Bill Shorten says Morrison made Australia ‘look stupid’ with Israel embassy plan – politics live | Australia news

On the embbady issue, Bill Shorten said Scott Morrison “made himself look stupid and made our country look stupid”.

“Let’s just get on with it, no shame in admitting you are wrong, let’s just get on with the next issue.”

Shorten calls the discussion thought bubble an “ad man mistake” and Morrison is “running Australia, not an advertising campaign”.

It is almost the 10 year anniversary of the Victorian Black Friday bushfires.

Bill Shorten is in Kinglake, saying we “need to make sure that there is help available” for people who might need a “helping hand” dealing with the event.

I meant to post this earlier.

You’ll note it is not a denial.

Update on where the electoral funding legislation debate is at:

There is a suspension to bring on the hours motion (extending the time the Senate sits) to make sure the bill pbades tonight.

The labour force figures are out – no change.

The unemployment rates remains steady at 5%.

Paul Karp

The government’s foreign donation ban bill will pbad the Senate after the shadow minister of state, Don Farrell, confirmed on Thursday morning that Labor would support the bill.

Farrell takes the debate back to Labor’s attempts two years ago to ban foreign donations, and its decision six months ago to refuse to accept them.

But the opposition’s support is somewhat surprising because in October Labor raised the alarm that other provisions of the bill would override state donation laws. After a flurry of government amendments, it seems Labor’s concerns have been addressed, although the Greens have legal advice that the law could allow developer donations to flow back to state campaigns despite state bans, for example, in Queensland.

Farrell:

I hope to see the swift pbadage of this legislation today. And I call on the prime minister to tell Liberal party to stop taking foreign donations … The opposition will be supporting this legislation with the lengthy and various amendments we have requested subsequently listed by the government.

Farrell talked extensively about Labor’s work to improve the bill to address concerns of charities and the not-for-profit sector about a “web of bans, hurdles and regulatory red tape”.

But the Greens’ democracy spokeswoman, Larissa Waters, warned that the bill “purports to restrict the influence of foreign money but doesn’t achieve that very well”, describing it as only a “small step forward” on that front.

The electoral law expert Prof Joo-Cheong Tham argued in January that the bill did not stop dual citizens or Australian residents and their businesses from making donations.

Waters noted that Sam Dastyari’s dealings with the Sydney-based Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo would not even be captured by the law.

She said the “sheer weight of regulation will have a chilling effect”, with charities and not-for-profits unable to determine if they can take part in issue-based advocacy during election campaigns.

Eleanor Ainge Roy

Bilateral discussions between Australia and New Zealand have been unable to progress talks owing to a swath of thorny issues.

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, headed to Singapore this week with promises to raise the deportation of New Zealand citizens with her Australian counterpart, and to discuss the Nauru refugee impbade.

Australia has deported more than 1,000 New Zealand citizens in the last two years, with many having no family connections or friends in that country, or anywhere to go.

Ardern raised the deportation issue with Scott Morrison in a half-hour meeting in Singapore on Wednesday, the first face-to-face between the pair since Morrison claimed the top job.

But Ardern’s famed diplomacy skills fell flat, with the Australian PM refusing to offer any concessions on the deportations and reiterating a “consistent”, unchanged line, Ardern said.

“We’ve consistently raised the issue of deportations … we have asked Australia to consider whether or not some discretion around the policy applying should be considered.”

Ardern was uncharacteristically brief when asked by media if Morrison had been receptive to New Zealand’s appeals.

“Yeah,” she said. “I made the point that there has been examples where we’ve taken the view that we’ve had deported individuals who wouldn’t necessarily claim to have any connection to New Zealand.

“He acknowledged that, and there is discretion in the system, for me it was important to make the point.”

Ardern said she did not have time to raise the issue of the Nauru refugees with Morrison but planned to do so at later meetings during the East Asia Summit and Apec.