5&5: Divisions and Division

Parliament was back in full swing this week. A lot happened.

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

  1. A huge win for our environment

  2. Payday super

  3. Backing Aussie stories

  4. My beard, my beard, my kingdom for a beard…

  5. A musical week at Parliament House ft. Missy Higgins

WORST

  1. Bad question, great answer

  2. The Wilson Government Manifesto

  3. Losing his cool

  4. It’s the overreach that gets you

  5. ‘The No-alition of Chaos’

2. This week, Payday Super became law - giving a lifetime boost to Australians’ super balances. As the Prime Minister said in Question Time on Monday, “Payday super passed the House, giving a lifetime boost to Australians’ super balances. That was never done by those opposite. We are empowering the ATO to identify and follow up unpaid super so that it’s paid fairly. We’ve made changes to lift the low-income super tax offset to $810 and to increase the eligibility threshold from $37,000 to $45,000. All of these measures, under this Treasurer [Jim Chalmers] and the Assistant Treasurer [Daniel Mulino], are strengthening superannuation. That is what Labor governments do.”

3. On Thursday, we introduced legislation to ensure Australian content gets a fair go on Australian screens. As I said to the House, “this bill will guarantee Australians will have access to Australian stories, now and into the future—it will ensure that no matter which remote control you're holding, Australian stories will be at your fingertips. Australians will see themselves, know each other and the world will meet us.”

4. Walking the halls of Parliament you see a lot of familiar faces. But I hardly recognised one this week without his iconic beard. Member for Hunter Dan Repacholi went under the clippers in the name of charity this week, a commendable pursuit… but it sounds like he’s ready to regrow already. “Last week, my beard hit the deck after a solid innings of 12½ years. I first started growing it when my beautiful wife was pregnant with my first daughter, Zoe. Thanks to some incredible supporters, we raised over $125,000 for some amazing charities. [...] But the shave wasn't just about losing the beard; it was about showing what we can do as a group when we rally together, and we did that in the Hunter. So, if anyone's got any beard-growing tips out there, I need them, because I need to cover this bad boy again.”

2. In QT on Wednesday, a procedural meltdown over points of order ended with Alex Hawke losing his temper and shouting across the chamber: “You are hopeless… If ‘lying’ is in order then ‘lying’ is in order.” The Speaker called time, ordered withdrawals, and reminded everyone that Question Time is meant to test arguments - not blood pressure.

3. I don’t often keep up with Tim Wilson’s Facebook, so I almost missed the manifesto of a ‘Wilson government’. The centre piece of the platform: a public holiday that already exists in Victoria. How soon should we expect a Wilson Government you ask? On Tuesday, Amanda Rishworth gave the response in Question time: ‘Workers [outside of Victoria] probably shouldn't put this public holiday in their diary just yet, because, according to a recent poll, even the Independent member for Wentworth is a more preferred Liberal leader than the member for Goldstein!’

4. Kevin Hogan from the Nationals asked a question on Tuesday to Chris Bowen with a quote that sounded like it was going to be a problem for the government. But Chris knew the full quote and was straight on his feet:  “I thank the honourable member for his question and I thank him for quoting the Rio chief executive officer. I think it would have been better, however, if he'd not stopped mid-sentence in that quote. The member for Page read out part of the quote. [Chief executive officer] Mr Dozol said, 'Unfortunately, all market proposals received so far show future energy prices are not commercially viable'—but there's not a full stop in the quote; there's a comma. He goes on to say, 'and there is significant uncertainty about when renewable projects will be available at the scale we need.' The point is that Rio and Tomago are arguing for more renewables, not less. They are not blaming renewables. They're calling for us to do more, and we agree with them. The opposition are the ones out of touch. The opposition are the ones who are so desperate that they actually have to cut a sentence halfway to make their case.” He followed this up the next day with a characteristic one-liner that I can’t help but tack on the end here: “The party of Harold Holt is now the party of Andrew Bolt.”

5. On Monday, the PM reintroduced a classic in the political dictionary: “the Noalition.” After the Coalition raised a point of order objecting to the label, the PM clarified: “The Noalition is just a word describing people who are against everything. It does not refer to the Coalition necessarily, or the Greens political party. It is a self-identification from that point of order. They object to everything. But it has expanded, Mr Speaker, because now we have people who say no to everything that the government puts forward but they also say no to everything that each other put forward as well.” They couldn’t have staged a better demonstration if they tried.

On Thursday, when debating Murray Watt’s environment legislation, we reached 40 divisions. I informed the House the most ever divisions took place during an overnight sitting in 1935 when there were 83 divisions: ‘If anyone wishes to break the record and stay here for a late night, let me know.’ The opposition members looked back at me, and all they wanted was to get out of the room as quickly as they could.

This week, the Melbourne Cup began and finished during Question Time, but we still got to hear a riveting race call in the chamber this week from Michael McCormack: have a listen here.

We’re back next week with both the House and the Senate sitting.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. The song of the week was sung in Parliament House this week and pitched up by Sally Sitou, here’s Missy Higgins’ Scar.

Tony Burke