tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/david-littleproud-50318/articlesDavid Littleproud – The Conversation2023-06-19T02:11:12Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080062023-06-19T02:11:12Z2023-06-19T02:11:12ZReferendum legislation passes 52-19 to applause but Lidia Thorpe condemns ‘assimilation day’<p>The legislation to enable the Australian people to vote in a referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament has passed the Senate by 52 to 19.</p>
<p>The vote took place with the public gallery crowded with supporters, and was greeted with prolonged applause. Those watching included prominent leaders of the “yes” campaign, including Megan Davis, Pat Anderson and Thomas Mayo.</p>
<p>But Indigenous crossbencher Lidia Thorpe labelled it “assimilation day” and interjected repeatedly during the debate on the bill’s third reading, and during the applause.</p>
<p>Those who voted against the legislation will be involved in preparing the no case for the yes/no pamphlet that will be sent to all voters. </p>
<p>Earlier, Nationals leader David Littleproud told the ABC he did not support having the claim the Voice would “re-racialise” Australia – a claim Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has made – included in the pamphlet’s no case. “I don’t support those sort of words. I’m not prepared to put my weight behind those words,” he said. </p>
<p>The government has not announced a date for the vote yet.</p>
<p>The referendum legislation required an absolute majority, so every vote was recorded. </p>
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<p>In the final round of speeches in the Senate, shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash said “we are opening up a legal can of worms. The proposed model […] is not just to the parliament but to all areas of executive government. It gives an unlimited scope.”</p>
<p>Opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the Voice would divide the country. </p>
<p>Greens Senator Dorinda Cox said the Greens “remain committed to the full implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, truth, treaty and voice. The referendum is the first important step.”</p>
<p>ACT crossbencher David Pocock said the Voice was “about ensuring that First Nations people, Australia’s first peoples, have a say on issues that affect them”. </p>
<p>Thorpe declared: “Happy assimilation day”. She said the Voice was “appeasing white guilt in this country by giving the poor little blackfellas a powerless advisory body”. She would be voting no to something that gave no power.</p>
<p>“"There is not one law in this country that has ever, ever, ever been good for us, not one. And now we’re meant to accept a powerless voice. It is truly assimilating our people so we’ll fit nicely as your little Indigenous Australians, it’s what you want us to be, right?”</p>
<p>She was asked by Senate President Sue Lines to cover her T-shirt, which had “gammin” in it, used in Aboriginal slang to mean fake.</p>
<p>Pauline Hanson said many people were still very confused about the proposal. </p>
<p>Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy said “this is a critical moment in our country’s history. It is the right thing to do.” McCarthy paid tribute to Senator Patrick Dodson, who is on extended leave due to illness. </p>
<p>Murray Watt, representing the Attorney-General, called for the coming debate to be respectful, saying there was an onus on people to “tell the truth” and accusing no supporters of misinformation.</p>
<p>Appearing after the legislation passed parliament, at a news conference with Indigenous leaders, Anthony Albanese pitched a strong appeal to voters: “I say to my fellow Australians: parliaments pass laws, but it is people that make history.</p>
<p>"This is your time, your chance, your opportunity to be a part of making history,” he said. It was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lift our great nation even higher”.</p>
<p>Referencing Labor’s recent historic victory at the Aston byelection, the PM said this was “more important than any by-election ever held”. </p>
<p>Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who quit as shadow minister for Indigenous Australians to support the yes case, said in a statement after the vote: “Over the months ahead, I am looking forward to being part of a movement of Australians from all political backgrounds and playing a part in a campaign that will bring our country together”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The vote took place with the public gallery crowded with supporters, and was received with long applause.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040162023-04-18T02:00:41Z2023-04-18T02:00:41ZJacinta Nampijinpa Price to be Peter Dutton’s right-hand campaigner against the Voice<p>Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has given his campaign against the Voice added horsepower by elevating high-profile Indigenous Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to become shadow minister for Indigenous Australians.</p>
<p>Price has been one of the loudest, most trenchant opponents of the Voice – at the opposite end of the Coalition spectrum from Julian Leeser, whom she replaces. Leeser resigned from the frontbench last week to campaign for the yes case, triggering the frontbench shakeup. </p>
<p>In a significant reshuffle, Dutton has also brought the Coalition’s other Indigenous MP, South Australian Senator Kerrynne Liddle, into the shadow ministry. Like Price, Liddle, a former journalist and businesswoman, entered parliament at last year’s election. </p>
<p>She will become shadow minister for child protection and prevention of family violence. Dutton has brought this issue to the fore in relation to Indigenous communities with allegations of sexual assault against Indigenous children in Alice Springs. </p>
<p>The reshuffle also sees Karen Andrews, who has been spokeswoman on home affairs (and previously the minister), step down to the backbench. Dutton said Andrews has recently told him she would not run again and would be happy to go to the backbench when there was a reshuffle. </p>
<p>Andrews will be replaced by Senator James Paterson, who under the Coalition government chaired the powerful parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security. He is already shadow minister for cybersecurity and shadow minister for countering foreign interference. </p>
<p>Senator Michaelia Cash becomes shadow attorney-general (the other portfolio held by Leeser), returning to an area she held in government. She retains her present responsibilities for employment and workplace relations. </p>
<p>The choice of Price had not seemed to be Dutton’s original plan. Coming from the Northern Territory Country Liberal Party, she sits with the Nationals. </p>
<p>Her promotion, following talks between Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud, means the Nationals’ representation is above their quota under the Coalition agreement. </p>
<p>Apart from the quota issue, there were other arguments against Price – that she was too inexperienced and that elevating her would put noses out of joint among Liberals who had been around longer. </p>
<p>But over the past week, calls increased for her appointment from vocal supporters, and she featured widely in the media including on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday. </p>
<p>Dutton described Price as “a warrior for Indigenous Australians”. </p>
<p>“She’s always fought hard to improve the lives of Indigenous women and kids. She’s done an incredible amount of work to tackle tough issues like the scourge of sexual abuse, domestic violence and the crisis of law and order in some Indigenous communities, particularly Alice Springs most recently.” </p>
<p>Dutton also insisted he had raised the issue of child sexual abuse with the prime minister, despite Anthony Albanese on Monday denying this. </p>
<p>Dutton told his news conference: “There is a systemic problem in Alice Springs, the NT and other parts of the country and a big part of the decision to put Jacinta Price into this portfolio and Kerrynne Liddle into her portfolio is because we want to provide a brighter future for those kids.</p>
<p>"We can’t have a situation where we have young children being sexually abused, the impact psychologically on them, the difficulties it creates within a home environment.</p>
<p>"As we know, in Alice Springs at the moment, there are very significant issues.”</p>
<p>Andrews said that having decided “to call time” on her political career, “I wanted to ensure the Coalition has maximum time to have a replacement in the crucial home affairs portfolio, and the best replacement candidate for [her Queensland seat of] McPherson in place”. </p>
<p>She said in a statement she would continue to to support the Liberals’ position on the Voice. But she told a later news conference: “I won’t be out there wearing a shirt that says vote no. When people speak to me I will go through what
my concerns are, but I want to do that in a very neutral way so that
people are in a position that they can make their own mind up.”</p>
<p>She said she could not support the current words for the referendum, but she was open to working to get a proper set of words.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Price, the new shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, has been one of the loudest, most trenchant opponents of the Voice.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955642022-11-29T07:27:40Z2022-11-29T07:27:40ZAlbanese insists Voice will help ‘close the gap’, as divisions flare in Nationals<p>As the Indigenous Voice provoked divisions in the Nationals, Anthony Albanese rejected the party’s claim it wouldn’t help “close the gap” for First Nations Australians. </p>
<p>The federal Nationals, announcing this week they’ll oppose the Voice, argued it would not have practical outcomes. </p>
<p>But Albanese said experience showed when people directly affected by an issue were consulted and had a sense of ownership over solutions, “they will be more engaged”.</p>
<p>So gaps in education, health, housing, life expectancy and incarceration rates “will be closed”. </p>
<p>Albanese, speaking at an NBL Indigenous round presentation, repeated that the referendum for the Voice will be held in the next financial year. The Government’s plan is for the vote to be in the second half of 2023.</p>
<p>The Nationals’ decision sparked a vitriolic response on Tuesday from Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, while the Western Australian party dissociated itself from the federal party’s position. </p>
<p>Pearson described the Nationals as a “squalid little party” – saying previously it had been the most supportive party of the idea of the Voice. </p>
<p>He said its leader, David Littleproud, was “like a kindergarten kid, not a leader.</p>
<p>"The Nationals have foisted the mantle of leadership on a boy,” he told the ABC. </p>
<p>Pearson said the arrival in parliament of Indigenous Nationals Northern Territory senator Jacinta Price, a fierce opponent of the Voice, “has turned everything around”.</p>
<p>Accusing Price of being a puppet of conservative think tanks, he said she was caught up in “a tragic redneck celebrity vortex”. </p>
<p>“It involves right-wing people, particularly the Sydney and Melbourne-based right-wing think tanks, the Institute of Public Affairs and the Centre for Independent Studies.</p>
<p>"They’re the string-pullers – they’re the ones who have lined up behind Jacinta,” he said. “Their strategy was to find a blackfella to punch down on other blackfellas.” </p>
<p>Price said later: “I am no stranger to attacks from angry men who claim to speak on behalf of Aboriginal Australia”.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/nationals-declare-they-will-oppose-the-voice-referendum-195446">Nationals declare they will oppose the 'Voice' referendum</a>
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<p>In caucus, Albanese criticised Price’s personal swipe on Monday at the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney. </p>
<p>Price had said Burney “might be able to take a private jet out into a remote community, dripping with Gucci, and tell people in the dirt what’s good for them. But they are in the dark.”</p>
<p>Albanese said: “When people go that personal, it shows they do not have an argument of substance”. </p>
<p>The WA Nationals leader Mia Davies on Tuesday said her party would support the Voice. </p>
<p>Davies said she agreed with much of what Littleproud said about practical outcomes and closing the gap.</p>
<p>“Where we part ways here in Western Australia is that I don’t think it’s one or the other. I think we can do both,” she told the ABC. “We can have a conversation about the Voice, and we can also talk about practical and on-ground investment right now to support Aboriginal communities and individuals.”</p>
<p>Federal Nationals MP Andrew Gee, a former minister in the Morrison government and now in the outer shadow ministry, has also rejected the party’s Monday decision. </p>
<p>Gee, who wasn’t at Monday’s meeting, said he had been a long-time supporter of the Voice to Parliament.</p>
<p>His position on the Voice hadn’t changed, he said in a Facebook post. </p>
<p>“While I respect the opinions of my colleagues, I’m still a supporter.”</p>
<p>He said the government needed to give more detail on what was proposed. “A number of our local Indigenous groups want this detail as well, because they want to make sure they have a voice within the Voice.”</p>
<p>To achieve a Voice would take a lot of hard work “as well as goodwill, open minds and generosity of spirit. Reconciliation in Australia has made significant progress in recent years but there is still a long way for us all to travel,” Gee said. </p>
<p>“Let’s keep working at it and walking down that road. Together we can do it. ”</p>
<p>In question time Burney said “decades of failed government policies have not worked. A voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is the best chance we have, and perhaps ever will have, to address the injustices of the past and create change that will deliver a better future.</p>
<p>"This isn’t about dividing people. It is about uniting Australians. Giving First Nations people a say in the matters that affect us. Not being told what is best by bureaucrats.” </p>
<p>Labor MPs gave her a round of applause. </p>
<p>At the Coalition joint parties meeting Peter Dutton said the Liberals were not yet ready to make a decision on their attitude to the Voice.</p>
<h2>Mixed results in Closing The Gap Report</h2>
<p>The 2022 Closing the Gap Annual Report, released on Wednesday, shows mixed progress on targets.</p>
<p><strong>Targets improving or “on track” were:</strong></p>
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<li><p>Babies born with a healthy birthweight (89.5%)</p></li>
<li><p>Children enrolled in preschool (96.7%).</p></li>
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<p><strong>Targets worsening or “not on track” were:</strong></p>
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<li><p>Children being school ready (34.3%)</p></li>
<li><p>Adults in prison (2222 per 100,000)</p></li>
<li><p>Children in out-of-home care (57.6 per 1000)</p></li>
<li><p>Deaths by suicide (27.9 per 100,000).</p></li>
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<p>Burney said Closing the Gap was “a top priority” of the government.</p>
<p>While there was “heartening progress” in some areas, the lack of progress in areas including out-of-home care and adult imprisonment was disappointing, Burney said. </p>
<p>“We have to work more closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to make real and much-needed progress,” she said.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Nationals’ decision sparked a vitriolic response on Tuesday from Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, while the Western Australian National party dissociated itself from it.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1954462022-11-28T06:43:37Z2022-11-28T06:43:37ZNationals declare they will oppose the ‘Voice’ referendum<p>The government’s bid to pass a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice in the constitution has been dealt a blow, with the Nationals announcing they will oppose it. </p>
<p>Nationals leader David Littleproud said the party didn’t believe the Voice would “genuinely close the gap”. So it had come to the position “that we will not support the Voice to parliament”.</p>
<p>The party believed in “empowering local Indigenous communities, giving them the power at a local level, not creating another layer of bureaucracy here in Canberra,” he told a news conference on Monday after the Nationals party room endorsed the position. </p>
<p>He said he had had consultations with Uluru Statement from the Heart co-chairs Megan Davis and Pat Anderson “to make sure we understood what this was trying to achieve”.</p>
<p>The Nationals, emphasising they are a separate party, have pre-empted the Liberals announcing a position. Opposition leader Peter Dutton has delayed declaring a stance until more detail of the referendum proposal is released. The government is committed to a vote this term but has not set a date.</p>
<p>Littleproud indicated it would be up to individual Nationals whether they actively campaigned against the Voice.</p>
<p>Indigenous Nationals senator Jacinta Price, who has been an outspoken critic of the Voice since she entered parliament at the election, told the news conference, “What we need now is practical measures, not an idea that lacks complete and utter detail that’s based on emotional blackmail”.</p>
<p>It was “not racist to disagree with a proposal that’s been put forward to the Australian people that lacks detail, that divides us along the lines of race,” she said.</p>
<p>“I do not buy into that narrative. I would suggest that that sort of narrative is coercive control. It’s a way to push people into feeling guilt for our nation’s history when we should be celebrating who we are as Australians. </p>
<p>"Only then can we actually achieve anything real for our marginalised,” Price said.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t automatically make you marginalised to be an Indigenous Australian, but we do have a hell of a lot of marginalised Australians. And those people are largely out of sight, out of mind.</p>
<p>"Those people do not speak English as a first language. And those people still live very much along the lines of traditional culture. They are who we should be focused on. </p>
<p>"Unfortunately, this Voice model is about empowering the elites. It’s about a transfer of power and nothing more than that.”</p>
<p>Littleproud and Price were flanked by party colleagues.</p>
<p>Price took a personal swipe at the Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney. </p>
<p>“Minister Burney might be able to take a private jet out into a remote community, dripping with Gucci, and tell people in the dirt what’s good for them. But they are in the dark and they have been in the dark.”</p>
<p>There has been earlier speculation the opposition might allow its members to decide their own positions on the referendum, because of the division within its ranks. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-constitutional-voice-to-parliament-ensuring-parliament-is-in-charge-not-the-courts-193017">A constitutional Voice to Parliament: ensuring parliament is in charge, not the courts</a>
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<p>Former prime minister John Howard told The Australian earlier this month he would counsel against the Coalition having a free vote. </p>
<p>Howard said there were “substantial arguments against the Voice”. </p>
<p>He said among the people he saw in the Liberal base “I don’t find any reaction to the Voice other than one of hostility”. </p>
<p>“I don’t get the impression the Voice is something that is going to unite the country the way the 1967 referendum did because that was just so palpably fair, whereas people are suspicious of the Voice”. </p>
<p>Labor’s special envoy for reconciliation and implementation of the Uluru Statement, Pat Dodson, told the ABC the government had not yet put forward the bill to set up the referendum “so it is a bit premature really and a bit inept to think that you would adopt a position well out before you saw anything of what the people, First Nations people were asking for”.</p>
<p>A referendum requires support in a majority of states as well as an overall majority to pass. Only eight of 44 questions have been carried, and it is conventional wisdom that bipartisanship is needed for success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195446/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nationals leader David Littleproud said the party didn’t believe the Voice would “genuinely close the gap”Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893922022-08-25T11:24:30Z2022-08-25T11:24:30ZGrattan on Friday: Can Albanese government wring consensus from union-business impasse over industrial relations?<p>The escalating cost of living is your ally when you’re an opposition seeking election, but when you’re in office, it’s a rampaging beast to manage, economically and politically. </p>
<p>Labor railed about real wages stagnating under the Coalition. Now grappling with rising inflation, the Albanese government has had to tell people to brace for even higher prices and mortgage costs before their real wages start to improve (hopefully) in 2024. </p>
<p>That’s the grim background to next Thursday-Friday’s jobs and skills summit, from which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers will be trying to extract a story line of common purpose, even if not unity, from stakeholders with disparate and conflicting interests.</p>
<p>Calling this a “jobs” summit is, incidentally, somewhat of a misnomer. For the first time in records going back four decades, we currently have more job vacancies than we have people who are unemployed. The problems are other than a shortage of jobs.</p>
<p>Albanese makes much of wanting to emulate Bob Hawke’s consensus style and this summit, like that of 1983, is at core a gesture of inclusion, while grappling with very different economic conditions. </p>
<p>Preparing for the day-and-a-half gathering – in parliament house’s Great Hall – of more than 100 participants from business, unions and civil society, ministers had by Thursday this week conducted over 65 meetings with a wide range of groups around the country. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/morrisons-multiple-ministries-legal-but-flouted-principle-of-responsible-government-solicitor-general-189227">Morrison's multiple ministries legal but flouted principle of 'responsible government': solicitor-general</a>
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<p>The summit itself will be carefully choreographed. Given its relative brevity, the formal time devoted to particular issues is short. For instance “sustainable wage growth and the future of bargaining” gets an hour on Thursday morning, while migration, divided into two sessions, runs from 8.50 to 10.30 on Friday morning. </p>
<p>Obviously there’ll be much informal discussion outside the conference room. Tea breaks, a dinner on Thursday night, and the availability of “light breakfasts” provide plenty of opportunities for networking, as well as for participants to rub shoulders with (and lobby) ministers and each other. </p>
<p>Among the minglers will be Nationals leader David Littleproud. When opposition leader Peter Dutton declined an invitation, Littleproud quickly sought one. </p>
<p>Distinguished economist Ross Garnaut, economic adviser to Bob Hawke and climate change adviser to the Rudd government, will speak at Thursday’s dinner. </p>
<p>The summit is a forum for the airing of ideas and wish lists. Centrally, it is a platform for the government to set its narrative as it looks to the October budget and beyond. </p>
<p>But the narrative needs to be underpinned by some broad agreements. The government can’t afford the commentary afterwards to conclude it was primarily a hot air occasion. </p>
<p>Hence there’ll be a desperate scrabbling by the government to land agreement in key areas which, despite the extensive agenda, boil down to the interrelated issues of industrial relations, immigration, and skills.</p>
<p>As of now, unions and employers are miles apart on workplace relations reform despite their common view that the present system is unfit for purpose and must be changed. </p>
<p>The ACTU this week flagged it is seeking a return to sector-wide bargaining – partially reversing the 1990s move to enterprise bargaining – which would strengthen the hand of workers in pursuing pay rises. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-how-does-albanese-frame-morrison-inquiry-without-embroiling-the-governor-general-189238">View from The Hill: How does Albanese frame Morrison inquiry without embroiling the governor-general?</a>
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<p>ACTU secretary Sally McManus said on Wednesday that in our service-based care economy “it makes sense to have multi-employer bargaining – that both the workers’ representatives and the employers sit down and negotiate across their sector”. </p>
<p>Asked on the ABC whether she had any reason to think the government was ready to embrace the ACTU’s ideas for big reforms in industrial relations, McManus replied bluntly: “I’d say this: they were elected on a mandate to get wages moving”.</p>
<p>The ACTU proposal has encountered immediate push-back from employers, with the Australian Industry Group’s chief executive Innes Willox describing the call as “a throwback to the 70s”. </p>
<p>Willox argued: “The cornerstone of our workplace relations system is the objective of achieving productivity and fairness through an emphasis on enterprise-level collective bargaining”. The Business Council of Australia was also critical of the ACTU proposal.</p>
<p>Chalmers on Thursday danced around when questioned on this gulf. But Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke, who is doing the detailed wrangling on industrial relations, made it clear he was open to the ACTU proposal, telling the ABC he was “very interested” in it and that the “destination” he was aiming for was to “get wages moving”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/word-from-the-hill-more-heat-piled-on-morrison-over-those-multiple-ministries-189244">Word From The Hill: More heat piled on Morrison over those multiple ministries</a>
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<p>Where the government ends up on the ACTU demand will be an early test of its relationship with the union movement, to which it has already thrown a bone by emasculating the Australian Building and Construction Commission ahead of its scrapping. </p>
<p>If the employers are to give some (unspecified) ground on industrial relations, the unions will be expected to be flexible about a higher immigration level. </p>
<p>Businesses facing acute labour shortages are desperate for more migrants, and there has been speculation about the present cap of 160,000 being raised to about 180,000-200,000. </p>
<p>Immigration is good for the economy. Apart from filling labour shortages, migrants spend their money, creating demand and therefore further jobs. </p>
<p>But boosting migration is not without short-term problems. Migrants put strains on housing (at a time of high rents), the health system (already stretched) and other services. And bringing in more skilled migrants doesn’t necessarily address acute shortages such as in the aged care industry. </p>
<p>Traditionally unions are wary of too many migrants. In the current context, they are demanding that a rise in immigration should be tied to conditions, including training measures for locals. To the extent businesses are asked to do this, there will be some complaints. </p>
<p>One thing that desperately needs fixing is the slow processing of visas for immigrants. The government says it is working on the backlog, but unblocking the system will take a while. </p>
<p>The supply of local workers could also be increased in the short term by, for example, allowing older people to earn more before they lose some of their pension, and bringing forward the start date for Labor’s more generous financial arrangements for child care. But these moves impose budget costs. </p>
<p>It’s all a matter of trade offs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189392/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The escalating cost of living is your ally when you’re an opposition seeking election, but when you’re in office, it’s a rampaging beast to manage, economically and politically.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893842022-08-25T05:03:40Z2022-08-25T05:03:40ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: David Littleproud on charting his course in opposition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481035/original/file-20220825-26-4t8j0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C0%2C5201%2C3483&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">original</span> </figcaption></figure><p>David Littleproud runs his own race. In opposition he’s Nationals leader first and Coalitionist second. Thus he was quick out of the blocks criticising Scott Morrison’s power grab, and when Peter Dutton rejected an invitation to next week’s jobs and skills summit, Littleproud said he wanted to go. </p>
<p>In this Podcast Littleproud says about the government’s planned inquiry into Morrison’s actions: “I’m happy to work within whatever the constraints of what the government decides, that’s their prerogative. But it just seems to me this has now become an obsession of Anthony Albanese.” </p>
<p>Of the conflicting signals from the opposition about the jobs summit, Littleproud says: “We’re two separate parties. I represent the National Party and Peter Dutton represents the Liberal Party. He made a decision on behalf of the Liberal Party that he would not attend.” </p>
<p>He’s scathing that the Nationals were not originally invited. “The fact that this government didn’t even bother to ask anyone from regional and rural Australia to represent their interests was a failing to start with.”</p>
<p>Littleproud has stressed to his party the need to rebuild trust in the community, especially with women. “We’re going to do that at a grassroots level. "We’ve got to listen and understand”.</p>
<p>He is enthusiastic about the Coalition’s embrace of an examination of nuclear power. “I’m pleased to say that Peter Dutton has subsequently been able to get the Liberal Party to support that view. We’re not talking about big nuclear power plants across this country, we’re talking about the emerging technology of small scale modular technology for nuclear that’s appearing particularly in northern America.”</p>
<p>When asked which position is more difficult, being a senior minister with great responsibility or being leader of his party in opposition, Littleproud says: “I think obviously in opposition, because you’ve got to try and convince someone that holds the pen of the necessity of what you’re trying to prosecute”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In this Podcast Michelle and David Littleproud discuss a number of topics including the recent Morrison fiasco, the upcoming jobs and skills summit and his vision for the National Party.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1845462022-06-10T06:39:03Z2022-06-10T06:39:03ZThe Nationals suddenly find themselves with a new leader and in opposition. So where to now?<p>Barnaby Joyce, old-style populist and controversy magnet, has gone from the Nationals leadership. In his place is Queenslander David Littleproud, a move that indicates a desire for at least the appearance of change in the party.</p>
<p>Joyce knew how to play the role of the folksy bush politician; one can almost hear the echoes of “<a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/dad-rudd-mp-aristocracy-cattle">Dad Rudd</a>” when Barnaby talks. The problem was that in tandem with Scott Morrison’s distinctive “salesman” political style, it created a way of conducting political life that many found abrasive.</p>
<p>Although the Nationals did not lose any seats at the 2022 election, it is not surprising they chose to elect a new leader. It drew a line underneath the defeat of the Coalition and indicated a desire for a new beginning. </p>
<p>Ironically, the two-party-preferred swing against Joyce in New England (1.09%) was smaller than that against Littleproud in Maranoa (3.21%). Maranoa remains the safest seat for any party in Australia.</p>
<p>Whether it indicated “generational change” is another matter; Littleproud is nine years younger than Joyce. Curiously, Joyce lived for many years in St George, which is situated in Littleproud’s seat of Maranoa. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, in terms of political style, Littleproud is quite different from Joyce. While Joyce goes out of his way to project a somewhat boisterous “bush” image, Littleproud is more relaxed and comfortable – and hence less confrontational – than Joyce. </p>
<p>What is more difficult to gauge is whether Littleproud’s leadership also represents a change in political substance. Given the Albanese government is in its infancy and so is Littleproud’s leadership of the Nationals, all we have to go by are general statements as he seeks to establish himself as leader. Of those statements, three are interesting. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-diesel-2-a-litre-and-a-new-leader-the-nationals-could-pivot-on-climate-to-focus-on-energy-independence-183828">With diesel $2 a litre and a new leader, the Nationals could pivot on climate to focus on energy independence</a>
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<p>One is Littleproud’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-06/littleproud-defends-demotion-ministers-robert-hawke-frontbench/101128052">strong declaration</a> that the Coalition has to take its “medicine” following its election defeat. He also declared himself in favour of the idea of the “<a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/joyce-becomes-nats-second-choice-as-littleproud-takes-reins-20220530-p5apnm">sensible centre</a>”, a rhetorical term that has been around for some time and is evoked to prove that one is indeed sensible. This probably reflects nothing more than his desire for a new beginning.</p>
<p>The second is his general advocacy of nuclear power for the future, especially in the form of small-scale modular reactors, and his statement that popular attitudes to nuclear power have been <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/bizarre-simpsons-link-to-controversial-issue-in-australian-politics/news-story/8f07f14c169e7e3717790db866407e9c">shaped by Homer Simpson</a>. Support for this mode of nuclear power also comes from new Liberal leader Peter Dutton.</p>
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<p>This advocacy is essentially of the “we need to open a conversation about this”, which may be no more than floating a general idea to see how the public reacts. The problem with modular reactors, as Matt Canavan stated on Sky News, is the technology is still largely in development, although it is more developed than “green hydrogen”. </p>
<p>Canavan, a supporter of the nuclear conversation, <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/has-the-coalition-gone-cold-on-nuclear-power/">also notes</a> it could increase power costs. The problem with such “conversations” is they are vague and largely about a future that is some way off.</p>
<p>The third statement is about <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/david-littleproud-issues-warning-to-sussan-ley-and-labor-over-proposed-live-sheep-export-ban/news-story/44b8317cde9e351ab063c9e65c849a32">live sheep exports</a>, something that is core business for Littleproud both in his role as shadow agriculture minister and as an advocate for rural interests. Littleproud strongly supports such exports, largely in terms of their economic benefit. This places him at odds with deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who is opposed to such exports.</p>
<p>What this indicates is that Littleproud is perhaps most comfortable when supporting what he understands to be the interests of rural Australia.</p>
<p>Joyce also <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-20/barnaby-joyce-attacks-live-export-zealots-at-heated-rally/10018346">strongly supported</a> live sheep exports, and he <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2022/05/31/barnaby-joyce-nationals-lead/">voiced his approval</a> of nuclear power. It may be the case that in substance, if not in style, Littleproud has much in common with Joyce.</p>
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<span class="caption">Littleproud may end up being more different from Barnaby Joyce in style rather than substance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Of course, these are still early days. He might be a different style of leader to Joyce, but there are perennial matters for anyone who leads the National Party.</p>
<p>Given the uncertainties of Australia’s current economic situation, it is difficult to foresee how Littleproud’s policies will develop. One thing can safely be assumed: the National Party will continue to “look after” rural Australia to the best of its abilities.</p>
<p>This will surprise no-one. It is a sectional party and one should expect that when it changes leaders the style might change, but the focus of its activities and policies do not.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-ten-women-in-shadow-cabinet-and-nationals-grab-trade-job-184439">View from The Hill: Ten women in shadow cabinet, and Nationals grab trade job</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Melleuish receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>It’s early days for Littleproud’s leadership, but the policy issues the party faces – energy and live sheep exports, for example – are perennial.Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1844392022-06-05T10:49:04Z2022-06-05T10:49:04ZView from The Hill: Ten women in shadow cabinet, and Nationals grab trade job<p>Angus Taylor will take the key shadow treasury post in a 24-member shadow cabinet containing 10 women and six Nationals.</p>
<p>The lineup was announced by opposition leader Peter Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud on Sunday. </p>
<p>In a sign the opposition may consider throwing its weight behind nuclear power, Queensland Liberal Ted O'Brien, a supporter of nuclear energy, becomes shadow minister for climate change and energy.</p>
<p>O'Brien chaired a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear power and wrote in 2020: “Rather than being perpetually divisive, I believe nuclear technology has the capacity to unite Australians. It is a proposition that brings together progressives and conservatives within the Coalition.”</p>
<p>Julian Leeser, from NSW, is promoted from the backbench to shadow attorney-general and shadow minister for Indigenous Australians. This will give him a key role in the opposition’s response to the government’s planned referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. </p>
<p>Leeser has had a long term interest and involvement in the Indigenous affairs area. He co-chaired with Labor’s Patrick Dodson a parliamentary inquiry on the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians where he was involved in the co-design process for a Voice to Parliament.</p>
<p>The Coalition has only one Indigenous member of the federal parliament, Jacinta Price, who will sit with the Nationals. Asked about her at his news conference, Dutton pointed out she had only just been elected, but signalled her likely future elevation. </p>
<p>The Nationals will have six members of the 24 member shadow cabinet – compared to five in the Morrison cabinet – reflecting their larger proportion of the Coalition, thanks to holding their seats and gaining a senator. </p>
<p>They have also seized back trade, a long term ambition, and a portfolio they had held in earlier times. Trade and tourism goes to NSW Nationals Kevin Hogan.</p>
<p>Littleproud, who chose his frontbenchers, has included in shadow cabinet Barnaby Joyce, whom he defeated for the leadership. Littleproud’s decision was presumably partly driven by his desire to keep the outspoken Joyce from making too much trouble. Joyce will be spokesman on veterans’ affairs. </p>
<p>Another former Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, is spokesman for international development and the Pacific in the outer shadow ministry. </p>
<p>Having 10 women matches the number in the Albanese 23-member cabinet.</p>
<p>Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley will be shadow minister for industry, skills and training, and for small and family business, as well shadow minister for women, where she will be charged with trying to win back the support of female voters who deserted the Coalition at the election. </p>
<p>A notable absence from the frontbench is former immigration minister Alex Hawke, a factional numbers man for Scott Morrison. Stuart Robert, another close ally of Morrison, has been demoted to the outer shadow ministry, becoming shadow assistant treasurer and shadow minister for financial services.</p>
<p>Morrison had indicated publicly he did not want a frontbench post. Colleagues do not expect him to serve out the full term. </p>
<p>Former Nationals resources minister Keith Pitt is off the frontbench. The shadow resources minister will be Queensland Nationals senator Susan McDonald. </p>
<p>Darren Chester, who ran for Nationals leader, remains on the backbench, to which Joyce consigned him last year. </p>
<p>Dutton prevailed on former foreign minister Marise Payne, who had not sought a frontbench position, to become shadow cabinet secretary.</p>
<p>Littleproud will continue in agriculture, an area he held in government. </p>
<p>Foreign Affairs goes to opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham, where he will shadow his Senate opposite number, Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Birmingham is the leader of the diminished band of moderates in the Liberal party, after several fell to “teal” independents.</p>
<p>Former attorney-general and industrial relations minister Michaelia Cash becomes shadow minister for employment and workplace relations. </p>
<p>Karen Andrews will shadow her old area of home affairs, and also become shadow minister for child protection and the prevention of family violence.</p>
<p>Deputy Nationals leader Perin Davey takes water and emergency management. </p>
<p>Former trade minister Dan Tehan becomes shadow minister for immigration and citizenship.</p>
<p>Health and aged care goes to Anne Ruston, who in the election campaign was nominated by Morrison for the health portfolio if the government remained in office. </p>
<p>The Nationals leader in the Senate, Bridget McKenzie, will be shadow minister for infrastructure, transport and regional development. </p>
<p>Sarah Henderson – a one-time ABC journalist who has become a strong critic of the public broadcaster – will become shadow minister for communications. </p>
<p>Former member of the SAS, Andrew Hastie, becomes defence spokesman. He was assistant minister for defence before the election. </p>
<p>Victorian Jane Hume will be shadow minister for finance and shadow special minister of state. </p>
<p>Alan Tudge, whose status became confused in government after he stood aside following claims made by a former staffer, will be education spokesman.</p>
<p>Paul Fletcher becomes shadow minister for science, the digital economy and government services. He will also have responsibility for the arts. </p>
<p>Michael Sukkar takes social services, the NDIS, housing and homelessness. </p>
<p>The environment shadow will be Jonathon Duniam, a senator from Tasmania. </p>
<p>Dutton said the opposition had “incredible depth of talent”. “I’m cognisant of trying to bring people through for an opportunity,” he said.</p>
<p>Littleproud said the Nationals team he brought forward was “about renewal and generational change”.</p>
<p>He was enthusiastic about getting trade back: “The trade portfolio has had a long and proud history with the Nationals, including with party greats John McEwen and Doug Anthony”.</p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2126/Shadow_Ministry_5_June_2022.pdf?1654422827">Shadow Ministry List</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opposition leader Peter Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud announce the Coalition’s shadow ministryMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843822022-06-03T05:29:18Z2022-06-03T05:29:18ZVIDEO: Gas crisis gives Labor its first big test<p>University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon talk about this week in politics.</p>
<p>They discuss Anthony Albanese’s newly sworn in cabinet, the Liberals and Nationals new leadership team, the energy crisis currently facing Australia and the Labor Governments plan to make parliament better behaved. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan discusses the political week that was with Professor Paddy Nixon, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of CanberraMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1842442022-06-01T03:11:23Z2022-06-01T03:11:23ZWord from The Hill: Albanese’s ministry mixes stability and surprise<p>As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation politics team.</p>
<p>In this podcast Michelle and politics + society editor Amanda Dunn canvass Anthony Albanese’s ministry, with its record number of women in cabinet but one woman, Tanya Plibersek, having her portfolio unexpectedly switched. </p>
<p>Peter Dutton, on being elevated to Liberal leader, flagged he’d pitch to the suburbs and small business. Meanwhile the Nationals showed that holding all the party’s seats (and winning an extra one) doesn’t guarantee the leader keeps his job. Barnaby Joyce was dispatched, in favour of the rather less flamboyant David Littleproud, to the relief of many Liberals. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese will be off to Indonesia next week, in his second overseas trip since winning office.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan discusses politics with politics + society editor, Amanda DunnMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1840412022-05-30T04:57:03Z2022-05-30T04:57:03ZNew Nationals leader Littleproud says ‘sensible centre’ is where elections are won<p>Former agriculture minister David Littleproud has ousted Barnaby Joyce to become Nationals leader.</p>
<p>Perin Davey, a senator since 2019, has been elected his deputy. </p>
<p>Littleproud, 45, who was deputy leader, is from Queensland; Davey, 50, is from New South Wales. Bridget McKenzie, from Victoria, remains the party’s senate leader. </p>
<p>The Liberals, as expected, elected Queenslander Peter Dutton, 51, and Sussan Ley, 60, from NSW, as leader and deputy, respectively, after the pair stood unopposed. </p>
<p>Dutton immediately pitched to the suburbs and small business. He told a news conference: “I want our country to support aspiration and reward hard work,” as well as to “take proper care of those Australians who short-term or long-term can’t take care of themselves”.</p>
<p>“Our policies will be squarely aimed at the forgotten Australians, in the suburbs, across regional Australia. </p>
<p>"Under my leadership, the Liberal party will be true to our values, that have seen us win successive elections over the course of the last quarter of a century.” The Liberals would not be “Labor-lite,” Dutton said. </p>
<p>Joyce won back the Nationals leadership last year, and the Nationals held all their seats at the election and gained a senate seat. But Joyce cost the Liberals votes in the “teal” seats, with teal candidates saying moderate Liberal MPs in those seats, whatever their attitudes on climate change, had voted with Joyce. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/littleproud-ousts-joyce-in-nationals-leadership-spill-as-liberals-give-dutton-clear-run-181420">Littleproud ousts Joyce in Nationals leadership spill, as Liberals give Dutton clear run</a>
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<p>Littleproud was prominent in the last term, arguing for the Nationals to embrace the net zero 2050 greenhouse emissions target, which they eventually did. </p>
<p>He entered parliament in 2016, having previously been an agribusiness banker. </p>
<p>Littleproud said after the vote that “a sensible centre is where you win elections”. He said “chasing extremities” would not win. </p>
<p>He hailed having “two bright, articulate” women in the Nationals leadership team. </p>
<h2>Suburbs and small businesses are Dutton priorities</h2>
<p>Dutton stressed he wanted to send “a clear message to those in the suburbs”, and said policies would be targeted to small and micro businesses. But, asked about the “teal” seats, he said, “I am not giving up on any seats”. </p>
<p>While the Liberals would work with big business, Dutton said these days a lot of chief executives were closer to other parties than to the Liberals. He lamented that these business leaders, unlike years ago, were not advocating for tax reform and industrial relations reform. </p>
<p>“I think we are a poorer country for that. I think many of them are probably scared to step up because they are worried of an onslaught by Twitter.</p>
<p>"I hope that we can continue to work with them but I need them to work, to speak up on many policies, not just social policies but economic, not just climate change.” </p>
<p>On China, on which Dutton has taken a strong and uncompromising position in government, he said: “The issue of China under President Xi is the biggest issue our country will face in our lifetimes.”</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-peter-dutton-faces-his-own-long-march-184042">View from The Hill: Peter Dutton faces his own 'long march'</a>
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<p>Dutton again acknowledged he had made a mistake in boycotting the Rudd government’s apology to Indigenous people and particularly the stolen generations. </p>
<p>“I worked in Townsville. I remember going to many domestic violence instances, particularly involving Indigenous communities, and for me at the time I believed that the apology should be given when the problems were resolved and the problems are not resolved.”</p>
<p>Asked about the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, he said the Liberals would look at what Labor proposed but said he wanted the symbolic policies on Indigenous affairs to be accompanied by practical responses, on issues such as child abuse. </p>
<h2>Support for anti-corruption body</h2>
<p>He also said he favoured an anti-corruption commission: “I believe in transparency.”</p>
<p>Dutton once again said there was more to him than the public image. “I’m not going to change but I want people to see the entire person I am.”</p>
<p>Ley said her message to the women of Australia was: “We hear you. We’re listening. We’re talking. And we are determined to earn back your trust.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Barnaby Joyce rolled by party leadership spill, while Peter Dutton pledges to lead the Liberals with “policies squarely aimed at the forgotten Australians in the suburbs”.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1814202022-05-29T09:07:23Z2022-05-29T09:07:23ZLittleproud ousts Joyce in Nationals leadership spill, as Liberals give Dutton clear run<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465850/original/file-20220529-13-41rwmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Update: David Littleproud has been elected leader of the National Party after successfully challenging Barnaby Joyce on May 30. More analysis to come.</em></p>
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<p>Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce will be challenged when his party meets on Monday.</p>
<p>But Peter Dutton, former defence minister and leader of the conservatives in his party, will be elected Liberal leader unopposed. Former environment minister Sussan Ley is set to be deputy.</p>
<p>Joyce’s deputy, former agriculture minister David Littleproud, from Queensland, and backbencher Darren Chester, from Victoria have both announced they will run for the leadership of the Nationals. </p>
<p>The challenge comes despite the Nationals holding all their seats and gaining an extra senator at the election. </p>
<p>Joyce, who returned to the leadership last year, deposing Michael McCormack, is blamed by the Liberals for costing them some votes in the cities. </p>
<p>Teal candidates attacked their Liberal opponents on the ground that whatever their own views on climate change, they voted with Joyce. </p>
<p>Chester, an outspoken moderate in the Nationals, was dropped from the frontbench when Joyce regained the leadership. </p>
<p>In a weekend statement, Littleproud said: “I feel this is the appropriate time to put myself forward for my party room’s consideration as their leader. </p>
<p>"Ultimately, this is a decision on who will lead the Nationals to the 2025 election,”</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/nationals-vote-holds-steady-will-the-coalition-become-a-party-of-the-regions-and-outer-suburbs-182856">Nationals vote holds steady. Will the Coalition become a party of the regions and outer suburbs?</a>
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<p>It has been expected that Joyce may not contest the next election and might step down from the leadership during the term.</p>
<p>Ley, expected to be unopposed, is selling herself as being able to help rebuild support for the Liberals among women, many of whom deserted the party at the election. </p>
<p>“I understand the pressures women face across the nation,” she wrote on Facebook. </p>
<p>“I know the hurdles they overcome every day, managing home, family and career, all the while contributing to community.</p>
<p>"My own life experience as an outback pilot, shearer’s cook and farmer, earning three finance degrees while raising my children has seen me walk a mile in their shoes!” </p>
<p>Ley holds the regional NSW seat of Farrer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joyce’s deputy David Littleproud and backbencher Darren Chester have both announced they will run for the leadership of the Nationals.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1819442022-04-27T11:45:31Z2022-04-27T11:45:31ZView from The Hill: Warring within Coalition over 2050 target brings some gold dust for ‘teals’<p>“The world has moved past Matt Canavan,” Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud declared on Wednesday, tossing his party colleague and former resources minister firmly under the bus as the “climate wars” exploded within the Coalition.</p>
<p>These wars have damaged Coalition leaders for decades (right back to John Howard). Now they’ve erupted again close to the election, they threaten to burn both Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce. And that’s just when Morrison wants to turn the issue against Labor. </p>
<p>The outbreak was predictable – the issue has been smouldering ever since Morrison had the government sign up to the net zero 2050 target ahead of the Glasgow climate conference. But perhaps Morrison felt he could keep the fire smothered. If so, that underestimated Nationals maverick Queensland senator Matt Canavan. </p>
<p>Last year Morrison decided his government had to adopt the 2050 target. It was a pragmatic judgment driven by pressure from moderate Liberals facing threats in their city seats and strong external urgings from the Biden and Johnson administrations. </p>
<p>That meant getting the Nationals on board – via cajoling Joyce with huge amounts of money (for projects being rolled out in this campaign) and having the Nationals leader carry the policy within his party room. </p>
<p>Ironically, fearful their previous leader Michael McCormack might sell out on climate policy under Morrison’s pressure, the Nationals had reinstalled Joyce, one of whose strongest supporters was Canavan. </p>
<p>But then a reluctant Joyce was co-opted by the PM. He took a majority of his split party along with a deal he negotiated with Morrison, though telling his party room he was personally against the change in policy. </p>
<p>Joyce gave in but Canavan never did. He has been indefatigable in his scepticism about the 2050 target. This week said: “the net zero thing is all sort of dead anyway.</p>
<p>"Boris Johnson said he is pausing the net zero commitment, Germany is building coal and gas infrastructure, Italy’s reopening coal-fired power plants. It’s all over. It’s all over bar the shouting here.”</p>
<p>The trouble for government leaders, who are publicly treating Canavan as an outlier, is that they know he speaks for quite a few in the Coalition’s base in the deep north, and that he’ll continue to prosecute his case. </p>
<p>His latest statements came after Colin Boyce, the Liberal National Party’s candidate for the marginal seat of Flynn, which the Nationals fear losing, said earlier in the week that Morrison’s 2050 policy was “a flexible plan that leaves us wiggle room”. What precisely he meant was disputed but it was clear he is not a fan of the target, which he has rejected before.</p>
<p>Morrison on Wednesday reaffirmed the (unlegislated) policy: “We did the hard yards to get everyone together. And of course there’ll be some who disagreed with it at the time, and I suspect they still will, but that doesn’t change the government’s policy”.</p>
<p>Josh Frydenberg – who is under a lot of pressure from a “teal” candidate in his seat of Kooyong – said the target was clear, firm and non-negotiable.</p>
<p>Joyce said: “We’ve made an agreement. We’re going to honour that agreement.” </p>
<p>Joyce and Morrison were both at the same function in Rockhampton on Wednesday but (probably wisely) held separate news conferences. As the deputy PM put it, “we don’t have to be in each other’s pockets.”</p>
<p>The imbroglio feeds right into the hands of the teals. They have been saying for months that the Liberals in their sights might be moderate in name but they vote with Barnaby Joyce. </p>
<p>Now they can claim that in a re-elected government the Nationals could revert to their old policy and press Morrison to ditch the target. As Nationals minister Bridget McKenzie said on Wednesday, while insisting the party is united, “there is a very broad range of views on climate change within the National Party party room, from net zero never, to net zero yesterday”.</p>
<p>It mightn’t matter what assurances the government gives – the teal argument could likely resonate in the leafy seats (where Joyce is a trigger point).</p>
<p>We saw another version of this movie in 2019, when Labor had different slants on its climate policy in the north and the south of the country. </p>
<p>Even while it eats itself again on climate, the government is trying to conjure up a scare that Labor would bring in a “sneaky carbon tax”. </p>
<p>Labor’s emissions reduction policy has solid belts and braces this election compared to 2019. Over the past week, however, the opposition has left itself open to the inevitable Coalition attacks by its various spokespeople sounding all over the place on the impact of the policy on coal mines. </p>
<p>Although it has muddled its explanation of its plan’s precise working, Labor’s reply to the government is that its policy would simply use (robustly) the safeguards mechanism that was put in place by the Coalition. </p>
<p>How the conflicting climate policy arguments work out in the coal areas we’ve yet to see.</p>
<p>But it seems clear that in the leafy suburbs the latest outbreak of the climate wars within Coalition ranks is another blow for embattled sitting Liberals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“The world has moved past Matt Canavan,” David Littleproud declared on Wednesday, tossing his colleague and former resources minister firmly under the bus as the “climate wars” exploded within the CoalitionMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613612021-07-02T04:21:17Z2021-07-02T04:21:17ZNature is a public good. A plan to save it using private markets doesn’t pass muster<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409422/original/file-20210702-18-1ktg5me.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5218%2C2933&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the health of Australia’s environment continues to <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-after-the-rains-australias-environment-scores-a-3-out-of-10-these-regions-are-struggling-the-most-157590">decline</a>, the federal government is wagering on the ability of private markets to help solve the problem. So is this a wise move? The evidence is not at all encouraging.</p>
<p>This year’s federal budget included <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/natural-resources/landcare/sustaining-future-australian-farming">A$32.1 million</a> to promote so-called “biodiversity stewardship”, in which farmers who adopt more sustainable practices can earn money on private markets. The funding will be used to trial new programs to protect existing native vegetation, implement a certification scheme and set up a trading platform.</p>
<p>It all sounds very promising. But sadly, the experience of environmental markets and certification schemes to date suggests farmers may not embrace the opportunities. In fact, preliminary research funded by the government suggests the odds are well and truly stacked against this approach succeeding. </p>
<p>Environmental markets cannot adequately compensate for decades of diminished government funding for long term, reliable measures to promote better land management.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="hands with coins sprouting seedlings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409423/original/file-20210702-27-1nzw8uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409423/original/file-20210702-27-1nzw8uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409423/original/file-20210702-27-1nzw8uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409423/original/file-20210702-27-1nzw8uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409423/original/file-20210702-27-1nzw8uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409423/original/file-20210702-27-1nzw8uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409423/original/file-20210702-27-1nzw8uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Environmental markets are not a replacement for sustained public funding of environmental protection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s the plan all about?</h2>
<p>Agriculture <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/news/media-releases/2017/snapshot-aus-ag-reveals-record-production-2016-17">covers 58%</a> of Australia’s land mass. This means farmers are crucial to maintaining a healthy environment upon which production, communities and the economy depend.</p>
<p>Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the new funding means farmers will be paid to undertake biodiversity projects – “a win-win for farmers and the environment”. In an interview with the ABC, Littleproud <a href="https://minister.awe.gov.au/littleproud/speeches-and-transcripts/abc-country-hour-budget-biodiversity-soils">said</a> “we want the market to come and pay our farmers for this, not the Australian taxpayer”.</p>
<p>The new funding will pay for:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a “carbon + biodiversity” pilot project to develop a market-based mechanism to reward farmers for increasing biodiversity</p></li>
<li><p>an “enhanced remnant vegetation” pilot that will pay farmers to protect remnant native vegetation with high conservation value</p></li>
<li><p>a proposed “Australian Farm Biodiversity Certification Scheme” to identify best-practice ways to sustain and build biodiversity.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>So how do these markets work? Farmers and other land managers undertake environmental projects such as protecting endangered native species, increasing tree cover or reducing competition from invasive pest species. These projects have been assessed and accredited – usually by a government entity or independent third party – to ensure their integrity. </p>
<p>Farmers earn “credits” in exchange for the activity they undertake, which are then sold to “funders” such as corporations that want to improve their environmental credentials, philanthropic organisations and others.</p>
<p>The government has previously committed A$34 million to develop and trial biodiversity stewardship approaches. This included A$4 million to the National Farmers Federation (NFF) to <a href="https://nff.org.au/programs/australian-agricultural-sustainability-framework/">start developing</a> a certification scheme. </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-lone-tree-makes-it-easier-for-birds-and-bees-to-navigate-farmland-like-a-stepping-stone-between-habitats-162083">A lone tree makes it easier for birds and bees to navigate farmland, like a stepping stone between habitats</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="cows graze among trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409425/original/file-20210702-13-1h1aikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409425/original/file-20210702-13-1h1aikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409425/original/file-20210702-13-1h1aikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409425/original/file-20210702-13-1h1aikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409425/original/file-20210702-13-1h1aikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409425/original/file-20210702-13-1h1aikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409425/original/file-20210702-13-1h1aikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biodiversity stewardship schemes reward farmers who change their practices, such as retaining existing native vegetation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Workability’ problems</h2>
<p>In 2020, the NFF engaged the Australian Farm Institute (AFI) to evaluate the literature on existing certification schemes and to gauge landholders’ views. The <a href="https://nff.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Recognising-on-farm-biodiversity-management_AFI_Aug2020.pdf">report</a> identified myriad problems.</p>
<p>The AFI noted several issues surrounding data collection and reporting. Certification schemes are data-hungry: they require baseline data (information collected before a project starts), measurable outcomes and a way to monitor progress and verify results. But diminished public spending means such data are often <a href="https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au/resources/interim-report/chapter-6-data-information-and-systems">not readily available</a>. </p>
<p>Also, biodiversity conservation can take decades. This can conflict with the interests of farmers, and of project funders that often operate within shorter planning horizons. This may limit the type, credibility and longevity of projects accredited for funding.</p>
<p>And many existing schemes are yet to demonstrate, on a cost-benefit analysis, any appreciable economic advantage to farmers. Under the Queensland Land Restoration Fund scheme, for example, the AFI said “farmers generally want more money than is offered for the carbon credits produced”. If that remains the case, widespread uptake seems unlikely. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="gloved hand takes soil sample with bottles in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409427/original/file-20210702-27-hya306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409427/original/file-20210702-27-hya306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409427/original/file-20210702-27-hya306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409427/original/file-20210702-27-hya306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409427/original/file-20210702-27-hya306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409427/original/file-20210702-27-hya306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409427/original/file-20210702-27-hya306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Certification schemes require solid environmental data and ongoing monitoring, which is often lacking in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Barriers to participation</h2>
<p>The time, energy and costs of applying to participate in a biodiversity stewardship scheme can limit participation. For instance, the AFI’s review of stakeholder views noted it took one Queensland farmer 18 months to navigate the application process under the state’s Land Restoration Fund. And the fund involves hefty startup costs, including A$15,000-20,000 for a baseline biodiversity report and A$10,000 for initial certification. </p>
<p>Some schemes have attempted to get around this. For example, the Land Restoration Fund now <a href="https://www.qrida.qld.gov.au/program/carbon-farming-advice-rebate-program">offers to pay</a> the costs of third-party agents employed to prepare applications. But overall administrative costs remain substantial and are likely to remain a deterrent to smaller operators.</p>
<p>Rules governing certification schemes can also penalise early adopters of sustainable farming methods. The schemes often require “additionality”, which means farmers cannot be rewarded for undertaking activity that would have occurred had the scheme not existed. So those already using best-practice methods – such as minimum tillage, organic farming or retaining native vegetation – often cannot take part. This is a particularly sore point for many farmers.</p>
<p>And almost inevitably in environmental stewardship schemes, ongoing funding to farmers is premised on progress against pre-determined benchmarks, such as storing a specified amount of carbon in landscapes by planting trees. Unfortunately, life in the bush is far from pre-determined. Disruptive events – such as drought, fire, falling commodity prices or new trade barriers - are run of the mill. </p>
<p>It’s a big stretch for corporate funders and contract negotiators to accommodate these unknown variables in their benchmarks. This means farmers must insure themselves against natural events (to the extent available) adding again to the costs of participation.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-scheme-used-by-australian-farmers-reveals-the-dangers-of-trading-soil-carbon-to-tackle-climate-change-161358">US scheme used by Australian farmers reveals the dangers of trading soil carbon to tackle climate change</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="gate in rural landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409426/original/file-20210702-15-17myqe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409426/original/file-20210702-15-17myqe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409426/original/file-20210702-15-17myqe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409426/original/file-20210702-15-17myqe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409426/original/file-20210702-15-17myqe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409426/original/file-20210702-15-17myqe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409426/original/file-20210702-15-17myqe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Time, energy and cost burdens can act as a barrier for some farmers to participate in stewardship schemes.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Nature belongs to all of us</h2>
<p>Land managers are the primary stewards of Australia’s unique environment. Yet they receive the <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/trade/analysis-of-government-support-agricultural-producers">least government funding</a> of any OECD country aside from New Zealand.</p>
<p>The environment needs immediate and <a href="http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/natural-capital/">sustained support</a>. Whatever the lure and potential of environmental markets and certification schemes, the evidence strongly suggests private funding should not be relied on to preserve, restore and sustain our natural landscapes.</p>
<p>The environment is a public good, and requires adequate and substantial public funding. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-threatened-species-plan-has-failed-on-several-counts-without-change-more-extinctions-are-assured-163434">Australia’s threatened species plan has failed on several counts. Without change, more extinctions are assured</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippa England is a member of Agforce Queensland for research purposes. The views expressed in this article are entirely her own and do not reflect an Agforce policy position.</span></em></p>The federal budget included $32 million to promote schemes in which farmers who adopt sustainable practices earn money on private markets. Evidence suggests the approach is plagued with problems.Philippa England, Senior Lecturer, Griffith Law School, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1553822021-06-21T03:58:21Z2021-06-21T03:58:21ZThe National Party used to be known for its leadership stability — what happened?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407346/original/file-20210621-35715-1huxczg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Barnaby Joyce is <a href="https://theconversation.com/barnaby-joyce-ousts-michael-mccormack-to-regain-nationals-leadership-163076">back as Nationals leader</a>, after a spill in Canberra on Monday morning. </p>
<p>This is the latest development in an unusually tumultuous period for the junior Coalition partner, beginning with Joyce’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/23/barnaby-joyce-resigns-nationals-deputy-prime-minister-australia">reluctant resignation</a> in 2018 and punctuated by his unsuccessful leadership challenge in <a href="https://theconversation.com/richard-di-natale-quits-greens-leadership-as-barnaby-joyce-seeks-a-tilt-at-michael-mccormack-131029">February 2020</a> and ongoing discord and rebellion over climate policy. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-nationals-in-crisis-with-pressure-on-michael-mccormacks-leadership-163067">View from The Hill: Nationals in crisis, with pressure on Michael McCormack's leadership</a>
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<p>All this from a party that has a long history of relatively stable leadership, being out of the national media and settling disagreements with the Liberals behind closed doors</p>
<p>Some might argue the instability in recent years is the result of Joyce’s personality, ambition and behaviours. As well as the media’s focus on leadership and the contagious nature of leadership instability in other parties over the last decade.</p>
<p>But there are also other factors to consider. </p>
<h2>Party differentiation</h2>
<p>The federal Coalition has the characteristics of one party while formally remaining separate entities, which has been a successful, but unusual political arrangement. </p>
<p>In Canberra, party leaders largely act as one party, negotiating policy outcomes or implementing decisions. When in government, the Nationals leader gets the deputy prime ministership, Nationals MPs sit in Cabinet and there are joint party room meetings and joint Senate tickets. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1406788830343008256"}"></div></p>
<p>Yet the Liberals and Nationals also have their own separate party room meetings and occasionally <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-09/coronavirus-by-election-eden-monaro-executive-government/12229362">compete against each other</a> for lower house seats when a previous member does not recontest a seat. During election season, the Nationals go on “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-20/ewart-on-the-wombat-trail-the-history-of-the-nationals/5905454">the Wombat trail</a>” as partial policy independents. </p>
<p>On the campaign trail, the Nationals speak the language of rural populism with its tropes of rural disadvantage and urban indifference or hostility, with the “urban enemy” implicitly including the Liberal Party. </p>
<h2>The problem here</h2>
<p>The problem for the Nationals is they struggle to deliver adequate agricultural support and rural services in a post-deregulation world. So they have no signature programs that show their policy value. </p>
<p>They fight for residual programs such as drought support or regional funding that are limited in scope, time and impact and subject to considerable criticism as to effectiveness and fairness. </p>
<p>The Nationals need new generation signature issues that deliver for regions, while still representing the values and aspirations of an earlier Australia. For example, large-scale irrigation projects and mining developments, but even many Liberals don’t want these. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, their vocal support for the coal industry only holds sway among select voters (and turns off others). </p>
<h2>Geography</h2>
<p>The Nationals are also trying to overcome geographical divides. At the federal level, National Party power is split between Queensland and NSW. The latter generally dominates party leadership, contributing to easily animated northern resentments. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-acting-pm-michael-mccormack-on-net-zero-2050-and-prospects-for-a-new-coal-fired-power-station-162853">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Acting PM Michael McCormack on net zero 2050 and prospects for a new coal-fired power station</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>The formation of the <a href="https://eprints.usq.edu.au/38600/">Liberal National Party</a> (LNP) in Queensland in 2008 further complicated matters. </p>
<p>It created a party now pressing for greater influence within the Coalition, especially after the 2019 federal election, where the LNP was seen to have “delivered” government for the Coalition.</p>
<p>The results in the so-called “coal seats” of central Queensland (such as Flynn and Dawson) have given further encouragement to the resources focus. Joyce, though now a NSW representative, started his political career in Queensland and it is presumed much of his support for his leadership challenges came from the sunshine state. </p>
<h2>Leadership</h2>
<p>Balancing the Coalition relationship, with different strands of the Nationals’ base is a difficult task for a leader. And is seen as a significant reason for Joyce’s return. </p>
<p>Last century, longstanding National leaders, such as John McEwen and Doug Anthony, possessed combinations of strong personality, electoral leverage, political acumen and good relationships with the Liberal (or predecessor parties) leaders. From <a href="https://australianpolitics.com/parties/nationals/federal-national-party-leaders-since-1920">1922 to 1984</a>, the average length of tenure of a Nationals leader was more than 12 years, with two of them serving more than 17 years. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1406792062578565122"}"></div></p>
<p>No other party comes close to this record of keeping multiple leaders in office for long periods — and this now seems a historical quirk. Since 1988, there has been an increased rate of turnover, though most transitions still occurred reasonably peacefully.</p>
<p>More recent leaders have been confronted with the declining electoral position of the Nationals and the discontent of people in the bush. Most — such as Tim Fischer, John Anderson and Warren Truss — opted for being collaborative Coalition partners and keeping disputes behind closed doors. McCormack was also of that persuasion (and indeed, was criticised for <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/06/21/nationals-leadership-spill-joyce/">not pushing back enough</a>). </p>
<p>This means he could be characterised as too close to the Liberals and too accommodating. The other approach is more public signalling of the differentiation and more implicit threats of splitting the Coalition. </p>
<h2>Policy tightrope</h2>
<p>The Nationals then, must operate in the zone between tight cooperation and political competition. </p>
<p>The Liberals need them to form government but if skirmishes break into open disagreement and competition, the Liberals may lose majority government and the Nationals would face an existential threat. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Barnaby Joyce talks to a man on a horse during the Upper Hunter byelection in May 2021." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407347/original/file-20210621-35149-kuqi5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407347/original/file-20210621-35149-kuqi5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407347/original/file-20210621-35149-kuqi5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407347/original/file-20210621-35149-kuqi5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407347/original/file-20210621-35149-kuqi5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407347/original/file-20210621-35149-kuqi5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407347/original/file-20210621-35149-kuqi5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Since quitting the leadership, Joyce has never been far from the spotlight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren Pateman/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Open competition at the state level in Victoria (in the 1930s-50s) and Queensland (in the 1980s) did yield some increased power in the short run for the Nationals. But this was followed by long periods out of government. </p>
<p>As a standalone party in Western Australia, they got a signature program (“<a href="http://www.drd.wa.gov.au/rfr/whatisrfr/Pages/default.aspx">royalties for regions</a>”) in 2008 but no sustained increase in either state or federal representation. Voters in southern NSW and northern and western Victoria have also shown that they will elect rural Liberals, which is one of many threats to Nationals’ parliamentary representation.</p>
<p>In amongst this, rebel Nationals — such as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/queensland-nationals-george-christensen-not-recontest-seat/100089174">George Christensen</a> and Matt Canavan — have not necessarily picked issues that are easy for a modern Coalition government to give way to. Arguing for <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6255703923001">more coal fire power stations</a> goes against international political trends and the sciences around climate change.</p>
<p>Under the new leadership of United States President Joe Biden, global cooperation on emissions is likely to step up and pull Australia along with it. Business is moving ahead of government in investment decisions on energy and even the National Farmers Federation want an emissions reduction strategy. </p>
<h2>Marriage of convenience</h2>
<p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/no-convenience-for-nationals-voters-in-coalition-marriage/news-story/03d1d874ab856a04e5f3cb57a5fe3137">Joyce characterised</a> the Coalition as a “marriage of convenience”. </p>
<p>This may be so, but a love match is unlikely (otherwise the parties would merge) and a divorce would come at a huge cost. </p>
<p>As Joyce resumes leadership of the Nationals, he now takes on the difficulties of keeping the party relevant, united and electable as we head towards the next federal election.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Cockfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Barnaby Joyce is back as Nationals leader, three years since his reluctant resignation.Geoff Cockfield, Professor of Government and Economics, and Deputy Dean, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584602021-04-06T11:47:44Z2021-04-06T11:47:44ZView from The Hill: Morrison to ministers: don’t stir the states<p>When your back’s against the wall, attack is not necessarily the best means of defence. With this in mind, the word from Scott Morrison to his ministers is, lay off the states.</p>
<p>The federal government’s instinct is to avoid acknowledging its failures; when things are not going as promised, the reaction of some ministers is to kick the states if they are in line of sight.</p>
<p>The most egregious example was last week, when a story was planted to discredit states’ performance on vaccination. Premiers immediately saw the hand of Health Minister Greg Hunt.</p>
<p>Nationals Minister David Littleproud took his cue from the story, and piled on.</p>
<p>NSW and Queensland hit back.</p>
<p>Peter Dutton didn’t receive the smoke signal from Morrison that he was annoyed at his ministers, and on Sunday put the boot into Queensland over its lockdown. This was followed by a whack back from Queensland deputy premier, Steven Miles. The PM had to reinforce his message.</p>
<p>Morrison would understand that while the rollout involves both federal and (to a considerably lesser extent) state governments, his government has – and is seen as having – the major responsibility.</p>
<p>Rollout failures will be sheeted home to the feds, and the public will be angrier if there’s a blame game.</p>
<p>With the rollout struggling on several fronts – as of Monday only 855,000 doses had been administered – and national cabinet meeting on Friday, Morrison needs a semblance of public harmony and maximum co-operation from other governments.</p>
<p>Each day a fresh issue arises. On Tuesday, for example, the pharmacists, declaring they were already prepared for their role, were complaining the details for their involvement were being vagued up and possibly their participation would be delayed.</p>
<p>The pharmacists are due to come into the program as part of phase 2a (covering 50-69 year olds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 18-54, and some others).</p>
<p>Pharmacy Guild national president Trent Twomey says the language on the timing of their involvement had changed from “June” to “the middle of the year”. This followed a slippage from the original timing of May for the 2a phase, and the pharmacies’ participation, to start.</p>
<p>Twomey says that earlier, the date set for individual pharmacies to know whether they were accepted for the program was March 19. Now they were being told they would be notified between April 12 and the end of the month. “Now there is a range, not a date,” he says.</p>
<p>Given many pharmacies are small businesses, this complicates their planning.</p>
<p>“I’m getting questions [from pharmacists] as to why Joe Biden and Boris Johnson have brought forward community pharmacy [participation] but we’re being delayed,” Twomey says.</p>
<p>Morrison at a Tuesday news conference denied a delay – “we were always working to mid-year”.</p>
<p>Much – though by no means all – of the difficulty with the rollout is on the supply side.</p>
<p>The EU blocked (actually or effectively) more than 3 million vaccine doses coming to Australia which put a major spanner in the works. Also, many of the vaccines already produced by CSL are still in the pipelines for checks and approval.</p>
<p>A CSL statement said on Monday: “In the first week of the local rollout, 832,000 doses were released ahead of schedule to the Australian government.</p>
<p>"Further batches of finished doses are now being released on a rolling basis every week. When approved by the [Therapeutic Goods Administration] they are delivered to the national network of vaccination centres and GP clinics. CSL hopes to reach a rolling output of 1 million doses a week as soon as possible.”</p>
<p>Like much else in the rollout these days, “as soon as possible” is vague.</p>
<p>The government is noticeably unwilling to be precise about CSL weekly production figures.</p>
<p>Asked on Monday how many doses CSL was providing a week, Acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd said, “I don’t have the figures available here right now”. On Tuesday morning he said CSL had already produced 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “As each batch has finished its checking, they’re being distributed … CSL production capacity is continuing to increase.”</p>
<p>Asked a similar question on Tuesday about CSL production, Morrison had this unforthcoming and convoluted answer: “Well, it varies from week to week. And we are still in the early phases so it would be misleading, I think, to give you an average at this point.</p>
<p>"We know what we are hoping to achieve. But at this point, we are hoping to achieve the figures that have already been realised to some extent and that’s around the 800,000 mark. That is achievable and we want to be able to try and keep achieving that, and if we can do better than that, then we will.” </p>
<p>Health Department Secretary Brendan Murphy (appearing after Hunt had declined the ABC’s invitation) was blunt on Tuesday night: “we’re not going to give you an absolute average yet”. </p>
<p>As for other numbers, Morrison will urge national cabinet to approve more timely release of vaccination data.</p>
<p>Anxious to stress the positives, the federal government predicts that this week the number of GP clinics in the rollout will ramp up to more than 3000.</p>
<p>And responding to calls for mass vaccination centres (the states already have some hubs), the government says that is planned for phase 2a. Why not now? It declares it doesn’t want to be bussing the elderly (who are eligible for shots in the current stage) to football stadiums. One would think some of the elderly might be quite happy to go to a stadium, if it meant earlier access to the vaccine. </p>
<p>As winter approaches, it’s vital Friday’s national cabinet eschews squabbling and brings a united approach to doing whatever politicians and bureaucrats can to accelerate the rollout.</p>
<p>Which is why Morrison plans to be wearing his nice face to the meeting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158460/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When your back’s against the wall, attack is not necessarily the best means of defence. With this in mind, the word from Scott Morrison to his ministers is, lay off the states.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1551212021-02-11T01:09:47Z2021-02-11T01:09:47ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: David Littleproud on The Nationals and net zero<p>Scott Morrison has indicated he wants to embrace a 2050 target of net-zero emissions. That, however, requires bringing the Nationals on board, and a vocal group in that party is fighting a fierce rearguard action.</p>
<p>The Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud, who is Minister for Agriculture, is sympathetic to the target - so long as there is a credible path to get there, which won’t disadvantage rural Australians.</p>
<p>In this podcast Littleproud says he believes the pathway could be settled this year. </p>
<p>“That’s not in my remit. But there is a hope to accelerate that and to make sure that we can provide that [pathway] as quickly as we can. The money’s been set aside for a lot of that work and some of that work’s already been completed.”</p>
<p>As for that Nationals, “our position is we want to see the plan first. Our party room hasn’t got to a juncture of dismissing it. We want to see what the plan is and who pays for it.”</p>
<p>Asked whether agriculture would have to be exempted for the Nationals to sign up to the 2050 target, Littleproud says, “Well, with respect to ag, I think it cane be part of the solution”. </p>
<p>On the ANZ’s announcement this week it would stop lending to Australia’s biggest coal port, the Port of Newcastle, Littleproud is scathing:</p>
<p>“Well, they’re a pathetic joke… We had a banking royal commission and here we are, a bank telling the Australian people about how society should run. That is not their role. Their role is to provide capital.” </p>
<h2>Transcript (edited for clarity)</h2>
<p><strong>Michelle Grattan:</strong> As pressure mounts on the Morrison government from the election of the Biden administration and the approach of the Glasgow climate conference at the end of this year, Scott Morrison is indicating he wants to move to embracing a 2050 target of net zero emissions. But one hurdle is a strong and vocal group in the Nationals, which is led by former Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who’s fighting with some of his colleagues tooth and nail to stop the new target with the leadership of Michael McCormack always under pressure. The argument within the Nationals has the potential to get out of hand. David Littleproud, the Nationals deputy leader and Agriculture Minister is sympathetic to the target, provided there is a credible path to get there and one that won’t disadvantage. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud joins us today.</p>
<p>David Littleproud, like Scott Morrison, you’ve indicated that embracing the 2050 target must come with a plan for achieving it. In your view, is it possible that plan could be ticked off this year or will it take beyond this year?</p>
<p><strong>David Littleproud:</strong> Well, we hope so, but that’ll depend on the advancement that technology has been able to, to verify the veracity of the technology that we’re putting up. It’s important that it does have standing and does have currency because we want to go to the world and we want to to the Australian public with the scientific basis of that technology so that there is understanding, there is belief in it, and we then have a trajectory. So that’s really what the government has been working and we’ve already started that. I know that we’ve Angus Taylor already had 14 million dollars set aside to start a programme around trying to measure soil carbon. I’ve already started a biodiversity stewardship programme with 34 million dollars, so a lot of the legwork has already started. But we have to go with the science. We have to understand that. We have to be honest. This is what people want. They want honesty, not platitudes. And that’s what this climate debate has become. And I think it’s time now that we level with the Australian people. The Australian Labor Party tried to go through the back door at the last election by saying that they wanted it and that zero by 2050 but couldn’t tell anyone how they going to get there, who was going to pay.</p>
<p>So, it’s time for us to be honest with the Australian public. And I think the prime minister is right in what he’s saying is that we need to have that plan and be honest with the Australian people. There’s about 130 nations from around the world who’ve signed up to net zero by 2050, but only 16 of them have a pathway that they have articulated to the world and how they’d get there.</p>
<p>So, this is a dangerous thing why we want to compare ourselves with other nations. The most important thing is Australians, that we’re honest and that’s what this government is doing in tackling this issue.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> So just to be absolutely clear, the technology pathway could be ticked off by the end of the year.</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, that’s not in my remit. But there is a hope to accelerate that and to make sure that we can provide that as quickly as we can. The money’s been set aside for a lot of that work and some of that work’s already been completed. So obviously, Mr Taylor will be leading that. And it’s important that that he is able to finish with that work as quickly as he can. But I think the Prime Minister’s made it very clear that we will be honest with the Australian public about that pathway, how we get there and who pays for it.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Now, would agriculture have to be exempted for the Nationals to sign up to the 2050 target, or are the better ways of protecting agriculture?</p>
<p><strong>LP:</strong> Well, with respect to Ag, I think it can be part of the solution, particularly when you look at soil carbon and that’s around.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> So not exempted. Not exempt.</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, not unless I mean, you’ve got to understand that Ag has already done a lot of the heavy lifting. So, there shouldn’t be there shouldn’t be any more disadvantage for agriculture. And that’s where the science and technology can, can mean that it can play its role in making sure that it’s, it’s beneficial to agriculture. And agriculture plays its part. But our farmers should be rewarded for that and for their stewardship. We have, have met Kyoto and we’ve also going to meet Paris and beat Paris predicated on what farmers did back in the late 1990s when we signed up to Kyoto. Farmers across Australia had much of their, their property rights stripped away from them. They weren’t financially rewarded for it personally. State governments were, and they put it in their pockets now that governments of all persuasions and that’s my job and the other mob. So, we’ve all got to put a hand up on that. I think that farmers should be rewarded for the stewardship and the role that they play. And this is an opportunity to do it, to do it with science and technology. And I think that is the roadmap that I think even the agriculture sector wants to play a part of as well.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> So, you think there are benefits for farmers? Financial benefits in a more robust climate policy.</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Ah definitely and I think when you’ve got carbon farming now already in place, that’s a blunt instrument. It’s a blunt instrument of just abating carbon. What I’ve tried to institute is around improvement of biodiversity as well, because we’ve got a perverse outcome with our carbon farming programmes at the moment, whereby passive investments are moving into south west Queensland, buying up large tracts of land for, for very cheap prices and locking it up and throwing away the key. There’s no active management of the property and there’s perverse impacts around pests and weeds that emanate from it. And there’s also an emergency service risk for fire personnel to get in and out of these properties because they become overgrown and the roads that access them. And we’re also losing families that would otherwise be on these properties.</p>
<p>So, it’s had a perverse outcome, the carbon farming. So, we should make it more sophisticated, not just to abate carbon, but for and reward him for an improvement in biodiversity. And within much of the programmes, you can pay that premium if you can prove to improve, if you can demonstrate the improvement in biodiversity. And you also then have the opportunity to market your product globally with a with a seal, a biodiversity seal that should have international recognition. We’re leading the world in trying to do this. And that’s why that biodiversity stewardship programme, the 34 million so I’ve got ANU to work on, is so, so important in this. Is this an important part in rewarding our farmers not just for carbon abatement and improvement in biodiversity, but they can also then market their product around the world as being the very best, the gold standard in terms of environmental stewardship of their product, and that gives them a market advantage. Then if you look at the soil carbon piece of work that that that Angus Taylor is working on, that’s about trying to crack the code of measuring soil carbon and how much can be abated through soils and the management of farmers, what they would have to do to do that. And if you can measure it, because you have to measure these things for it to have currency not just here in Australia, but in international markets, if we can get that measurement down to around three dollars a hectare, then farmers get very excited about playing in that space. And there’s some preliminary work that also indicates that some of the management changes won’t just abate carbon and also improve some of their productivity.</p>
<p>So, this is exciting work that we’re trying to work towards that will incentivise farmers, reward them, let them play a part of it and not have a significant impact on the agricultural sector.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> So, given what you’re arguing, why are the Nationals so polarised on this issue? Is it basically of a sort of surrogate leadership issue or what’s driving people like Matt Canavan, for example?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, we are we are the last bastion of safety for regional Australia, because that’s all we represent. All we are saying is we want to see the plan. We want to understand the plan and the trajectory of how we would get there and who’s going to pay for it and what role, particularly regional Australia can play in it either through agriculture, but also looking at things like carbon capture storage for a lot of those coal fired power stations that I have four in my own electorate alone, that can reduce emissions because we’ve got to get back to first principles in this whole debate. The first principle is we’re trying to reduce emissions. So, when you walk or get the zealots out of the room and you start talking about, well, how do we do that? You can do that also not just through agriculture, but through carbon capture storage. That technology that the Biden administration is now signing up to with, with now what Australia has already started gives us an opportunity to prolong the life of our coal fired power stations and, and keep those jobs, keep cheaper energy for our manufacturing sector and reduce emissions. And the initial studies into this show that potentially could be up to 90 per cent of emissions.</p>
<p>So why wouldn’t we back ourselves? And if we get back to the first principle of reducing emissions, then we should look at every technology. We shouldn’t, we shouldn’t, we shouldn’t put one industry and demonise it against another. If you can reduce emissions with technology. And that’s what the Nationals are saying. Let’s have let’s have a look at the plan. Let’s look at the technology. Let’s look at our mix, particularly in our regional communities in terms of economic makeup and how do we how do we preserve and protect them and transition jobs into new industries and protect the ones that are there while reducing emissions.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> But on the 2050 target, Matt Canavan and some of the others are saying, no way, whatever you do, they’re completely against that target. He’s repeated that position day after day.</p>
<p><strong>DL</strong>: And that’s his right that’s the beauty of democracy. But the National Party party room hasn’t got to that position yet. Our position is we want to see the plan first. Our party room hasn’t got to a juncture of dismissing it. We want to see what the plan is and who pays for it. If individuals want to want to have a different view within our party room, that’s a good thing. That’s what democracy should look like. We shouldn’t have a cookie cutter approach. I’m not I’m not fazed by that at all. I think Matt has been a warrior for obviously the causes that are dear to his heart. And that’s a good thing that we have those people in our democracy. We should actually try to promote that sort of thinking and diversity in our parliament rather than trying to stifle it just because a majority think another way. But ultimately, our party room will get to a position and we will, we will obviously define as a party room. And that’s what the Nationals will stick to. But we haven’t got to that because we haven’t seen the plan.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Now, you move around regional communities, rural communities a lot, obviously. What sort of views are coming to you from some farmers and others about climate change as an issue about the 2050 target from ordinary people?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, it’s, it’s not the thing that’s keeping him up at night. Obviously, they hear the noise. And I think this is the problem is the noise has been driven by, by the zealots from both sides rather than a mature conversation being able to be happen. And that’s what I think the Prime Minister tried to set out at the Press Club was let’s have that mature conversation about how we get there, investing in the best and brightest in the world here in Australia to come up with that trajectory through science and technology rather than just having ideological and philosophical debates that take the country nowhere. And this is the opportunity I think this is the environment that the PM is trying to set. And that’s where I think as a national party, that’s what we want to be part of. We want to be part of the conversation and advancing regional Australia to be part of the solution in this.</p>
<p>So what people are saying on the ground is they’re just concerned that they don’t want to be they don’t want to continue to be the ones that have to do all the heavy lifting for the conscience of people, particularly in metropolitan areas that do a significant amount of the polluting. We’re happy to be part of the solution, but we don’t want the cost to be a burden on us. And I think what they see is the opportunity to be part of that solution, to actually make sure that our regional economies are even stronger after this, if we use the technology and smarts and allow our agricultural sector to be part of it.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Now you were talking about coal before. Where’s the study up to into the feasibility of the new coal fired power station at Collinsville in Queensland? And do you believe such a project will ever get underway?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, I can’t give you an update that’s outside my remit as Angus, I understand, that a business case is being prepared now, but it should, it should get up if it stacks up. And that’s whether it’s coal, whether it’s anything else, it has to stack up and they have to have a proponent. So, in essence, we’ll obviously see what comes out of that business case. And then from there there’ll be further decisions made. But until you you’ve got a business case that stacks up, it’s very difficult to make any commentary on a proposal and in particular that one.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> And if it needs government support to stack up?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, again, you have to you have to see what the business case says and what extent those are decisions you can only make after you have the facts in front of you have the business case in front. You have a clear understanding of it. So, until then, obviously it’s on the table, but it’s not something until it can be stacked up is something that the government is going to pursue until such time as we see that business case. And that’s what any government should, should do. I mean, we’re spending Australian taxpayers’ money here, so we need to make sure that we’re spending it wisely. We’re getting bang for the buck and it stacks up.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Some of your colleagues in the coalition generally have been dismissive of those saying there won’t be new coal fired power stations in Australia. You don’t necessarily take that view.</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, I don’t like to close my mind to anything because invariably it can come back to politics. So, I don’t draw a line in the sand on it or anything.</p>
<p>So, I think, you know, technology is taking the world to, to different levels. And it makes it, it makes it to a point where we’ve got to understand that that can change current thinking and current status quo. So, I think it’d be dangerous to say never. But again, it comes back to the cold, hard facts of stacking up.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> So, what’s your attitude to the ANZ decision to pull out of funding the Port of Newcastle, which is said to be the world’s biggest thermal coal terminal?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, they’re a pathetic joke. ANZ is really big as wanting to become the moral compass of this country. I mean, this is this is a bank that, in fact, copped hundreds of millions of fine because of the unconscionable conduct that they had with their own customers. I mean, we had a banking royal commission and here we are, a bank telling the Australian people about how society should run. That is not their role. Their role was to provide capital. They have they have a very, very significant part to play in our economy. It is a privileged position that they have. Their job is to provide capital. And it’s not for them to decide what is what is socially right in our society or not. That is the government’s responsibility. And we get told by the people every three years of the election. So their behaviour is disgraceful, that their role is to provide capital and to and to manage risk. That risk is about the ability to repay a loan. That is the extent of which their, their function in our in our economy should, should rest with and be limited to. But for them and and these highly well-paid ideological CEOs and board members to go down this track shows the direction of that organisation is well out of step with what is the expectation that and the role that they play in our economy. It is disgraceful.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> So, are you writing off the fact that they may think financially the risk is just too great in the long run, that for them it’s not a question of moralising, but money?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> No, it’s moralising. When you’ve got another commercial bank seeing the commercial value in a legal business that is doing nothing wrong, that is going about their lawful business within a society, for another bank to take it up shows that this is just moral posturing by ANZ and this is just about them trying to, to sweep away the wrongs that they have perpetrated on many Australians in the past. It’s disgraceful. It’s pitiful. And ANZ, I mean, their board really has no teeth at all if they’re allowing their CEO to run away with this, really, ANZ really has no future in my mind playing in our in our society.</p>
<p>They have a privileged position. Their job is simply to provide capital. I get if someone wants to invest and they are investing through their own capital in investment schemes, you get to make those decisions. But their job in our society in this part is to lend money. And that is that is a very privileged position that they have been given.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Now, you’re deputy leader of the Nationals and often touted as a future leader, critics of the Nationals believes that the party is too subservient to Scott Morrison, especially some of the internal critics. Is this a fair point or can you name some issues where the Nationals have, in fact, stood up and prevailed?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Yeah, I think, I think we’re always going to have the critics. They’ve written us off for 100 years, but we still keep kicking. The reality is this. You only have to look back. In the last 12 months, we as a government were going to appeal the live trade decision that was handed down that rightfully denigrated what Joe Ludwig and the Labor Party did in shutting down the live cattle export industry in Indonesia overnight. And we as a National Party stood strong and said, these are our people. These are the people we represent. They are the victims in this. We do not need to put them through any further legal pain. We need to pay up and get out of their way. The National Party was able to achieve that.</p>
<p>We also stood very strongly making sure that the Northern Territory kept two members of parliament. Sam McMahon, the senator, our National Party senator, and they led that from the start. That was important, even though the two Labor seats, we could see that the representation to people in the Northern Territory, regional people, was going to be diminished. So, we stood by our values and principles, even under their Labor seats. The National Party stood by that and we made sure that in the end we were able to get through that there will still remain two Northern Territory seats. That’s what the National Party has done. Now, whether Michael runs around and beats his chest as loud as what people would like. That’s, that’s for them to decide. But I think his record in leading the National Party and what we’ve been able to achieve, particularly just in those two to start with those two points, shows and demonstrates that we are effective. And when we hunt as a mob as the Nats, then, you know, our coalition friends have to listen because this is a brutal game of politics predicated by numbers. And until one side gets to 76 on their own, then effectively, if you’re in coalition, the other, your coalition partner has a role to play.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Of course, sometimes that you need a good dog to keep the mob together, it seems.</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, I think as I just articulated just on those two points, we haven’t been doing too bad.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Do you believe the Nationals have to change or broaden their pitch as you move to the next election and indeed beyond?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> I think we need to evolve with our communities that we represent because regional Australia and I think this is important for metropolitan people understand we’re not people that sit out on hay bales with straw between our teeth. We’re running some of the most sophisticated, technologically sophisticated businesses in the world. We are very, very sophisticated in terms of even the way our communities are run, in terms of, you know, all the all the amenities that you have in capital cities. We just don’t have to put up with congestion and, and the proximity of people being all around us. And so, we are evolving. And I think the National Party needs to understand that a lot of our, our constituency is in urbanised areas. It’s not our, our voters, not just the traditional elastic sided boot wearer anymore. It’s also those in in large regional centres that we’ve got to appeal to. And, and that’s why we’re making considered decisions about things like climate change to make sure that those people, their jobs are protected no matter what. And they are not the victims of, of policies that are being predicated that come about by our cost.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> Just on that question of the large regional centres when you get into those centres. People say that there are jobs potentially available and yet there doesn’t seem to be the labour to fill those jobs. What more can be done to attract people to these areas and to deal with maybe the, the blocks, for example, the lack of rental accommodation has been mentioned?</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, I’m actually sitting in Dalby as we speak, and I can tell you there’s a rental shortage here. We have we are seeing families from Melbourne, from Brisbane and the Gold Coast get out of these cities to get away. And I think COVID has awoken people, that it might be a better lifestyle, might be a bit safer out in regional areas than more is in congested capital cities. So, we’re seeing a housing shortage just at the moment. But, but that normally fixes itself very quickly because we’ve got an abundance of land, but we do have issues around skill shortages. I mean, most of the shires, I’ve got 17 LGAs, local government areas across Maranoa, and most of those have an employment unemployment rate with a three or two in front of it. So, we are actually starved of skilled labour, not just seasonal labour. And that challenge is about how these people and how Australians are slowly awakening to the fact that the opportunities out here, I think we need to think about what are those incentives that we do provide and we do provide them already. I think there’s over 6000 dollars that can, you can get if you if you’re on unemployment benefits and you move to move to take up a job in another city, particularly regional areas. So, we’re providing those incentives. You can’t, you can’t force people to move. So, it’s about Australians understanding the lifestyle, the career pathways, the career opportunities that the quality education, the quality health services that you get in regional Australia.</p>
<p>In fact, I’m probably better and I’m safer in in my hometown near Warwick. If something happened to me, I’ve got I’ve got a hospital only minutes away from me that will look after me. And if it needs any serious attention, I’ll be on a chopper within 20 minutes and I’ll be on the on the roof of the, the main hospitals in Brisbane. And I won’t be sitting in an ambulance on a ramp downstairs. I go straight through and get looked after. OK, so we have we’re probably better health care facilities and, and opportunities in regional Australia than what we do in some of these cities. To be candid.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> What about things like the processing of visas? There seems to be a great hold up for people who’ve got a legitimate reason to be here, to stay here, to be given a visa, and they’d get into some of these areas. And yet the bureaucracy seems to be very slow on that front.</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Well, the primary responsibility of any government is to keep its people safe. The world changed after 9/11. And our job is to make sure that anyone that comes to this country, they are they are thoroughly checked out.</p>
<p>It is a privilege to live in this country. And we need to make sure that whatever checks need to be required are done and done thoroughly and appropriately. So obviously, we’d like that accelerated where for those that do want to come here and can contribute to our nation, but we’ve got to make sure that we never lose sight of that first principle of keeping Australians safe.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> But these people are often here already.</p>
<p><strong>DL:</strong> Yeah, but obviously there are further, there are further processes that need to take place, not just in terms of security, but also financial means in making sure that they can contribute and they won’t be a burden on the nation. So, it is a complex area and it’s not as simplistic as people think. But obviously we would like to see and we would love to see more of them migrate to regional areas. But that’s obviously something that the government is working through. And I’m sure the immigration minister is working as quickly as you can to speed those processes up.</p>
<p><strong>MG:</strong> David Littleproud. Thank you very much for talking with us today and giving us your insights on a range of issues.</p>
<p><em>This transcript was issued by David Littleproud’s office.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/politics-with-michelle-grattan/id703425900?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL3BvbGl0aWNzLXdpdGgtbWljaGVsbGUtZ3JhdHRhbi5yc3M"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation-4/politics-with-michelle-grattan"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Politics-with-Michelle-Grattan-p227852/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-WRElBZ"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5NkaSQoUERalaLBQAqUOcC"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237984/original/file-20180925-149976-1ks72uy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" width="268" height="82"></a> </p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score/Lee_Rosevere_-_The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score_-_10_A_List_of_Ways_to_Die">A List of Ways to Die</a>, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan discusses the National party's feelings towards a 2050 carbon neutral goal with deputy leader David Littleproud.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1493152020-11-08T03:11:28Z2020-11-08T03:11:28ZFrom coal to criticism, this isn’t the first time the Coalition has tried to heavy the ANZ<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367877/original/file-20201106-13-1x9pk2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=445%2C286%2C2495%2C1209&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sunflowerey/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the fifth most senior minister in the Morrison Government, Agriculture Minister and Deputy National Party Leader <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/bank-run-risk-from-anz-climate-lashing-20201029-p569qn">David Littleproud</a>, threatened the ANZ bank with “every lever at the federal government’s disposal - including the availability of deposit guarantees”.</p>
<p>His concern was an ANZ statement about climate change.</p>
<p>The bank had said that it supported the transition to a net zero emissions economy by 2050, and that as a consequence it would no longer provide banking services for new business customers with “<a href="https://bluenotes.anz.com/posts/2020/10/anz-carbon-policy-mark-whelan-paris-agreement-net-zero-emissions?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D27361199418806311364588398187284835818%7CMCORGID%3D67A216D751E567B20A490D4C%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D160428930">material thermal coal exposures</a>”.</p>
<p>For me, it evoked 18-year old memories of when I was the ANZ bank’s chief economist in the early 2000s.</p>
<p>I had delivered a speech to a conference of accountants in which I’d been critical of the Howard government for its pretence that the goods and services tax wasn’t a federal tax and therefore didn’t need to be included in budget estimates of total tax collections.</p>
<p>After seeing media reports of that speech, the then treasurer Peter Costello phoned the then chief executive of the ANZ John McFarlane threatening (as McFarlane subsequently relayed his words to me) <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/anzs-eslake-highlights-focus-on-china-20090807-ecpa.html">regulatory action which ANZ would not like</a> if I said that sort of thing again.</p>
<h2>‘Regulatory action ANZ would not like’</h2>
<p>Costello also had his then press secretary fax (it was 2002) a press report of my remarks to the then Chairman of ANZ, Charles Goode, with the offending passage circled.</p>
<p>I was, frankly, astonished, that the third most important minister in the government at that time, someone who by his own account was single-handedly returning the budget to surplus, promoting wide-ranging tax reform and reversing a long-term decline in Australia’s birth rate, would have the time to ring the head of one of Australia’s big four banks to complain about something its chief economist had said on an arcane topic to an obscure conference.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-art-of-the-leak-how-the-budget-is-strategically-doled-out-for-maximum-effect-77157">The art of the leak: how the budget is strategically doled out for maximum effect</a>
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<p>And I was appalled that any Australian treasurer would be willing to use the regulatory powers granted to him to help ensure the stability of the financial system to (at the very least) silence someone who’d had the temerity to question the accounting treatment of a tax measure.</p>
<p>To their very great credit, neither the chief executive John McFarlane nor the chairman Charles Goode sought to take any disciplinary actions against me.</p>
<h2>A delicate relationship</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1219&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1219&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367864/original/file-20201105-17-1a6n617.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1219&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Saul Eslake, ANZ Chief Economist 1995-2009.</span>
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<p>Goode sought an assurance that there was nothing personal in what I’d said (there wasn’t) and reminded me that I should not create the impression that ANZ was aligned with any side of politics.</p>
<p>McFarlane indicated that it was important that the ANZ “got on well” with the man who was (in his words) “likely to be the next prime minister”, and asked me to ring Costello up and “smooth things over”, and to avoid commenting on that particular topic again. </p>
<p>In accordance with these instructions I rang the treasurer’s office, but he refused to take the call (so I was told).</p>
<p>I scrupulously avoided such comments from then on. </p>
<p>When I declined an invitation from a journalist to comment on a subsequent government decision to fiddle with the timing of the Reserve Bank dividend to improve the 2004-05 budget position at the expense of the 2003-04 one, I received a note from McFarlane thanking me “for taking the greater good of ANZ and an easier life for me into account”.</p>
<h2>A more ominous threat</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367868/original/file-20201105-15-1bu3swf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Agriculture Minister David Littleproud.</span>
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<p>Minister Littleproud’s threat to the ANZ’s current chief executive Shayne Elliott is more sinister. </p>
<p>Costello was trying to silence what could never have been more than a mere irritant.</p>
<p>Littleproud is seeking to prevent one of Australia’s leading banks from making a conscious, ethically-based decision to bring its lending practices into line with the goal of reducing Australia’s carbon emissions.</p>
<p>He is threatening to withdraw from its deposit customers the protection provided by Australia’s deposit insurance scheme – presumably in the hope that those customers would take their deposits to another financial institution.</p>
<p>It’s an odd approach for a member of a government that says it believes in a “<a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-melbourne-institute-2018-outlook-conference">vibrant, productive, free enterprise system</a>”.</p>
<p>Such a free enterprise system would, presumably, be one in which privately-owned enterprises were free to decide who they did business with.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/saving-for-retirement-gives-you-power-and-ethical-responsibilities-148349">Saving for retirement gives you power, and ethical responsibilities</a>
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<p>Instead Littleproud seems to believe (as perhaps does the government of which he is a part, since no-one more senior has sought to “clarify” his remarks), that the government should decide who gets loan funds, and the circumstances under which they get them.</p>
<p>Free enterprise is only as free as the government allows it to be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saul Eslake does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Threats over the bank’s decisions about lending to coal miners call into question the government’s commitment to free enterprise.Saul Eslake, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1491652020-10-30T05:02:04Z2020-10-30T05:02:04ZSet up national air fleet to fight fires, says royal commission, warning of worsening weather<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366620/original/file-20201030-19-162ttmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">original</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Australia should develop a national aerial fire fighting capability and fuel load management strategies should be more transparent, the inquiry set up following last summer’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/summer-bushfires-how-are-the-plant-and-animal-survivors-6-months-on-we-mapped-their-recovery-142551">devastating bushfires</a> has recommended.</p>
<p>In its <a href="https://naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/royal-commission-national-natural-disaster-arrangements-report">80 recommendations</a>, including many shared between federal and state governments, the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements calls for a bigger federal role in dealing with disasters but stresses </p>
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<p>there are compelling reasons for state and territory governments to continue to be responsible for disaster management.</p>
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<p>The 2019-20 fires took <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/24/bushfires-death-toll-rises-to-33-after-body-found-in-burnt-out-house-near-moruya">33 lives</a>, nine of them firefighters including <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/23/australia/australia-firefighter-crash-intl-hnk/index.html">three Americans</a>.</p>
<p>The recommendations are aimed at increasing national co-ordination to prepare better for natural disasters, respond more rapidly (including through the army), and ensure the recovery is focused on making communities more resilient.</p>
<p>Natural disasters have changed, and so must the management arrangements, the report says.</p>
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<p>Extreme weather has already become more frequent and intense because of climate change; further global warming over the next 20 to 30 years is inevitable. Globally, temperatures will continue to rise, and Australia will have more hot days and fewer cool days. Sea levels are also projected to continue to rise. </p>
<p>Tropical cyclones are projected to decrease in number, but increase in intensity. Floods and bushfires are expected to become more frequent and more intense. Catastrophic fire conditions may render traditional bushfire prediction models and firefighting techniques less effective.</p>
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<p>But the report does not make recommendations on climate change policy.</p>
<p>Calling for a “national” approach to natural disasters, the commission says this doesn’t mean the federal government taking over, but rather a “whole of nation” level of cooperation and effort.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-disasters-we-must-cut-greenhouse-emissions-so-why-isnt-the-bushfire-royal-commission-talking-about-this-145323">To reduce disasters, we must cut greenhouse emissions. So why isn't the bushfire royal commission talking about this?</a>
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<p>As part of playing a greater role, the federal government should be able to declare “a state of national emergency”.</p>
<p>A declaration should be the catalyst for a quicker, clearer and more pre-emptive mobilisation of federal resources but should not give the federal government power to determine how state resources are to be used, the report says.</p>
<p>While usually a state or territory would have asked for help, “in some limited circumstances” the federal government should be able to take action during a natural disaster, “whether or not a state has requested assistance”.</p>
<p>In the bushfire crisis, there was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scott-morrison-starts-bushfire-repair-with-states-after-weekend-of-confusion-20200105-p53p0s.html">tension</a> between the NSW and federal governments over the deployment of military personnel.</p>
<p>The commission’s recommendations on the controversial issue of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-surprising-answer-to-a-hot-question-controlled-burns-often-fail-to-slow-a-bushfire-127022">fuel loads</a> concentrate on questions of clarity.</p>
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<p>Public land managers should clearly convey and make available to the public their fuel load management strategies, including the rationale behind them, as well as report annually on the implementation and outcomes of those strategies,“ the reports says.</p>
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<p>It also says governments should review the assessment and approval processes on vegetation management, bushfire mitigation and hazard reduction to make it clear what landholders and land managers need to do and minimise the time taken for assessments and approvals.</p>
<p>On air capability, the report says all Australian governments should develop a "modest, Australian-based and registered, national aerial firefighting capability”. This would be made up of “more specialised platforms … to supplement the aerial firefighting capability of the states and territories”.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bushfire-royal-commission-has-made-a-clarion-call-for-change-now-we-need-politics-to-follow-149158">The bushfire royal commission has made a clarion call for change. Now we need politics to follow</a>
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<p>After some <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/bushfire-relief-charity-donations-delay-explainer-2020-1">anger at charities’</a> use of money donated for bushfire victims, the commission has said federal, state and territory governments should create a single national scheme for the regulation of charitable fundraising.</p>
<p>The Minister for Emergency Management David Littleproud said cabinet would consider the report next week.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements has made 80 recommendations, while calling for a bigger federal role in dealing with disasters.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1450452020-08-25T07:45:22Z2020-08-25T07:45:22ZNationals win cheaper fees for social work and psychology in Job-ready Graduates legislation<p>The government has reclassified university courses in psychology and social work into a cheaper fee band under its Job-ready Graduates legislation, to be introduced into parliament on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The change, part of a deal with the Nationals, means instead of paying a proposed $14,500 for these courses, students will now pay $7,950.</p>
<p>The Nationals have also won a change in the planned $5000 Tertiary Access Payment for students from outer regional and remote areas who relocate to study. These payments will now be provided to universities to offer as scholarships, with the scheme structured in a way that favours regional institutions.</p>
<p>As well, the government has agreed not to proceed with a January 1 2024 cut off for fee-grandfathering for students enrolled before January 1 next year.</p>
<p>Originally social work and psychology (as distinct from clinical psychology, a post-bachelor qualification) were both in the most expensive band 4.</p>
<p>To offset the reductions in the proposed fees for these courses, the maximum fee for student bands 1 and 2 are being increased by $250.</p>
<p>The new fee structure is designed to cut the cost to students of courses in areas of expected future job demand. But it contains big fee hikes for law and courses in the humanities.</p>
<p>Education Minister Dan Tehan said: “We have made sensible amendments to the legislation after listening to the constructive feedback provided during the consultation process”.</p>
<p>The Minister for Regional Education, Andrew Gee, from the Nationals, said the amendments would “help bridge the gap between country communities and the cities, including the divide in educational attainment and access to services such as mental health”.</p>
<p>“Country universities have made it clear that they like the fact that the reforms provide faster growth in university places for them, and bring stability and certainty to the tertiary education sector,” Gee said.</p>
<p>“The changes to the Tertiary Access Payment mean that country universities are able to better compete on a more level playing field with their city counterparts to attract country students, while uncapped grandfathering means that country students studying part-time can now rest easy with funding certainty.”</p>
<p>But as they mark a win on education, the Nationals are facing another bout of destabilisation with The Australian reporting speculation Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack’s leadership will come under pressure later in the year.</p>
<p>Questioned about the speculation, Deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud, who has recently been highly visible in the media on the issue of state borders, said on Tuesday the party was “100%” behind McCormack, who would lead them to the next election.</p>
<p>Asked whether he wanted to be leader someday, Littleproud said: “Obviously everybody in this place aspires to lead their party. but there’s a time and place and you’ve got to understand very few have achieved it.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The cheaper fee band of the Job-ready Graduates legislation will now feature psychology and social work.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1448162020-08-20T11:08:06Z2020-08-20T11:08:06ZFederal government fires a shot ahead of national cabinet discussing border wars<p>A federal cabinet minister has lashed out with an extraordinary attack on premiers, declaring Friday’s national cabinet meeting “has become a flashpoint for the future of Australia’s federation”.</p>
<p>Agriculture minister and deputy leader of the Nationals David Littleproud accused premiers of “city centric decisions” and said unless they “commit to work with one another to find workable solutions to state border issues for regional Australians … they risk states becoming irrelevant to modern Australia”.</p>
<p>Alan Joyce, chief executive of Qantas, which on Thursday announced a loss of nearly A$2 billion for the year to June 30, also hit out over the internal borders.</p>
<p>“We don’t have clear guidelines for when the borders will open, when they will close,” he said.</p>
<p>“So we have this situation where there are large numbers of states and territories that have zero cases and they’re not even open to each other.”</p>
<p>Business generally is highly critical that premiers have been digging in behind their closed borders. The tourist industry is being especially hard hit.</p>
<p>Littleproud’s public anger reflects the frustrations of Scott Morrison and other ministers.</p>
<p>While accepting the need for the Victorian border to be shut, the federal government believes the broader closures are unnecessarily holding back the economy’s recovery.</p>
<p>It is also angry at the difficulty of getting specific issues resolved such as transits for agricultural and other workers and medical cases. Morrison this week has been negotiating with individual states on problems.</p>
<p>The borders will be a major issue at the national cabinet. Morrison has set out principles he wants to see followed when borders are closed – these deal the federal government into the discussion. But the power over their borders is with the state and territory governments.</p>
<p>With elections looming in Queensland and Western Australia, their premiers are convinced their voters prefer closed borders to keep them safe. This has been supported in polls. The Northern Territory, which has strict quarantine arrangements for people from COVID hot spots, goes to the polls on Saturday.</p>
<p>Littleproud said premiers must urgently consult with one another and regional communities to deliver practical resolutions, “and not rely on city centric policy formation forgetting a third of the country’s population and our agricultural production systems.</p>
<p>"While we support evidence-based restrictions to protect human health, ongoing border restrictions on large sections of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia that have no COVID-19 cases are posing major challenges on agricultural supply chains, as well as on the health and welfare of residents,” he said.</p>
<p>He said recent announcements to deal with cross-border issues hadn’t been developed in partnership with regional communities, or didn’t seem “genuine in rectifying the serious impacts on many families, communities, workers and industries.</p>
<p>"What these city centric decisions fail to acknowledge is that modern regional Australia has outgrown state lines, and that many regions share strong economic, social and community links across borders.</p>
<p>"The integrated and connected nature of many regional economies is also exposing the limitations of the states and these border closures are becoming a flashpoint for our federation and the future role and relevance of the states in our nation.</p>
<p>"The inability or unwillingness of our premiers to work with each other to find common-sense and practical solutions to restrictions that they have imposed is becoming a major test of their leadership.</p>
<p>"Premiers must remember that they are not just premiers of capital cities.”</p>
<p>Littleproud said premiers should visit affected border regions and thrash out solutions with local governments, people, businesses and organisations. </p>
<p>National cabinet will also discuss joint federal-state emergency response plans for aged care.</p>
<p>In a new submission to the Royal Commission on Aged Care the Australian Medical Association has called for every residential aged care home in the country to be urgently and comprehensively assessed for its ability to safely care for residents during COVID.</p>
<p>AMA President, Dr Omar Khorshid, said this week, “Aged care was in crisis long before the pandemic started, and the failures of clinical care and clinical governance in aged care homes have simply been amplified by COVID-19”.</p>
<p>He said hundreds of elderly people had died needlessly.</p>
<p>“Last year, the AMA and our colleagues in the nursing profession joined forces to campaign for urgent changes to our aged care system. We said then that care can’t wait.</p>
<p>"Had our calls and recommendations over the past decade been heeded and implemented, we would not be facing the crisis to the extent we are currently seeing in aged care in Victoria”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A federal cabinet minister has lashed out with an extraordinary attack on premiers, declaring Friday’s national cabinet meeting “has become a flashpoint for the future of Australia’s federation”.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1365142020-04-17T04:29:12Z2020-04-17T04:29:12ZNo water, no leadership: new Murray Darling Basin report reveals states’ climate gamble<p>A <a href="https://www.igmdb.gov.au/reviews">report released today</a> investigating how states share water in the Murray Darling Basin describes a fascinating contrast between state cultures – in particular, risk-averse South Australia and buccaneering New South Wales. </p>
<p>Perhaps surprising is the report’s sparse discussion of the <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan/plan-murray-darling-basin">Murray Darling Basin Plan</a>, which has been the focus of irrigators’ anger and denunciation by National Party leaders: Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. </p>
<p>In general terms, the Murray Darling Basin Plan was <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-is-the-murray-darling-basin-so-important-and-how-did-we-end-up-at-this-point">originally intended</a> to make water management in the Murray Darling Basin more environmentally sustainable. Its critics see it as a restraint on development, and complain it has taken water away from irrigators during a time of extreme drought.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-towns-run-dry-cotton-extracts-5-sydney-harbours-worth-of-murray-darling-water-a-year-its-time-to-reset-the-balance-133342">While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours' worth of Murray Darling water a year. It's time to reset the balance</a>
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<p>In response to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/14/water-wars-will-politics-destroy-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-and-the-river-system-itself">McCormack and Barliaro’s criticisms</a> of the plan in late 2019, federal water minister (and senior National Party figure) David Littleproud commissioned Mick Keelty as Interim Inspector General of MDB Water Resources. </p>
<p>For the new report, Keelty investigated the changing distribution of “inflows” – water flowing into the River Murray in the southern states. </p>
<p>Climate change has brought the inflow to just a trickle. This dramatic reduction over the past 20 years is what Keelty has described as “the most telling finding”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murray-darling-basin-scandal-economists-have-seen-it-coming-for-decades-119989">The Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades</a>
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<p>He also investigated the reserve policies under which the three states choose – or don’t choose – to hold back water in Hume and Dartmouth Dams to manage future droughts.</p>
<p>Keelty says there’s little transparency or clarity about how much water states are allocated under the Murray Darling Basin Agreement (the arrangement for sharing water between the states which underpins the Basin Plan). This failure in communication and leadership across such a vital system must change. </p>
<h2>Sharing water across three states</h2>
<p>One major finding of Keelty’s inquiry is that the federal government has little power to change the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2014C00194/Html/Text#_Toc390870752">MDB Agreement</a> between the three states, which was first approved in 1914-15. Any amendment requires the approval of all three governments.</p>
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<p>To increase the volume of water provided to NSW irrigators, South Australia and Victoria would need to agree to reduce the volumes supplied to their own entitlement holders. That will not happen. </p>
<p>Why has the agreement lasted so long? </p>
<p>Over the past century it has proved robust under a wide range of conditions. Its central principle is to share water with a proportion-of-available-flow formula, giving each state a percentage of whatever is available, no matter whether it’s a lot, or not much.</p>
<p>After receiving its share of the River Murray flows, each state is then free to manage its allocation as it wishes. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-broken-81613">Is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan broken?</a>
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<p>Historically, South Australia and Victoria have chosen to reserve or hold back a larger proportion of their shares each year in Hume and Dartmouth dams to use in future droughts, compared with New South Wales.</p>
<p>In part this difference derives from the long-term water needs of orchards and vines in South Australia and Victoria, in contrast to annual crops such as rice and cotton in New South Wales. </p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray/about-river-murray/water-allocations-and-announcements/how-water-is-allocated">South Australia</a> and <a href="https://nvrm.net.au/seasonal-determinations/current">Victoria</a> have a higher proportion of high security entitlements. That means they receive 100% most years. Only in extreme drought years is their allocation reduced. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/allocations-availability">NSW</a>, on the other hand, has a higher proportion of low security general entitlements. In dry and normal years they receive a proportion of their entitlements. Only in wet years do they get the full 100%. (These differences in reliability are reflected in the cost of entitlements on the water market.) </p>
<h2>Reliability of water supply</h2>
<p>What’s more, each state makes its own decision about how its state allocation is shared between its entitlement holders (95% of water goes to irrigators the rest supplies towns and industry). </p>
<p>South Australia chooses to distribute a much smaller proportion to its entitlement holders than New South Wales. It also restricted the number of licences in the 1970s. That combination ensures a very high level of reliability in supply. Victoria took a similar approach. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-the-government-can-clean-up-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-116265">5 ways the government can clean up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a>
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<p>But New South Wales did not restrict licences until the 1990s. It also recognised unused entitlements, so further reducing the frequency of years in which any individual would receive their full allocation of water. </p>
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<p>When climate change is taken into account these differences between the three states result in their irrigators having significantly different risk profiles.</p>
<h2>The climate change threat to the basin is very real</h2>
<p>Despite climate denial in the National Party, the threat is very real in the MDB. The report describes a massive reduction in inflows over the past 20 years, approximately half compared with the previous century. One drought could be an aberration, but two begins to look like a pattern. </p>
<p>The report also suggests that in many cases irrigator expectations of what should be normal were formed during the wet period Australia experienced between the second world war and the 1990s. </p>
<p>Added to this have been business decisions by many irrigators to sell their entitlements and rely on the water market, a business model based on what now seems like unrealistic inflow expectations.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-its-climate-and-economic-change-driving-farmers-out-128048">Don't blame the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It's climate and economic change driving farmers out</a>
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<p>In effect, successive New South Wales governments – a significant part of the state’s irrigation sector in the southern part of the state and the National Party – gambled against the climate and are now paying a high price. </p>
<p>In desperation, they’re focusing on alternative sources. This includes the <a href="https://waterregister.vic.gov.au/about/9-water-entitlements">water in Hume and Dartmouth</a> held under the reserves policy of the two other states; environmental entitlements managed by <a href="https://www.directory.gov.au/portfolios/agriculture-water-and-environment/department-agriculture-water-and-environment/commonwealth-environmental-water-holder">the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder</a>; the <a href="https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5969693/south-aust-water-disappears-into-thin-air/">very large volume</a> of water lost to evaporation in the lower lakes in South Australia; and the possibility of savings resulting from <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/river-murray-system/river-murray-operations/joint-management-river-murray">changes to management</a> of the system by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.</p>
<h2>Failure in leadership and communication</h2>
<p>For reasons already outlined, the state reserves policy is not likely to change and use of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder environmental water entitlements would not be permitted under current legislation. </p>
<p>Management of the lower lakes is being reviewed through <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2019/Lower-lakes-science">another investigation </a> so is not discussed in the report. The report also states that management of the MDB Authority is subject to regular detailed assessment by state governments, and they have assessed its performance as satisfactory.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-referendum-wont-save-the-murray-darling-basin-116750">A referendum won't save the Murray-Darling Basin</a>
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<p>However the report was critical of the performance of all MDB governments with regard to leadership and communications suggesting that failures in those areas were largely responsible for the public concern which triggered its investigation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Connell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s little transparency or clarity about how much water states are allocated. This failure in communication and leadership across such a vital system must change.Daniel Connell, Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1311642020-02-04T11:12:20Z2020-02-04T11:12:20ZView from The Hill: Michael McCormack’s battle to hold off a second shot from Joyce’s locker<p>Scott Morrison dodged a bullet when the Nationals clung on to Michael McCormack. There was palpable relief when the news came through to the Liberals. “We still have a Coalition,” one MP was heard to say during the Liberal party meeting.</p>
<p>But it had been the Prime Minister who created the circumstances for Barnaby Joyce to get his gun out of the cupboard.</p>
<p>If Morrison hadn’t been in such a politically weak position, due to his summer missteps, he’d probably have brazened out the sports rorts affair.</p>
<p>Morrison didn’t force Bridget McKenzie from cabinet because she skewed the grants scheme - for which she deserved sacking.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-bridget-mckenzie-falls-but-for-the-lesser-of-her-political-sins-131011">View from The Hill: Bridget McKenzie falls – but for the lesser of her political sins</a>
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<p>He acted because the price of keeping her became too high. But then suddenly the cost of ditching her skyrocketed when Joyce seized the moment. Morrison found he had destabilised the deputy prime minister he desperately needs to keep in place.</p>
<p>How things will pan out now is the unanswerable question. Of course no one believes Joyce’s protestation that “I support the vote of the [party] room”. Joyce can’t bear not being the macho top dog and he and his ally Matt Canavan – self-exiled from cabinet and a huge loser from the day – will continue to create trouble for McCormack.</p>
<p>The Nationals don’t release their voting numbers. McCormack people claim he had a healthy margin; the Joyce camp says they were line ball. If McCormack’s backers are right the secrecy harms him, fuelling uncertainty and the opportunity for mischief.</p>
<p>The easy consensus is McCormack must “lift his game”. Might as well tell a jogger to become a sprinter. McCormack isn’t the worst of leaders but he’s never going to be more than average.</p>
<p>And having acquired the reputation of a poor performer, he can’t win. Thus he’s criticised for having a low profile when Morrison was in Hawaii. But could he have raised it when the prime minister’s office was trying to hide their boss’s holiday?</p>
<p>The rebel (for want of a better description) Nats attack McCormack for not standing up to the Liberals, in particular to Morrison. They seek a more distinctive Nationals branding.</p>
<p>Now this is a real issue. A well-functioning National party has to strike a balance within the Coalition between, if you like, growling and purring. Each Nationals leader must find a sweet spot. Assertive but supportive in the government’s inner sanctums. In the electorate, distinctive while also a team player.</p>
<p>But if McCormack follows the wishes of the Nationals to be more aggressive, this carries its potential dangers. On the flip side of that coin is “division”, a bad look for the government as a whole.</p>
<p>McCormack might be a pushover but Morrison has not been sensitive to their mutual interest in the Nationals’ profile. John Howard gave them a few wins, and recognition. Morrison tends to occupy whatever space is available. His very personal central role on drought issues, for example, has overshadowed the Nationals on their home ground.</p>
<p>If Morrison wants to prop up McCormack he needs to pump his tyres. As former Nationals senator John (“Wacka”) Williams told Sky, there was a message in Tuesday’s events for Morrison: “Don’t make the Nationals irrelevant”. The Nationals had to be treated with respect and get some pats on the back, Williams argued.</p>
<p>The Nationals’ schism triggered a reminder that Morrison is in a no win situation internally on climate change policy, as he faces an increasing need to nuance it.</p>
<p>In Tuesday’s Coalition parties meeting (coming immediately after the vote) a bevy of Nationals - Joyce, Canavan, George Christensen and David Gillespie - sent hardline messages on climate among talk of regional jobs and industry. Joyce said some people were trying to push their hobby horse issues out of the fire tragedies. To one Liberal source, these outpourings from the Nationals’ losing side were a bit weird and not very coherent.</p>
<p>They were met by a counter from some moderate Liberals. Earlier, in the separate Liberal party meeting, Queenslander Andrew Laming criticised those who went on policy “solo flights” on climate. The government’s policy was based on the science, which had been overwhelmingly accepted, Laming said – to contest the science undermined the policy.</p>
<p>McCormack’s next test is immediate – recrafting his frontbench. He has two cabinet vacancies, with Victorian Darren Chester expected to fill one.</p>
<p>What happens with the key resources portfolio vacated by Canavan will be crucial, given the coal issue and energy battles. Whether McCormack should have invited Canavan back is a moot point. Canavan (a loud voice for the coal industry) has a sharp policy mind; also, he might have been less trouble for McCormack if still on the frontbench than rampaging round the backbench.</p>
<p>Among the complexities of the reshuffle is that with the fall of McKenzie and Canavan the Nats have no Senate minister, but the remaining three senators (all women) are parliamentary newcomers. Still, one of these women will surely be in line for promotion, at the least to an assistant minister. McCormack sources believe all six women in the 21-member party voted for him; certainly most did. </p>
<p>The significance of the Nationals new deputy, David Littleproud, should not be overlooked in considering the future. Littleproud is competent, ambitious and articulate. He was frustrated at having his portfolio sliced back after the election.</p>
<p>His presence could assist McCormack. At 43, he has plenty of time and, in the National party tradition, an incentive to support his leader and inherit the mantle rather than trying to snatch it.</p>
<p>But if McCormack can’t survive until the election, the party would be better off turning to Littleproud than to Joyce, who would carry a maximum risk factor, not least for Morrison.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scott Morrison dodged a bullet when the Nationals clung on to Michael McCormack. There was palpable relief when the news came through to the Liberals. “We still have a Coalition,” one MP was heard to say…Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1311332020-02-04T00:01:50Z2020-02-04T00:01:50ZTo Scott Morrison’s relief, Michael McCormack holds his job as Nationals’ leader<p>Nationals leader Michael McCormack has seen off a challenge from Barnaby Joyce but now faces the formidable task of trying to bring together a fractured party that lost two cabinet ministers this week.</p>
<p>The result will be a deep relief to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. He stood to be a big loser if forced to partner with Joyce, who promised a more assertive approach and would have pressed for concessions when re-negotiating a Coalition agreement.</p>
<p>The Nationals do not release the results of their ballots, which inevitably leads to speculation – and mischief-making – about the numbers. Some media sources claimed the numbers were lineball but McKenzie backers declared that rubbish. Only the whip, Damian Drum, and a scrutineer, Perin Davey, had access to the ballot papers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-barnaby-joyce-challenges-mccormack-with-pitch-to-make-nationals-more-assertive-131047">View from The Hill: Barnaby Joyce challenges McCormack with pitch to make Nationals more assertive</a>
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<p>The party elected Water Resources Minister David Littleproud as deputy. He replaced Bridget McKenzie who was forced to resign at the weekend after the sports rorts affair.</p>
<p>McCormack’s reshuffle will now have to be substantial because Matt Canavan, who has been resources minister, quit cabinet to campaign for Joyce. A tight-lipped McCormack made it clear he would not be reinstating Canavan.</p>
<p>McCormack told a news conference he did not expect another challenge from Joyce.</p>
<p>“I’ve been endorsed as leader. I was endorsed as leader when we came back here after the May election last year, I was endorsed as leader when he stood down in 2018. That’s three times in less than two years. I think that is enough to warrant me leading the party going forward.”</p>
<p>But Joyce is unlikely to give up his ambition, and having a restive Canavan on the backbench will be unhelpful for McCormack. McCormack must also battle the public perception that he is a bland and weak leader.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the Nationals have not in the past been inclined to change leaders between elections, which will provide some protection for McCormack.</p>
<p>Frontbencher Darren Chester, who stands to be returned to cabinet, apologised to the community for the Nationals’ self-indulgence, which came on the day parliament has dedicated to the bushfire victims and heroes.</p>
<p>“I’m disappointed, I’m somewhat embarrassed that we’re going through this today. I want to offer an apology to the Australian people.” </p>
<p>Chester said regional Australians were suffering the consequences of drought and bushfires. “On a day when the parliament … is due, to debate a condolence motion, to have us talking about ourselves is embarrassing.” </p>
<p>Littleproud said: “The shenanigans are over, it’s time to get back to looking after those people that are facing drought, that have faced up to the fires. It’s time for us to focus on them, not us. The party has to focus on that”. </p>
<p>Joyce said in a statement: “It is appropriate that if an issue needs resolving as to contentions held, there is a procedure to resolve it as is noted in our parliamentary system. That process has been followed and the issue is finalised. This was made as brief as possible prior to the first sitting of parliament for the year.</p>
<p>"I support the vote of the room and will strive for the re-election of a Morrison McCormack government as this is definitely the better outcome for Australia and especially of regional people.</p>
<p>"Now my first attentions go back to where they were before this week, the New England, drought, fires and now the threat of coronavirus.”</p>
<p>McKenzie has received the minor consolation of being re-endorsed by the party room as the Nationals’ Senate leader. Canavan remains her deputy.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-minister-david-littleproud-on-bushfires-drought-and-the-nationals-127016">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Minister David Littleproud on bushfires, drought, and the Nationals</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The result will be a deep relief to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who stood to be a big loser if forced to partner with Joyce.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1310472020-02-03T11:56:34Z2020-02-03T11:56:34ZView from The Hill: Barnaby Joyce challenges McCormack with pitch to make Nationals more assertive<p>The Nationals have exploded into a major crisis with Resources Minister Matt Canavan offering his resignation from the ministry on Monday to throw his support behind Barnaby Joyce’s bid to oust Michael McCormack from the leadership.</p>
<p>In a Monday night news conference Canavan told reporters the Nationals needed “a bulldog”, “a fighter”.</p>
<p>Earlier Joyce informed McCormack he would challenge, with a spill to be moved when the party meets on Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>The Nationals’ meltdown has been triggered by the forced resignation of Bridget McKenzie from the cabinet and Nationals deputy leadership, after the secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, Phil Gaetjens, found she had breached ministerial standards by not declaring her membership of gun clubs in the sports rorts affair.</p>
<p>While only a new deputy needed to be elected, Joyce has seized the opportunity to make his leadership run. On Monday night the numbers were unclear in the McCormack-Joyce battle.</p>
<p>The leadership fight is driven by Joyce’s unrelenting desire to return to the job he had to forfeit in early 2018 amid a scandal around his personal life.</p>
<p>But it is fuelled by widespread criticism of McCormack, both inside and outside the Nationals, for a perceived lack of cut-through. This is despite the fact the Nationals held their ground at the 2019 election.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/barnaby-joyce-the-story-of-an-unlikely-rise-and-a-self-inflicted-fall-92361">Barnaby Joyce: the story of an unlikely rise and a self-inflicted fall</a>
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<p>Canavan made it clear a switch to Joyce would mean a more forthright stand on policy by the Nationals - by extension within the Coalition. This would make the relationship much more difficult for Scott Morrison. McCormack’s critics within the party accuse him of being too subservient to Morrison.</p>
<p>Most immediately, a change of leader would mean a new Coalition agreement, with the Nationals demanding extra concessions.</p>
<p>Joyce recently attracted attention with his <a href="https://twitter.com/Barnaby_Joyce/status/1209372444726743046">“Merry Christmas” video</a>, showing him feeding cattle, in which he gave his take on the climate issue. </p>
<p>“Now you don’t have to convince me that the climate’s not changing, it is changing - my problem’s always been whether you believe a new tax is going to change it back. I just don’t want the government any more in my life; I’m sick of the government being in my life. </p>
<p>"And the other thing is, I think, we’ve got to acknowledge … there’s a higher authority beyond our comprehension … right up there in the sky. Unless we understand that it’s got to be respected, then we’re just fools, and we’re going to get nailed.”</p>
<p>One issue for the Nationals is how a return to Joyce would be received by women in regional areas, among some of whom his reputation was tarnished by allegations of sexual harassment. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/03/rural-women-warn-nationals-not-to-restore-barnaby-joyce-to-leadership">The Guardian on Monday reported</a> a number of rural women opposing his reinstatement.</p>
<p>Joyce on Monday said the National party had to be on the “balls of its toes as we face some of the most challenging times.</p>
<p>"We have to speak with our own voice and we have to drive agendas because it is going to be an incredibly tough game for people in regional areas,” he said.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to make sure that we are not a shadow of another party.”</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/richard-di-natale-quits-greens-leadership-as-barnaby-joyce-seeks-a-tilt-at-michael-mccormack-131029">Richard Di Natale quits Greens leadership, as Barnaby Joyce seeks a tilt at Michael McCormack</a>
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<p>While praising McCormack’s “tireless” campaigning efforts, Canavan said the broader environment the Nationals faced in regional Australian had changed.</p>
<p>“We struggle to get our voice heard … we just have to fight a bit harder,” he said.</p>
<p>“I do think that on a number of fronts we must be more forceful on issues that are threatening the livelihoods of those in regional Australia.”</p>
<p>“We need a bulldog, we need a fighter to fight back against those who want to take away people’s coal jobs, who want to shut down cane farms,” said Canavan, who is a passionate advocate for the coal industry. </p>
<p>“We’ve got so much to do with the Nationals party,” he said. “And I do think a change in direction here will allow us to do that better
for our constituents.”</p>
<p>Joyce was “an effective fighter” and “that’s why I’m backing him”.</p>
<p>In another complication over ministerial standards, Canavan revealed he had just recalled his link to the North Queensland Cowboys, which last year was awarded a $20 million loan by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, that sits under his ministry. </p>
<p>He did not believe this was a conflict of interest, saying he did not approve NAIF loans. But a press release from him last year said “Canavan approves $20 million for NQ Cowboys”. Canavan admitted he should have declared the link and he has referred the matter to the Prime Minister’s office. </p>
<p>Queensland National Llew O'Brien flagged he would move for a spill when the 21-member Nationals party room meets. </p>
<p>David Littleproud, the Water Resources Minister, is the frontrunner for the deputy vacancy. He is not contesting the leadership. Frontbencher Darren Chester, a McCormack supporter, said he would not run for deputy.</p>
<p>Late Monday Canavan had not formally resigned from the cabinet: while offering his resignation to McCormack he has to tender it formally to Morrison, which he said he would do Tuesday morning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Nationals’ meltdown has been triggered by the forced resignation of Bridget McKenzie, and while only a new deputy needed to be elected, Joyce has seized the opportunity to make his leadership run.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.