The Government’s controversial industrial relations reform package has passed the Parliament this morning, after getting through the Senate last night with the support of key crossbencher David Pocock.

In the last sitting week before the end of the year, the Government also passed legislation to establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission – a key plank of their election platform Australians voted on in May.

It has been a successful first six months in office for the Prime Minister, who will start the new year confident in his team’s ability to negotiate contentious pieces of legislation through a minority senate.

Senate crossbench flexes their muscle

After weeks of intense negotiations, ACT Senator David Pocock reached an agreement with the government last weekend on their IR package.

Though business groups maintained their concerns had not been addressed, Senator Pocock said he was satisfied with the bill in it’s amended form, having also extracted a commitment from the government to review welfare payments ahead of the May budget .

It was a significant win for the government, succeeding where previous governments had failed to negotiate a difficult crossbench.

However, the Greens and Coalition teamed up in the Senate earlier in the week to pass amendments to the government’s NACC legislation to boost the powers of the commissioner. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has said the government intends to have the NACC operating by mid next year.

And in an embarrassing about-face for the government, the entire senate crossbench, minus the Greens, teamed up with the Coalition on Wednesday to force changes to the proposed 2023 sitting calendar.

The government had circulated a draft calendar that was missing a week of senate estimates, normally held just after Parliament returns in February, arguing there was no need for it given there will be no MYEFO this month due to the October budget.

They were forced to amend the calendar and reinstate the estimates week after the crossbench sided with the Coalition and attacked the government for attempting to evade scrutiny.

New privacy laws beef up penalties for companies over data breaches 

The opposition has supported new laws passed this week that strengthen Australia’s privacy laws, with new penalties of up to $50 million for serious or repeated privacy breaches.

The legislation was introduced in the wake of the Optus and Medibank breaches. The new laws also provide the Australian Information Commissioner with greater powers to resolve privacy breaches and quickly share information about data breaches to help protect customers.

Labor punishes former PM Morrison over multiple ministries scandal 

The government succeeded in passing a censure motion against Scott Morrison in the House of Representatives this week, a move the opposition said was petty ‘payback’.

Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to support the government’s motion, with the rest of the Coalition’s lower house MPs opposing it. The action means very little practically, as it’s more a symbolic notion of disapproval, but marks the first time the House of Representatives has censured a former Prime Minister.

Parliament breaks for the year 

MPs and Senators returned to their electorates today for the Christmas break, and will return on February 6 next year.

The 2023 sitting calendar can be found here.