5&5: Hammer and sickle
The final sitting week before the winter break.
My guest on the podcast this week is Minister for Industry and Science, and Member for Chifley, Ed Husic. You can listen the the latest episode here.
Here’s the 5&5.
BEST
Cost of living relief
A stark choice
A Future Made In Australia
Aged care progress
Same Job, Same Pay
WORST
Supermarket shambles
Nuclear shambles
Headlines
Fantastic. Great job. Well done Angus.
Three cracks
1. We spent the week firmly focused on the cost of living help we’re delivering for all Australians. Tax cuts, pay rises, electricity price relief, cheaper medicines, an expansion of paid parental leave. All the stuff Peter Dutton voted against. No wonder he looked even angrier than usual this week.
2. What is Mr Dutton offering as an alternative to our measures? Prime Minister Anthony Albanese summed it up perfectly on Monday: “They've got a tax policy designed to roll back tax cuts, they've got an IR policy designed to reduce wages, they've got a fiscal strategy designed to rack up debt, they've got a housing policy designed to wreck super, they've got a health policy designed to destroy Medicare, and they've got a nuclear reactor plan designed to jack up power prices.”
3. “Jobs up, emissions down, stronger economy.” That was Ed Husic’s description of our Future Made in Australia legislation, which was introduced into the House on Wednesday. This is about building back Australia’s manufacturing sector so we make things here and create good, secure jobs in the process. It’s about reducing Australia’s dependency on international supply chains so we can stand on our own two feet again. It’s another great policy Peter Dutton has vowed to vote against.
4. Anika Wells announced the Government has reached another milestone in our mission to fix the aged care mess we inherited: “Right now there is a registered nurse on site in aged care 99 percent of the time across the country in Australia.” That means our older Australians are getting more care. It means a reduction in the use of physical restraints, a reduction in the number of falls and a reduction in unplanned weight loss. Aged care facilities are also improving their star ratings standards and aged care workers are being paid more than ever before.
5. Last year there was a big fight in Parliament over our Same Job, Same Pay policy. We argued that while labour hire has a legitimate use, companies shouldn’t be able to use it as a loophole to cut pay. This week the Fair Work Commission handed down its first decision, which means hundreds of labour hire workers at a mine in central Queensland will be better off. Meryl Swanson asked me about it in Parliament and I explained: “These were workers who attended the same meetings but were paid less, who operated the same machines but were paid less, who wore the same uniform to work but were paid less, who followed instructions from the same managers but were paid less, who used the exact same roster but were paid less, who were in the same production crews but were paid less, who shared the same crib facilities but were paid less, who undertook the same training but were paid less and who did the same job but were not given the same pay.” Now they will be.
1. The Opposition were a complete shambles this week. While we were delivering a Future Made In Australia the Opposition were delivering Policy Made In Moscow. On Tuesday Mr Dutton and Nationals Leader David Littleproud made an “announcement” about supermarket divestiture. Question Time started a few minutes later and we assumed their new policy would be the focus of their attack. Instead - they didn’t even mention it. Not once. We later learned why: the policy is such a half-baked mess it split their party room, caused an internal revolt and sparked warnings it would make groceries more expensive. The policy is such a dog we wrote our own questions about it so we could draw attention to it. The PM said: “Menzies tried to ban the Communist Party. They want to adopt the Communist Party model. They want publicly-owned energy through nuclear energy and now they want publicly-owned supermarkets.” Jason Clare added to the theme later in the week: “Howard and Costello have been replaced by the hammer and sickle.”
2. Oh yeah, remember that other big Dutton policy about nuclear reactors? The Opposition didn’t mention it in Question Time this week. Reckon they’ve realised that betting everything on a risky, unproven, unpopular and expensive policy that will force up power prices wasn’t such a great idea after all?
3. Jim Chalmers delivered a savage assessment of their policy offerings: “The primary purpose of each new announcement seems to be to distract from the announcement that they made a few weeks ago. Let me give you a sense of that. Even a cursory look at the headlines gives you a sense of the shambles: “Angus Taylor further confuses Coalition's migration message”; “Taylor changes script on Dutton's immigration cuts”; “Taylor at odds with leader on migration targets in shambolic post-budget appearance”; “Peter Dutton vetoes the Nationals and Greens supermarket plan” - before he announces it. “Dutton supermarket push leaves some colleagues feeling ambushed”; “Peter Dutton says tax cut plan too costly” - the plan the Shadow Treasurer has announced. My favourite is "He is not incompetent - Dutton backs Taylor."
4. Poor Angus. You might be getting the impression he doesn’t get his way in the Coalition party room very often. As Chris Bowen put it: “We have seen the Shadow Treasurer rolled more often than a pair of dice at a games party.”
5. The Nationals’ David Gillespie asked a question about utes. I think. It didn’t make much sense the first time, the second time or the third time he asked it. The PM remarked: “He had three cracks and I’m still not sure what the question was.”
I didn't want to include this in the list, but I do want you to know about it.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives carried the following resolution: “That this House endorses the Government's position to support the recognition of the State of Palestine as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace."
It was carried by a vote of 81-55, voting in favour was Labor, Kate Chaney, Zoe Daniel, Helen Haines, Dai Le, Monique Ryan, Sophie Scamps, Zali Steggall and Kylea Tink.Voting against were the Liberals, Nationals, Greens, Bob Katter and Allegra Spender.
There were some extraordinary speeches, you can download and listen to some below.
Anne Aly | Josh Burns | Zoe Daniel | Ged Kearney | Peter Khalil
Obviously, I'm sad that one of our Labor Senators resigned from the party this week. I've said more about it in the podcast.
This is the final week of sitting as we head into winter break. Both the House and the Senate will be back in August.
‘til then,
Tony
PS. In honour of Jim Chalmer’s take down of Angus Taylor, the song of the week is Headlines by The Living End.
