Last week of Parliament before the end of the year…

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

Everything we passed this week
Anika Wells stating the facts when it came to the 'Morrison Ministries'
Linda Burney speaking her truth
Josh Burns' Christmas carol
Tanya congratulating Sussan Ley's ability to recycle

WORST

Having to censure Morrison
Morrison's executive authority addiction
Angus Taylor and Dolly Parton having common ground
Peter Dutton moving a suspension of standing orders
Senator Michaelia Cash

1. We hit the ground running after being elected in May – and ended the year passing a heap of seriously important legislation. This week we passed:

The National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill to restore integrity to politicsThe Respect @ Work Bill to make workplaces safe from sexual harassment
The Privacy Legislation Amendment to better protect your data from cyber breaches
And just this morning – the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill to get wages moving & close the gender pay gap

2. Aged Care Minister Anika Wells pointed out the absurdity of the secret Morrison ministries saga this week. Answering in Question Time she pointed out the lack of progress the previous government had made in aged care – despite having THREE ministers responsible: Health Care Minister Greg Hunt. Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck. As well as Prime Minister and Minister for Health Scott Morrison. Luke Howarth shot up on a point of order, arguing the Minister had misused the former PM’s title. Both the Speaker and the Minister handled it perfectly:

Mr Howarth: I have a couple of points of order, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: One will do.

Mr Howarth: There are two. There is one on correct title in relation to the member for Cook.

The SPEAKER: Resume your seat. The minister was clear. I was listening carefully to her answer when she said 'the former prime minister Scott Morrison'. That is his title. I will give her the call to continue her answer, which will be heard in silence.

Ms WELLS: There are so many titles to choose from, Mr Speaker! I can see how it's confusing.

3. It’s a privilege to be in the same party as Linda Burney. Every now and then you have a speech that stops the Parliament. In Question Time Linda said: “That someone with my history can stand in this place is the most unlikely thing—but not everyone is so lucky. Not everyone can have their voice heard. That's why we need a voice. An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice is an idea whose time has come. The Australian people will decide this referendum, not politicians, and I have faith in the Australian people.”

4. This week the Member for Macnamara, Josh Burns combined two of my passions - politics and poetry. Presenting the 12 Days of the Canberra Bubble Christmas. It’s well worth a watch!

5. Tanya Plibersek didn’t miss when asked about recycling this week. The former Environment Minister Sussan Ley thought it would be smart to interject. It wasn’t. As Tanya put it: “The shadow minister interjecting, she is an expert in recycling, backbench, frontbench, backbench, frontbench. She put them on notice. Put the solar industry on notice. But they never took any notice of her.”

1. On Wednesday the House censured former Prime Minister Scott Morrison. This is not the way any of us wanted to make history. As former High Court Justice Virginia Bell found in her report on the multiple Morrison ministries:

“the principles of responsible government were "fundamentally undermined"
“the lack of disclosure of the appointments to the public was apt to undermine public confidence in government.”
“the secrecy with which they had been surrounded was corrosive of trust in government.”

How did Scott Morrison respond? An ‘if anyone has been offended’ non-apology. And this time it was the media’s fault for not asking him at the time. Really? As the Prime Minister put it during the debate:

“He has confirmed again that he just doesn't get it.”

2. More details arrived on the multiple Morrison ministries this week. According to Niki Savva’s new book - Morrison’s most loyal supporter Alex Hawke made this admission about the former PM. “He got addicted to executive authority,” Hawke said. As the Prime Minister explained during Question Time, no wonder they couldn’t land an energy policy in close to a decade. “We know from the member for Mitchell, who's had some good comments about his mate the member for Cook, that they were addicted to power, but they weren't very good at energy. …That's the problem for those opposite: all about power policy; nothing about energy policy.”

3. I don’t know why Angus Taylor keeps trying, but he does. This week he decided to ask the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, a question, something he’s barely done since the Budget. I think Jim enjoyed the question - here’s how he answered: “Did you know, Mr Speaker, that Dolly Parton wrote 'Jolene' and 'I will always love you' in one day? It took the shadow Treasurer 19 days to write that question—19 days longer than it took to write two of the most popular songs in history.”

4. Remember the days when the moment Anthony Albanese would stand up as Leader of the Opposition and they’d move he be no further heard? Well Thursday was a reminder of exactly why they never wanted to confront our now Prime Minister in any debate. Peter Dutton moved a suspension of standing orders during Question Time thinking he had momentum. When the Prime Minister personally responded, first you saw the Opposition backbench go quiet, then you saw them look into their phones and gradually you watched each and every one of them – including Peter Dutton – shrink in their chairs. Have a watch, it will be some time before they try this again. But to be honest, I can’t wait until they do.

5. Not content with deliberately keeping wages low for the past decade - the Libs tried everything they could to try stop the passage of our Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill. There were 19 amendments put forward in the Senate. In more than nine hours of debate how many amendments do you think had been brought to a vote? Zero. Principally because of the behaviour of Senator Michaelia Cash. Seriously? After ten years of keeping wages low they first tried to put the Bill off until next year and then by the end Senator Cash was trying to stand in the way of getting wages moving for every extra minute that they could. But by Friday morning both Houses had agreed to the Bill and the era of wages being kept deliberately low came to an end.

So that’s it for 2022. There’s more to be done.

In my part of Sydney there’s a long tradition of everybody enjoying each other’s festivals and celebrating them. So in that same spirit, can I wish you all the peace and joy of Christmas and look forward to being in touch in 2023.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. This week I got to catch up with some great Aussie musos. Amy from Amyl & The Sniffers and the guys from Lime Cordiale dropped by. This week’s song is for the Member for Cook.

5&5: Ending the year strong