Sorry I didn’t send you an email last sitting week - I was sick.

This week we were all back for a week that was pretty rugged, without many lighter moments.

The podcast guest this week is the Labor member for Bean, Dave Smith. You can listen here.

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

Robodebt Royal Commission response
Littleproud’s not so proud moment
World’s worst TED talk
Press releases instead of public infrastructure
Government and crossbench unite against hate speech

WORST

One of the darkest days I've seen
The difference between words and action
Fletch’s floundering filibuster
The Opposition’s shrinking before our eyes
Alex’s not so Hawke eye

1. On Monday the Government handed down its response to the Robodebt Royal Commission, accepting all 56 recommendations. Not surprisingly we heard crickets from the other side. As the PM told Question Time that day, “This is the pathology of those opposite, the party of Robodebt; cutting the humans out of Human Services and replacing them with a system that sent people notices and threats for debts which they did not owe. They ripped the social justice out of Social Services".

2. If you’re going to interject while the Prime Minister’s talking about trade agreements – you should probably reflect on your own record. The PM took an interjection from David Littleproud and hit back. “You had good trade agreements; you just didn't have any trade! That was the problem! You had Ministers who couldn't get a return phone call from their counterparts; that's what you had over there—but really good agreements!"

3. The Opposition’s energy spokesman Ted O’Brien has a really weird obsession with nuclear energy. Ted is such a fan of nuclear he even went to Hirsohima to film a video about its benefits. He’s been pushing the case for small nuclear reactors for a while now. The gold standard example he often brings up is the NuScale reactor in Idaho. Bad news for Ted last week though, when we got the news that it was being canceled last week due to cost blowouts! Here’s how Chris Bowen reacted: “We know the Member for Fairfax is a big fan of small modular nuclear reactors. He does his little videos. They are the world's worst TED Talks, those videos!”

4. Imagine you announce you’re going to buy something but you never actually offer the money to pay for it. That’s exactly what the Liberals and Nationals did when they were in government with one infrastructure project after another. Catherine King called it out this week, saying “they have been all press release and no delivery.”

5. After a week of divisive rhetoric from the Opposition we finished on Thursday with a pretty special moment. The MPI was put forward by the crossbench and it was about bringing the community together and opposing hate speech. There were 11 speeches. All of them promoting unity and many of them involving people – like me – who represent communities deeply affected by the conflict in the Middle East. Every one of the speeches was genuine, personal and heartfelt. It was Parliament at its best. Crossbenchers and Government members spoke. No members of the Opposition spoke.

1. Wednesday was one of the darkest days I've seen in the House in my nearly 20 years here. Peter Dutton moved a suspension of standing orders that conflated a rise in anti-Semitism with a completely unrelated High Court decision and the PM’s attendance at the APEC Leaders’ Summit. Instead of seeking to unite the community, Peter Dutton decided to divide it, using anti-Semitism as an opportunity to score political points. The PM gave one of the most passionate speeches I’ve ever seen from him. In it he summed up Dutton’s approach perfectly. “There is no issue too big for him to show how small he is.”

2. Clare O’Neil showed the difference between getting something done and empty rhetoric when speaking on the Home Affairs visa legislation on Thursday: “I would say to the Leader of the Opposition, you can pretend to be a tough guy all you like but words don't make our country safer, good laws do.”

3. On Monday Paul Fletcher managed something I have never seen before. Michaelia Cash had gone to extraordinary effort to get four private senators’ bills from the Senate across to the House. They were all photocopies of different parts of my Closing Loopholes legislation. When the Bills arrived I just assumed someone would move that they be made an order of the day. Then they’d appear on the notice paper and the Opposition could try to bring the bills on. I actually helped them out by moving the first one myself. But then Fletch happened.

For reasons I’ll never understand Fletcher decided to filibuster the debate with a bunch of Coalition speeches and ran out of time to make it an order of the day. So the motion and the Bill both lapsed.

Three more to go. When the second Bill arrived I paused to let Fletcher move the next one. He thinks I’m up to something, so doesn’t do anything. No one else says anything, no one moves it. So it doesn’t go onto the notice paper - it just disappears. Third Bill - and the Speaker actually says to Fletcher that all he needs to do is move that the Bill be made an order of the day. Having been told that Fletcher decides – for some reason – to move a suspension of standing orders, which obviously doesn’t get carried. So Bill three is now gone as well.

Last chance! Having had three bills not go on the notice paper - when the fourth one comes up, he repeats his strategy from the third and moves a suspension of standing orders. Funnily enough - he got the same outcome! Four Bills - not one of them ended up on the notice paper. Meaning none of them can be debated or progressed. I wonder who was the one who had to tell Michaelia Cash?! I would have loved to have been nearby when she found out about this one…

4. There was another change to seating arrangements in the House this week as longtime Liberal MP Russell Broadbent announced he’d be going to the crossbench. At the election Peter Dutton held 58 seats between the Libs and Nats. As of this week he holds just 55 – after Andrew Gee went to the crossbench last year and Alan Tudge resigned, causing a byelection which Mary Doyle won for Labor. But not only is he losing members, he’s also been losing shadow ministers. Six in fact! Stuart Robert, Julian Leeser, Karen Andrews, Marise Payne, Andrew Gee and Alan Tudge - all gone. The Opposition has a shrinking party room, a shrinking frontbench and an Opposition Leader who – with his behaviour on Wednesday – is shrinking before our eyes.

5. Wow I got this wrong. When people have asked me who the Liberals should make Manager of Opposition Business instead of Paul Fletcher – if they were smart – I’ve been telling them I reckon Alex Hawke is the best they’ve got. Then this clanger. He took a point of order on a question being answered by Catherine King, saying it was out of order because it asked about the Liberal and National parties, which aren’t the responsibility of the minister. Here’s the problem. The question actually asked about ending the rorts of the Liberals and Nationals – and that is absolutely a Commonwealth responsibility.

We’re getting close to the end of the year now. So it’s one week off and then we’re back for the final full sitting week of the House of Reps. I’ll write to you then.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. Song of the week is in honour of Paul Fletcher’s miraculous capacity to take all of Michaelia Cash’s work on private Senator’s bills and send them into oblivion. Here is Talking Heads’ “Road To Nowhere”.

5&5: Fletcher’s road to nowhere