.
“Please stop misleading people, minister,” Payman shoots back.
An unlikely intervention into Farrell’s response comes from Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who interjects about Labor’s backflip on stage three tax cuts.
The former Labor senator says she should stop “expecting answers here”. Payman then asks why the bill is being rushed through without scrutiny. Farrell says:
You took everything that is in this legislation to the people of WA two-and-a-half years ago. This legislation is not a surprise to anybody … The only people in this chamber that are seeking to block this legislation are the people who are backed by the billionaires.
A fact-check on that claim – we didn’t actually know the details of the bill until last week. Farrell has previously flagged he was seeking to legislate spending caps and truth in political advertising as early as 2022.
Bill Shorten begins valedictory speech
The NDIS minister and former Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has begun his valedictory speech in parliament.
He will retire from politics next year before taking up the role of University of Canberra VC next February. His family is in parliament to watch the speech, as are various other luminaries – as we’ve outlined in previous posts.
Shorten began with thanks to his families, and opened with:
Political life is indeed tough. Election defeat, scandal, illness, Section 44. I stand here neither defeated or disposed, lucky to have served, fortunate to be able to say goodbye.
Peter Dutton offers ‘heartfelt support’ to family of Bianca Jones
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has also paid his condolences to Bianca Jones, saying the incident has been “shocking from the moment it was reported”.
Our heartfelt support goes out to Mark, Michelle and Lachlan Jones. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are still on life support and we hope that there can be some comfort to the family knowing that every Australians’ heart is breaking for this tragic loss.
Independent MP Zoe Daniel on death of Bianca Jones: ‘Our hearts are broken’
The independent MP for Goldstein Zoe Daniel is also speaking to the parliament on the death of Bianca Jones in Laos.
Jones and her friend Holly Bowles lived in her electorate. Daniel told the parliament:
Bianca and Holly went on a holiday to south-east Asia – a rite of passage many young Australians experience … they grew up in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne … Bianca’s brothers and sisters have been by her side during this ordeal over the last few days and they are suffering pain that no one should have to experience. I offer my thoughts to Holly’s parents who are her side in Bangkok.
To the families of these two young Aussie girls who just headed off on an adventure together, I know that so many members of our community are connected to these girls, to these families. I feel your grief. Our hearts are broken.
Albanese offers ‘our deepest sympathy’ after confirmation Bianca Jones, 19, has died after feared methanol poisoning in Laos
The prime minister says he has received confirmation from the Department of Foreign Affairs that 19-year-old Bianca Jones has lost her life, after she and her friend Holly Bowles suffered a suspected methanol poisoning incident in Laos.
Anthony Albanese told the parliament:
Our first thoughts at this moment are with her family and friends who are grieving a terrible and cruel loss. This is every parents’ worst fear and a nightmare no- one should have to endure. All Australians offer them our deepest sympathy in this time of heartbreak …
We also take this moment to say that we are thinking of Bianca’s friend Holly Bowles who is fighting for her life there in Laos. Australians hold her and her family in our hearts as we pray for her and we hope for a good recovery.
Josh Butler
Ahead of Bill Shorten’s valedictory speech, disability rights advocates including Elly Desmarchelier and Paralympic champion Kurt Fearnley are also among others assembling in the VIP seating.
Josh Butler
Shorten’s family files into chamber ahead of valedictory speech
As question time winds down, the family of Bill Shorten has filed into the chamber ahead of his valedictory speech.
We can see Shorten’s wife Chloe, his children, and his twin brother sitting in the VIP chairs on the side of the House of Reps. There are also former Labor politicians Warren Snowdon and Chris Hayes.
Coalition asks treasurer to guarantee Future Fund investments won’t go to budget spending commitments
In the House of Representatives, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor is back up to ask about … drumroll please … the Future Fund.
He asked if the government would guarantee that Future Fund investments will not assume spending commitments currently in the federal budget?
Jim Chalmers responded that “I answered the question but I will answer it again … in a different way.”
We’re not changing the expectations about the benchmark rate of return … We’re leaving independence, benchmark rate of return and risk as it was. What we’re saying to the Future Fund is as you make these investments, as you focus primarily on returns for the Australian taxpayer, we need you to make sure that you are focused as well on the major economic challenges that we confront as a country.
The treasurer said he expected “the usual, predictable, partisan hyperventilating from the usual, predictable and partisan places, and that’s what we’ve seen today.”
Sarah Basford Canales
Future Fund also being discussed in Senate question time
Schoolyard behaviour aside, the opposition has used a number of their questions in Senate question time to deal with changes to Future Fund investments overnight.
To recap, the Future Fund is a sovereign wealth fund set up by the then treasurer, Peter Costello, in 2006, mostly with the proceeds of privatising Telstra.
Under the new changes, the fund will have to consider national priorities including increasing the domestic supply of residential housing, continuing to support the energy transition as part of the net zero transformation of the Australian economy, and delivering improved local infrastructure including economic resilience and security infrastructure.
The opposition leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, asked Labor whether its objectives were about maximising returns first, or “seeking to redirect Future Fund investments to the government’s priorities”?
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, responded:
It is clear the fund [is] still about maximising returns but it is important national priorities will be part of their investment consideration, that is not a difficult proposition.
It appears to be for the opposition, who are allergic to investments that might actually drive national priorities such as residential housing … and infrastructure that increases our economic and national security resilience. One would have thought these were things that would have had bipartisan support but we know of course the opposition will always want to play the game of aggression and opposition and not actually deal with the proposition on the table.
As always, there’s a lot of shouting across the chamber.
Mike Bowers is in the gallery, capturing all the action, and has noticed the luminaries beginning to file in for Bill Shorten’s valedictory speech – Christine Wallace and Michael Costello, former AFL footballer Michael Long, the former member for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly and Bill Kelty.