As the Italian senate was deciding to expel Berlusconi following his conviction for tax fraud, the man himself was addressing a rally of his supporters outside his home in Rome.
Updated at 1.38pm AEST Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 12.57pm AEST03 57 Australian politics live: Lunchtime summary Here is bento box of political morsels this lunchtime: The government has introduced the package of carbon tax repeal bills for the third time, ready for the senate change over next week.
Photograph: Mike Bowers Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 10.41am AEST01 41 There is a little bit more honest assessment by Liberal backbenchers of their own legislation in the senate this morning.
Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 10.53am AEST01 53 Immigration minister Scott Morrison is expected to have another crack at introducing temporary protection visas in the senate after Labor got rid of them in the last parliament.
Updated at 9.12am AEST Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 9.02am AEST00:02 Good morning people, With the senate in its last week before the changeover, Australian politics is setting a cracking pace this Monday morning.
Environment minister Greg Hunt has been out and about this morning on the ABC and on the doors at Parliament, "hoping and expecting but not presuming" the new senate will pass the carbon tax repeal bills, driving the final nail into the heart of Labor's emissions trading scheme.
In the senate on Wednesday, centre-left MPs from the Democratic party (PD) combined with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and others to approve the expulsion – to the obvious rage of Berlusconi loyalists.
As news of the expulsion came through, a group of anti-Berlusconi activists began celebrating outside the senate with spumante (sparkling wine) and chants calling for the former prime minister to be sent to prison.
There were 96 candidates on the Victorian senate ballot paper.
A masterplan to build a group of 10 towers with a "recommended" maximum height of 150 metres around Alexanderplatz was approved by the senate in 1993 but not acted on for more than 20 years.
Two years on, the US senate has just passed a bill to end the mass collection of phone records and the whistleblower says he is working harder than ever before.
