Government loses 'de facto confidence' vote as medevac bill passes – as it happened

Christian Porter says it is not a “technical” question, but one that is clearly laid out in the constitution.

He says if the House passes the bill, it will give the power to control finances to the Senate.

“Everything that we do here has a consequence,” he says.

Christian Porter is attempting to convince the House to vote the bill down.

He has warned against the “haste” in which the amendments were created.

“I will leave it in the hands of the House over how to proceed,” Tony Smith says.

The bill is up for debate in the House.

Tony Smith is making a statement on the constitutional circumstances of the bill.

Right. Stakes are RAISED.

In the last 10 minutes, we have reached de-facto vote of no confidence territory.

Why?

As Anne Twomey, one of the nation’s best constitutional experts, told Sky:

“... If the bill actually gets passed against the wishes of the government, that would be an indication that the government has lost control over the finances of the country.

“Now that is critical, in terms of confidence in loss of government.

“... Back in 1941, the Fadden government fell when its budget was reduced by one count. It just needs to be a nominal showing of the fact that the government has lost control of the finances.

“So on the one hand, raising this may cause the House to decide, well, in the circumstances, we won’t pass it in this form and so [doesn’t] proceed, on the other hand, if it fails on this point, it is actually putting itself in a more vulnerable position in regards to the issue of confidence.”

12 Feb 201900.52 EST

Paul Karp

To address one potential query – if the problem is that medical panel members would be paid, does the constitutional problem go away if they work for free?

Solicitor general Stephen Donaghue’s advice addresses the point by noting that the Remuneration Tribunal Act creates an obligation on the tribunal to determine the pay of people holding public office. Although the medevac bill itself doesn’t contain provisions about pay, it will cause an expense to be incurred.

The government could exclude panel members so that they aren’t paid, but Donaghue said he is “instructed that the government has no intention of making such regulations”.

It seems to make good the section 53 constitutional point, the government has said – yes, panel members will be paid.

And then