The Albanese government has declared there is much to do and no time to waste as it heads into the first sitting week of Parliament with 18 bills under its belt. Big-ticket items include climate change, cost of living, aged care, and a constant reminder of the government’s one trillion dollar debt.
As the new PM embarks on week one of Parliament with an ambitious agenda, Crikey decided to revisit Morrison’s (more mediocre) first sitting week back in July 2019.
The star of the show in 2019 was now Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who introduced a raft of legislation under the Home Affairs portfolio. He wanted more power for ASIO, a tightening of anti-terror legislation, and more stringent rights for reentry into Australia.
The “Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money” Bill was also front and centre, as were the undoing of medivac and a high-priority piece of legislation that would prevent farms from being “invaded” by animal rights activists.
The week ended with a cordial consensus between Morrison and Albanese on Indigenous recognition and a spot of optimism from Morrison about bridging bipartisan divides: “I think Anthony and I are both very optimistic about the partnership that can be forged.” That spirit of cooperation didn’t last very long, and it is unlikely that Albanese will come away from this first week of Parliament with much faith in Dutton’s collaborative capacity.
Morrison has run away with his tail between his legs, he won’t even front up. It is pretty difficult to turn your back on someone from the backbench. I predict he will never darken parliaments door again, it’s just too humiliating without any non disclosure agreements to hide behind.
And he won’t resign from parliament till someone offers him even more money for for doing even less work, if the latter is at all possible.
Having him on the opposition benches would be too obvious a memento mori.
Clearly he has secured a paid speaking engagement. I hope he’s keeping up with his church tithing commitments. 10% is the expected amount for happy clappers isn’t it.
“and a constant reminder of the government’s one trillion dollar debt.”
It’s the last taboo in central banking. So will the RBA review look at how money is created? – ABC News
Of course the RBA won’t look at how money is created, but it should. Maybe another pandemic which doubles the government debt might do the trick, and force the RBA to look….
I read this, but I was left waiting for the comparison, at least regarding the number of bills. On the face of it, the two look pretty similarly mediocre, certainly compared to the previous three parliaments with a new PM (Abbott, Gillard and Rudd). In this context, it’s misleading to cite “cost of living” and “trillion dollar debt” as “big-ticket items”, in the absence of any actual measures