5&5: The house that Albo built

Parliament is back and it’s Budget week. We had some great Budget commitments that are going to make a real difference for Australians. A lot happened, let's get into it.

Here's the 5&5.

BEST

  1. Helping the next generation of first home buyers

  2. More cost of living relief

  3. Strengthening Medicare

  4. 4.6 gigalitres of water returned to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan

  5. Hastie might need an ice pack for that burn 🔥

WORST

  1. Angus Taylor’s Budget reply

  2. He may have a selective memory

  3. Poor Dan

  4. He thinks he can, he thinks he can 🚂

  5. Dog whistles and open doors

1. We’re reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax to help level the playing field. Minister for Housing, Clare O’Neil explained how this is the next step in our housing plan. “Our five per cent deposit program helps you get to the auction sooner. It's gone from 11 years to save a deposit down to two or three. That's already changed the lives of 240,000 Australians around the country. We help you get to the auction faster, and now we're giving you a fair shot when you get here. Our homeownership package will help an additional 75,000 Australians go from renting into homeownership.” The Prime Minister was also asked about these new tax reforms and his personal experience in home ownership. It was meant to be a set up from the Opposition, but the PM didn't miss a beat. “I have had access to homeownership, and I had it in my 20s, and I had it because my mother, who lived in the one public house her whole life, used to say to me, 'When you get a chance in life, own your own home.' It was drilled into me. It's the aspiration that's drilled into working-class people, who want the next generation to be better off than they are. And that is precisely what we are doing here.”

2. We’re delivering more tax cuts from 1 July this year for every Australian taxpayer to help with the cost of living. Plus an extra $250 off working Australians’ tax bills permanently, and a $1000 instant tax deduction, no receipts needed. This means the average worker will benefit by nearly $3000.

3. A key part of the Budget is our commitment to strengthening Medicare. We’ve announced that: we’re making our free Medicare Urgent Care Clinics permanent, we’re delivering more bulk billing, we’ve made medicines cheaper and we’re delivering 92 Medicare Mental Health Centres. Tania Lawrence, shared with the House how committed we are to affordable health care. “The Midland Medicare Mental Health Kids Hub is one of 17 that are being delivered around the country, and this initiative, along with our Medicare mental health clinics and support for teens through headspace, is a testament to our government's commitment and genuine readiness to help meet the real needs of community in mental health, where you need only your Medicare card and not your credit card.”

1. This was a Budget reply that Susan Ley never had the chance to deliver. In a series of thought bubbles, Angus Taylor made nothing clear about policies but made something very clear about his attitude. He doesn't understand modern Australia. He doesn't like modern Australia.

3. Poor Dan.
Straight after Question Time on Tuesday, the Manager of Opposition Business, Dan Tehan, was very upset. He realised that the microphone had been turned off while he was speaking. Speaker Milton Dick, explained, “This is because you’ve been told to sit down and when you’re told to sit down, the microphone was turned off”. Dan was then asked to sit down and kept speaking, with apparently no idea that the microphone was still off. Poor Dan.

4. Barnaby Joyce thought it would be a good idea to ask Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King a question about the Inland Rail. It really, REALLY wasn’t. Catherine answered, “Well, I can nominate who's responsible for this debacle of a project, and that might be the person who asked me this question and some of his National Party colleagues. The Inland Rail, frankly, is an absolutely and utterly perfect example of why the National Party and their One Nation colleagues should never, ever, ever again be allowed near the Treasury coffers. This is the worst project in the country in the way in which it was developed, and I'm going to talk you through this.”

5. “Of course, we traditionally form a coalition with the National party but it’s up to the Australian people to decide who they want to vote for,” is what Shadow Treasurer and new Member for Goldstein, Tim Wilson said over the weekend, seemingly to leave the door open for a joint coalition with One Nation. Jim Chalmers took the chance to remind the Shadow Treasurer that his previously teal electorate is always listening… “I hope the Shadow Treasurer is aware that when he blows on the dog whistle, they can hear it in Goldstein too. They can hear it in Goldstein, too. And when the shadow Treasurer said he was prepared to be in a government with One Nation, I think they heard it in Goldstein.”

In the same week that the Coalition's numbers went down by one, Labor’s went up. Our caucus has grown thanks to Tasmanian Senator Tammy Tyrrell. Standing up with the Prime Minister on Thursday, to announce she’d decided to join the Labor Caucus. Welcome, Tammy.

I also just want to highlight some incredible arts speeches made this week. Sarah Witty spoke about The Push’s launch of the National Plan for Young Australians and Music, and Andrew Leigh and Renee Coffee had some really moving words about the death of David Malouf. All are absolutely worth the watch.

The House will be back in a week while the Senate will be in Estimates mode.

‘til then,

Tony

PS. In honour of our very own Delta Goodrem making it to the Eurovision Grand Final, the song of the week is her entry, Eclipse.

Tony Burke