Australian House of Representatives 22 November 2021: on the subject of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's December 2019 family holiday in Hawaii during the Australian east coast bushfire crisis

Morrison rising to his feet in the House of Representatives at approx. 16:00 on 22.11.21 followed on from Anthony Albanese on his feet at 15:11 pic.twitter.com/cVnUXjwKz5

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) November 22, 2021

Quotes of the Week

 

“ Since the start of the 46th Parliament, there have been about 538 divisions in the lower house. Just 18 of those divisions have occurred to pass legislation. A staggering 233 have occurred to prevent Opposition MPs giving speeches. That means government MPs have voted more times to silence their political opponents than they have to make laws – by a factor of 13.”  [Labor MP for Watson Tony Burke, writing in The New Daily, 28 January 2021]

“ For those concerned about the cumulative impact of Fox News in America on the radicalisation of US politics, the same template is being followed with Sky News in Australia. We will see its full impact in a decade’s time…..At its core, it has delegitimised the twin pillars of the enlightenment: empirical fact and rational argument. The assault by Fox News on both as “fake news”, the culture that validates the world of “alternative facts” and the adulation of far-right “opinion” as somehow co-equal with (or superior to) scientifically established truths, all undermine the foundations of an informed citizenry in a functioning democracy. It also creates a political environment that is increasingly receptive to the world of fantasy, conspiracy, identity politics and extremist religious views no longer anchored in any common foundation of evidence and reason. The result is not just the creation of two warring political tribes based on different concepts of economic interests and social values, but two different conceptual worlds that can no longer communicate with each other because they no longer speak a common language. Murdoch’s Fox News has been central to this process of dividing the way in which Americans talk with each other for nearly 30 years. Most importantly, its net effect has been to delegitimise the democracy itself in the eyes of many Americans. It has created a radically divided country where the possibility of rational compromise has become progressively impossible between the warring tribes that Murdoch has sought successfully to create. This weakening of the American democracy, and the fracturing of the republic on which it rests, has dealt more damage to the global standing, influence and power of the United States than the combined efforts of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. Murdoch’s template for America, culminating in the political crisis of 6 January 2021. It’s a template which Murdoch has believed would maximise his personal, business and ideological interests – by demonising the agency of government; undermining essential government regulation; and most importantly by minimising corporate and personal tax. Trump achieved all three. It’s also Murdoch’s vision for Australia.”  [Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, excerpt from written submission to Australian Parliament, Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications, Inquiry into Media Diversity in Australia]

Make no mistake, the Morrison Government intends to set the Australian electoral system up for voter suppression if it can get Murdoch's backing & the numbers in parliament

 

On 29 July 2019 then Minister for Finance & Senator, Mathias Cormann, asked the Joint Standing Committee On Electoral Matters to inquire into and report on the conduct of the 2019 federal election and matters related thereto.

The Committee published an Interim Report in February 2020 and a Final Report on 10 December 2020 with only six sitting days remaining in the parliamentary year.

This is how the mainstream media and a number of concerned citizens see the final report…...

The Age, 10 December 2020:

Federal election rules would be overhauled to limit early voting and require Australians to show photo ID before they cast their ballots under a plan that has been labelled an “outrage” that deprives people of their rights.

A key parliamentary committee revealed the proposal on Thursday in a report that also backed the idea of increasing the number of federal politicians because electorates had grown so large.

The findings, from a Coalition majority on the committee led by Liberal National Party senator James McGrath, included a divisive suggestion to drop compulsory preferential voting in favour of optional preferential voting.

One Labor member of the committee, Queensland MP Milton Dick, said the report should be rejected because it would undermine the country’s compulsory voting system.

"The report that the government members of [the joint standing committee on electoral matters] have produced from the committee’s inquiry into the 2019 federal election is an outrage," he said.

“Instead of proposing considered, sensible electoral reform, the government has used this as just another opportunity to silence its critics, suppress the vote and stop unions and grass-roots campaigners from participating in our democracy."

Labor's spokesman on electoral matters, South Australian senator Don Farrell, said the report was a "window on to a very dark future" under the Morrison government…..

The report has 27 recommendations on voting rules, electronic voting, campaign finance, the size of Parliament and four-year terms…..

The report has 27 recommendations on voting rules, electronic voting, campaign finance, the size of Parliament and four-year terms.

More than 4 million voters cast their ballots early at the last federal election, taking advantage of Australian Electoral Commission booths that opened three weeks before polling day on May 18.

In their majority report, Senator McGrath and his Coalition colleagues call for the early voting period to be cut to two weeks and for AEC officials to ensure voters meet legislated rules on voting early, rather than doing so merely because they want to.

In a sign of frustration over the time taken to count votes on election day, the report raised the idea of sorting the envelopes from 4pm so the count could begin at 6pm.

It also suggested the AEC prepare a timeline for the introduction of an electronic certified roll before the next federal election, and called for changes to the law so voters would have to show photo ID, such as a driver's licence or passport, to vote.

The report suggested the 151-member House of Representatives should be expanded as the population grew in each electorate, but did not make this as a firm recommendation…..

In the same way, it asked the government to consider getting the committee to explore the need for non-fixed four-year terms.

The current Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 can be found here. It has been amended on 48 occasions since 2000.

Given that Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to take personal and political advice from unsavoury, unreliable and extremely far right ideological quarters, it is almost a given that he will latch onto those aspects in this report which are most dangerous to Australian democracy.

Tweets of the Week

 

#KoalaDayOfAction Knitting Nanna protest Grafton.#KillTheBillNotKoalas #KoalaKillBill #SaveOurKoalas pic.twitter.com/bQliQIsXhi

— LynetteEggins (@Lynette_Eggins) November 6, 2020

 

#BREAKING The Government has voted against Labor’s motion to hang the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in the parliament, right in the middle of #NAIDOC2020 pic.twitter.com/Q6Tsk9SEvb

— Linda Burney MP (@LindaBurneyMP) November 10, 2020

 

A mega petition is about to be considered by the Australian House of Representatives

 

The only direct means by which an individual or group can ask Australian parliaments to take action is by means of a written petition.

Australians have always had a right to petition parliament.

One of the most famous petitions would have to be the close to 30,000 signature petition presented to the Parliament of Victoria in September 1891 which asked that “Women should Vote on Equal terms with Men”. This petition played a part in Federation which in 1901 gave women the national right to vote and stand for parliament.

Another petition which isn’t always remembered is the February 2014 Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s petition asking federal parliament “to take whatever action is needed to ensure that community pharmacy receives the funding support it needs to stay in business, serve patients, employ staff and remain open after hours”, which had 1,210,471 signatures.

In 2016 the Australian Parliament introduced the e-petition alternative to paper petitions.

Until recently these e-petitions have contained signature numbers ranging from single figure to 4 figure totals.

However the following e-petition appears to have struck a national chord and its signatures are in the hundreds of thousands……..

Petition EN1938 - Royal Commission to ensure a strong, diverse Australian news media

Petition Reason

Our democracy depends on diverse sources of reliable, accurate and independent news. But media ownership is becoming more concentrated alongside new business models that encourage deliberately polarising and politically manipulated news. We are especially concerned that Australia’s print media is overwhelmingly controlled by News Corporation, founded by Fox News billionaire Rupert Murdoch, with around two-thirds of daily newspaper readership. This power is routinely used to attack opponents in business and politics by blending editorial opinion with news reporting. Australians who hold contrary views have felt intimidated into silence. These facts chill free speech and undermine public debate. Powerful monopolies are also emerging online, including Facebook and Google. We are deeply concerned by: mass-sackings of news journalists; digital platforms impacting on media diversity and viability; Nine Entertainment's takeover of the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald; News Corp’s acquisition (and then closure) of more than 200 smaller newspapers, undermining regional and local news; attempts to replace AAP Newswire with News Corp’s alternative; and relentless attacks on the ABC’s independence and funding. Professional journalists further have legitimate concerns around unjust searches, potential prosecution, whistle-blower protection, official secrecy and dispute resolution that should be comprehensively addressed. Only a Royal Commission would have the powers and independence to investigate threats to media diversity, and recommend policies to ensure optimal diversity across all platforms to help guarantee our nation’s democratic future.

Petition Request

We therefore ask the House to support the establishment of such a Royal Commission to ensure the strength and diversity of Australian news media.

Number of signatures: 501876 [as at 11:59pm AEDT, 4 November 2020]

Closing date for signatures: 04 November 2020 (11.59pm AEST)

The petition will now be presented to the House of Representatives where MPs already cowed by media monopolies may or may not decide to refer it to a Morrison Government minister who, in his or her turn, will in all likelihood take up to 90 days to boot it into political oblivion - in a show of support for News Ltd/NewsCorp and the Murdoch family who have been political donors to the Liberal Party since at least 1998.

Scott Morrison decides to cancel Australian Parliament sittings until 4 August 2020

In November 2017 then Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Wentworth Malcolm Bligh Turnbull cancelled House of Representatives sittings for thirteen days after his government lost its majority in the lower house.

Right from the start the politician who knifed him in the back to get his job decided to go further.

Image found on Twitter

Current Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott John Morrison (left) began and continues his prime ministership in almost constant electioneering rather than governing the country and, now goes even further by suspending the entire Australian Parliament at every opportunity.

The latest cancellation was announced on 18 July 2020.

From 24 August 2018 when he took office to 31 December that year federal parliament sat for 33 out of 129 days (including budget estimates sittings), in 2019 in sat for 61 out of 365 days (including budget estimates sittings) and to date in 2020 the Australian Parliament has sat for 28 out of 205 days and will not return to Canberra until 4 August 2020.

The reason given by Morrison for the low number of sitting days in 2020 is the risk of COVID-19 infection for members of parliament and staff.

He remains firm in protecting himself from infection at the same time that he is constantly urging others to return to school, return to the workplace, open up their businesses and states to keep their borders open.

The double standard he displays has been noticed and now added to the forty-two derogatory nicknames he has already accquired on social media is added another one - #JobShirker.

The fact that Morrison enjoys frequent unannounced holidays only reinforces the new choice in nicknames.

Tweet of the Week

Speaker Tony Smith shows he's got no time for parlour games during #qt, on the final parliamentary session for the fortnight @abcnews #auspol pic.twitter.com/K2lU8IvcX9

— ABC Politics (@politicsabc) June 18, 2020

Parliamentary oversight of the the Australian Government ceased on 23 March 2020

At 19:07pm on the 23 March 2020 the House of Representatives divided for a vote changing the House sittings schedule for 2020.

The vote was 48 Ayes to 37 Noes. [Hansard, 23 March 2020, p.85]

This change left Australia with no sitting federal parliament from day's end on 23 March until 11 August 2020.

The vote to end parliamentary oversight of government went thus:

Image: @LeVoyageurOz

The Greens and Labor lost this vote.

Scott Morrison and his hard right allies, including the Institute of Public Affairs, cannot fail to be pleased with this extension of unfettered political power.

“The reason the opposition believes that we shouldn't make that decision today is that, as everyone is acknowledging, we don't know where we will be in May or June, and the presumption should be that the parliament will sit. The presumption should be that we will meet if it is possible for us to sit, because, during this period, during a time of crisis, is when the Australian public needs us to sit. I will be more than surprised if we can go from now until August and find that the legislation we put through the parliament today is all the nation needs for Australia to handle this pandemic, all the nation needs to deal with the crisis of unemployment and recession that we'll be facing. That means we will need to sit, so we shouldn't pretend that we won't. It also means during this period the government will be compelled in the interests of the nation to make some decisions of great magnitude. That will happen. We know that will happen; that's part of the story behind the supply bills that have just passed. To have decisions of that magnitude being made without the parliament convening and without there being a question time and an opportunity for people representing the different corners of Australia to hold the government to account is an unwise course for us to take.” [Tony Burke, MP for Watson & Manager of Opposition Business, in House of Representatives Hansard, 23 March 2020]

Federal Parliament suspends inquiry into migration in regional Australia until later in 2020

The Joint Standing Committee on Migration has decided to suspend its inquiry into migration in regional Australia, in light of the economic effects of the public health situation changing the nature of the needs of communities in regional Australia.

“Given the fast evolving situation in Australia and around the world, and the challenges posed by COVID-19, the Committee felt it best to suspend its inquiry,” Mr Julian Leeser MP, Committee Chair said. “The Committee was unanimous in this decision, which it does not take lightly.”

“The Committee will reconsider the matter later in 2020 but would like to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to the inquiry so far. Your input and dedication to supporting and developing Australia’s regions is greatly appreciated.”

Any questions about the suspension of the inquiry should be directed to migration@aph.gov.au.

Tweet of the Week

#indivotes #auspol #covid19au https://t.co/3pJlFrPN5S

— jansant (@Jansant) March 25, 2020

NSW Police investigating Australian Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction & Liberal MP for Hume Angus Talyor's use of an apparently fraudulent document

SBS News, 26 November 2019:

NSW POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING A FRAUDULENT DOCUMENT USED BY ANGUS TAYLOR'S OFFICE TO CRITICISE CLOVER MOORE

NSW Police has opened an investigation into an apparently fraudulent document used by federal energy minister Angus Taylor to attack Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore over her council's travel expenditure.

A spokesperson for the Lord Mayor confirmed that "the Office of the Lord Mayor has been contacted by NSW Police regarding its investigation into falsified City documents used to inform Minister Taylor's correspondence with the Lord Mayor. The City will fully cooperate with the police investigation."

NSW Police confirmed that an investigation is underway, telling SBS that "the NSW Police Force is in the early stages of investigating information into the reported creation of fraudulent documentation."

"Detectives from the State Crime Command's Financial Crimes Squad have launched Strike Force Garrad to investigate the matters and determine if any criminal offences have been committed. As investigations are ongoing, no further information is available."

Controversy over the document in question began in September when the Daily Telegraph reported that the City of Sydney Council spent more on domestic and international flights than Australia's foreign ministers.

The story quoted from a letter sent by Mr Taylor to Clover Moore, which claimed that the City of Sydney's 2017-18 annual report "shows your council spent $1.7m on international travel and $14.2m on domestic travel".

These figures differed significantly from the council's publicly available annual report, which reported spending of $4,206.32 on domestic travel and $1,727.77 on international travel.

In emails to Ms Moore's office obtained by The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph said the figures in its story were drawn from a copy of the City of Sydney's annual report provided to the newspaper by Mr Taylor's office.

In Parliament, Mr Taylor has repeatedly claimed that the document in question was "drawn directly from the City of Sydney's website" and was "publicly available".

The City of Sydney says that the documents on its website have not been altered since they were uploaded in 2018.

Mr Taylor has since refused to answer questions about the document......

Burke on why facts matter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0bXuv1Amck&feature=youtu.be

Climate Change in 2019: Want to speak truth to power in Australia? Here's how.....

The Canberra Times, 30 September 2019:

A record number of Australians have signed an online petition calling on the federal government to declare a climate emergency.

As of Monday afternoon, the e-petition had more than 160,000 signatures, after gaining traction on social media.

It's the highest number of signatures for an online petition to parliament.

"The overwhelming majority of climate scientists around the world have concluded that the climate is changing at unprecedented rates due to anthropogenic causes," it says.

"The result of these changes will be catastrophic for future generations and so we must act now to minimise both human and environmental destruction.

"We therefore ask the House to immediately act and declare a climate emergency in Australia. And introduce legislation that will with immediacy and haste reduce the causes of anthropogenic climate change."

Australians have until October 16 to sign the climate emergency e-petition, when its four-week time limit expires....

Petition can be accessed at https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1041.

By 5:36pm on 1 October 2019 the number of signatures attached to this petition stood at 176,082.

At that particular time the estimated Australian population was 25,476,409 men, women and children and the number of those registered to voter stood at est. 16,424,248 citizens 18 years of age and older.

To place the signatures figure into perspective; it was equivalent to 1.07 per cent of all registered voters and 0.69 per cent of the current estimated Australian population.

Another 0.31 per cent signing before one minute to midnight on 16 October would see this petition to the Australian Parliament equate to 1 per cent of the total population.

Have you signed yet?

Speaking truth about “the rightness of whiteness”

The Guardian, 3 April 2019:

https://youtu.be/eoTULlxgxak

The Labor senator and Yawuru man Pat Dodson spoke about the links between Australia’s massacre history and the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, while addressing the censure motion against Fraser Anning in the Senate.

The motion condemned Anning for his “inflammatory and divisive comments seeking to attribute blame to victims of a horrific crime and to vilify people on the basis of religion, which do not reflect the opinions of the Australian Senate or the Australian people.”

Dodson said Indigenous people carry the consequence of murderous prejudice “throughout our entwined history”.

 “First Nations’ peoples … know the impacts of murder wilfully carried out and morally justified by hatred of minorities, misplaced power and bullying superiority,” Dodson said.

“In Gurindji country, they talk of the Killing Times.

“Mounted Constable Willshire was stationed at Victoria River Downs in the 1890s. He was a mass murderer in uniform, who took it upon himself to protect the interests of cattlemen by dispersing the traditional owners of the lands at gunpoint.

“He took to print, justifying his actions with boastful pride and emboldened by the rightness of whiteness and condemned the First Nations’ people to death.

“Willshire wrote about the killing on Wave Hill: ‘It’s no use mincing matters. The Martini-Henry carbines at the critical moment were talking English in the silent majesty of these eternal rocks.’”

Dodson said he has walked through some of the sites of mass murder in Australia with descendants of the victims and “sometimes too with the descendants of murderers.”

“In South Australia I visited a monument erected by both sides in the small community of Elliston to commemorate the mass murder of men, women and children pushed over the steep sea cliffs by charging horsemen and barking dogs.

“I have visited the sites of massacres, of mass murders in Balgo, in Forrest River, and at Coniston. Those mass murders took place in living memory.

“I have sat down with old Warlpiri men and women who luckily survived those murderous attacks as young babies, hidden from the attacks.

“1928 was not that long ago. My mother was just seven years old.

“But we are in 2019 now and a mass murderer, rejecting the richness of difference, driven by religious hatred and xenophobia, empowered by military-style weapons, has waged his atrocity in Christchurch,” Dodson said.

“The murder of 50 innocent people does not just happen. It arises from the feeding of hate, irresponsible language and the demonising of people of colour, and difference.

“We know, and senator Anning knows, the real cause of the bloodshed in Christchurch. The real cause was prejudice, hate, and a passion for violent action, aided and abetted by the availability of military-style weapons.

“We call out those who exploit fear and ignorance for political gain: who mock the traditional dress of women of another culture; who seek donations from the manufacturers of weapons of war to override our own laws; who argue that it is “alright to be white”.

“Their values would plunge our country back into the Killing Times.

“We should instead turn our face to the light of a new future, a peaceful, non-violent, tolerant country of hope, respect and unity.

“A country where no innocent man, women or child is ever again the victim of mass murder.”

Twitter declares Queensland Senator Fraser Anning's account violated "hateful conduct" policy

Twitter Rules and policies 2019:

Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.

Brisbane-based former One Nation candidate, sixty-nine year-old Fraser Anning. was Declared elected 10.11.2017 as a Senator for Queensland by the High Court of Australia, vice M Roberts (disqualified under section 44 (i) of the Constitution).

In the following sixteen months he:

* was kicked out of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation;

* notoriously used the phrase The final solution to the immigration problem in his first speech in the Senate;

* was subsequently dumped by Katter’s Australia Party;

* declared himself an Independent senator;

* billed the taxpayer for travel expenses when he attended a fascist rally in Victoria;

* voted with Morrison Government senators to pass a One Nation motion that endorsed the white *supremacist term It is OK to be white;

* applied to register Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party (aka The Conservative Nationals);

* was publicly condemned by the New Zealand Prime Minister for a statement he issued after the terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques;  

* punched a teenager twice in the face;

* was the subject of an online petition calling for his removal from the Australian Parliament which has over 1 million signatures; and

* is the subject of a foreshadowed parliamentary censure motion by both the Morrison Government and the Labor Opposition on 1 April 2019.

Minor parties mix it up over mobile phone after miner’s parliamentary dinner

News.com.au - Senator Brian Burston (right) and One Nation adviser James Ashby. 
Picture: The AustralianSource:Supplied

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) senior staffer and United Australia Party (UAP formerly PUP) senator were involved in an altercation near the Great Hall of Parliament House after a Minerals Council of Australia Parliamentary Dinner on the evening of 12 February 2019.

The senator was formerly a member of PHON who split from Pauline Hanson in 2018.

This is not the first time PHON CoS James Ashby has been involved in an incident where his anger has boiled over –  in 2012 he allegedly batted a personal mobile phone from the hand of a journalist into long grass, in 2016 it was alleged that he threw a mobile phone at then PHON MP Ross Culleton’s staffer and in 2017 was accused of “bullying” and “threatening” a member of former PHON candidate Senator Fraser Anning’s staff.

If one looks closely at the political history of the main characters, it would appear that this latest incident was a far-right grudge match involving current and former One Nation politicians and staff.

These are the current claims and counter-claims less than 14 weeks out from the federal election………………

The New Daily, 13 February 2019:

Pauline Hanson has denied sexually harassing Senator Brian Burston after a bloody scuffle in the corridors of Parliament on Wednesday night involving her chief of staff James Ashby. 

Declaring that she “might be 64, but I am not that desperate”, Senator Hanson emphatically denied the ugly claims that led to a physical clash between her former colleague and her current chief of staff.

The bizarre altercation, which was filmed by Mr Ashby, left the 70-year-old Senator Burston allegedly bleeding from cuts to his hand and prompted security to be notified of the clash just outside the Great Hall of Parliament. 

“My hand was injured when Ashby put his phone in the face of my wife and I defended her, fearing for her safety,” Senator Burston told The New Daily. 

“I injured my hand in trying to get the phone off her. [Mr Ashby] ambushed me after attending the Minerals Council dinner where he sat at the same table. Obviously a set up,” he said.

Photos of Brian Burston’s injured hand - he alleges James Ashby caused it. Ashby says footage and witnesses will better explain what happened. Our story on all the tension today leading up to tonight’s fight: https://t.co/KiWpgfZIfD pic.twitter.com/2owetLMy3R

— Max Koslowski (@MaxKoslowski) February 13, 2019

The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 February 2019:

Senator Brian Burston has denied offering to "f---" a staff member to make her feel better, as a bitter dispute erupts on the crossbench over a series of bombshell sexual harassment allegations. 

Rejecting the allegation contained in a lengthy complaint sent to the Department of Finance last year and seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Wednesday, the United Australia Party senator launched his own attack on Pauline Hanson, claiming the One Nation leader had twice sexually harassed him.

Senator Hanson denied the allegation on Wednesday night during a rushed appearance on Sky News: "A lot of men have tickets on themselves and Brian Burston, don't go out in Canberra, it's very windy tonight.

"I might be 64 but I'm not that desperate. These are allegations that have been made up, there are no truth to them whatsoever and I feel sorry for his wife, I really feel sorry for his wife."

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 February 2019:

Scott Ryan, the President of the Senate, said he had already talked to his lower house counterpart, Speaker Tony Smith, and would be looking into the spat as more information emerged.

"I've been in discussion with the Speaker this morning and those discussions continue," Senator Ryan said. "We will be looking at this matter as a matter of urgency."

"We both regard this as a grave matter," he said. "At this stage I have received no formal information."

Senator Burston said he did not recall smearing two red marks - which Senator Hanson says is blood - on his rival's office door on Wednesday evening.

"Ashby probably did it himself - I've got no idea," he said. "I don't recall how I got back from [Parliament House cafe] Aussie's to here [his office]."

In a statement, Senator Burston's office said he had referred the matter to police.

"Brian Burston has reported the full matter to the Australian Federal Police and has commenced legal proceedings against James Ashby seeking a restraining order over repeated acts of harassment and aggression of which the Senator has ample evidence."

"Senator Burston absolutely denies all allegations and will be defending them strenuously."

The senator has promised to defend himself with planned remarks in the Senate on Thursday. Under parliamentary privilege laws, a Member of Parliament can make otherwise defamatory comments in the chamber without fear of legal action.

BREAKING: Senate president Scott Ryan has revoked James Ashby's pass to the Parliament #auspol

— Brett Worthington (@BWorthington_) February 14, 2019

The Guardian, 14 February 2019:

President of the Senate Scott Ryan on why he revoked James Ashby’s pass:

“Senators must be free to go about their work in this building, this privilege and protection is not limited to simple proceedings in the chamber. Passholders are granted access to the building on certain conditions on behaviour, amongst others, these conditions are in place to protect all occupants and facilitate the work of members and senators.

The video footage that I have reviewed records the reported incident between Senator Burston and Mr James Ashby last night it shows inappropriate by a passholder towards a senator. Accordingly I have exercised my authority to revoke Mr James Ashby’s pass to access the building and prohibit him from entering the building for the time being. This does not affect his employment which is not a matter for the presiding officers … This does not prejudice any other legal or other proceedings that may be undertaken or initiated by the parties involved. Given the seriousness of the incident and evidence immediately available to me I believe immediate action is necessary and warranted. If further information comes to my attention this decision can be revisited and any subsequent legal action can be taken into account.”

Brian Burston on blood on the door:

“Whilst I do not recall the incident of blood on the door I now have come to the conclusion that it was myself and I sincerely apologise for that action.”

With brawling breaking out in the corridors of Parliament House the May 2019 federal election can't come soon enough.