Australia politics live: question time tributes to ‘bravery’ of Sean Turnell after release from Myanmar

Prof Sean Turnell attends question time after release from Myanmar

Sally Sitou then asks Anthony Albanese a dixer:

What is the latest information on the case of Prof Sean Turnell who recently returned to Australia after being wrongly imprisoned for two years in Myanmar? It is a great honour to have Prof Sean Turnell here today.

Prof Turnell gives Sitou a thumbs up and squeezes his wife, Dr Ha Vu’s hand.

The chamber stands up in applause of the couple, who are sitting on the side of the chamber.

Albanese:

It is a great honour to have Prof Sean Turnell here in the chamber today with his magnificent wife. And I much enjoyed our discussion prior to question time when I welcome him into my office.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Sean when we both touched down in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago, indeed less than a couple of weeks ago, and as we entered the chamber here Sean said to me that two weeks ago he was in prison.

Incarcerated by a regime that has trashed human rights in Myanmar, and that incarcerated Prof Sean Turnell who was in Myanmar giving advice to the democratically elected leader of Myanmar and how their economy can be improved.

What he endured in his 650 days of incarceration is something no human being should have to endure and yet he has done it with grace and even with inhumane conditions with profound humanity, our relief and joy at your release is also tinged with no small amount of awe, awe and respect that your courage, optimism and resilience.

We are so glad as seen in the response across the chamber to have you back. I do want to also pay tribute to Dr Ha Vu, as the professor said on the 7.30 interview – a magnificent interview I would encourage everyone to watch with Sarah Ferguson the other night – this wasn’t in the marriage vows.

There must’ve been times when you felt like you are in a prison of a different nature but your determination and advocacy and the power of your love will prove greater than the hate and everything your beloved husband were up against. What happened to Prof Sean Turnell should never have happened but as said to me in our conversation he was so grateful for the support he received from Dfat and our consular staff and today I want to pay tribute to those who provided those glimmers of hope with their deliveries and advocacy. They gave him hope during dark times.

I want to acknowledge the efforts of foreign minister Penny Wong and her team and securing his release. In particular, on behalf of Australia, a grateful nation, I thank the exceptional assistance we received from our Asean partners and other friends including Japan and securing Prof Turnell’s release.

It was a very good day, Prof Turnell struck me with his humility upon his release. It was quite extraordinary. I am so pleased that he is now looking, it must be said a fair bit healthier. After an awful time. Most of all, I want to thank Prof Turnell for being here today and for displaying the absolute best of the Australian spirit. And I thank all those across the political spectrum and across our community who all campaigned so strongly and so consistently to secure the release. You are a most welcome guest as is your wife.

Key events

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While we wait, we have the house transcript of a question from Joanne Ryan to Bill Shorten

Ryan: Thank you. My question is to the Minister for Government Services. I refer to the minister’s previous answer regarding government contracts, and further media reports this morning. What more information has emerged and what are the circumstances and performance of the relevant ICT contracts in the minister’s portfolio, including any probity issues?

Shorten:

The new revelations in today’s media are concerning. Since last week, I have ascertained the following. Four contracts with a total bill of, value of ,$274 million to upgrade payments and human services called the ECE project.

It’s still going.

The timeline for ECE is as follows:.

2 October, 2018 ECE tender opens – three companies including Infosys shortlisted.

29 May 2019, Member for Fadden appointed Minister for Human Services and NDIS.

26 June 2019, leaked emails reveal ministers meets Infosys and his good friend David, a paid consultant in Sydney.

2 July 2019, final valuation submitted – negotiation as to value and period of contract continue for another four months.

8 November 2019, Infosys was awarded contract for first of four contracts valued at $18 million.

19 November 2010, minister meets Infosys.

30 December 2019, minister meets friend Mil at Gold Coast, triggers email saying “Minister gave insights on progress of Infosys and future opportunities.”

1 February 2020, minister guest speaker at Infosys conference at Melbourne Park on afternoon of the Australian Open finals.

1 July 2020, Infosys awarded a further $142 million contract.

At the same time, wheels start to come off the project. It has to be overhauled and one of the unsuccessful tenderers is called in to resuscitate the project.

In light of these facts and other materials from the synergy 360 papers I have asked agencies a range of questions including:

Did the former minister ever alert the department he was meeting synergy 360 and/or Infosys up to and after it’s successful bid?

Were unsuccessful rival ECE bidders IMB and Insentia ever notified of the member for Fadden’s meeting with Infosys consultant?

What, if any, meetings occurred in his personal office and Services Australia about the progress of the ECE contract pre-and post-Infosys being awarded the contract.

Were status report to be provided at least monthly to Minister Robert and any of his personal staff?

What, if any contracts, were awarded to synergy 260 clients with areas of responsibility to Minister Robert? Including, but not limited to Dell, Adobe, Infosys and Salesforce.

Finally, I remind members of Parliament and the member for Fadden after an unfortunate development this morning, police came through my office.

If you have any request of the relevant agencies do not do what you did this morning and inappropriately task and pressure public servants who are no longer your ministerial responsibility.

Sussan Ley has seconded the motion and Alex Hawke takes the opportunity to escape his seat mate and have chats to others on the backbench.

Labor MPs are having a lovely chat.

The opposition aren’t exactly chewing at the bit to back in this motion here.

Peter Dutton then gives Anthony Albanese a laugh as a little early Christmas present:

I wish I had more time. I wish the government would allow us to have the debate.

He says, during the debate.

Peter Dutton is running the arguments we have heard about Labor reneging on its power price promise (which was to cut $275 off power bills by 2025, as modelled by RepuTex, before the Ukraine war took hold).

But he wanders into no-go territory when he begins referencing ministerial staff.

Tony Burke pops up to remind the House that there are two conventions – you don’t go after family, and you don’t go after staff.

Dutton backs down.

Labor is allowing debate, so Peter Dutton gets to go off and Labor gets to have a bit of a chat. The Coalition is doing its best to look engaged and energised.

And the motion:

That this House notes that before the election, the prime minister promised on at least 97 occasions that Australians would receive a $275 cut in their power bills. Since the election, the prime minister has abandoned this promise and refused on 27 occasions to stand by this promise when asked about it in this House. Therefore condemn the prime minister for cynically and deliberately misleading the Australian people.

It’s like it is 2021 all over again.

Except this time, it is Tony Burke denying leave, not Peter Dutton denying leave.

And now, because this day is not long enough, Peter Dutton decides now is the perfect time to try and suspend standing orders.

Labor questioned on the recycling of solar panels and lithium batteries

Dr Sophie Scamps has another of the crossbench questions:

My question is for the minister for environment and water. Minister, a renewable in economy must be a circular economy. Solar panels, wind turbines and lithium batteries have an end of life and we cannot afford to trade one environmental problem for another. According to the CSIRO, Australia is only recycling 10% of its lithium batteries. What is the government doing to ensure solar panels and lithium batteries are recycled in Australia?

Tanya Plibersek:

Thank you so much, Mr Speaker and thank you so much to the member for Mackellar. She is absolutely right on two fronts.

Australia has to be a circular economy and we have a real issue with solar batteries, solar panels and batteries from this whole industry. It is fantastic that more people are putting solar on the roofs. We have about 3m Australian households and businesses that have solar panels on the roof. They are saving money for themselves, saving about $1,000 a year for an average family.

They have reduced emissions by close to 18m tonnes in 2021. A fantastic rate.

But we know that these systems last a couple of decades if they are going well.

And if we don’t change what we are doing now, by 2030, there will be about a quarter of a million tonnes of this material in landfills.

That is because the panels and batteries contain valuable metals, minerals and we should be be using it. It is terrible for the environment because we know that lithium batteries in particular, as they break apart, leach into the soil, not great for the soil or environment.

It is better for jobs to recycle, about three recycling jobs, three jobs for recycling compared for everyone if you are going into landfill. Better for the environment, better for the economy to recycle. The solar industry has been on notice for years.

The minister interjecting, she is an expert in recycling, backbench, frontbench, backbench, frontbench. (It is Sussan Ley)

She put them on notice. Put the solar industry on notice. But they never took any notice of her. I have said I will regulate. We are prepared to invest. We set aside a quarter of a billion for recycling infrastructure, including $60m. Plastics.

I spoke to the supermarket giants just today about soft plastics and fixing the mess of recycling. We are prepared to invest and prepared to regulate. Those opposite were prepared to regulate. We want to help Australians do what they want to do, which is recycle because we know there is very strong support from Australians on recycling. We want to make it as easy as possible for them to do that and that means industry stepping up to do their share. It means being prepared to invest and means being prepared to regulate.

Milton Dick says:

The deputy leader of the opposition is constantly interjecting.

Anne Aly yells from the Labor side:

She is, it’s annoying.

And I flash back to high school.

Major last day of school vibes in the chamber this afternoon. But last day of school for the kids who were excited for summer school.

Andrew Willcox, the member for Dawson, has a question for Chris Bowen now:

My question is to the minister for climate change and energy. In the last three months, power prices for irrigated cane growers in the Burdekin have escalated 126%. That amounts to $105 per hectare per month. Why are the North Queensland cane growers happy to pay for Labor’s broken promise to low electricity prices by $275?

Bowen deliberately mishears:

I thank the honourable gentleman for the question. He refers to events over the last 12 months. A few things have happened over the last 12 months, particularly this year when Russia invaded Ukraine. That did happen and I’m sure…

(It was three months yells a bunch of Coalition MPs.)

Bowen:

Another thing that’s happened is the impact of that, and we see thermal coal today trading at $534 a tonne, compared to $286 a tonne last December.

Willcox:

Point of order. I clearly said three months and straightaway we’re going into 12.

Milton Dick:

That is not a point of order. That is not a point of order. Resume your seat. You do that again you won’t be here much longer. I give the call to the minister for climate change and energy.

Bowen:

The government’s approach is twofold. Firstly in the short-term, senior ministers are working very closely together to ensure that the impacts of the Russian invasion do not flow through to industries and businesses without government response and protection. That’s how this side of the House works it through. Carefully and methodically.

We also continue with hour medium term plans to ensure that the cheapest form of [power] renewable energy, becomes a greater pardon of our grid. Nowhere benefits more from that program than the regions of Australia including North Queensland because the regions will power a renewable Australia. They’ll create hundreds of thousands of jobs and lower power prices across and Australia because we believe in investing in the regions. We know the opposition has a different view. We had a minister, the shadow minister responded to me, and he talked about low cost nuclear energy.

Low-cost nuclear energy was their plan. They had their seminar last week, the uneconomic atomic frolic they had last week promoting nuclear energy.

We know Aemo and the CSIRO say that nuclear energy, small and modular reactors, cost thousands of dollars.

They need $400m for [establishment] Which is 30 times more than government spent last year on transport and communications and over 10 times more than what we spent on defence. But it’s OK.

The opposition has a plan.

Because the member for Fairfax has announced that the CSIRO is wrong. That’s their plan. He’s going to wander down to the CSIRO head office and say, ‘Sorry, scientists and economists. You are incorrect.’

The member for Fairfax is an economics denier when it comes to nuclear energy.