We’re back again for the second week of sitting this fortnight with both the House and the Senate in full swing. It was a week of delivering real change.

Here’s the 5&5:

BEST

Gambling Reform Bill
NDIS Amendment Bill
News Bargaining Incentive Bill
Welcoming our neighbours
Permanent instant asset write-off for small business

WORST

Their opposition to a pay rise
Bragg’s Super drag
They should have listened to Ian
Dan Tehan’s lack of dignity
The end of the sitting fortnight

1. Gambling Reform Bill

The Parliament passed some really important legislation this week, including the Gambling Reform Bill. Anika Wells told the Chamber, “The Albanese Government has secured the passage through the Parliament of a practical, enforceable, and balanced package of gambling reforms, the most significant in Australia's history. We’ve listened to parents, sports fans, gambling harm reduction advocates, broadcasters, charities, and industries to pass these historic reforms.”

2. NDIS Amendment Bill

As Mark Butler told the House on Thursday, this week we were able to pass the “best possible set of laws to get the NDIS back on track”. Mark continued “Now, these are hard reforms, but they are absolutely essential because this wonderful scheme had got way off track…But the hard work that the Parliament did this week secures support for decades to come.”

3. News Bargaining Incentive Bill

This week we passed the News Bargaining Incentive Bill. It’s all about making the system fairer as Assistant Treasurer, Daniel Mulino told the House. “It gives digital platforms a clear incentive to do commercial deals with Australian news publishers rather than leaving publishers to negotiate from a weak position…The message of Australians is clear: The Albanese Government is backing the journalism that informs our democracy, that strengthens our communities, and that tells Australian stories to Australian audiences”

4. Welcoming our neighbours

It really has been a historic week of firsts in the Parliament. We welcomed Prime Minister Anutin of Thailand on his first trip to Australia as Prime Minister. As the PM told the House it comes as our two nations approach the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations next year. “Three-quarters of a century in which we have built deep connections based on friendship and goodwill. As friends, partners and neighbours, we have worked across trade and investment, law enforcement, education, agriculture, innovation and energy. It is a relationship that we value deeply and one that continues to pay dividends for both of our peoples.” Another close neighbour, a delegation from Tonga were welcomed to their first Question Time by Speaker Milton Dick on Wednesday, “For the first time in our Parliament's history I get to welcome the Lord Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga. To His Excellency Lord Vaea and his parliamentary delegation, malo e lava mai. Welcome to question time.”

5. Permanent instant asset write-off for small business

There are 2.7 million small businesses across Australia, but starting one isn’t easy. That's why we announced in this year's budget that we would make the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent and as of Thursday it is. Anne Aly told the House “What this means is that small businesses who want to invest in equipment, in machinery, in tools or in assets can do so with confidence…This is just one of the ways that we back small businesses because we know that small businesses back Australia.”

1. Their opposition to a pay rise

The opposition still believes that there are workers who shouldn’t even be on a minimum wage. But while they’re complaining, gig workers and the government were celebrating on Monday when the pay rise came through. Amanda Rishworth spoke about the historic outcome in the Chamber, “As of Monday, tens of thousands of food delivery drivers will now have a minimum hourly pay and, for some, that will be a pay boost of up to 25 per cent. This outcome is a result of the Albanese government's world-leading workplace laws, which laid the foundation for gig workers to achieve a guaranteed minimum pay.” But this isn’t just about the pay rise, it’s about delivering real change for thousands of working people. Answering a question from Alice Jordan-Baird, the Prime Minister explained, “These are people who, by definition, don't have a lot of power in their workplaces. The people who are delivering food or delivering products to someone's door contribute to making life easier for Australians, but they don't have a great deal of industrial power. What it took was a government prepared to act on their behalf.” Zaneta Mascarenhas also shared a great 90 second statement with the House on this. It’s been a long term campaign for many years, especially for the TWU, with people like Senator Tony Sheldon championing the reform for years.

2. Bragg’s Super drag

Better check under your bed. Apparently the communists are back. As the PM told the Chamber “Senator Bragg was talking about superannuation and said, ‘That's communism. … there'll be superannuation for cats and dogs soon’.” So maybe we’ll have to check in the kennel as well. Julie-Ann Campbell also had a great hit back in her 90 second statement, “It gives you a real insight into how this opposition, how the coalition and how One Nation think about superannuation, because the target of their policy contempt is a system built on fairness and sustainability.” She continued, “On this side of the Chamber, Labor are the proud inventors of superannuation. While we make superannuation better, all the parties of the right want to do is tear it down.”

3. They should have listened to Ian

Almost 20 years ago Ian, from Rowan Holzberger’s electorate (the Labor Member for Forde’s), wrote a letter to the editor of the Courier Mail in Queensland. You just have to read it for yourself, Ian wrote “Australia is facing one of the greatest social disasters possible—a generation of people who cannot afford their own home in the once lucky country… The legacy of the Government's pursuit of an ill-considered ideology will blight this country for several generations.” Rowan went on “Ian from Shailer Park, you are a genius. It's a shame that John Howard and Peter Costello didn't listen to you at the time, but it is a credit to the Albanese government that we have listened to first home buyers and we are doing real change to restore that Australian dream for all Australians.”

Dan Tehan’s lack of dignity

Okay, I'm not going to use the language. But all the talk about raising the standards in the Parliament collapsed this week when Dan Tehan tried to take Question Time to new lows. He was told to reframe and did almost the exact same thing again before he was booted out. The most extraordinary thing? This was the exact day that there were 150 members of the Federal Youth Parliament sitting in the gallery. Any one of them could have easily taken his place and improved the standard of the room instantly.

5. The end of the sitting fortnight

Okay, it might only be me, but I’m actually always sad when we get to the end of a sitting fortnight. So I’ve put this in worst, but Jo Briskey is on to me, she said. “I know many in this place are pretty excited about getting out of this building, perhaps with the exception of the Leader of the House.” Jo continued, “But for me I’ll be getting out on the doors tomorrow in Airport West to talk with them about another GP clinic that's opened up the road that is now fully bulk billing.” It may not be Parliament but it’s just as important.

So that's the end of the sitting fortnight, but not the end of the work that it created. Right at the end, in both the Senate and the Reps, we carried a resolution to establish a new Parliamentary committee to look at the impacts of artificial intelligence. AI carries massive opportunities, and also the importance of getting it right is essential to avoid some very real risks. We need to make sure that it delivers for workers, we need to make sure that we protect creators. As the Prime Minister said, “AI is here, it is changing the way that we work, how we function, how we live our lives, and that change is something that we must shape together in our national interest.” The committee will be chaired by Jo Briskey, the other members are, Senator Josh Dolega, Senator Tony Sheldon, Marielle Smith, Zaneta Mascarenhas and Tim Watts.

We’ll be back in a fortnight.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. Superannuation is one of those investments that builds year after year after year. By the time you reach retirement, it makes a fundamental difference to working people’s lives. Every day we defend super and on Tuesday, Gang of Youths released their new single, Things Take Time, the song of the week.

5&5: From minimum standards to none at all