You know it's not always a bad thing to be a fringe dweller.
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This was published 12 years ago
Politics wrap: December 4, 2013
Updated ,first published
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With the ceiling gone, it's time we went and found some sort of tarpaulin.
(Quite seriously, it looks like rain here in Canberra).
But before that, we did we learn on this parliamentary Wednesday?
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You know it's not always a bad thing to be a fringe dweller.
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On a concluding note, Manager of Opposition Business (not shadow treasurer) Tony Burke has given the official Labor response to the debt ceiling development.
"The level of the hypocrisy today from the government is well beyond where I thought they’d be," Burke says.
That and: "Joe Hockey had to deal with the humiliation of not even making the announcement himself."
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On that Labor unhappiness over the Greens deal, there is this tweet from Joanne Ryan, who now sits in Julia Gillard's old seat of Lalor.
(The Julia Gillard who negotiated with the Greens to form government.)
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Needless to say, despite the fact that Labor actually reached an agreement with the Greens to form government in 2010, it is not greeting the debt team up with open arms.
Victorian MP David Feeney has described it on the Twits as "a strange political alliance".
Perhaps anticipating some Labor blowback, Joe Hockey has just been in the House calling on Labor not to delay the passage of the legislation.
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As Gareth Hutchens reports, Treasurer Joe Hockey has written to Christine Milne, setting out the details of the agreement.
"We have agreed to repeal the current legislative limit on the total face value of stock and securities on issue set out in the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911," the letter says.
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The agreement this evening comes ahead of the looming December 12 deadline, when the current debt ceiling (of $300 billion) was due to be breached.
Many people are raising their eyebrows that the Greens have been able to reach a deal with the conservative side of politics.
But before the election, Milne said she would work with whoever was in government.
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Senator Milne says that her party has secured an agreement that whenever the government passes a threshold of a $50 billion increase in debt, it will have to make a statement to both houses of parliament, justifying the move.
This will then lead to a debt debate.
Better reporting of debt in the budget papers has also been agreed.
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Greens leader Christine Milne is speaking at the "boxes" in the middle of the press gallery.
A deal has been struck between the government and the Greens to get rid of the debt ceiling.
(Can you feel all that wind coming in?)
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