5&5: Smile like you mean it

Another big week in Parliament - the last sitting before the Budget.

In case you’ve missed it - there’s also a 5&5 Live Podcast these days. My guest this week is the Minister for Education, Jason Clare - you can listen and subscribe here.

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

  1. Peter Dutton cracking a smile?

  2. Bridget McKenzie’s self-awareness

  3. Two great first speeches

  4. Daniel Mulino’s Little Britain zinger

  5. Madeleine King’s Greens smack down

WORST

  1. The Liberals' deliberate design feature to keep wages low

  2. Peter Dutton or a nuclear reactor?

  3. A policy so bad that even their own party won’t support it

  4. Barnaby Joyce

  5. The Opposition’s inability to preselect women

1. There are certain people who are often not happy. Peter Dutton is one of them. But during an answer Jason Clare was giving on Monday - Dutton cracked a smile. Jason was straight onto it, though it didn’t last long.

“Are you smiling? I've never seen you so happy. Come on, smile a bit more … Now he's angry, like a try-hard Tony Abbott: all the anger without the onion. Come on, hurry up, Mr Smiles."

2. Full points for self-awareness go to Bridget McKenzie for this tweet. She’s right. The Coalition did shut down manufacturing in this country.

3. We had two excellent first speeches in Parliament this week. Varun Ghosh in the Senate and Jodie Belyea in the House. They’re both worth a read or a watch.

4. We had two excellent first speeches in Parliament this week. Varun Ghosh in the Senate and Jodie Belyea in the House. They’re both worth a read or a watch.

5. Adam Bandt threw a particularly aggressive question at Madeleine King on Wednesday. I don’t think he’ll make that mistake again. Here’s Madeleine’s response.

“This Government is taking action from the moment we got elected as a party of government, not a party of protests like the Greens political party to take action to address dangerous climate change. And the leader of the Greens political party comes in here and has a little chitchat about Sodastream and bubbles that might be in Coca Cola and other soft drinks, as if it's the same thing as dangerous climate change caused by carbon dioxide. The Greens political party and its leader has gone too far – you're ridiculous and you should just stop it."

1. The Liberals spent a decade in Government deliberately keeping wages low. We know that because they admitted it, saying it was a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture. They might be in Opposition now, but they haven’t changed. Jane Hume, the Opposition’s Finance spokesperson was quick out the gate this week arguing against our submission to the Annual Wage Review, saying:

“The Labor Government wants minimum wages to go higher as a cost of living measure”. In Question Time on Monday the PM shot back “You bet we do!"

2. The Opposition have gone nuclear – finally landing their 23rd energy policy. Talking about Peter Dutton and his policy on Wednesday the PM compared them this way.

"One is risky, expensive, divisive and toxic and the other is a nuclear reactor.”

3. The strangest part of the Opposition’s nuclear policy is they can’t actually even get their own MPs to back it. As Chris Bowen explained:

“Today we've seen 12 local members of great conviction say they fully support nuclear policy … as long as it's not in their electorates. I won't go through them all. The Member for Hinkler had an interesting reason: 'I have some technical reasons that would make it unlikely. We don't have a power station, we don't have the infrastructure, and we have earthquakes.' My favourite was the member for Menzies, who said, 'No reasonable person would suggest putting them right where people live.' So we're narrowing it down. It's going to be six electorates with a power station, infrastructure, no earthquakes and no people. I know there's a redistribution coming, but I doubt it's going to produce six electorates with nobody living in them."

4. On Tuesday Catherine King and Chris Bowen announced our new vehicle efficiency standards - to make sure that Australians pay less for fuel when they fill up. They held a press conference alongside the head of Toyota who welcomed the policy. Less than an hour later Barnaby Joyce was up in Question Time asking about the cost. The backbench erupted – with everyone interjecting about the price of lamb legs and whether or not Whyalla had been wiped out. The Opposition are trying to whip up a scare campaign calling this a tax. The only thing is that immediately before QT the head of Toyota had just been asked whether it was. His response: “No.” Who do you believe? The head of Toyota or Barnaby Joyce?

5. Catherine King had a great week - on Monday she summed up the difference between us and them when it comes to delivering for Australian women. It couldn’t be starker.

“That is what happens when women sit around the cabinet table, when women are preselected and when women are in the majority in the party room. Delivering for women is in Labor's DNA. That's why we've delivered paid parental leave reforms. It's why we're so focused on closing the gender pay gap across Australia. It's why we want women's retirement income, making sure superannuation is paid on paid parental leave so that women's retirement incomes are not affected by their time out of the workforce having children. These things matter. All of these things are issues that the Liberal and National parties have been, frankly, absolutely incapable of doing. You have to wonder if that is because of their inability to preselect women and have women in the party room."

We won’t be back until the Budget - where our focus is on Australians earning more and keeping more of what they earn. Peter Dutton and the Liberals want Australians to work longer for less.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. Song of the week is for Peter Dutton. “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers.

Tony Burke