Michaelia Cash, Mathias Cormann under pressure

CASH SLAMMED LEGAL INVOICE OVER $ 288,000

Senator Murray Watt, chief investigator of Michaelia Cash, gave an interview this morning at the door of the house, where he tried his important legal bills.

"We learned yesterday that the taxpayer was paying for the privilege of seeing ministers refuse to cooperate with federal police investigations. Yesterday, we learned that taxpayers must pay $ 288,000 to provide Senator Cash with legal representation, even though she does not even provide witness statements, "Watt said.

"You can only wonder how much taxpayers would have to pay if she really cooperated with the police and provided a witness statement.

"Now, Minister Cash, from her colleagues, has said many times that she cooperated with the police and provided a statement.

"All you have to do is look at the evidence that the Deputy Commissioner of the Federal Police revealed this week that I asked her directly whether Senator Cash provided a witness statement. And the answer was categorically no.

INTEGRATED HOCKEY AT SAGA DE HELLOWORLD

Do you remember Joe Hockey? Happy comrade. Love cigars. Used as treasurer.

Well, he was dragged into the controversy over Mathias Cormann's relationship with the Helloworld travel company.

the Sydney Morning Herald According to Hockey, US Ambbadador to Australia, embbady staff in Washington met with a Helloworld executive.

It was to help the company understand the travel needs of its foreign affairs staff before lobbying for government work.

Kieran Gilbert of Sky News said he understood that Mr. Hockey had declared his conflict of interest and was not attending the meeting himself. And Helloworld was not the only company to benefit from this treatment: seven others were also consulted.

Joe Hockey and another guy.Source:Instagram

"THE WAR" OF THE MINISTER ON COLES AND ALDI MOCK

Labor has decided to suspend standing orders on the price of milk in the House.

"The situation is close to a national emergency," said Joel Fitzgibbon.

He criticized Agriculture Minister David Littleproud for his comments yesterday asking customers to boycott Coles and Aldi, who refused to follow the example of Woolworths and discard the milk from the farm. one dollar per liter.

"A boycott? Where does it end? What boycott is it next week? Said Mr. Fitzgibbon.

"The majority of farmers do not provide their milk to Woolworths. Much more supply to Coles and Aldi. The minister called for a boycott of farmers who supply milk to Coles and Aldi. "

Yesterday it appeared that Mr. Littleproud owned a small amount of stock in Woolworths.

"In 2017-18, my 25 shares returned $ 15 in dividends. It's not even enough to buy additional stock, "said Littleproud.

"My stake in Woolworths is currently $ 756.25 out of Woolworths' $ 40.2 billion.

"I hold many shares in companies in which I own shares – Telstra, CBA and ANZ, for example."

Nevertheless, Mr. Fitzgibbon referred to the actions in his motion earlier.

"We discovered that the minister had shares in Woolworths. Guess what, we do not care how much you have. You can sit all day and say that you do not organize much, but you have a direct pecuniary interest in the war you launched against Coles and Aldi yesterday, "he said.

Mr. Fizgibbon's motion asks the government to ask ACCC to test the effectiveness of a floor price to help farmers who pay less than their milk.

The key question was how the Nationals would vote. They opposed it.

In response to the motion, Mr. Littleproud accused the Labor Party of wanting to "hold a platform" instead of listening to farmers and taking care of them.

He added that the ACCC had already conducted a review of the dairy sector and had never asked for a floor price for dairy products.

The minister called on customers to boycott Coles and Aldi.Source:provided

CONFUSION OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND OF WORK

The platform was furiously unambiguous yesterday after hearing that the government was planning to send asylum seekers transferred from Nauru and Manus under VAC legislation to Christmas Island, not to the mainland. .

The workers' response, however, sent conflicting messages about this idea.

Asked about it yesterday, Bill Shorten said he was "in agreement" with sending asylum seekers on Christmas Island.

"If medical treatment is needed and the device is delivered to Christmas Island, that's fine," he said.

But this morning, her deputy Tanya Plibersek had a much more skeptical tone.

"It's up to the government to explain how people who have not been able to get proper medical care in Manus Island and Nauru can somehow get treatment at Christmas Island, where of course there are quality treatments, but limited, "Plibersek told ABC Radio.

Richard Marles of Sky News said that "the whole discussion around Christmas Island" was "stupid".

"I do not want to talk about Christmas Island because I think Christmas Island sends exactly the wrong message to the people we need to pay attention to, to whom we send messages, and they are smugglers in Indonesia," said M Marles. .

Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. Image: PAASource:AAP

ALAN JONES EXPOSES TO TURNBULL

TV and radio host Alan Jones apologized to former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for calling him a "traitor to the nation".

During his broadcast on Sky News last night, Jones admitted that he had "gone too far" in his criticism of Mr. Turnbull.

"I accused Mr. Turnbull of being a traitor to the nation," he said.

"I acknowledge that I had no reason to make this false statement and I apologize to Mr. Turnbull without reservation."

Broadcaster Alan Jones. Image: PAASource:AAP

NEW TWIST CHEAP MILK SPAT

The workforce indicated that it would ask ACCC to investigate the possibility of a floor price to help milk producers who are paid less than the cost of production of their milk.

This debate was reinstated on the agenda earlier this week when Woolworths announced that it was scrapping its milk at $ 1 a liter.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud then attacked Coles and Aldi for refusing to do the same.

He accused Aldi of "hiding under the stairs" and said that Coles only claimed to be a corporate citizen.

"Advertising stunts like (Coles) asking customers to donate at the counter to help struggling farmers are just a smokescreen to hide the fact that they are paying everything for milk," he said. said Mr. Littleproud.

"Farmers would not need donations from the public if Coles and Aldi were paying fair prices."

Coles said he would not sell his Coles brand milk to a dollar, citing cost of living pressures on customers.

He said he would look for other ways to help farmers, including collecting donations from customers and paying them a dollar for every dollar next week.

He also said he has committed $ 16 million over the last six months to support dairy farmers and promised to continue to liaise with the industry and with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

But the minister said Coles said that since August.

"So now it's time to get up or shut up, act like a decent corporatecitizen instead of pretending," said Mr. Littleproud.

At the same time, Aldi said low prices were a fundamental promise for its customers.

She indicated that she supported the dairy industry by accepting price increases reflecting the difficult market conditions.

It has sourced milk from processors, not farmers and processors expected to pay a sustainable price to primary producers.

Woolworths has discarded its cheap milk.Source:provided

JULIA BANKS RENTS ELLIS

Former Liberal MP Julia Banks congratulated Labor's Kate Ellis on her laudatory speech on Monday.

In her speech, Ms. Ellis, who was first elected at the age of 26 and soon became the youngest minister in Australia, said she felt it was a "heavy burden" to demonstrate that women could sit in parliament and have children at the same time.

But she said that burden was no longer on her alone.

"Rightly or wrongly, I felt overwhelming pressure that it was up to me to prove that a young woman could succeed here and that it would make it easier for those who would follow" said Ms. Ellis.

"What has changed for me is not that I thought I could not be a woman or a mother and do my job, but that the pressure has risen.

"One day, I looked around and I just saw this inspiring army of pbadionate, talented and hardworking women we have in our caucus. And I knew I could go.

Ms. Ellis stated that "no boys' club has ever been voluntarily dismantled".

This morning, Ms. Banks said the comment was "relevant" and that Parliament will only be "truly representative" if at least half of its members are women.

Congratulation to @KateEllisMP on his moving farewell speech. Kate's relevant commentary, "No boy's club has never been dismantled voluntarily," resonated particularly. Until we have a 50/50 representation of women and men, our Parliament will not be truly representative. @WomenVoteAu pic.twitter.com/KyZHsFaS1P

– Julia Banks, MP (@juliabanksmp) February 19, 2019

MICHAELIA CASH BAD-TEMPERED GRID

Michaelia Cash appeared in the Senate estimates last night in the Senate 's estimates, finally giving the Labor Party the opportunity to bad it during the UAW' s investigation.

This lengthy grilling work essentially resulted in an inconsistency between Ms. Cash's badertion that she cooperated with the investigation and the previous testimony of AFP that she had refused to give evidence.

"They sent a letter to AFP regarding this investigation," Deputy Commissioner Leanne Close told Budget Monday.

"And would you say this amounts to a witness statement?" Asked Labor Senator Murray Watt.

"No. I would not clbadify it as a witness statement," she replied.

Last night, Cash said she "did not know" AFP's testimony and did not read the transcript.

"I can only give my testimony," she said.

Ms. Cash stated that she sent to AFP the Hansard of her previous responses on the subject. She added that AFP could have asked for more information if she was not satisfied but did not.

The session on the estimates was in a bad mood, President Ian Macdonald often ran into Mr. Watt and Penny Wong.

He was temporarily arrested after Mr. Watt proposed to go down to the police station with Mrs. Cash so that she could make a witness statement.

Mrs. Cash finally told the senators that she was "waiting for an apology" from them.

The PDP stated that it had decided not to prosecute someone as a result of the investigation because of a "lack of evidence", in part because of the refusal of eight to provide witness statements.

Senator Michaelia Cash appearing in the Senate Estimates. Image: Kym SmithSource:News Corp Australia

NEW EDUCATIONAL LABOR POLICIES

Tanya Plibersek will address the National Press Club later in the day, which means that education will be back on the agenda.

Prior to his appearance, the Labor Party announced two new policies.

First, it will establish an Academy of National Directors to provide Australian directors with advanced leadership training and support.

Second, it will increase funding of $ 300 million to give students with disabilities increased support to the school.

Tanya Plibersek. Image: The AustralianSource:News Corp Australia

STRICT RULES FOR LARGE BANKS

Labor announced a series of new policies this morning, the most important of which is to implement strict new reporting requirements to hold big banks to account.

The policy will require the CBA, the Big Four, APRA and ASIC to develop implementation plans in response to the Royal Commission by August 1 and submit them to the Implementation Working Group. of the Royal Commission.

Every six months, the top four CEOs will also be required to publicly report on their progress in a written report to the House Economic Affairs Committee.

"Scott Morrison has voted against the Royal Labor Bank Labor Inquiry on 26 occasions and he continues not to clean the banks by keeping his parliament part-time," said Bill Shorten.

"We can only trust the workforce to clean up the banks. We have a bill on the protection of Australians and we will ensure that banking executives appear before Parliament and explain what they are doing to clean up their legislation.

"We can not let the royal commission take the dust off the shelf, the unions fought for this royal commission on the banks, and we will continue the fight to protect consumers and keep the banks out."

The four big banks.Source:News Corp Australia