A “stunt” by a freshman Greens MP to force a debate on a supply bill was roundly criticised in Parliament, even uniting the opposition and government, in what one academic says highlights the party’s newfound hubris after the election results.
Griffith MP Max Chandler-Mather told Crikey on Wednesday he had no regrets and that the government was feigning “faux outrage” to distract from a set of controversial tax cuts.
The night before, a full hour after the treasurer’s budget speech when most of the chamber had emptied and the MPs left were going through the motions of passing appropriations and supply bills, Chandler-Mather moved to amend a set of bills in order to make a protest speech about the government’s stage three tax cuts.
“The perversity of it is that we all sat here, hearing the treasurer talk about a sensible budget with tough choices, but everyone in this place is going to get an extra $9000 a year once the stage three tax cuts come into effect,” Chandler-Mather said.
“What are the tough choices that we’re all making here? What are the tough choices that the billionaires and millionaires are making, who are going to get the $9000 extra a year out of the stage three tax cuts?”
He went on to ask “why on earth” his fellow MPs would wonder “why people don’t like politicians”.
“The amendment we’re moving tonight is to highlight the hypocrisy of a government that claims to care about ordinary people but gives $9000 extra a year to the politicians in this place who are already well overpaid.”
The move made Leader of the House Tony Burke see red.
“There are different times in this place where either side of politics or the crossbench will do something that’s ostensibly viewed as a bit of a stunt to highlight an issue, and I respect that, but I’ve never seen one like this,” he said.
Burke said if the amendment were to be carried, it would “negate the bill” because there wouldn’t be enough time to get it to the Senate to pass it before late November.
“That puts in jeopardy the wages of every public servant — including, I might add, the public servants delivering the exact sorts of payments that the member might want to refer to.
“In terms of stunts there are plenty of bills where you can move a second reading amendment, but to pick supply … I thought the sorts of arguments as to whether supply would be jeopardised in Australia were dispensed quite some decades ago.”
LNP MP Stuart Robert rose to speak and said the bill should be passed without amendment “in line with Westminster convention”.
“It is normally an extraordinary thing when the opposition will stand in solidarity with the government,” he said. “It is a rare thing when it comes to stunts in this place. The leader of the house and I have been doing this for a long time … but neither of us can remember a time when a rookie error like this was made.”
The amendment was voted down.
Chandler-Mather told Crikey he never meant to risk holding up the bill.
“The Greens made clear that we wouldn’t block supply and there was no chance of that happening,” he said. “The amendment literally read ‘whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading’, while under House rules private members can’t move amendments that could block supply.
“After all Burke’s bluster, the supply bill passed completely uneventfully, so I imagine all the faux outrage was to distract from the stage three tax cuts that will see every politician get an extra $9000 while ordinary people suffer 56% increases in energy bills and stagnant wages.
“The Greens will take every opportunity we can to highlight how disgraceful it is that in a cost-of-living crisis, the government wants to spend $254 billion on the stage three tax cuts, rather than bring dental into Medicare or invest in public housing.”
Monash University politics lecturer Blair Williams said the move showed that the Greens feel emboldened after their election success in May, boosting their numbers in Parliament to four MPs and 12 senators.
“They feel emboldened, they feel like they’re representing the young vote and the over a third of Australians who are renting,” she said.
“Young people’s interests aren’t being represented here, and it gives the Greens more of an impetus to fight on these issues.”
That’s parliament – two ways to get your head kicked a) be green, b) tell the truth. Do both and it’s mob frenzy.
“managed to unite two unlikely allies.”
Har har har. Very funny. Maybe you should look up hansard and check out how many times Labor and the Coalition vote together to shut out the Greens, Independents and others.
Maybe you should do your own research instead of relying on Labor press releases.
Agree. Far from unlikely. Pretty much business as usual.
I note Labor’s willingness to kneecap the Federal Integrity Commission Bill with the politician protection amendment. How can the public trust justice is being done when they are more restricted from seeing it be done than in any other jurisdiction??
Exactly. Seeing Tweedledee and Tweedledum both squealing, bursting into tears and throwing their rattles out of the pram together when someone asks questions about their neo-liberal feed-the-rich policies gives the lie to any “unlikely allies” nonsense.
the most dangerous pace on the planet, the space between “a servant of the people” and the pay packet they believe they deserve
the Greens are constantly told to lay off the culture war stuff, stick to the bread and butter issues of ordinary Australians – and sure, it may have been a stunt, but will the vast majority of Australians, who won’t see anything like $9K bonus from the tax cuts, really care? – all they know is that their real wages are dropping while “their” party is bending over backwards to make the rich, richer
The ‘offensive’ stage 3 tax cuts don’t even see the light of day for almost two years…they are legislated to come into effect on July 1, 2024. NO money will be allocated to them until the budget in May 2024, so there is NO money going to anyone until then…and NO loss of money from the budget until they come into effect.
I am sick of hearing that money from the so-called stage 3 tax cuts should be used to fund other items in the budget NOW. There is NO money lost to the tax cuts until 2024. And, frankly, I doubt said tax cuts will go ahead in their current form, if at all. Get it right!!
Fair enough. I guess we should all stop talking about it, then we can stop thinking about it, and it becomes something to do later, after it becomes more difficult to change.
Policy is predicated on future as well as current situations. Money gets allocated.
Subs we won’t get till 2040 have money “set aside” well before that money is issued. Govt decides how much $A it is willing to issue (spend into existence) well before it actually spends it (creates it).
Policy makers still believe that the sun travels around the flat earth and that the only $A they can spend comes from tax revenue. Total rubbish, given that tax revenue comes from the far greater amount of $A that are in circulation that they themselves authorised into being,
While they believe that, they will believe there is a ceiling of what they can spend, based on the divine revelation that the lower the ceiling the better, so they make policy predicated on estimates of tax revenue. Tax revenue allocated to spending is simply hypothecated spending.
Its like an apple grower who believes he can only eat his own apples after he has sold them to the market and bought a few back, despite having plenty of land to grow as many as he needs. (Sounds like our gas market too!)
So the ALP is planning no further ahead than 12 months, eh. Note that ‘almost 2 years’ is really only 20 months, so not very far in the future at all, and at that time the ALP will say “it’s too late to do anything about them now!”
2 years is not that far off is it and ask why labor refused to rise unemployment benifits and pensions and cut millions from the public health system and are refusing to control the ever rising costs of every day expenses power fuel food drs fees but planty of money for yank weapons of war tho no the green senator was right and as expepected labor the hatefull liberals are screaming like bad mugs at the very thought of loosing there pay rise and helping the vulnerable people of australia
Our polititions are conflicted on many issues. This is one of them. Another is the tax on investment properties. A third is the capital gains tax on investments. They are all a bit too Tory for my liking these days.
Tax on investment properties is a bigger issue than I appreciated as on tonight’s Block they said an investor with multiple properties could save 1 million in tax per year . . .
If something unites Liberal and Labor, it’s guaranteed against the common interest.
I think something there in that comment needs quotation marks.