5&5: The final sitting week of 2019
The best and worst Parliament has to offer was certainly on full display during the last sitting week of 2019. Here’s the 5&5:
BEST
Keeping Angus Taylor accountable
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Jim Chalmers nails it
10 years since the CPRS
Nine-year-old Leader of the House
WORST
Ensuring double standards
Medevac
More Morrison misleads
Retaliation
Angus withdraws
1. Our questioning of Angus Taylor could be a #5and5 all on its own. First a quick recap on Angus scandals because it can be hard to keep up:
Watergate: this is where the Government paid Versace prices for Reject Shop water in the Murray Darling Basin with a property connected to Angus Taylor
Grassgate: this is where Angus met with the Environment Minister about a threatened species listing affecting properties connected to Angus Taylor
Angusgate: this one is where he claimed City of Sydney councillors had spent more than $15 million on travel when the actual figure was about $6000.
Wolfgate: this is where he claimed in his first speech there was a war on Christmas when author Naomi Wolf lived down the corridor from him at Oxford - even though Naomi Wolf was living in New York at the time. And what was the response from the born-to-rule Angus Taylor? When asked about him misrepresenting Naomi Wolf, he demanded she apologise to him.
Taylor has gone from under pressure to beleaguered to besieged and is now embattled and subject to a police investigation. He should be “former”. Anthony Albanese told caucus on Tuesday Scott Morrison was experiencing his “Angus Horribilis”.
2. Tim Watts gave a brilliant speech before Question Time on Thursday that turned the whole Angus Taylor saga into a fairy tale. Holding a copy of Aesop’s Fables, Tim gave a withering variation of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. There was spontaneous applause at the end. Have a watch: https://twitter.com/TimWattsMP/status/1202420684091097088
Tim Watts delivers his speech in the House
3. There are so many different economic measures that show a sluggish economy it can be hard to bring it all together in a single question. Jim Chalmers nailed it on Wednesday when he asked Josh Frydenberg: “Is annual economic growth of 1.7 per cent: below average; below budget forecasts; below what it was before the election; below what it was when he became Treasurer; below what it was when the Government was first elected; or all of the above?” (It’s all of the above).
4. Monday was the tenth anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s Climate Change policy being voted down in the Senate. It was marked with speeches from Anthony Albanese, Ged Kearney, Josh Burns, Patrick Gorman, Pat Conroy and Tanya Plibersek.
5. On Thursday during the Matter of Public Importance Anika Wells, Labor’s member for Lilley in Brisbane, referred to the fact that lots of schools come to Canberra and hold a mock Parliament where the students pretend to be MPs. Anika suggested what it will be like for the students if the Government continues shutting down debate: “The nine-year-old Leader of the House will stand and say, 'I move that the member no longer be heard,' and then he will sit down. Then the nine-year-old Opposition Leader will stand and start to speak, and the Leader of the House will stand again and say, 'I move that the motion be put.' Instead of practising their democracy and learning the art of Parliamentary debate, they will have about four minutes to cover everything.”
1. There hav ebeen plenty of times where Governments of both sides have limited debate on legislation but I’ve never seen anything like this. The so-called Ensuring Integrity union-bashing Bill was reintroduced this week to the House after the Senate rejected it last week. It was in a different form because it incorporated amendments which the Senate had supported before voting the Bill down. Those amendments hadn’t been debated in the Senate because the debate had been gagged so there hadn’t been any debate on the changes to the Bill in either chamber. I stood as the first Labor speaker on the Bill and Christian Porter stood up and moved the question be put - meaning he wanted to gag the debate. There was uproar in the House like you’ve never heard. This wasn’t just the Government limiting debate. Morrison was making sure no one at all could say a word against him. It was unprecedented. Labor members and crossbench members were in disbelief. The Speaker tried to quieten the chamber by reminding us he could still kick us out even though we were in the middle of a division. “What does it matter if we can’t say a word anyway?” could be heard from all corners of the Opposition benches. This continued with Porter trashing every precedent and pushing legislation through the House without anyone other than himself talking on the Bill. I then moved a motion calling the whole episode a “Prime Ministerial tantrum, with the Prime Minister of Australia behaving like a juvenile, schoolyard bully just because he didn’t get his way last week”. Anthony Albanese said later: “When Scott Morrison talks about quiet Australians, what he really wants is silent Australians. What he really means is everyone should shut up and listen to him.” Did someone mention these people thought they were born to rule?
A man of the people: Leader of the House Christian Porter - PHOTO: Alex Ellinghausen/NINE
2. The Government decided its big legislative win for the year would be repealing the Medevac legislation. This means they are no longer obliged to provide treatment for offshore asylum seekers who are sick. Jacqui Lambie made clear the Government had accepted her secret condition in exchange for her vote - but the Government kept contradicting her claiming there was no deal. Kristina Keneally summed it up saying: “If any member of this Senate were sick, we would see a doctor. If any member of our family were sick, we would send them to a doctor. Vulnerable people who are in Australia's care who have already suffered significant trauma in their lives should not be forced to the brink of death to receive the medical treatment that they require. These decisions should never have been left in the hands of people without any medical training let alone concentrated in them. Labor strongly supports medevac. Medevac is working as intended. These laws should not be repealed.”
Jacqui Lambie during the Senate debate - PHOTO: Alex Ellinghausen/NINE
3. Scott Morrison keeps making statements to the Parliament that are simply untrue. Anthony Albanese kept taking him on over the misleads with questions like this: “My question is to the Prime Minister. It goes to his answer to my earlier question, where he said about trade agreements: ‘They tried to start plenty, but they couldn't conclude any.’ That's not true, Prime Minister, is it? Isn't it a fact that we concluded the Chile agreement in 2009, and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand agreement, including Brunei, Burma, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, in 2010?”
4. Monday and Tuesday were relatively calm but the temperature went up suddenly on Wednesday when the Government again refused to let Anthony Albanese make a speech. After that we had to retaliate by getting in the way of their speeches. It was extraordinary seeing the number of Liberals and Nationals who were happily voting to shut down Labor speeches who were mortified whenever someone sought to interrupt them.
5. This is one is really weird. Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor have decided they are victims. Yes. Cabinet Ministers. Running Australia. And victims. So when we went through a list of questions Morrison has refused to answer he bizarrely told us to stop attacking his faith - which obviously we hadn’t. Then Angus Taylor accused us of anti-Semitism for asking him about his lies about Naomi Wolf. The Speaker made him withdraw, which was important - but didn’t take away the weirdness.
Albo can’t believe what he’s hearing from this guy - PHOTO: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
So that’s the year.
We finished off on Thursday with the caucus band, (which has about seven different names depending on who you talk to) performing with Mark Callaghan from GANGgajang.
Thanks for your support and for sharing this email around. If you know anyone who doesn’t receive this email but should then they can sign up here: https://www.tonyburke.com.au/5and5signup
Keep yourselves safe over summer. And in the same spirit that we share so many feasts and festivals throughout the year, have a Happy Christmas.
Tony