There was an interesting pattern to speeches this week. Monday: we’re nearly on July 1. Tuesday: tomorrow is July 1. Thursday, yes, you guessed it, yesterday was July 1.

Here's the 5&5:

BEST

Higher wages
Lower taxes
Delivering cost-of-living relief
The National Environmental Protection Agency
Nakamal Agreement

WORST

Senator for Higher Taxes
Brand refresh by Scotty from Marketing
Axis of grievance
Copycats
Siding with the social media companies

1. Higher wages
From July 1, three million workers will now receive a well-deserved pay rise. Amanda Rishworth announced to the House during QT on Wednesday, “From today, millions of Australian workers will see a real boost to their pay, with the minimum wage rising above $1,000 a week for the first time. This is delivering real cost-of-living support for workers. Since the Albanese government came into office, we have advocated for an increase to the minimum wage every single time. That's five years in a row. Over the course of this government, workers on the minimum wage are now $12,000 better off because of our advocacy.”

2. Lower taxes
Also from July 1, we're putting more money in your pocket with more tax cuts. Plus, an extra $250 off working Australians’ tax bills permanently and a new $1,000 instant tax deduction, no receipts needed. As Jim Chalmers told the House on Wednesday, “We are delivering tax cuts. We're delivering help with the cost of living at the same time as we're delivering real change in the tax system to help first home buyers. Now, because today is 1 July, that means that there is another round of tax cuts delivered by this Albanese Labor government. All five of those tax cuts together mean about an extra $2,800 in the pockets of an average worker.”

3. Paid parental leave
On Tuesday the Fair Work Commission announced an increase of 4.75% to award wages and 6% to the National Starting next week, the Albanese Labor Government is extending paid parental leave to a full six months to give parents more time and support. To add to that, for the first time ever we've started paying super on top of that. Answering a question from Alicia Payne in QT, Tanya Plibersek summed it perfectly: “It's hard to remember that, before the Rudd and Gillard governments, Australia was one of the very few developed countries in the world that didn't have a paid parental leave scheme. Labor introduced it, Labor built it and its Labor that continues to expand it. From 1 July, so next week, parents with new beautiful little babies will get more time off with those babies. We're going to that full six months of paid parental leave.” With One Nation supposedly backflipping on their staunch opposition to supporting families, Tanya made it clear to the House: “We know that Australians want paid parental leave. It's only Labor that backs it.”

3. Delivering cost of living relief

You guessed it, from July 1, we’re delivering real change to help with the cost-of-living challenges Australians are facing. More bulk billing, permanent Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, cheaper medicines and free TAFE. We’ve also banned supermarket price gouging, extended the fuel excise, extended paid parental leave, ensured superannuation on paid parental leave, and so much more. As the PM said, “It's a big week for workers and families.”

4. The National Environmental Protection Agency
All the major environmental outcomes for this country have been delivered by Labor governments. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, the Franklin, the Daintree and Kakadu, marine national parks and the largest environmental protection decision in the history of the planet in the protection of the Antarctic. On Wednesday, after a long campaign, the Albanese Labor government established the first day of the National Environmental Protection Agency. Environment Minister Murray Watt put out a great explainer this week on why this matters. Watch it here.

5. Nakamal Agreement
On Monday, Australia and Vanuatu signed the historic Nakamal Agreement. It’s all about building a stronger and more secure Pacific. As the PM said, “It’s a win for Australia. A win for Vanuatu. And a win for our region.” Minister for Pacific Island Affairs, Pat Conroy, had a special message for our guests, “To Prime Minister Napat, his ministers and, through them, the people of Vanuatu, I say tankyu tumas. Ostrelia mo Vanuatu oli bambae fren forever. Australia and Vanuatu will forever be friends.”

1. Senator for Higher Taxes
Before Parliament even had a chance to sit on Monday, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Jane Hume, was out in the media calling our tax cuts for every working Australian "egregious". Penny Wong had the perfect response to a Liberal motion in the Senate: “They can't bear the fact that their deputy leader has been very clear about what their motivation is: tax cuts for working people are egregious. Did you ever need more of an indication of what the Liberal Party really think than that—that they believe that tax cuts are egregious."

2. Brand refresh by Scotty from Marketing
Appearing on Sky News on Monday, Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh suggested it was time the Liberal Party revisited its values, policies and had a complete brand refresh. Let’s just say these words didn't go unnoticed for long. Tanya Plibersek shot back, "The shadow minister says they should do a rebranding exercise. They're going to get Scotty from marketing back! He's going to ask modern Liberals where the hell they are! They don't get paid parental leave. They don't get it. They don't want it. On this side, we support higher wages for working families.”

3. Axis of grievance
Addressing his party room this week, Angus Taylor spoke about channelling ‘grievances’ and then, of course, choosing to do nothing about them. Offering no solutions and opposing every cost-of-living, tax relief measure for millions of Australian workers, the PM added a new term to our growing vocab describing the perpetual contrarians: “We're not just identifying issues; we're acting on them. That's what the job is. Unlike the three right-wing parties, the axis of grievance.”

4. Copycats
It's getting hard to decipher who leads and who follows when it comes to the three right-wing parties. With talks of preference deals and an expanded Coalition, I’m finding it hard to keep up. During QT on Wednesday, Daniel Mulino, talking about price gouging, summed it up best: “I have to say that Woolworths and Coles aren't the only Australian brands that closely monitor what their competition does. The three right-wing political parties opposite closely monitor each other, and they are closely converging on their product offering at the minute. While we can't stop all examples of brand copycats, we can do something about the big supermarkets and their price gouging.”

5. Siding with the social media companies
t’s been just over six months since Australia’s world-leading minimum age for social media came into effect, with more than five million under-age accounts deactivated. While there is more work to do to ensure platforms comply with the law, the Coalition this week chose to oppose important amendments and side with the big social media companies. Anika Wells expressed our collective disappointment perfectly: “Last night, the Leader of the Opposition and the coalition broke bipartisanship and sided with social media platforms over Australian parents. Last night, the coalition sold out Australian kids to some of the richest, most powerful companies in the world, giving them at least two more months to sharpen their legal strategy to get rid of documents and to continue to do the bare minimum to follow Australian law." Sharon Claydon, after Question Time on Thursday, gave a powerful speech reminding the Opposition on the need to put children’s safety before partisan interest. Definitely worth the watch.

Finally, best wishes to the Socceroos against Egypt tomorrow as fans around the country set their alarms bright and early to catch the game. By the time you receive this newsletter again, the World Cup will have a winner.

Parliament rises for the winter break and is back again on August 11.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. In honour of July 1, the song of the week is July by Hozier.

5&5: Save the date