Australia Institute Live: Future Made in Australia to move through the senate. As it happened

The senate divided to vote on Labor’s motion to change the sitting hours so it can bring on the Future Made in Australia production tax credits (after a deal with the Greens) debate and vote. Independent senators Fatima Payman, Tammy Tyrrell and Lidia Thorpe were voting there with the Greens, so you can probably guess how the vote is going.

So that is a win for both Labor and the Greens is incoming.

We will cover off the ripples from that tomorrow when we return, but for now, we are going to put the blog to sleep – we have a very big week ahead of us, so please make sure you take some time to switch off between now and when we are back early on Tuesday morning.

It’s party room meeting time, so a slightly slower start to the parliament sitting – but we will be back with you sometime after 7am. Until then, take care of you. Amy x

So the big issue here is that the Coalition have been blindsided by Labor sewing up a deal with the Greens on the Future Made in Australia production tax credits, and is lashing out. The Coalition had plans to send the bill to committee and tie it up until after the election, but the Greens, independents and Labor have obviously come together on an agreement to pass the bill.

That most likely means that fossil fuel mining companies have been shut out of the fund.

Michaelia Cash is very upset that the Greens and the Labor government having done a “dirty deal” on a bill “that will have a direct impact on the mining industry”.

The impact being – if you are in fossil fuel mining you probably won’t be getting any production tax credits from the future made in Australia funds, but Cash says this is about the Greens getting “cabinet positions” in a minority Labor government, which is frankly hilarious.

This is a flashback to when there were reports that former Greens leader Richard di Natale was to get a cabinet position in the 2019 Shorten minority government.

I know that the ACT Greens and Labor parties are in a coalition, but COME ON.

“Do you actual care how much the average Australian pays in their prices?!” something has broken in Cash’s brain as she argues against the hour motion here, and frankly, it is the boost we all need.

Katy Gallagher stands up to say as “extraordinary as that presentation was, bordering on the delusional” she thinks it would be “beneficial for the chamber to move on”.

The senate is still debating whether or not to move ahead with the hours motion (which changes the hours the senate sits – a punishment that does not often fit the crime.)

Labor wants to debate both future made in Australia (the production tax credits) and the defence service homes amendment (more homes for defence workers) but the Coalition only wants to support one (GUESS) and is trying to split the motion.

This is all a very big time wasting exercise it seems, because Labor looks to have the numbers to move forward with their plan (the Greens are on board and so too, it looks like, are enough independents) but that doesn’t meant the Coalition won’t make their point by trying to delay it all.

Penny Wong is in the senate moving a motion to have the senate hours changed – to sit longer.

Why? To bring on the Future Made in Australia legislation. The Greens are voting for the change in hours motion, which can only mean that a deal has been done, because a) the government wouldn’t want to bring on legislation like this if it didn’t have the numbers and b) the Greens wouldn’t be voting to have the legislation brought on if it wasn’t going to vote for it.

The Greens wanted fossil fuel mining subsidies completely out of the future made in Australia funding and tax credits….so looks like that has been sewn up.

Unless you are directly involved, it can be easy to let it slip your mind that there are still thousands of people looking for pathway to citizenship.

Graham Perrett continues:

The Coalition held a Royal Commission into the home insulation program following the deaths of four young workers: so I’m placing you all on notice right now – if you let politicians determine private health matters, kids will die.

The young trans community needs kindness, courage and champions working for them right here under the big flag, because this building belongs to all Australians.

Good people don’t ever let bullies win elections via targeting the vulnerable.“

Graham Perrett is finishing his speech with a defence of transpeople and warns against politicians interfering in private health matters:

I especially want to mention the parliamentary friends of LGBTIQ, a plus group that I helped form with Warren Entsch a long time ago, and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. I know it’s in good hands, but with my good friend and comrade, Louise Pratt and Warren leaving soon I concerned that the 48th Parliament might not be ready for the US style attacks directed at the trans community.

In Queensland, in fact, some might say those attacks already here.

Bullies and fascists always seek small groups to target. They are not alone in seeking out the trans community in this way, trying to turn real people into the other.

Remember that Jesus Christ is no weather vane. He loves all people, always, not some people, sometimes.

He loves they and them and even you. And perhaps, if some politicians have become obsessed with how kids go to the loo, maybe it’s time to leave the cult and go see a therapist.

Dehumanising humans due to differences, is a pathway to hell.

Moreton MP Graham Perrett is delivering his valedictory speech, where he reminds people that the greatest nation on earth, Queensland, is bigger than 183 countries.

“We’re also weirder than 183 other countries,” he says.

He’s allowed to say it. He’s a Queenslander. (It’s like when George Harrison (the best Beatle) would yell at people who rubbished Paul McCartney in front of him after the Beatles broke up – George could rubbish Paul, but no one else could.)

Perrett:

The first black feet ever to set foot on this continent did so in Queensland about 5000 generations ago, the first white foot to a Dutch sailor, Wilhelm Jensen in 1606 up near Weiper in far north Queensland. And Queensland is where Lieutenant– Lieutenant James Cook first raised his flag to claim present day Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania for the British Crown, we were nearly 60 years ahead of Fremantle and Hindmarsh claiming Western Australia and South Australia respectively.

My point is that Queensland is different.

We know how to lead the way, like we did with Eddie Mabo, a native title. Adversity helps us bend towards a greater truth. And despite the recent referendum result, I know that our Constitution, this little document, will eventually include our First Nations, people, our country needs the truth writ large, rather than lies writ small.

Just remember, a British act of parliament was passed by white men – British white men with beards in Westminster one day, soon, our constitution will be amended by the modern men and women of Australia.

Question time ends and Peter Dutton feels the need to correct some of what Labor has been saying about his time as health minister.

The chamber moves on.

Aged care and sport minister Anika Wells manages to get in a Kendrick Lamar reference into the Hansard, and not just that, but his diss track against Drake, which won him as many Grammy’s as Drake has won in his entire career (and had the entire Grammy’s crowd shouting A MINOR which…was a moment.

The coalition’s big, secretly costed policy is allowing companies to take potential clients out to taxpayer funded lunches and entertainment. So the news for Elizabeth [the person in her answer who enrolled in fee-free TAFE] is, under a Coalition government, she wouldn’t get a pay rise or tax cuts or affordable higher education.

She wouldn’t get help to care for her bonus grandfathers and grandmothers. But according to the Coalition’s publicly defined parameters of their own policy, business, could spend up to $20,000 of Elizabeth’s own taxpayer funds to attend something like for example, the Super Bowl, to lather themselves in Buffalo wings and baby back ribs, nodding along to Kendrick Lamar, all subsidised by the Australian taxpayer.

This is just another reason why those opposite are not like us. They’re not like us.

Hmmmm, not sure Peter Dutton is a fan.

Independent MP Sophie Scamps has a question about her wellbeing for future generations bill (which needs government support to go anywhere)

“For the first time in modern history, our young people will be worse off than their parents. They face converging crises of climate, environment, housing, mental ill health and so much more. It’s clear our short term, siloed thinking is failing us. Today, I introduced the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill. Prime Minister, will you consider adopting my bill, which requires a long term lens and the Wellbeing of Future Generations to be considered in all government and public policy decision making? And if not, why not?”

Albanese does not agree to support the bill, but says he will look at the ‘ideas’. He doesn’t poopoo the idea because it turns out you need the youth vote when the linear nature of time means that millennials (who are now parents) and Gen Z suddenly have strong voting power.

The important part of his answer:

I thank the member for Mackellar for her question and for her advocacy, and I certainly commit to having a look at the ideas that have been put forward by the member for Mackellar, who plays a constructive role in this chamber.

I certainly agree and have spoken about, including in the speech that I gave at the National Press Club about the question of intergenerational inequity, because it is a genuine feeling that people have arising out of the changed circumstances which are there facing young Australians.

Young Australians are very concerned about not just their economic position and the fast changing nature of workplaces and their experiences in life, but also about dealing with the challenge of climate change and the fact that people who say, ‘oh well, you can’t make a difference immediately’ forget the fact that generations that will inherit our climate are not ones that have benefited from the growth that came from fossil fuels in the in the 20th century and 21st century.

You would think the logical thing to do then would be to STOP fossil fuels, but no. Nope, that’s not on the agenda. Yet. Eventually, politicians won’t have a choice, but the question is how much extra damage will they have caused in that time?

Someone has helped Anthony Albanese deliver the cost of living lines (or maybe repetition finally can claim a win here) as he deploys the talking points Labor want in this coming election against the Liberal MP for Menzies, Keith Wolahan.

Now the question for the member for Menzies is, is he against that additional hospital funding? Is he against the additional education funding? Because the member for Menzies, when I was in hiselectorate, or what will be his electorate that he’s running for at the next election, just a short while ago, where the Leader of the Opposition was advocating his newfound love of China and all things that are connected with China for Lunar New Year, they were up there talking about getting back on track. Now every Australian will know what that means, back to rising inflation, back to wages deliberately low, back to aged care in crisis, back to bulk billling being in free fall, back to childcare being out of reach, back to chasing manufacturing offshore, back to veterans waiting years for benefits, back to chaos and multiple ministries.

That’s what they presided over. Keep that in mind next time you hear someone talk about back on track.

That may actually be the most succinctly Albanese has delivered those lines in at least the last six months.

Jim Chalmers has been charged with establishing the Albanese government’s economic record in the mind of voters, while also telling people the Coalition want to cut.

That’s the point of this dixer and while we tend to ignore dixers (because they are press releases) this sums up what he will be saying throughout the election:

That side of the house is focused on cuts and conflict and culture wars. After three years of opposition, those opposite still don’t have any costed or coherent or credible economic policies.

All they have is secret costs and secret cuts, which will make people worse off.

And the reason they will make people worse off on that side of the house is that they can’t find 10 billion a year for free long lunches, or they can’t find the three $50 billion in cuts they say they want to impose. They can’t find the 600 billion they need for this nuclear fantasy without going after Medicare again, without going after pension indexation, without going after housing and without going after wages. And so the choice at the election is going to be really, really clear, that coalition of cuts and conflict and culture wars making Australians worse off and taking Australia backwards or this prime minister and his Labor government, getting on top of this inflation challenge, rolling out the cost of living, help making making things better for people when it comes to the tax cuts and energy bill relief and building Australia’s future.

Mark Dreyfus has just over 30 seconds left in this answer and he uses it to say:

I’m the son and the grandson of of a Holocaust survivor. I went to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a place where a million Jews were murdered, a place where my great grandmother was murdered on the 13th of October 1942 and I say to members of this house that we’ve had a wave of anti-Semitism in this country right now. What we need is unity. We need bipartisanship, and that’s the effort that our government made.

Michael Sukkar continues to argue for a withdrawal of the comments ‘that the opposition has politicised anti-Semitism’.

Firstly, you’ve requested that the Attorney General withdraw, which I think is the right course of action. So the speaker has made that request. Secondly, the question was in relation to mandatory minimum sentencing. There was no invective in the question targeted the attorney general. We don’t and so, no, no, the Prime Minister somehow said that the Attorney General was goaded into his unparliamentary remarks. That’s not an excuse anybody, quite frankly, it’s clear cut here that there are, there are few more disgusting accusations that could be made in this house. You’ve requested that the Attorney General withdraw and he should.

He makes it clear that he wants the accusation the opposition has politicised anti-Semitism withdrawn.

Tony Burke says history aside, the opposition didn’t ask for it at the time and instead moved for Mark Dreyfus to not be heard.

Milton Dick wants everyone to move on and says Dreyfus needs to stay within the parliamentary rules, but Peter Dutton wants MORE – he wants the withdrawal.

Zali Steggall tries to bring some reason back to the house:

If that is considered unparliamentary or grounds for withdrawal or refusal, it would mean any area of policy where there is disagreement becomes something that is objectionable because it is essentially being politicised. And so I am concerned at the way in which this is positioned, because it’s the same as the nature of a policy being racist or anything like that. These are policy differences. That is the very nature of this place.

Sukkar tries one more time, but Dick says enough and goes back to his ruling that Dreyfus stick to the parliamentary rules and not be unparliamentary. He does not tell him to withdraw the comment the opposition was politicising anti-Semitism.

The division ends in the government favour (because of course it does, that is how the house in a majority government works) but the opposition is happy with having disrupted that answer from Mark Dreyfus.

Dreyfus goes to continue, but Michael Sukkar then jumps up again:

“I request that the Attorney General withdraw his highly disorderly and unparliamentary remarks. These are offensive remarks. There’s nothing more serious than the opposition being accused of politicising an issue like this. He also, he also added the word, he added the word ‘disgusting’ on at least half a dozen occasions, all right, at least half a dozen just to speak with this. So we ask he withdraw. Withdraw!”

Anthony Albanese gets to his feet:

“The decision by the opposition to try to shut down to shut down the Minister, given the statements that have been made by many members of the opposition about a range of people on this side of the house, the idea that the minister should withdraw a statement is, quite frankly, totally inconsistent with things that have been said by those opposite over a considerable period of time, the Minister, the Minister due to who he is, who he is*, the idea that he is not a strong opponent of anti-Semitism, he is someone who feels this very personally and deeply, he was being interjected against by those opposite in behavior that I regard as completely disorderly and completely unacceptable.“

*Mark Dreyfus is the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors. Three of his four great-grandparents were killed during the Holocaust.

Ahhhh, you can always count on Sussan Ley to take an actual issue deserving of further inspection and then take it to the lowest dominator possible. She does it here with this question:

In October 2019 the now Attorney General said in this place, and I quote, ‘Labor’s opposition to mandatory sentencing is well known. It is no secret. It is spelled out in our national platform. Let me be clear, we do not support mandatory sentencing’ with this in mind, and having been steamrolled by the Prime Minister on a bill that passed the House last week, can the Attorney General please detail the benefits of mandatory sentencing, which he now strongly supports?

Now Labor amending the hate speech law to include minimum mandatory sentencing, which goes against the Labor platform and takes away powers from the courts and the use of discretion for those who have the facts of a case, is an issue deserving of more attention. But like this? Cheap political points cheapen politics.

Mark Dreyfus starts by taking some political shots of his own, before moving on:

The Liberals are still baying and shouting and talking while this government acts on anti-Semitism. We have legislated to ban the Nazi salute and hate symbols. We have legislated to criminalise the glorifying of terrorist acts and possessing violent extremist material. We’ve legislated to criminalise doxing. Those opposite voted against that, and now the parliament has come together to pass a bill which criminalises hate speech.

It’s legislation that represents the toughest laws Australia has ever had against hate crimes. The legislation is a direct response to the hateful conduct happening on our streets, at our schools and our in our communities. We’re sending a clear and unambiguous message that advocating or threatening violence is not acceptable. It is criminal behavior order, and it will be treated as such.

We want all Australians to feel safe and valued in our community, and that’s what good governments do.

(Getting ahead of a point of order on relevance, Dreyfus is asked to stay relevant and so moves on to this part of his speech)

In the past few months, I’ve stood in the shadow of the main gate at the Auschwitz death camp. I’ve stood on the field where a music festival in Israel was turned into a blood bath, and I’ve stood in the ruins of a burnt out synagogue in my hometown, but those often opposite, have taken every opportunity since the 7th of October 2023 to politicize the trauma and the experiences of the Jewish people.

What a I do not need the leader of the opposition or any of those opposite to tell me what anti-Semitism is or how seriously I should take it.

Michael Sukkar then moves that Dreyfus ‘no longer be heard’ which is another political move to shut down speech.

It won’t work, as the government has the numbers in the house, but it cuts the momentum of the speech and also cuts any potential grabs the 6 o’clock news would have used this evening.

The Liberal MP for Longman, Terry Young has a question for Anthony Albanese:

Prime Minister, Australians are currently enduring a crippling cost of living crisis that also includes both a housing and power bill crisis. Now they’re facing collapse in bulk billing. Can the Prime Minister confirm the rate of bulk billing has declined from 88 per cent under the coalition to 77% today under Labor?

Albanese sends this one to Mark Butler who is DELIGHTED to take it.

Indeed, Mr. Speaker, the 88% figure the member for Longman, very unwisely, took from his tactics committee was described by the Royal College of GPs as a misleading and highly skewed figure, a misleading and highly skewed figure.

I understand why the leader of the opposition would use it, but why would the member for Longman take a sucker punch like that, Mr. Speaker? Why, when I thought the member for Longman was smarter than that? And the reason why the Royal College of GPs said this was misleading and highly skewed is that it took into account all of those COVID vaccination and other services that were required to be bulk billing, bulk bill to be delivered. The actual story of bulk billing in the last decade is a story first penned by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Health Minister, when he said that there were too many free Medicare services, too many free Medicare services, echoing the view of his mentor, right, John Howard, who said that bulk billing was an absolute rort. Well, he tried to abolish bulk billing altogether and introduce a tax for every single Australian patient to pay every time they visited the GP….

There is a back and forth between Michael Sukkar and Tony Burke about whether or not Butler is in order, which he is. Butler finishes with:

“The history of bulk billing over the last several years, which is the point of the question, is very clear when the when the leader of the opposition, the former health minister, was not able to get his GP tax through the Senate, instead, he initiated a six year freeze to the Medicare rebate that the college of GP said when we were coming to government had resulted in a free fall in bulk billing.

Now we have put record investments to turn that around. But if there is an issue with bulk billing in this country, and we’d like to see it higher than it currently, is it all lies at the feet of this man, the letter of the opposition, who, as the Prime Minister said, was voted by Australia’s doctors as the worst health minister in the history of Medicare.

If that verdict is not enough, Mr. Speaker, perhaps another verdict is that the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott thought he was so bad he didn’t let him even deliver a second health budget.”

Max Chandler-Mather is back to haunt the prime minister with a question on tax incentives for landlords:

In five years, rents have increased 55% house prices 49% and the income a renter needs to buy a medium priced house in a capital city is $197,000, yet the Housing Minister says Labor wants house prices to keep rising.

Will Labor stop giving property investors with multiple properties big tax handouts that turbocharged house prices and deny renters the chance to buy a home and instead, finally phase out negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount?

Anthony Albanese doesn’t address the question on tax incentives, but for the first time in a long time he turns his political attack against the Coalition, rather than just the Greens in his answer. Has the government worked out that they are fighting the Coalition for government in the next election? Will wonders never cease?

Albanese:

“Indeed, fixing the affordable housing shortage is a big challenge for Australia. We have a plan that is focused on supply, because that is the key. Whether you are a homeowner, or you’re a renter, or you’re someone in social and affordable housing. And that’s why our $32 billion homes for Australia plan is worthy of support of everyone in this Parliament. And I note that eventually the cross benches reluctantly got there, sort of crab walked their way to vote for some of the plans that we’ll put forward, and in the last sitting week of December, we passed our build-to-rent incentives that are so important for private renters in Australia to make a major difference. Those opposite here are still opposed to it. Are still opposed to it. They say tax cuts for corporates. This is the same mob that was every single person who has any vague connection with a business to have free lunch for themselves and their mates.

They don’t regret the ten billion for free lunch for their mates but they’re opposed to funding for social and public housing. They’re opposed to more investment in private rentals, and they’re opposed to our Shared Equity scheme that will make a difference as well, which has been successful in Western Australia. The model now we are getting on with the job of building 1.2 million homes. And indeed, there are other things that we’re doing as well, training, more tradies, more apprenticeships, 20,000 fee free take places in construction, $10,000 apprenticeship incentives and I announced at the National Press Club something unfamiliar to most of those opposite over there, just before Australia Day or the local infrastructure announcements that we have made two rounds of local infrastructure announcements facilitating the building of new homes, whether that be through connecting electricity, connecting water, making sure that any impediments to more housing supply be removed.

Our social housing policy will lead to 55,000 homes being built. We also have provided assistance in the form of increased rent assistance in back to back budgets now more than 45% higher than at the election, in addition to helping 200,000 people into their first home sooner.”

The dixers are focusing on Labor’s health package, particularly the $500m for women’s health and you can hear the whirring up of the Medicare would be in trouble under the Coalition campaign starting up. The point of these questions is two-fold – not just to talk about the health investment, but also to talk about Peter Dutton’s brief record as health minister (it was not great).

Kevin Hogan is back with another question on tariffs:

When the United States imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018 the Coalition was able to work with the Trump administration to secure an exemption for Australia. What steps has Ambassador [Kevin] Rudd taken to secure an exemption to the tariffs?

Albanese:

“As the member is aware, Ambassador Rudd has had a meeting with President Trump, but also what we’ve had is our defence minister, over the weekend, met with the US defense minister, our foreign minister was, of course, one of the few international representatives invited to the inauguration, and we will continue to engage diplomatically, diplomatically with the United States, not with loudhailers, but diplomatically. That is how we have got things done in our relationships right around the world.“

The speaker of the Kiribati house of assembly, Willie Tokataake, is in the Australian house of representatives today, and he has gifted Milton Dick a piece he is wearing today “to bring peace and tranquility to the House of Representatives.”

There is laughter at this and Dick says he remains “an eternal optimist”.

Peter Dutton has given the first question to the Member for Page, Kevin Hogan who asks:

Peace and tranquility, indeed.

My question is to the Prime Minister, did President Trump inform the prime minister that the United States would be imposing tariffs on Australian steel and aluminum prior to the measures been announced? If not, when did the prime minister last speak to President Trump?

Albanese:

I thank the member for his question, and the Australian people know I will always stand up for them, and I will always stand up for Australia’s national interests. And it is in Australia’s national interest to have free and fair trade. This government has a strong record, indeed, of working with other nations to protect and advance Australia’s trade interests. We will navigate any differences which are there diplomatically, and we will continue to make the case to the United States for Australia to be given an exemption to any steel and aluminum tariffs.

We have raised with the US administration in recent ministerial discussions, these issues Australian steel and aluminum are core input to us, supply chains and US based industry. Indeed, just this morning, I had a meeting with the global CEO of Rio Tinto. Australian companies have significant investment in us, steel industry, creating 1000s of jobs in both the US and in Australia. We will continue to make the case for Australia’s national interest with the US administration. And what’s more, we regard this as also being in the US national interest as well, because tariffs, of course, don’t tax us. They tax the purchases of our products. And that is something that’s very clear, and it’s also a fact that the US has had a trade surplus with Australia since the Truman presidency. I have a discussion with President Trump scheduled, and I will certainly keep the house the Australian people informed.

Barnaby ‘I won’t be bullied by climate science’ Joyce has launched his latest attack on wind turbines – this time, featuring microplastics.

Joyce, who conveniently ignores the dangers of fossil fuels to the planet’s health cherry picked from a Denmark University of Technology report which found that erosion of wind turbines could contribute to microplastics entering the environment (the conclusion of the report being the importance of upkeep of the wind turbines)

Joyce says

Now these micro plastics blow off the blade and onto the pasture to be eaten by cattle and consumed by you and into your bloodstream and into your BRAIN, or into the sea eaten by fish to be consumed by you and into your bloodstream and into your BRAIN (emphasis all Joyce).

As Professor Tamara Galloway Professor of Ecotoxicology at the Exeter Department of Biosciences, stated, ‘you cannot treat the environment as one big dumping ground’.

Well, that is how your intermittent power targets and their wind blade wind turbine blades are treating our countryside and our sea. So you may not be able to see the intermittent power wind turbine blades in the New England or off the member for Wannon’s coast, but don’t worry, because you get to eat some of them later on. But later on, you may not remember.

So Joyce has found an environmental cause he cares about – just not the giant existential one facing us all. Got it.

The MP airing of the grievances is on, which means we are one coffee and a chance to run from the coming existential crisis that is question time.

The Tveeder transcription service has forsaken me today, so this is going to be an interesting one.

If you don’t take the chance to run, we’ll see you back here shortly. (But seriously – run)

It’s not yet known whether or not Australia will be subject to Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on steel and aluminum. Trump said ‘everybody’ but a presidential statement at the Super Bowl (don’t care, but Go Birds) isn’t a diplomatic decree (although everything he says should be taken seriously)

Speaking to Sky News a little earlier Jenny McAllister said:

We’ll continue to advocate for our interests. And you’ve seen that already, you know, the phone call between the Prime Minister and President Trump, Minister Wong’s attendance at the inauguration, and just recently, you know, Deputy Prime Minister Marles in Washington speaking with counterparts. We’ll keep working to secure Australia’s interests.

If you were looking for something to do this St Valentines’ Day, have you considered giving the gift of Bob Katter? The Kennedy MP will be addressing the Rural and National Press Clubs on Friday with Indi MP Helen Haines, where the two will discuss the role of the crossbench in a minority government.

The discussion will be led by Gabrielle Chan, author of Rusted Off: Why Country Australia is Fed Up (and all round good human). Chan often gets under the Nationals skin because she is not only a damn good journalist and communicator, she is also a farmer. So she has a unique understanding of what is at stake and where the main country party often gets it wrong.

You can find more info on the address, here.

A little earlier today, the Liberal party welcomed Leah Blyth into the senate, with the South Australian sworn in as the replacement for Simon Birmingham, who announced he was retiring late last year.

While Blyth was being welcomed, there were several MPs preparing to deliver their farewells: Labor’s Graham Perrett and Maria Vamvakinou will give their valedictory speeches this week, as will the Liberal party’s Paul Fletcher.

But those three chose when to leave – independent Kylea Tink will join their ranks in bidding the federal parliament farewell, in a bittersweet address; Tink’s seat of North Sydney was abolished in the recent AEC redistribution, meaning she did not get the choice of whether or not to stay.

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has also responded to the Closing the Gap update:

After making the announcement over the weekend, Labor women MPs are holding a press conference to talk about the $500m announced for womens’ health.

It will give more affordable access for contraceptive and hormone treatment, as well as help subsidise specialist appointments.

Australia’s Right to Disconnect laws are less than six months old.

They give workers the right to reasonably refuse calls, texts and emails from their boss outside normal work hours.

Given how new these laws are, there’s not yet much data available to measure their success … in terms of dollars and hours saved, or the mental and physical health benefits to workers. 

Some unions and academics suggest they have, at least, provided greater awareness and communication between employees and employers about hours/expectations/pressures … and that payment for hours which used to be performed for nothing has provided much-needed cost-of-living relief for families. 

The Australia Institute will publish an updated report later this year on how many hours of unpaid overtime the average worker performs in Australia.

The most recent data, released in November ahead of Go Home On Time Day 2024, and captured just after the laws came into force, found the average worker was doing five weeks’ unpaid overtime a year,  which was costing employees a total of $91 billion annually.

The laws are due to be expanded to small businesses (fewer than 15 workers) in August this year. 

But will the Right to Disconnect even exist by then?

One year ago today, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told Andrew Clennell in a Sky News Sunday Agenda interview he’d repeal the Right to Disconnect laws, if elected.

We’re not sure if it was a thought bubble in response to a tough interview question (like when he pledged to hold a second voice referendum, which he walked back a few days later) – we’ve hardly heard a peep from the coalition on this subject since.

Peter Dutton (and all the audacity) is now speaking on the Closing the Gap update.

“To understand history is to appreciate that no country has an unblemished past. What distinguishes Australia from many other countries, is that among our overwhelming achievements as a nation, we do not shy away from our dark chapters. We’ve accepted those chapters, apologised for them, and continue to learn from them. The sign of a mature nation is one which embraces and tells its history in the round, its successes and shortcomings alike, by remembering historical wrongs rather than dropping them down the memory pole. We equip future generations with the knowledge that helps those mistakes being made.”

He is now speaking about the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, which he walked out on. Dutton has previously apologised for walking out and said he walked out as he did not support token gestures, but wanted concrete action.

The concrete action being the Voice referendum which was worked on for years by First Nations’ communities. Which Dutton destroyed.

Dutton then gathers even more of the audacity to quote from Rudd’s apology speech:

‘For us, symbolism is important, but unless the great symbolism of reconciliation is accompanied by an even greater substance, it is little more than a clanging gong. It’s not sentiment that makes history. It’s our actions that make history’. The substance Prime Minister Rudd referred to was to Close the Gap. The latest Closing of the Gap annual report provided to the Coalition a few hours ago reinforces that the current approach is not working.

As the Prime Minister stated, only five of 19 socio-economic targets are on track. Australians do want to see better outcomes. People do want to see practical solutions which make a tangible difference to the lives of disadvantaged Indigenous Australians. Australians want to see changes on the ground for those indigenous communities where safety, housing, health, education and employment are critical issues, but by maintaining the status quo, we will not bring about the drastic improvements we will yearn for.

Gee. If only there were some sort of Voice to do just that.

Greens senator Dorinda Cox will chair the senate committee on measuring outcomes in First Nations communities, with a priority of investigating why four of the 19 Closing the Gap targets are going backwards.

Just five of the targets are on track to being met.

Senator Cox said the latest Productivity Commission report into Closing the Gap targets “continues to tell the story most mob already know and experience daily”:

What’s not written here is that the lack of action on these targets are continuing to keep First Nations people out of schools, out of hospitals, out of workplaces, and in detention centres and putting our people in early graves. These attitudes empower state violence against our people and ensure we do not get justice.

As portfolio holder, and through my role as the Chair of the Select Senate Committee on Measuring outcomes for First Nations communities, we will look closely at how we can strengthen the accountability mechanisms for implementation of the Closing the Gap agenda and will hear directly from grassroots communities their solutions to some of the poorest socio-economic outcomes in the country.”

The Greens have also pledged to priorities First Nations’ justice in any future hung parliament.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said there had been no clear plan for First Nations’ justice since the Voice referendum was lost:

Australia needs a pathway to implement the Statement from the Heart in full. In the next Parliament, the Greens will put our bill to establish a Truth and Justice Commission to a vote. 

It’s time to make real progress on Truth-telling, Treaty and empowering First Nations decision making. Telling the truth about the history of violence and dispossession will help empower First Nations communities so we can move forward together as a country.”

New commitments for 2025 include:

• Reduce the costs of 30 essential products in more than 76 remote stores to help ease cost of living pressures and improve food security in remote communities.
• Build a nutrition workforce in remote communities by upskilling up to 120 local First Nations staff in remote stores.
• Roll out new laundries or upgrade existing facilities in 12 remote First Nations communities, to help improve long-term health outcomes.
• Strengthen the Indigenous Procurement Policy to boost opportunities for First Nations businesses to grow and create jobs.
• Increase opportunities for First Nations Australians to buy their own home and build intergenerational wealth through a boost to Indigenous Business Australia’s Home Loan Capital Fund.
• Establish a place-based business coaching and mentoring program for First Nations businesswomen and entrepreneurs.
• Increase the availability of culturally safe and qualified mental health support including scholarships for up to 150 First Nations psychology students.
• Continue to deliver critical prevention, early intervention and response services to address family, domestic and sexual violence in high need First Nations communities.
• Extend the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme for an additional two years to support Stolen Generations survivors.
• Continue digitisation of at-risk audio and video collections held by First Nations broadcasters and community organisations by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Here is what the government said it did to help meet the Closing the Gap targets in 2024:

• Commenced the new Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program, which will create up to 3,000 jobs in remote communities over three years.
• Expanded the Indigenous Rangers Program to create 1,000 new jobs, including 770 positions for First Nations women.
• Released the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy, to maximise the nation-wide potential for First Nations people to benefit from the clean energy transformation.
• Introduced legislation to expand the role and remit of Indigenous Business Australia to boost First Nations economic empowerment.
• Built more than 200 new homes in remote communities in the Northern Territory as part of our 10-year goal to halve overcrowding.
• Expanded access to affordable PBS medicines for more First Nations people.
• Opened the first of up to 30 dialysis units in regional and remote locations so First Nations people can receive treatment closer to home and on Country.
• Welcomed over 300 enrolments in the First Nations Health Worker Traineeship Program.
• Significantly increased funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services to help more women and children escaping family, domestic and sexual violence.
• Established a dedicated National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, to address the over-representation of First Nations children and youth in out-of-home care and detention.
• Invested in 27 community-led justice reinvestment initiatives in First Nations communities across Australia.
• Expanded the Connected Beginnings program to 50 communities, supporting more First Nations children to thrive in their crucial early years.
• The 2025 Implementation Plan outlines our strategy for the year ahead, focussing on easing cost of living pressures and improving food security in remote communities, delivering the next steps of our economic empowerment agenda, and continuing to improve outcomes for First Nations people.

The prime minister is making a ministerial statement to the house, giving the annual update on the Closing the Gap statement.

He includes a reminder that Peter Dutton walked out of the National Apology:

“On Wednesday, it will be 60 years since the start of the Freedom Ride, a bus journey through regional New South Wales opened our eyes wide to the discrimination against indigenous Australians led by Charles Perkins. It was a turning point in our self awareness as a nation. That was the beginning of the possibility of something better. I note that it was controversial at the time.

On Thursday, it will be 17 years since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the apology to the Stolen Generations. Again, that was something, an event that in some people’s minds, was controversial. But one which was, indeed, a moment of unity for the nation. It was a day of catharsis that held the promise of a fresh start.“

The Labor government is introducing changes to allow for easier background checks for any Australian wanting to access the US’s global entry program system, which allows for faster processing through US ports:

When implemented, the GEP will allow Australians access to expedited immigration and
customs channels when entering the United States. Australian citizens accepted into the
GEP are still required to meet any visa (or other immigration) requirements imposed by
the United States. The GEP is not a reciprocal program between Australia and the USA.
Australia’s participation in the program does not provide any equivalent benefit for USA
citizens traveling to, or arriving in, Australia.

In order to access the GEP, Australia has to do background checks of any Australian wanting to apply for the program. That means some changes have to be made to AusCheck (the body which does these background checks) to expand what they can look into it.

You can read more about that bill, here.

The Werribee byelection result shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been watching what has been happening in Victoria, separate to the nation. Queensland Labor faced a similar thumping in two byelections it held before the state election (losing a heartland seat and just holding on to the other) but managed to claw back support. (It is also worth noting the record low voter turn out in Werribee and the issue both major political parties have with inspiring voters in the first place).

From a federal perspective, the Liberals are now trying to remind people that elections are not a popularity contest – that is because while Anthony Albanese isn’t loved, he also isn’t hated and in focus groups, is seen as more likable than Peter Dutton.

That’s part of the Labor strategists calculations for the election – that an election campaign will put Dutton under the media pressure he has so far largely avoided, and therefore will reveal more of who he is and remind the electorate why they haven’t exactly warmed to him:

The Labor government really want you to take note of the health funding boosts it has made in recent days, as well as think about what a Coalition government might do with it, with a parliamentary motion put forward by Robertson MP Gordon Reid (also a ER doctor) asking the house to debate:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that the Government is building Australia’s future by building a stronger Medicare with:

(a) free Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, so that you and your family have access to bulk billed health care when you need it; (b)cheaper medicines, cutting the cost of prescriptions; and (c)the largest investment in bulk billing in Medicare history, which is restoring bulk billing after ten years of cuts and neglect;

(2) expresses its concern at the Leader of the Opposition’s record as Health Minister when he: (a)tried to end bulk billing by making patients pay a tax every time they see a General Practitioner; (b) cut $50 billion from public hospitals; and (c) was voted worst Health Minister in the history of Medicare by Australian doctors; and

(3) further acknowledges only the Government can be trusted to protect and strengthen Medicare.

But the debate seems to have been set up for Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale to lay down this line: “two great things were born in 1983; Medicare and me”.

Here’s another tidbit to come out of David Pocock’s senate estimate questions from last week

Last year there was quite a stir when it was revealed that Japan on-sells Australian gas for profit and political influence in Asia.

Estimates from our friends at IEEFA, based on official Japanese figures, suggested that Japan on-sold more gas than it bought from Australia, raising questions about why Australia would expand fossil gas supply for Japan, let alone give it away royalty-free.

Senator Pocock put this to the Department of Industry, who tried to fob him off with an answer that basically amounted to “it’s all too complicated for you, Senator”.

The former Wallaby captain was having none of it, saying “I don’t think anything you’ve said means that it isn’t true.” BAM!

The Department took it on notice and pointed to a footnote in the Japanese data that there could be some double counting in Japan’s estimates of on-selling. Instead of Japan on-selling more gas than it imports from Australia (approx. 30 million tonnes per year), the Department says:

“Alternative reputable evidence such as Kpler shipping data suggests that the volume of LNG, from all sources, on-sold by Japanese companies to third party countries during the same period was 16.7 Mt.”

Great, so Japan might not on-sell all the gas that Australia sells it (mostly royalty and petroleum tax-free), just half of it.

Exactly where the “evidence” from Kpler is and what exactly it says might be a question for next estimates!

Anthony Albanese will be in the house of representatives very soon delivering the latest Closing the Gap update.

It is not going to be good news.

The crossbench (who have already been very busy this morning) are coming together to support Allegra Spenders’ private members bill calling for more transparency around government project spending (which is also known as pork barrelling).

Spender and the crossbench want more guardrails around project spending to ensure taxpayers are getting value for money, rather than governments bedding down electorates in tough contests.

You may remember the former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian admitting ‘everyone does it’ when she was questioned about pork barrelling, which is at least honest, if not depressing that it is so normalised.

Spender and the crossbench want business cases and value for money.

Spender:

“Many of these projects cost hundreds of millions if not billions, but there is often no business case, and no reason to be confident that they’ll be finished on time or on budget. My Better Value for Taxpayers Bill will ensure that both sides of politics are held to account. Australians deserve better than big ticket projects that go nowhere.”

It isn’t the first time the crossbench have attempted to address this – Helen Haines has introduced previous private member bills on the same issue:

While we are talking about the housing issue and retirees, we need to acknowledge that just raising rental assistance is not going to fix it.

Worth pointing out re the Housing issue and retirees that rather than just raise rental assistance as Grattan that

The problem is our entire tax system is geared towards benefiting the wealthiest.  $20bn worth of superannuation tax concessions go to the richest 10% of Australians. There concessions are notionally to help people save for retirement so they are not reliant on the age pension. Except of course the richest 10% are never going to be eligible for the age pension so instead the govt is giving the richest Australians a tax cut for no good reason at all.

The government is trying to reduce the tax breaks for the 80,000 people (about 0.5% of everyone with a super balance) with super balances of more than $3m, but crossbenchers and the LNP are against them because of some pretty spurious concerns about ‘farmers’.

Australia has the second lowest age pension in the OECD, and that’s a big reason why Australia has the 5^th highest level of retirees living in poverty.

The Superbowl has started (do not care) but Donald Trump is there (because of course) which means there is political news.

As AAP reports:

President Donald Trump says the United States will impose 25  per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. 

When asked about aluminium, he responded, “aluminium, too” will be subject to the trade penalties. 

It’s not yet clear how and if Australia, which exports around $US300 million ($A479 million) worth of steel and a similar amount of aluminium to the US a year, will be affected.

The Australian government has recently argued that the country has a trade deficit with the US, and that should be taken into consideration.

During the first Trump presidency, Australia was given an exemption from such tariffs based on that argument but if tariffs are imposed, the flow-on effect for its producers could be challenging.

Chief burr in Anthony Albanese’s side, Max Chandler-Mather (known in this blog as MCM and yes, that is on purpose. iykyk) has signaled he will be making rentals an issue again – this time in response to the Grattan Institute report reminding politicians that you can not retire comfortably in this nation if you have housing costs.

MCM:

“In the short term we won’t solve this crisis without limits on rent increases. Right now landlords can put up the rent by however much they like and that needs to change immediately.

In the long-term, home ownership will keep declining until the government winds back negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. An entire generation faces economic destitution unless the government stops dishing out tax handouts to property investors with multiple homes

Thousands of pensioners and retirees are one rent increase away from homelessness, and many more are already having to make impossible choices between skipping meals or paying the rent.

Rather than billions for property investors, the government should be investing in directly building hundreds of thousands of good quality homes and renting them to people who need them at prices they can actually afford.“

As with any private members bill (which is what the independents are introducing this morning) it is up to the government when, and if, they come up for debate in the house.

The crossbench has begun introducing similar/the same bills in the senate where they have a bit more control in setting the agenda, to try and bring on debates. But without government support, the bills will not go anywhere in the house.

Independent MP Sophie Scamps has introduced the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill, which would make governments consider the wellbeing of the future in any decision it makes.

The bill would:

The Bill introduces four measures.

1. A federal legislative framework for the wellbeing of future generations. The framework
   established by the Bill is essential to protect long-term policy commitments from the shifting
   priorities of governments. The framework will advance intergenerational equity and
   wellbeing, requiring long-term considerations – the wellbeing and opportunities of current
   and future Australians – to be taken into account in parliamentary and governmental
   decision-making.
2. Impose a positive duty on public bodies to take into account the long-term impact of their
   decisions. Public bodies will be required to consider future impacts, work better with people,
   communities and each other, seek to prevent problems and take a more joined-up, less
   siloed approach.
3. Establish an independent, statutory Commissioner for Future Generations. The
   Commissioner will advocate for future Australians’ long-term interests, ensuring the concept
   of intergenerational fairness is integrated in governmental decision-making processes
4. Require a National Conversation on Future Generations. Led by the Commissioner, this
   exercise in participatory democracy will engage the public as active co-creators of the vision
   for Australia’s future, fostering inclusivity and building a sense of public ownership of long-
   term policies.

The Whistleblower protection bill has been officially introduced and debate has been adjourned. The house has moved on to Allegra Spender (with support from Kate Chaney) introducing a bill calling for business cases to be part of major infrastructure spends (yes I know. You would think it was the bare minimum, but here we are).

Spender describes the aim of the bill as:

Under the amendments, the Federal Government will need to:

• Prepare and publish a periodic, long-term national land transport plan – something
  more detailed the Government’s 2023 Infrastructure Policy Statement – outlining the
  Government’s stated priorities and assumptions underpinning investment; and
  decisions that determine Australia’s long-term infrastructure pipeline.
• Publish all business cases for federally funded projects above a threshold;
• Conduct and publish post completion reviews for all projects over a certain
  threshold, focussing on cost and time.

A friend to the blog has just reminded me of the time that Barnaby Joyce claimed being asked to accept climate science was ‘bullying’ while he was deputy prime minister.

When asked at the national press club in 2021 whether or not he accepted climate science, in a question which included climate science facts, Joyce said:

“I really don’t like when questions are presented like that, because it sounds like you’re at a baptism, on behalf of your child, denouncing Satan and all of his works and deeds, and on and on and on it goes.

…If the question you ask me is I do I believe that humans have an influence on climate, yes I do. (but he would not specify how much of an influence he accepted humans had on the climate)

…And if you then walk into the frame of saying, ‘I’m now going to grab you by the ear and make you comply with everything I say’, I won’t do that because it’s a free nation. I can say and think what I like.

…I’m not going to participate in some sort of kangaroo court of now you will agree to every statement I say because the IPCC said it.

And on his view of whether or not the Nationals (who are still having issues with a 2035 target) should have to accept the science Joyce said in 2021:

“This is why in regards to the previous question [about climate science], why we get so annoyed, because people say you must comply with my assertion, and that therefore justifies everything that I want to do next, because otherwise I just go back to the initial statement and say but didn’t you say this, therefore you must comply with that.

“And that’s bullying.“

Crossbench independent MP Andrew Wilkie has just introduced the Whistleblower Protection Authority Bill into the parliament, which is supported by Helen Haines, David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie and aims to establish a body with the power to oversee and enforce whistleblower protections.

Whistleblowers, transparency advocates and human rights groups have welcomed a push for an independent Whistleblower Protection Authority, with a landmark piece of legislation being introduced to Federal Parliament today.   

Associate Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre Kieran Pender, said of the bill:

Whistleblowers make Australia a better place by exposing human rights violations, government wrongdoing and corporate misdeeds. Whistleblowers are being punished for speaking the truth – from experiencing retaliation at work or even facing prosecution.  

A Whistleblower Protection Authority would be a game-changer to ensure that whistleblowers are protected and supported. We commend the crossbench for pursuing this landmark reform.”   

You can read more on the need for whistleblower protections in Australia, here Making Australia’s Whistleblowing Law Work: Draft design principles for a Whistleblower Protection Authority developed by Transparency International Australia, Human Rights Law Centre and Griffith University’s Centre for Governance & Public Policy. 

For longtime followers of Auspol, you may know about the subject list war occurring between certain MPs when it comes to their transcripts.

Sussan Ley’s office started it – the subject list for her transcripts started reading like a Coalition PR wet dream, so up to the plate stepped WA Labor MP Patrick Gorman, who took Ley’s challenge and turned it to 11.

Today’s is no exception:

Subjects: Parliament has important choices this sitting week that could build Australia’s future; the Liberals would take Australia backwards; the Albanese Government is Strengthening Medicare; delivering more support for women’s health; supporting the industries of Australia’ future with Critical Minerals Production Tax Credits; keeping the National Broadband Network in the hands of the Australian people; getting affordable food to Australians in remote communities; Closing the Gap; supporting lifelong learning and the opportunities it brings; Peter Dutton’s plan for $1.6 billion on long lunches is a stinker; Jordan Mailata and the US Super Bowl.

Barnaby Joyce was then made to answer whether or not he has been told to stay in his electorate this election campaign. The short answer is: yes.

Q: Have you been told to stay in your electorate?

JOYCE: No, not directly. There is a, there is a process.

Host: Not directly? So, through someone else?

JOYCE: No, because it said that – they have said, I’m not going to deny it. They have said that everybody has to coordinate through the Leader’s Office, but maybe that’s the case in all parties. I don’t know, Tanya [Plibersek] could tell you that.

Host: Well, we’re not going to Tanya on this one. We’re sticking with you.

JOYCE: Yes, I can see that.

Host: Have you indirectly been told to stay in your electorate?

JOYCE: Well, everybody’s been. Well, no, you’ve been told that you have to get permission from the Leader’s Office to go to other electorates, but that was conveyed to everybody.

Host: So, have they told everybody? Because it’s really directed at you?

JOYCE: Well, I don’t know whether it’s directed at me. You’d have to go to the person who dropped the story and ask them if it’s directed at me.

Host: So, one senior National source familiar with the Nationals, apparently is saying women didn’t trust us at the last election and Barnaby was a key reason for that.

JOYCE: Well, why do we win every seat and up an extra Senate seat? Why is it that every election I’ve gone to as leader or deputy, we never, ever went backwards, even when the Liberal Party went massively backwards.

Host: How are you getting along with David Littleproud, Barnaby?

JOYCE: Have I got 100 per cent of the men’s vote? I mean, I don’t know. How does this work?

Host: How do you, how are you getting along with David Littleproud?

JOYCE: Oh, very well.

That sound you hear is 11 Nationals spitting out their coffee in unison at Joyce’s last answer.

Which led to this exchange:

PLIBERSEK: But what’s your plan, Barnaby. What’s your plan for cost of living, Barnaby? Nuclear power in 2040 is not a cost of living plan, it’s a fantasy.

JOYCE: Your fantasies, you’re closing down the coal fired power stations flat out. You’re forcing up the price of power.

PLIBERSEK: What’s your plan?

JOYCE: The results are in the power bill. The result is in the mail. It’s coming to you. People see it. And all your rhetoric, all your rhetoric, all your rhetoric just –

PLIBERSEK: You can’t answer that. That’s the obvious thing here. Not a thing.

JOYCE: Stands on its head and falls over because people see themselves getting poorer –

PLIBERSEK: Well, tell us your plan.

JOYCE: And unless you’re changing your position on 82 per cent renewables. Well, we don’t go to 82 per cent renewables by 2030. Are you going to change your position on that? Change your position, win your election Tanya.

PLIBERSEK: What’s your plan for cost of living, Barnaby?

No plan was forthcoming.

Perhaps the biggest punishment Tanya Plibersek has been subjected to in her role in the Albanese government is the weekly ‘debate’ with Barnaby Joyce on the Seven Network’s breakfast TV show, Sunrise.

Pibersek’s job is to front up on Mondays and sit through Joyce’s take on politics. Joyce is a polarising figure and has been ever since Tony Abbott’s then-chief of staff Peta Credlin, bestowed the mantle of Australia’s ‘best retail politician’ on him, despite Joyce having the charisma of a third-generation used car salesman.

Joyce is on the outs with the Nationals leadership as well (not an unfamiliar territory) and as the SMH recently reported, will be largely contained to his own electorate in the coming election, with David Littleproud putting the kibosh on moonlighting leadership aspirants stepping outside of bounds as unofficial election leaders.

Still though, Plibersek must front up to the cameras with him. Today it kicked off with the Werribee by-election results and Plibersek said:

Oof course you pay attention, but I think one of the interesting things about this result is that there was a significant drop in the Labor vote. Most of it didn’t go to the Liberals, it’s gone to the none of the above category. And of course that’s something that we need to work on. That’s why we are so absolutely focused on taking pressure off cost of living. People know that the real risk to cost of living is Peter Dutton, who wants to slash wages, didn’t support the tax cuts, hasn’t supported electricity bill relief and doesn’t have a single policy that would actually take pressure off families. So, they’re not going to Peter Dutton either.“

And Joyce? Well he just blamed Chris Bowen.

What we’ve seen there, that was about 95 per cent talking points from Tanya, so congratulate her on keeping to the PMO’s lines. But what we’ve seen is if you want to concentrate on peripheral issues such as intermittent power and lose sight of the major issues such as cost of living, then people are not going to vote for you. And in a natural constituency, which you think a lot of times will oscillate between Labor and Green, they voted for neither of them. And what we’ve seen is the Liberal Party have actually won a seat. Now that has got to send a message if it’s like that in that area. Once the further west you go into the suburbs, especially in Sydney, the more pronounced that’s going to be. But you can’t do anything about it because of the dictums of Chris Bowen. I mean, he wants to take you down a path where no one votes for you, and you’ve got no one to blame but yourself for that. And until you decide that your intermittent power, your 82 per cent target, you’re going to save the world ideas are more important than trying to make sure a person can pay for the groceries, pay for their power, pay for their fuel, pay for their rent. Whilst you have the priorities wrong, people are going to change their priorities on how they vote. And it’s happening.”

Despite some of the frantic speculation from the press gallery, the election is shaping up to be held in May – as seemingly was always the plan. There are a few reasons for that; the government wants a rate cut (likely coming at the February meeting, although the markets are not betting on a second rate cut until the May meeting and possibly June, which makes sense when you consider the new board Jim Chalmers appointed starts after this February meeting and it won’t want to cut rates during an election campaign/just before an election campaign and be seen as political stooges (the RBA can pretend politics has nothing to do with it, but politics colours all institutions to a certain extent, and wanting to be seen as above politics can, in its own way, also be political). The government is also hoping that some of the Trump insanity will take the air out of Peter Dutton’s populist balloons.

But as political commentator Sean Kelly writes in the SMH, voters are looking for something that doesn’t seem to be on offer as yet:

With little time remaining, Peter Dutton has offered themes – nuclear, cutting migration and waste – with little substance. Anthony Albanese has offered substance, of a type, but few clear themes, and no sharp story about his second term. After years of dramatic uncertainty – pandemic, inflation, Trump – voters are tired. They might be ready to reward a political leader who offers them some clarity about their future.

Labor federal ministers will not be able to escape the Victorian by-election commentary this morning, although it is also true that voters in Victoria can mostly split the difference between state and federal politicians. That doesn’t mean that Labor strategists are not looking at the by-election results in Werribee and having a little moment though. Labor is feeling confident it will hold on to the seat, thanks to preferences, and at a reduced margin. That is a lot to do with the tired Allan state government, which has been seeing more voters start to express frustration at the hold up in projects, the state’s finances and the government’s seeming inability to address voter concerns.

Health minister Mark Butler was asked about the results on ABC radio this morning and said:

“I don’t pretend to have a detailed knowledge of Victorian state politics. This is a by-election for a state government that’s into its second decade. You know, it’s been a tough time in Victoria, as we all know, over the last several years, they had a very tough pandemic. It’s not surprising, when you look at the sweep of history, that a state government in its second decade cops a big hit in a by-election. These are these are state issues being played out down in Victoria. We’ve got a federal election coming up in the next few months. At some time, people will vote in that federal election, I’m confident on federal issues and a very clear choice between the cuts they’ll see by Peter Dutton and the sort of measures to strengthen Medicare you saw us release yesterday.”

The parliament won’t sit until 10am this morning, so you have a little bit of time. Grab another coffee. I will be.

Checking in on the world’s reaction to Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs, things seem to be getting spicy in the EU, as AAP reports, as the German election begins to heat up in earnest.

Europe is prepared to respond “within an hour” if the United States levies tariffs against the European Union, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says.

In a pre-election debate with his conservative challenger Friedrich Merz, Scholz was asked by a moderator if the EU had a “list of cruelties” with which to respond if the US imposed tariffs.

“Yes, to phrase it in the most cautious diplomatic way. We as the European Union can act within an hour, Scholz said on Sunday.

“We should not delude ourselves. What the US president says is what he means.”

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to enact tariffs against the US’s largest trading partners, accusing them of free-riding on American prosperity. 

Trade policy is an EU competence, run by the European Commission in Brussels.

Scholz also warned of a “European crisis” if his conservative rival Merz passes proposed reforms to migration law.

Merz’s proposal to turn away all migrants at the country’s borders “contradicts European law”, Scholz said.

Germany’s neighbours could refuse to take back migrants, Scholz said.

“Then we would have a European crisis.”

The chancellor said Merz’s measures were “against German interests”.

Merz is the favourite to become the country’s next chancellor, with his conservative CDU/CSU alliance leading the polls on around 30 per cent ahead of the vote on February 23.

Victorian state opposition leader Brad Battin is pretty happy with the state byelection results, as AAP reports. The Liberal leader was talking up his party’s chances at the next state election, which is still a long shot, but absolutely nothing should be ruled out in politics.

“I’m not confident we’ll win it (Werribee), but I’m very confident we’ve had a really good result,” he told ABC radio on Monday. 

“There’s been a massive swing against Labor … I think we’ll end up with about a four-and-a-half per cent swing to us and that means we’ve got more work to do.

“If that result was reflected across Victoria, there would be a change of government at the next election in 2026.”

In the parliament a little later today, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young will move amendment to the NBN public ownership bill the government decided to put through the parliament (despite no one talking about selling the NBN) to cap the salaries paid to NBN Co executives.

The Greens say the NBN Co CEO was paid more than $3m in 2023, which is five times more than the prime minister (and the highest public servant salary in Australia)

The bill is due to come to the senate on Tuesday, and Hanson-Young says the Green amendments will move to:

• Cap executive pay –  cap remuneration paid to senior executives at 5x the Annual Average Weekly Earnings, taking into account both base salary and bonuses
• Recognise the NBN as a universal service in the Act, with the NBN required to provide broadband in a way that is accessible to all Australians on an equitable basis

The Coalition have released an actual election promise (I know, I know) promising to increase the number of subsidised mental health appointments from ten to 20 (which was a covid measure that proved very popular).

Mark Butler says the Coalition always intended for the number of appointments to return to 10 and while the government has looked at it, he said the sector would need an expansion:

The problem with, with doubling the number of sessions, without doubling the number of psychologists, is you? They created a bottleneck, and a whole lot of people ended up not getting access to any services at all. So bringing that back down to 10 has meant a whole lot more people have got access to important psychological therapy. So I’m not inclined to lift the number back up to 20 without expanding the psychology workforce, which is what we’ve been focused on over the last couple of budgets, as well as providing a number of other services that people can access, Medicare, mental health centers that we’re rolling out around the country, we’ve got a few dozen open. We’ve got more ready to open their walk in clinics. They’re free of charge. And we are also building a national early intervention service that will take pressure off our psychology therapy

Health minister Mark Butler is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast ahead of tabling responses to parliamentary inquiries on women’s health – one that was handed down about 18months ago and one a little more recently.

Yesterday, the government put forward a $500m package to make contraceptive and hormone therapy a little cheaper, in a bid to close some of the medical gender gap. The Coalition matched the commitment almost immediately, just in case you needed any reminder that we are in an election campaign.

Butler says:

“You can’t strengthen Medicare without strengthening women’s health. That’s really the message of those two very important Senate inquiries. Women consume about 60 per cent of the nation’s health services, and as I made clear yesterday, and as all of your female listeners know very well, women face a whole range of very significant costs simply because they’re women around contraception and menopause and Peri-menopause. And yesterday’s landmark package really reverses the decades of neglect that those two Senate reports really highlighted and delivers Australia’s women finally, more choice, better care and lower costs.“

On the Coalition’s criticism of government spending in Indigenous areas, Malarndirri McCarthy said former Liberal leader Scott Morrison was the one who refreshed the Closing the Gap targets, with former minister Ken Wyatt and the Coalition should support the changes:

It is always disappointing to hear the criticism from the coalition when we actually haven’t heard of a plan for this other than cutting, you know, cutting public services, cutting Aboriginal organisations. And I would urge the Coalition in particular, on this day, that this agreement is one that they signed up to. In fact, this refresh was done by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the former Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt, so I would encourage them to recognize that this is a bipartisan support across not only the federal parliament, but also every state and territory jurisdiction.”

The minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy, has spoken to the ABC’s Sabra Lane ahead of Anthony Albanese delivering the Closing the Gap target update later today in parliament.

McCarthy said the government will be announcing price caps on 30 essential products in 76 remote stores to try and bring some cost parity for groceries in remote communities.

We’re talking about a list of core essential items that were actually put together by the food security working group that gives me advice, and we looked at items like flour, like milk, tin, tuna, rice, bread, cereal, canned meals, you know, to fresh fruit, apples, oranges, bananas, to toiletries with toilet rolls, nappies, baby formula. So there is a list of 30 items there that we are focused on, and certainly the Prime Minister is very supportive of, as we look at trying to reduce the cost of living issues in regional and remote Australia.”

What to expect this week

• Closing the Gap Productivity Commission update
• Fallout from Victorian state byelections
• Attention on health funding, including womens’ health
• Production tax credits for renewable hydrogen and critical minerals in the senate
• The Housing affordability crisis to be back in the spotlight

Hello and welcome back to the second week of parliament for 2025 and the second week of Australia Institute Live.  All going to plan for an election in May (which continues to look like happening, when it’s due – in May) there is just this week of parliament before estimates and then the late March budget, so strap in for a busy one.

We are still in our soft launch stage and still working out some bugs, but we truly appreciate you coming along for the ride with us.

We start this week with Labor still taking stock of the Victorian state byelection results, which saw the Liberals win the seat of Prahran from the Greens and the traditionally held Labor seat of Werribee still on a knife’s edge.

It looks like preferences will get the Labor candidate John Lister across the line, and Labor didn’t run a candidate in Prahran, where the Greens’ Angelica Di Camillo lost to the Liberals’ Rachel Westaway.

Low voter turnout was a major factor, but Labor strategists are still looking at the result with worry, as it shows the Liberals are gaining back ground in Victoria, which until recently Labor had been able to count as a stronghold against Liberal gains.  Peter Dutton is not the boogieman Labor had hoped in the state and so far the state opposition have been able to hold it together as the Allan government continues to lose popularity.

Stay turned there.

The parliament will be focussed on Closing the Gap, with Anthony Albanese to deliver the annual address at midday.

On Friday, the government announced a further $842.6m in funding for Northern Territory Indigenous communities, which will be spent over six years.  But Indigenous communities in Queensland and Western Australia are also crying out for funding and the Closing the Gap targets are not getting any better – and in many cases are worsening.

Dutton will also be asked to address the failure to address the targets – but keep in mind that Dutton has done nothing to advance any of his ‘ideas’ after comprehensively destroying the Voice referendum (‘regional voices, anyone?) and his shadow minister for government efficiency, (not to be confused with his shadow minister for government waste reduction) has so far focussed her spending cut rhetoric on Indigenous programs (most notably the $450,000 over three years budgeted for Welcome to Country ceremonies – the savings for which will be SURE to turn the entire nation around).

Health funding will also be in the news – there is more focus on women’s health as the government seeks to address the gender gap in medicine, and more push of the $1.7bn over one year agreement to cut public hospital wait times.

You can also expect housing to pop back up on the agenda – the ABC has a special looking at it with Alan Kohler, while the Grattan Institute has revisited the housing costs in retirement issue.  That’s not new – it  came up  in the Retirement Review ordered by the former government when Josh Frydenberg was treasurer, but it always makes for sobering reminders – if you have housing costs (rent, board or mortgage) than retirement will not be comfortable for you – in fact, you’ll be living in poverty.  That’s hitting women, more than men, due to the superannuation gap (particularly with women in older generations) and the impact separation and chronic health conditions can have on savings and earnings.

We’ll cover all the day’s events in the parliament as they happen – you have Amy Remeikis with you today and I’m on coffee number two with half a bag of mixed mini easter eggs to get me through the morning.

Ready?

Let’s get into it.