Both Houses were on again together this week and there was a lot on.

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

Cheaper early childhood education and care
One step closer to a National Anti-corruption Commission
The Shadow Treasurer's moon phases
Catherine King stating the facts
10 years since the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was signed

WORST

Peter Dutton joking about climate change
Dutton distancing himself from the Vic campaign trail?
Where oh where is Jenny Ware? Not in her seat...
Fletch still being five steps behind
Oops... Dutton did it again...

1. We promised cheaper early childhood education and care for Australian families – and this week we delivered it, passing our Cheaper Childcare reforms into law. This will cut the cost of early education and care for more than a million families.

2. We also promised to legislate a National Anti-corruption Commission.We’re now one step closer to legislating the NACC, with the Attorney-General’s bill passing the House. It’s now off to the Senate.

3. I’ve heard the phrase ‘Once in a blue moon’ before, but never ‘Two eclipses since a Budget’. Turns out that’s how rare it is for the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to field a question from his counterpart Angus Taylor on Budget matters. As Jim explained to the House: “Since 25 October there have been two eclipses, one solar and one lunar, and there have been two questions from the Shadow Treasurer to the Treasurer about the Budget. Questions from the shadow Treasurer to the Treasurer after the Budget are as rare as a very rare celestial event.”

4. The new Member for Casey thought he was being clever asking the Infrastructure Minister a question about projects in Victoria. He might have felt clever while he was asking, but he looked pretty stupid by the time Catherine King was answering. “In relation to the Wellington Road project that the Member referred to, the previous government said they would fund 100 per cent of it … The only problem was they only put $110 million into what is an approximately $620 million project. … As I've said previously, you can't drive on a press release.”

5. When I was Julia Gillard’s Environment Minister I signed the Murray-Darling Basin Plan into law. Thank you to the current Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek for marking the ten year anniversary in the House this week. “Ten years ago the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was signed into law. It was the most important piece of water policy that this country has ever made, and it still leads the world in terms of water policy … We still have a challenge. We need to deliver this plan in full … We know that only full delivery of the Basin Plain will save our river systems and the communities that depend on them.”

1. Peter Dutton set the tone for the Opposition’s approach to the Parliament this week – with his first question to the Prime Minister on Monday. He used the first question of the week to criticise the historic decision at COP27 to establish a loss and damage fund for nations most vulnerable to climate change. The Prime Minister called him out: “I'll tell you what we won't do, which is to stand at a press conference, with a microphone, making jokes about Pacific Islands drowning. That is what we won't do.”

2. I’ve never seen this before. For two days in a row this week Peter Dutton didn’t ask a single question. The only strategy I can work out is he’s trying to help with the Victorian campaign by making the Liberal party more popular, by thinking he wasn’t part of it.

3. There are times when a Manager of Opposition does their colleagues no favours and that’s exactly what happened to Jenny Ware, the Member for Hughes, on Wednesday. First of all she’d been given a question from the tactics committee that made no sense. It was directed to Julie Collins as Small Business Minister, referred to a Regulatory Interest Statement (which get attached to pretty much every Bill) without saying ‘which statement’, ‘which Bill’ or how on Earth it in any way related to Julie’s portfolio. On pointing this out, the Speaker then asked her to rephrase so that it was somehow relevant.

It was absurd to see Paul Fletcher leaning over her desk writing the words before the Member for Hughes stood up. Once again with the extra information, the question was clearly meant to be directed to me, not to Julie Collins. I took the point of order and Peter Dutton went straight to outrage. Then – thanks to the eagle eyes of Anne Stanley – I received a text message and raised one of the most basic of Parliamentary rules. Is the Member for Hughes even in her own seat? At this point it was all off, the next question went to Labor. Jenny Ware went back to where she was meant to be asking a question with a further version of the question – only to find, once again, it was directed to the wrong Minister.

4. Poor Fletch. He’s really not getting the hang of this Manager of Opposition Business thing. The first thing he did when the House sat on Tuesday was move to suspend standing orders over our Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill. The only thing is – the Bill had already passed the House and was in the Senate! As I explained to Fletch: “The Bill's not here. It's gone. There's a red room on the other side of the water feature in the middle there, and that's where the Bill has gone to!”

5. In the words of that great philosopher “Oops, he did it again”. You might remember a few weeks ago Peter Dutton sought to correct the Prime Minister – interjecting “it’s pronounced Yeppoon”, when the PM was referring to the Yeppen Floodplain. This time when the PM was referring to Alex Surf Club, Peter Dutton interjected trying to correct the PM. Once again - the Prime Minister had to explain the geography of Queensland to someone who reckons he’s a Queenslander. I guess challenging the person who’s held the Infrastructure portfolio longer than anyone else (ie. Anthony Albanese) gets points for bravery. Ah well, it’s also dumb.

We’re back next week. I’ll write to you then.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. Two recommendations this week.

Thelma Plum visited Parliament House on Monday. Last night at the ARIAs alongside Jessica Mauboy and Budjerah, Thelma gave an incredibly special tribute to Archie Roach. Her new EP Meanjin is fantastic. Have a listen.

But the song of the week is in honour of the tactics committee of the Opposition who had the genius idea to break the most basic standing order and demand that the Member for Hughes ask questions from a seat where she wasn’t allowed to ask questions.

In their honour here’s Arctic Monkeys with “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair”.

5&5: 6 months of an Albanese Government