Malcolm Turnbull announces plans to bring budget forward and threatens double dissolution election
By political reporter Anna Henderson
Updated Mon Mar 21 10:49:18 EST 2016
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will hold a special sitting of Parliament on union corruption in April, and call a double dissolution election if the legislation is not passed.

Mr Turnbull called a snap media conference in his parliamentary courtyard in Canberra this morning to make the announcement.

He will bring forward the federal budget by one week to May 3, to allow more time for the union corruption bills to be considered.

"The time has come for the Senate to recognise its responsibilities and help advance our economic plans, rather than standing in the way," he said.

"The restoration of the ABCC [Australian Building and Construction Commission] is a critical economic reform.

"The time for playing games is over."
Posted Mon Mar 21 10:47:14 EST 2016

The ABCC is desperately needed, as the RC into Union Corruption has found. Labor cannot keep its head in the sand on this.

Bring it on  :)

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 9:58am:

The ABCC is desperately needed, as the RC into Union Corruption has found. Labor cannot keep its head in the sand on this.

No.

It's not.

It never was.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 9:58am:

The ABCC is desperately needed, as the RC into Union Corruption has found. Labor cannot keep its head in the sand on this.

No. A Federal version of ICAC is needed with a broad base, not the narrow focus on the building industry that the flawed ABCC would have.

A broad-based ICAC would have jurisdiction to address corruption in the building industry, but the ABCC would be completely blind to all other forms of corruption. That is why we need a Federal ICAC, not the ABCC.

And, as the Coalition corruption thread demonstrates, the Coalition are not inclined to address corruption more generally.

Its time wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 9:59am:

Bring it on  :)

https://i.imgflip.com/n0gny.jpg

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 9:58am:

The ABCC is desperately needed, as the RC into Union Corruption has found. Labor cannot keep its head in the sand on this.

Ee-gad, how would the government get to replace the entire senate if that happened?

great ... about time. Get rid of this pretend government who's sole purpose seem to be union bashing and keeping seats warm.

Unfortunately ,for us, we will now have to endure three plus months of a campaign.
I suspect Turnbull is dropping faster than The women basher did in the polls so is running off while he still can.
Newspoll predict a Coaltion win with just 78 seats, and they have given Joyce  New England in that lot, not a very stable government by any means.
If News poll only think the coaltion can pull 78 seats the Coaltion are in big shiiit.
Given there are ALWAYS UPSETS, Shorten may just pull off the most unlikely  win in history.

With a hung parliament looking likely from a DD, which mob is willing to dance the tune of the Greens and/or parties like NXP, so to lock in their support of supply?

Who will get in bed with the Greens?

____ wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 11:47am:

With a hung parliament looking likely from a DD, which mob is willing to dance the tune of the Greens and/or parties like NXP, so to lock in their support of supply? Who will get in bed with the Greens?

They will both suck up to the Greens. The Libs have already started.

skippy. wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 11:25am:

Newspoll predict a Coaltion win with just 78 seats, and they have given Joyce  New England in that lot, not a very stable government by any means.

To be fair, Newspoll has also got Palmer winning Fairfax.

Lets hope Greens have an National ICAC, within the term, as the hoop to jump through to get Greens guaranteeing supply.

Lets see which old party is serious about cleaning up corruption.

Bam wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 11:54am:

skippy. wrote on Mar 21st, 2016 at 11:25am: Newspoll predict a Coaltion win with just 78 seats, and they have given Joyce  New England in that lot, not a very stable government by any means. To be fair, Newspoll has also got Palmer winning Fairfax.

If he doesn't jump ship to the senate maybe he can win it. Queenslanders  are fundamentally dumbf... , remember they elected Joe for years.

Bam wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 10:20am:

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 21st, 2016 at 9:58am: The ABCC is desperately needed, as the RC into Union Corruption has found. Labor cannot keep its head in the sand on this. No. A Federal version of ICAC is needed with a broad base, not the narrow focus on the building industry that the flawed ABCC would have. A broad-based ICAC would have jurisdiction to address corruption in the building industry, but the ABCC would be completely blind to all other forms of corruption. That is why we need a Federal ICAC, not the ABCC. And, as the Coalition corruption thread demonstrates, the Coalition are not inclined to address corruption more generally.

Lazarus and greens seem to be the only ones behind any attempt to clean up corruption across the board , the Libs want the ABCC to manage what exactly ?newsflash  Nothing is happening under their watch

skippy. wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 11:25am:

Unfortunately ,for us, we will now have to endure three plus months of a campaign. I suspect Turnbull is dropping faster than The women basher did in the polls so is running off while he still can. Newspoll predict a Coaltion win with just 78 seats, and they have given Joyce  New England in that lot, not a very stable government by any means. If News poll only think the coaltion can pull 78 seats the Coaltion are in big shiiit. Given there are ALWAYS UPSETS, Shorten may just pull off the most unlikely  win in history.

Shorten is home and 10 million voters know copper Internet is the reason!

The global shame needs to end!

WE ARE GOING TO AN ELECTION ON COPPER INTERNET AND HOWARD IS GOING TO BE ASKED WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT IT  :D ;D :o ;) :) :)

____ wrote on Mar 21^st, 2016 at 11:56am:

Lets hope Greens have an National ICAC, within the term, as the hoop to jump through to get Greens guaranteeing supply. Lets see which old party is serious about cleaning up corruption.

[smiley=thumbup.gif] Good call - a Federal ICAC is a sound policy.

I don't expect it to be the Liberals though. The Coalition have a long list of people tainted by corruption in the past few years. It's so bad in the Liberal party that the former Federal Treasurer of the party (Higginson) wanted a forensic audit of the party's books, a request that was blocked by Abbott. Something to hide?

Tried to post an interesting graphic showing a pictorial display of seats held by various parties on a map of Australia but it didn't work. Here's the link, I hope... https://cartocdn-ashbu.global.ssl.fastly.net/eltoncane/api/v1/map/028197465c9937a827ebbd4859257301:1458183820639/0/4/15/7.png