Parliament was back in full swing this week. We had landmark health reforms, reaffirmed copyright protections and introduced critical environmental law reform. A lot happened.

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

Protecting our arts workers
Young voices matter
We’re delivering better health care for Australians
It’s a *Medicare* love story
Protecting your super

WORST

Raging bin fire
The art of compare and contrast
The report card’s in
Net zero slip up
Ley’s cracks in the foundation

1. Australian arts workers deserve protection from theft, as every Australian does. We have copyright laws for a reason and we have no intention of weakening them. On Monday, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland absolutely ruled out a text and data mining exemption in Australia’s copyright act. “A core Labor value is supporting Australian voices, Australian culture and Australian stories…The government stands behind Australia's creative industries. That is why we have ruled out a text and data mining exception, and that's to provide certainty for Australian creators.”

2. Across the House Members shared powerful letters they had received from young people in their electorates as part of Raise Your Voice in Parliament week. Claudia from Cairns shared her own mental health experience with Matt Smith, her Federal Member. After reading out her letter, Matt shared his own journey, “As someone who has a well-documented struggle with depression in my past, I want to say to Claudia, we hear you. We are listening. The Medicare mental health clinic in Cairns will be opening soon. Headspace plus will add another clinician. We know that young people in the far north have undergone stress with Cyclone Jasper and COVID. We have listened and we have acted. Claudia, we are on your side.” Many other Members of the Caucus shared their letters and they are all worth the watch, I’ve highlighted some below. Sarah Witty, Jess Teesdale, Madonna Jarrett, Mary Doyle, Julie-Ann Campbell, Claire Clutterham.

3. This Saturday will see the biggest ever investment in bulk billing in the history of Medicare. Which is why Mark Butler was surprised when he was asked whether we were bold enough on health reform. “This week is a particularly weird week for the Member to suggest this is not a government focused on bold reform. This is the week where we are debating a bill to introduce a Centre for Disease Control. This is the week when the Assistant Minister for Health is rolling out a whole range of new measures to deal with the neglect that has been there for so long around women's health. This is the week when we are introducing an entirely new aged care system under the leadership of the Aged Care Minister and at the end of this week we will be introducing and rolling out the biggest ever investment in bulk billing in the history of Medicare.”

4. Sally Sitou added a touch of Taylor Swift to her 90 second statement on Wednesday, “I love Medicare. The Prime Minister loves Medicare. Labor loves Medicare. Australians love Medicare. The only people that do not love Medicare are the Liberal Party and National Party because when they were in government they neglected Medicare for a decade…To summarise the difference - I would like to draw on inspiration from Taylor Swift. The Coalition and Medicare, they got Bad Blood. But for this Labor Government, with Medicare, it is a Love Story.”

5. Too many workers are not paid their superannuation that they're owed and on Wednesday, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Amanda Rishworth told the House what we’re doing to ensure working Australians are paid what they're entitled to. “We are continuing to safeguard the entitlements of Aussie workers through our payday super legislation, ensuring that their super is paid at the same time as their wages. Our payday super changes will ensure that super is paid earlier and more regularly into super accounts, giving people better oversight and bigger balances at retirement.”

1. According to google, the ‘co’ prefix in Coalition means "with" or "together," and the word is about uniting for a common purpose. Someone might want to remind them of that. Richard Marles pointed out just how rubbish the Coalition have been lately. “When we promise, we deliver, and we are producing a strong, unified, adult government. And that stands in stark contrast from what we are seeing from those opposite…They no longer speak with one voice. They are not a coherent political movement. They are just a bin fire, and that fire is burning so out of control that if they are not careful, it is liable to melt the bin.”

2. The opposition went to the last election with a nuclear policy that clearly wasn’t very popular and in the wash-up of that election defeat, we saw the blame game start. Chris Bowen reminded the House exactly where the opposition's priorities remain. “About the Nuclear Policy, Littleproud reportedly told party insiders that it was a way to "give us something to talk about on Sky", where late-night hosts were whipping up a long campaign against Labor's renewables focus. Well, there you have it. There are their priorities. We're about storing renewable energy for after dark; they're about appeasing 'Sky after dark'. We're about building policies to build the nation; they're about policies to beat One Nation. We're about expert reports; they're about the Bolt report. We care about credibility; they care about Credlin. This is the difference between our approach and their approach. This is why mainstream Australia sees them as increasingly out of touch with the challenges and opportunities of our economy.”

3. The House may not have been in its best form this week, however Parliament’s resident disciplinarian/Speaker was. Milton kicked off Monday with “When people are asking questions, don't interject. There are a lot of intelligent people here”. At that moment the Chamber collapsed into fits of laughter. He then went on, “Well, in the gallery there are!” On Tuesday he followed with, “For goodness sake. After I just told the Chamber to lift standards, to have that carry on. Everyone do better today”. If Parliament were a classroom, this week’s report card reads: needs improvement.

4. You need to see this Freudian slip. Speaking on triple zero, the Nationals Member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster revealed what’s really been on her mind. “No connectivity means no net zero. Sorry, no triple zero, full stop. That was a very, very- at that moment someone interjected, “it’s on the mind!” Anne continued, “Yeah, it is on the mind.”

5. On Thursday, Susan Ley thought it would be a good idea to ask the Acting Prime Minister a question on housing. She stated, “The dream of homeownership has become a nightmare for millennials and Gen Z who have no hope of ever owning under Labor.” I mean, seriously. Richard didn’t miss a beat. “In the nine years that those opposite were in government, the number of social and affordable houses they constructed was 313. In nine years. What we have done is the biggest investment in housing we have seen from a federal government. The Housing Australia Future Fund is a critical part because we care about providing affordable housing in this country and what we have over this side is enormous hypocrisy and a massive gap between what they say and do but the Australian people saw through it.”

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

‘til then,

Tony

PS. This week Jack River, Kate Ceberano, Narelda Jacobs and Sam Hales from The Jungle Giants stopped by Parliament and we had a very quick jam session. So, in honour of them here’s Fools Gold from Jack River, Brave from Kate Ceberano, Heavy Hearted from the Jungle Giants and if you haven’t caught Narelda on SBS’s Big Backyard Quiz, give it a watch.

5&5: Love will tear us apart