We learnt this week that the Greens Party have made a decision to team up with the Coalition against the Government’s agenda. They had a chance to vote on our Housing Australia Future Fund and instead of supporting tens of thousands of new homes – sided with the Libs and the Nats to defer a vote in the Senate. More on that later.

On the podcast this week is the Member for Paterson, Meryl Swanson. Check it out here.

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

The Referendum Bill passed the Senate
Linda Burney's perfect response
Teal tries to trip the PM
The Opposition's mug shots
Kermit the Frog was wrong!

WORST

Max Chandler-Mather...again...
The Greens' approach to housing
Warren Entsch
Barnaby Joyce's sound effects
Peter Dutton's pitiful MPI

1. On Monday the Referendum Bill passed the Senate. After many hours of debate in both chambers of Parliament Australians will now get to vote at a referendum later this year. As Linda Burney said just after the Constitution Alteration Bill passed. “It's on. We are one step closer to finally recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our nation's founding document.”

2. Answering a question from the Libs on Wednesday about the referendum – Linda Burney had the perfect response in the face of their ongoing opposition. “I am not interested in culture wars; I am interested in closing the gap.”

3. The teal member for Curtin, Kate Chaney, thought it would be a good idea to ask the PM about political donations this week. I don’t think she’ll be doing that again any time soon. Here’s how he responded: “There was a lot more money raised for the Curtin campaign than there was for Grayndler. I do make that point.”

4. Remember when the Libs came to office promising budget surpluses as far as the eye could see? I’m sure you remember how that went - zero for nine. This year, however, we are delivering a budget surplus. As the Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Question Time on Thursday, “That's because surpluses aren't made of mugs and they aren't made of memes. They're delivered through the responsible economic management and spending restraint that would be unrecognisable to the economic failures who sit over there.”

5. Jason Clare had a great response when answering the Greens this week. It was a question about higher education, but his answer really could have been about any policy area. “Kermit the Frog was wrong: it is easy being Green because you can promise the world and you don't have to deliver anything.”

1. On Wednesday the PM gave an answer referring to an article where the Green Party’s housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, had written that effectively it was good to delay the money for our housing bill because it was helping the Greens Party to organise. At the end of Question Time Max stood up and claimed he’d been misrepresented and that the quotes from the PM weren’t right. When asked to table the document – even though he’s just said he knows exactly what was in it – he says he doesn’t have a copy with him. Within seconds the Prime Minister stands up with his own copy of the article and before tabling it reads some of the words out loud:

“This parliamentary conflict helps create the space for a broader campaign in civil society.”

“While Parliament has debated the HAFF, the Greens have also launched a national door-knocking campaign targeted at Labor-held federal electorates.”

2. The Prime Minister summed up the Greens Party’s whole approach to Housing during QT on Monday. “Those in that corner deal in protests. We deal in progress. They see issues to campaign on. We see challenges to act on. They want to build their profile. We want to build more homes. Building a brand doesn't put a roof over anyone's head. Families can't take shelter under a petition. When you want work done, call for the Labor Party.”

3. There were media reports this week that in 2021 – during the Delta wave of the COVID pandemic – the LNP MP for the seat of Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, arranged for a local property developer to travel to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait to receive a dose of the Pfizer vaccine, despite not being eligible according to the advice at the time. According to the reports, the developer was also a Coalition donor - donating more than $300,000 ahead of the last election. Mark Butler outlined the circumstances in the House on Monday. At the end of Question Time Warren Entsch stood up and started talking about all the donations that this particular person had ever made. Some people were encouraging me to take a point of order to sit him down, but my view was - when someone’s on a tirade like that, just let them go.

4. There isn’t a weirdest category in the 5&5, so I guess this one goes into the worst. Barnaby Joyce out-Barnaby-Joyce’d himself this week. On Monday he delivered a speech, not only with words, but with sound effects. It was aimed at Josh Burns, with references to bees followed by buzzing sounds, references to wind towers followed by squeaking sounds, and the hand gestures were a quality form of interpretative dance. “Here they come, a few transmission lines, buzzing all night over your house—a bit of a bee field happening there—and you're going to have your wind towers. Once they start rusting, they'll be squeaking for the rest of your life, or they'll be struck by lightning.” Unfortunately Hansard didn’t record the sound effects Barnaby added in, but Josh’s office did capture them in this video.

5. I said last week that I was thinking about turning up to the Opposition’s tactics meeting. After their efforts in Question Time this week, I’m not even sure they have one. Take this for example: Peter Dutton decided to ask about preferences. The PM didn’t miss with his answer. “I really do thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. The Leader of the Opposition, who relies upon One Nation preferences, who goes out there and defends Clive Palmer and all these far-right groups, is asking a question about where preferences go.”

The Debate straight after Question Time is called the MPI (Matter of Public Importance). It’s usually a standard thing for the Leader of the Opposition to do one every few weeks. Peter Dutton had one that went bad for him in the first week after the election and then he refused to do one again. Until Thursday. He thought he was going to get a free run spreading misinformation about the referendum. What he didn’t bank on was that the first person to respond to him was going to be the Prime Minister. I reckon it’s a fair bet it’ll be a long time before Peter Dutton leads another MPI.

Parliament’s back at the end of July.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. This week’s song of the week is in honour of those Josh Frydenberg mugs Jim Chalmers was referring to in Question Time on Thursday.

5&5: The purpose of mugs