5&5: And they're off

We’re back for a busy first half of the sitting fortnight.

This is Angus Taylor’s first week as Opposition Leader and let's just say, he’s not off to a great start. For once he and his mates had a plan, it just turned out to not be a very good one. They chose to stick to a single topic no matter what, even with everything else going on in the world, cost of living and the economy. It was not his best move.


Let's get into it, here's the 5&5.


BEST

  1. The PM turns 30 [in Parliament]!

  2. Record low gender pay gap

  3. New chair, same story

  4. We’re delivering for the regions

  5. Labor backs work-from-home

WORST

  1. Liberal reading material

  2. Tim Wilson will never be in our band

  3. Wayback Machine (aka the Liberal Party Policy Unit)

  4. Questions to the Speaker and standing orders

  5. Censure motion

1. Monday was a day to celebrate as we marked the birthdays of Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese and the 30th anniversary of the Prime Minister becoming the Member for Grayndler. Proud as ever the PM told ABC 7.30, “it's a great honour and privilege every single day that I've been the Member for Grayndler and no better than being Prime Minister in the best country on Earth.” Happy birthday and congratulations, PM.

2. With more women in leadership roles, our government is making progress for every Australian woman. We've expanded paid parental leave, added super to it, and lifted pay for workers in women dominated industries. Representing the Minister for Women, Catherine King told the House, “Across the economy, the ABS gender pay gap has now been brought to a historic low, with the gap being reduced to 11.5% When we came to government in 2022, it was at 14.2%.” This isn’t by accident, we’ve worked hard, we've seen real progress and there's more to do.

3. This week was Angus Taylor’s first in the Opposition Leader’s seat. He might even say: “Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus”. Except, as Murray Watt and Sally Sitou reminded both the Senate and the House, you can change your seat, but you can’t change your record on Medicare, tax cuts and climate action. New chair, same story.


4. Kristy McBain had a great one on Tuesday. Asked about what we’re doing to deliver for regional Australians, she shared a review from Micah in Bega who took her son to the new Bega Medicare Urgent Care Clinic and said it was ‘life changing’. Kristy went on, “Speaking of reviews, I read with great interest the review of the election campaign of the Liberal Party. Much to my surprise, there was not one mention of the regions in that review's recommendations. The Liberal Party did identify that they have even more problems with the female vote, but they promptly rolled their first female leader who's from regional Australia.” After being interrupted by a point of order, Kristy delivered the final blow, “As I said, their approach to the regions was that they didn't have one. But you do you, guys. On this side of the House, we'll keep delivering real infrastructure, real investment in education and real investment in health.”

5. Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of the Coalition's announcement to ‘ban work-from-home’. I mean seriously, how they thought that policy would ever pass the pub test is beyond me. Catherine King, Ali France and Amanda Rishworth all shared the same sentiment and had some excellent takes. They’re all worth the watch

1. There was no shortage of Liberal Party reading material in Question Time this week. Four days after the Liberals chose to conceal their 2025 election review, it was leaked. On Monday the Prime Minister assisted the House and tabled the review “about the diabolical campaign that they ran” which achieved their worst result in 70 years. Jason Clare followed up the next day by tabling a submission from the Young Liberals themselves. When even the youth wing is writing the post-mortem, you know it’s been a rough campaign.

2. There are two things we learnt this week about Tim Wilson. The first is that he fancies himself as a singer, belting out Billy Joel’s song ‘We didn’t start the fire’. He might have done better singing ‘You may be right, I may be crazy’. The second is that he chose to get rich by placing a bet that the Australian economy would fall. As Jim Chalmers told the House on Wednesday,  ‘He has invested in shares which ensure the worse the Australian market and economy performs the more money he makes out of it. Those are the facts.’ Wilson after Question Time blamed the register of interests not being updated, however Ed Husic sprang to his feet to point out to Members why that's an odd claim.


3. In Question Time on Wednesday, Mark Butler noted the now infamous Liberal election review manages to avoid mentioning Medicare altogether. But as he reminded the House, the internet never forgets:  “I was directed to a machine called the Wayback Machine, which I thought was the Liberal Party policy unit but in fact is a tool that, very usefully, has preserved all of the Leader of the Opposition's greatest hits: his support for the GP tax from Peter Dutton, cheering Sussan Ley's Medicare freeze, arguing that a higher GST is 'good policy.”


4. This week the Coalition asked barely any questions on the economy or cost of living measures. For reasons only known to them, they chose to use their time to ask questions to the Speaker. As Milton Dick reminded the House, on the rare occasions when a question is for the Speaker, they are meant to be about the operation of the House - not a running commentary on proceedings. Watch it here.


5. Every act of bigotry flies in the face of who we are as Australians. This is why every elected official who claims to care about national security has a responsibility to turn the temperature down. In response to some reprehensible comments, I was proud that the Senate chose to stand up to hatred. Penny Wong said it best.

I have to mention that on Thursday we had the privilege of hosting the Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada in Parliament during his first official visit to Australia as Prime Minister. He gave an incredible address to the House, which you can watch here.

That’s all for this week. Both the House and the Senate will be back sitting from Tuesday. 


‘til then,

Tony

PS. In honour of Tim Wilson betting against the Australian economy, the song of the week is Million Man by the Rubens - who I should mention stopped by Parliament this week.

Tony Burke