5&5: Housing party
It was the week we finally got the legislation to build more homes in Australia.
This week’s podcast guest is Labor Senator Jana Stewart, featuring an unexpected cameo from the Prime Minister. Make sure to have a listen.
Here’s the 5&5.
BEST
More housing for Australia
Is Robert Menzies an ally?
The High Court's Qantas findings
We're seeing a positive change in aged care
Michael Long
WORST
One Flew Over the Member for Cook-oo's Nest
Dutton's blatant lies and misinformation
The Greens policy hypocrisy
Question Time focus
The Opposition takes the low road
1. This week Julie Collins secured the most powerful legacy a Labor Housing Minister can deliver. There will be more social and affordable homes built this year and next year and for every year after that because the Housing Australia Future Fund has now been established. After being held up for far too long the legislation passed the Parliament on Thursday. The Coalition ~ unsurprisingly ~ dealt themselves out of the negotiations and voted no. As Julie Collins told the House:
2. You’ve heard the PM talk about the No-alition for a long time. And you’ve heard Labor member after Labor member talk about how the Coalition says no to everything. But I don’t think many of us expected that the PM would find a quote using Robert Menzies as an ally.
3. This week the High Court found that Qantas illegally sacked 1,700 workers back in 2020. At the time the Morrison government – including Michaelia Cash – said it was simply a commercial decision and refused to condemn it. But let’s not forget what happened at the time. Qantas was being paid JobKeeper to keep people in work. They then got a share of a special aviation support package. They then – while they were receiving JobKeeper for people to be paid – made people run down their annual leave. And then after six months of stand down these workers turned up to work to find they’d been sacked and because their leave had been run down they were paid less. I met with some of the workers on Wednesday - Damien, Gavin and Craig, who were later in the House for Question Time. As I said to them then, “you did nothing wrong. Qantas broke the law, and the government of the time left you stranded.”
4. We said we’d fix the crisis in aged care and we’re beginning to see that happen. On Wednesday Anika Wells told the House that there’s been a 66% increase in applications for aged care nursing roles and a 55% increase for personal care jobs ads. She also described what one aged provider, Uniting Care, had told her about people coming back to the industry.
5. Michael Long completed his Long Walk from Melbourne to Canberra in support of the referendum this week. On Thursday he finished his 650km journey on foot to Parliament House, surrounded by supporters. I think the PM summed it up so well. “Michael Long has walked a long way. He is asking Australians to walk just a short way or, to quote the Uluru statement, 'to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future'.”
1. On Monday the Opposition thought it smart to ask the PM if Alan Joyce had ever been to The Lodge or Kirribilli. He may well have, but it was when Scott Morrison was the Prime Minister. As the PM told the House: “The question should go to the Member for Cook, because he has never been at Kirribilli or the Lodge on my watch, not once. The last time he was there, Scott Morrison was the Prime Minister of Australia. The Leader of the Opposition went on 2GB last week and just asserted this to be a fact. It is a lie.”
2. A lot has been said about the misinformation from the No campaign. On Tuesday Peter Dutton became Exhibit A. He claimed Linda Burney had said the parliament can override the provisions of the Constitution”. Only problem for him, it was demonstrably untrue. Completely made up. Deliberate misinformation on live TV. And when it was put in front of him. He didn’t even have the character to withdraw or apologise.
As Mark Dreyfus told Question Time on Tuesday: “This Leader of the Opposition is the leader of a misinformation and disinformation campaign. He knows it. He has misled the people of Australia repeatedly throughout this campaign, and he should be ashamed of himself.”
3. On Wednesday Tanya Plibersek highlighted the policy hypocrisy of the Greens Party during Question Time. “The Greens party say they want no more coal and gas, but until recently they were happy to own shares in the banks that funded these projects … They say they want more renewable energy, but I've actually had more communication from Greens asking me to stop renewable energy projects than I've had support for renewable energy projects. They say they care about threatened species habitat. There's a Greens political party senator who wants to bulldoze koala habitat to build luxury holiday accommodation.”
4. Peter Dutton keeps claiming Labor is spending all of its time on the referendum and not enough on other issues. In Question Time this week Labor members asked questions about housing, wages, employment, the economy, aged care, the Murray Darling Basin, defence, energy, education, health, childcare, small business, foreign policy, infrastructure and the upcoming referendum. The Opposition meanwhile asked 18 questions about the Voice referendum, a handful about aviation and *zero* about the economy, cost of living or housing.
5. It wasn’t just in the questions. Every chance they had to divide, they took it. Whenever they had the chance to take the high road they avoided it. No-one summed it up better than Michelle Ananda-Rajah. “The low road leads to a dead end town called ‘More of the same’.”
Parliament doesn’t sit again until the 16th of October.
‘til then,
Tony
PS. This week’s song is Paul Kelly’s newest song “If Not Now”.
