Australia politics live: climate deadline looms as Nationals prepare list of demands for Scott Morrison

Nationals MPs are poised to hand the PM details of what they require to secure support for a 2050 net zero emissions target

• NSW and Vic restrictions; Vic hotspots
• Vaccine rollout and rates tracker
• Covid cases and data tracker

The interview moves onto the government refusing to refer Christian Porter’s register of interests declaration:

Penny Wong:

This is pretty extraordinary, and in the news headlines, it was described as unprecedented, and it is. I think 120 years of precedence, we haven’t seen a government do what they did yesterday.

You know, Australians deserve a prime minister who uses their power for the good of the country. Scott Morrison uses his power to protect his mates. To avoid accountability.

Yesterday, he asked every single one of his Coalition MPs to vote against an inquiry into how Christian Porter could get $1 million donation anonymously. I mean, you just need to say that for how appalling that is to be demonstrated. You just need to say it.

We have to change the government and we need to put in place an Anti-Corruption Commission.

...I do think that this is a point about democracy. Our democracy does depend on governments, on ministers, respecting certain conventions. And we’re at the point where a prime minister says - I’m going to instruct every single one of my MPs to block an inquiry into a $1 million donation in the House of Representatives, against the advice of the Speaker? Or against the view of the Speaker?

I think that Mark Dreyfus has made it clear the approach that we’d take. We’d want an Anti-Corruption Commission. But can I say on that - you shouldn’t need a commission. And I would hope that any government that had some integrity, you wouldn’t need an anti-Corruption Commission to deal with this. This should have been stopped right at the start when Scott Morrison found out that a Cabinet minister was going to get $1 million in anonymous donations. It shouldn’t even get to a commission point. The should be dealt with as a matter of prime minister and ministerial standards.

Well, there’s about three questions there so I’ll try to go through them. We will make sure that we will clear with the electorate about our approach to this before the next election. Secondly, I was Australia’s first climate minister. We have been fighting for over a decade against some pretty hard fear campaigning for action on climate and I’d say to anyone listening - if you want action on climate, there is only one way to do that. And that is to change the government.

Well, I remember all of this argument about targets years ago. And in fact, if we’d adopted some of the targets that the Labor governments had, we’d be in a much better position now. Fundamentally we need to change the government. We understand the importance of this issue and we always have. Bowen has said very clearly that the Government should go to Glasgow with a stronger target. And we will make decisions before the next election.

And I would be saying to people who are demanding detail from an opposition at this point that I would say to them, again - there is only one way you will get action on climate. That is to change the Government.

Continue reading...

from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2ZcrMly