Matt Canavan\u2019s attempt to force the government to release the modelling on its net-zero plan was a transparent attempt to further scorn the emissions cuts he abhors.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s refusal to do so, defying a Senate order, capped off another unedifying week for accountability and openness in government.<\/p>\n
The week-long charade of the Nationals\u2019 ham-fisted negotiations over net zero was what dominated headlines, with both Coalition parties extracting what they wanted from the drawn-out drama.<\/p>\n
But it was some complicated parliamentary parlour games that eminent barrister and anti-corruption advocate Geoffrey Watson described as having \u201ctrashed integrity\u201d and \u201ca new low\u201d.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0government closing ranks around Christian Porter\u00a0was described by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as \u201cgaslighting\u201d; while two further incidents where the government refused\u00a0Senate orders to produce key public interest documents\u00a0piled on top of a disappointing week.<\/p>\n
By the time this column is published, Barnaby Joyce will likely have handed\u00a0the Nationals\u2019 list of demands\u00a0to Scott Morrison.<\/p>\n
The timing ensures another whole week of will-they-or-won\u2019t-they drama, preceding more Nationals meetings over the weekend, more party room meetings next week, and the final cabinet sign-off next Wednesday,\u00a0literally hours before the PM flies to Glasgow.<\/p>\n
It means there will almost certainly be no time for the public to substantially examine or discuss the plan before the Prime Minister announces it on the world stage.<\/p>\n
A cynic could say, despite the bitter public drama inside the Coalition \u2013 including Senator Canavan and Bridget McKenzie\u00a0warning of \u201cugly\u201d consequences\u00a0\u2013 both parties come out of it looking good to their constituents.<\/p>\n
The Nationals got to\u00a0stand up to their big brother, to extract some\u00a0 (still to be determined) safeguards or money for the regions, and show they\u00a0watered down the emissions deal.<\/p>\n
The Liberals get to show they fought hard for a net-zero target, to reach what they\u2019ll describe as a sensible middle between the climate deniers and the tree-hugging greenies.<\/p>\n
And Mr Morrison gets to zip off to Scotland, basking in the glow of being the first Prime Minister to stitch up a climate deal without blowing up their government (albeit a deal that\u00a0climate experts say won\u2019t be enough).<\/p>\n
Senator Canavan installed himself as an unlikely star player this week, constantly goading his party over net zero. His tweets became news items as he railed against the plan \u2013 in particular, echoing John Howard\u2019s famous line on asylum seekers:<\/p>\n
Apparently lost on Senator Canavan was the irony in saying Australians should decide on net zero, while he and just 20 of his Nationals colleagues essentially ground politics to a halt as they roadblocked progress.<\/p>\n
Instead of respectfully putting the pistols away and negotiating calmly, and acknowledging the Nationals \u2013 with 10 per cent of seats in Parliament \u2013 had little mandate to stand in the way of a target that\u00a080 per cent of Australians support, the junior Coalition partner hovered their fingers over the self-destruct button all week.<\/p>\n
Instead of respecting the wishes of the 80 per cent of Australians, the Nationals made the whole week solely about their 23 members: A diverse group including a Ken, a Kevin and a Keith; a Mark, a Matt and a Michael; an Anne and an Andrew, and two Davids.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s\u00a0decision to reject a motion referring Mr Porter\u2019s blind trust to Parliament\u2019s privileges committee, in favour of asking for broader clarification on how members should disclose anonymous donations, left a bad taste in the mouths of many.<\/p>\n
Following the government\u2019s stalling tactic, there now may be little further opportunity to formally probe Mr Porter\u2019s trust before the next election.<\/p>\n
Mr Watson, a former counsel to NSW\u2019s ICAC, called it a \u201cblack day\u201d and claimed the government had \u201ctrashed integrity\u201d and were \u201cin the process of trashing Parliamentary procedure\u201d.<\/p>\n
But it was another Canavan tweet that set off a quietly revealing episode in the Senate on Thursday.<\/p>\n
After claiming the Nationals hadn\u2019t seen modelling on the net-zero target \u2013 an assertion Mr Joyce denied \u2013 Senator Canavan asked why it should be \u201csecret\u201d.<\/p>\n
It led to him co-sponsoring a motion from Rex Patrick, which ordered the government\u2019s modelling to be tabled in the Senate by Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Thursday morning came and went. No modelling.<\/p>\n
A Labor motion to again compel the tabling of the documents was stymied by government delay tactics. By Thursday afternoon, Labor tried again.<\/p>\n
It was up to government minister Zed Seselja to basically say \u201cno\u201d, rejecting the Senate\u2019s request.<\/p>\n
Instead, he blamed the \u201csensitivities\u201d of the modelling being cabinet documents, and the \u201ctime frame\u201d given to respond, for the government flat-out refusing to hand over the modelling.<\/p>\n
But never fear! As Senator Seselja promised \u201ca more detailed response\u201d would be tabled by next Friday.<\/p>\n
Coincidentally (or perhaps not), that\u2019s the day after Mr Morrison leaves for Glasgow, and the day after the Parliament rises for the end of this sitting fortnight; again, giving little chance for public scrutiny of the plan.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the government had refused a similar request for documents from Greens senator Janet Rice, who\u2019d asked for the\u00a0infamous \u201ctop 20 marginals\u201d list\u00a0from the Urban Congestion Fund\u2019s\u00a0train station car parks program.<\/p>\n
The government response?<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither I, nor my office, not the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Communications has seen any document matching the description of the order,\u201d wrote minister Paul Fletcher.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s despite the Australian National Audit Office, whose audit report kicked off scrutiny of the car parks program, saying\u00a0it was aware of the marginals list.<\/p>\n
In many ways, this week was about the government running down the clock.<\/p>\n
It ran down the clock in hopes of locking in net zero at the last moment; it ran down the clock on releasing the modelling; and it might run down the clock on scrutiny of Mr Porter\u2019s trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve crossed the line,\u201d Mr Watson claimed of the shenanigans around Mr Porter\u2019s referral.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, it\u2019s kind of funny, every day on waking and thinking, \u2018oh they\u2019ve hit a new low\u2019. I hope we\u2019ve got close to the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matt Canavan\u2019s attempt to force the government to release the modelling on its net-zero plan was a transparent attempt to further scorn the emissions cuts he abhors. The government\u2019s refusal to do so, defying a Senate order, capped off another unedifying week for accountability and openness in government. The week-long charade of the Nationals\u2019 ham-fisted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,69,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","category-important-news"],"views":50,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3854,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions\/3854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}