| Although last week was the last full sitting for the House of Representatives, lower house politicians were recalled to Canberra on Wednesday to pass key legislation, including IR reform and immigration detention laws. It was an action-packed end to the parliamentary sitting year, however with an enormous legislative agenda the government failed to pass several Bills and they will now be pushed into 2024. We bring you all the key updates in this week’s parliamentary wrap. |
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| Worst-case scenario as freed detainees re-offend If the Government was hoping the detention fiasco caused by the recent High Court ruling was going to blow-over before the end of the Parliamentary year, those hopes were sorely misplaced. Having run a concerted campaign against the government for the past few weeks for failing to protect Australians, even the Coalition had not anticipated news that broke over the weekend that multiple detainees had been arrested for breaching visa conditions. The offences including the alleged assault of a woman at a South Australian hotel by a man declared “a danger to the community” by a judge and the breach of restrictions placed on a convicted paedophile who used social media apps to contact juveniles days after release. Outside of the obvious horror of these alleged crimes, the political fallout couldn’t be much worse for the Albanese Government struggling to maintain the illusion of control over the situation. After being accused of failing to front the media at the beginning of the week, the Home Affairs Minister, Immigration Minister and Attorney-General held a press conference in Canberra on Wednesday. Asked whether the government would apologise to the victims of the alleged crimes perpetrated by the freed detainees, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus was widely criticised for his stroppy response, where he not only refused to apologise, but reprimanded the young female reporter who had asked the question. Prime Minister Albanese confirmed in Parliament yesterday, under questioning from the opposition, that the AG had spoken to the reporter in question and apologised for his irrational response. It was an unwelcome distraction for the government as they attempted to wrest back control of the narrative. Parliament this week passed new preventative detention laws in response to the crisis. Since their release, five former detainees have been re-arrested and charged with a variety of unrelated offences, including assault and theft. Last chance for Government’s IR Bills In the final parliamentary sitting week, the government has had to compromise on their controversial IR laws in order to secure passage of some less-contested elements. After finally agreeing to split the Closing Loopholes Bill, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke secured support from Senate crossbenchers David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie to pass the labour hire changes and the criminalisation of wage theft. However, the government has been unable to secure support for their proposed casual employment changes and new gig economy provisions. These crossbench Senators had proposed the spilt last month, but the government refused to concede at that time. With no more sitting dates left this year, the compromise was the only way the government could succeed with any of their IR changes. The Senate Inquiry into the IR Bill is still ongoing, and the government has made it clear they will continue to pursue their policies in the New Year. NDIS Review On Thursday, the Minister for the NDIS, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, released the findings of the “Working together to deliver the NDIS” report which reviewed the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The review has been underway for more than a year, and this report makes 26 recommendations with 139 actions aimed at changing the system to focus on making it more accessible and inclusive for all Australians. In the wake of huge budget blowouts and enormous future forecasts, the report underscores the need for major reforms, stressing the NDIS is not sustainable without them. These reforms are necessary to ensure both the sustainability of the NDIS and its fairness. The report emphasises the need for all governments to commit to creating a unified ecosystem and advocates for treating the disability system as a whole, which is expected to yield better outcomes for people with disabilities in a more responsive and cost-effective manner. A key outcome of the review will see automatic access lists scrapped, as the scheme is re-focused on supporting those with the most profound disabilities. This will have the most significant impact on young children with autism and developmental delays, which have become the fastest growing cohorts of NDIS participants. Together, the Commonwealth and state and territories will contribute $10bn to a new scheme supporting people with autism and children with early developmental disorders. Minister Shorten addressed the National Press Club on the day the report was released and acknowledged that accessing the NDIS had become “bureaucratic, traumatising, even dehumanising”. He said some providers had ‘had a party’ on the NDIS, referring to service providers inflating their prices for scheme participants or offering questionable therapies, confirming that ‘the party’s got to stop’. As is usual process with any report, the federal government will now consider the findings and provide a formal response next year. More information about the specific recommendations can be found at Working together to deliver the NDIS | NDIS Review National Cabinet Earlier this week, the Prime Minister and State Premiers (and Chief Ministers from ACT and NT) met in Canberra for the final National Cabinet meeting of the year. Ahead of the release of the NDIS review, the Albanese Government committed billions of extra dollars for health and GST agreements with the state and territories. The extra funding was extracted by the states and territories in exchange for their support of the NDIS reforms that aim to reign in the spiralling cost of the scheme. As part of the deal, states and territories agreed to lift their NDIS contributions, from four per cent to be in line with scheme growth, capped at eight per cent. They also agreed to jointly design additional Foundational Supports outside of the NDIS, most notably supports for autism and early childhood developmental disorders – a significant and fast increasing cost of the NDIS. So, what did it cost the Commonwealth? To start, a new $10.5 billion GST deal – an extension of the Morrison-era ‘No Worse Off Guarantee’. It will be extended in its current form for three years from 2027-28, although the Government stopped short of agreeing to make it permanent. The Commonwealth will also spend a further $1.2 billion on ‘Strengthening Medicare’ measures designed to take pressure off hospitals and increase their National Health Reform Agreement contributions to 45 per cent. State premiers have been calling for years for the Commonwealth to ramp up its share of public hospital funding, and it was a key issue in the lead up to last year’s election. In total, the new health and GST commitments made by the Albanese Government total around $25 billion, a gamble they’re hoping pays off if they can get the NDIS budget under control. Separately, National Cabinet also agreed to implement a National Firearms Register – a policy first proposed by John Howard when he embarked on a series of gun control reforms in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre. Calls to introduce the register, which will allow near real time information sharing across the country, ramped up following last year’s police shooting in Wieambilla. Mid-term review of National Health Reform Agreement released A day after it was considered by National Cabinet, Rosemary Huxtable’s Mid-Term review of the National Health Reform Agreement was quietly released by the Albanese Government. The report sets out a case for moving away from activity based funding (ABF) as the primary method of funding public hospitals, in favour of a model that better reflects Australia’s modern healthcare system, the needs of an ageing population and an increasingly pressing need to manage chronic conditions in primary care. Just as significantly, the review determined the NHRA should not operate purely as a hospital financing agreement but should operate as a whole of health system agreement – recognising that all elements of the health system need to work together to be effective. At Wednesday’s National Cabinet, First Ministers agreed to commence the renegotiation of the National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) Addendum to embed long-term, system-wide structural health reforms, including considering the NHRA Mid-Term Review findings. This will focus on better managing the interface between the care sectors – the acute, primary, disability and aged care systems. The review report said the role of local hospital networks, primary health networks and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations needs to be reinvigorated and authorised with flexible funding to support local initiatives. It also recommended critical system priorities and enablers should be embedded into the new Agreement, including new Schedules on rural and remote health, workforce and digital health. The full report can be found here. Dave Sharma sworn in as NSW Senator The former Liberal member for Wentworth Dave Sharma was officially sworn in as a Liberal Senator for New South Wales following the retirement of Marise Payne. Sharma ran as the Liberal candidate in the 2018 Wentworth by-election to replace Malcolm Turnbull, narrowly losing the seat to independent Kerryn Phelps. He ran again at the general election in 2019, winning the seat back for the Liberals, only to be defeated by Teal independent Allegra Spender in 2022. As the Australian Ambassador to Israel from 2013 to 2017 and an extensive career with DFAT, Sharma is seen as a foreign policy and international relations expert. This is particularly helpful for the Coalition given current global events. Labor MP sadly passes away On Monday, the PM held back tears as he publicly announced the death of a much-loved Victorian MP. Peta Murphy, the Federal Member for Dunkley, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and was told her cancer had returned just days after she was sworn into parliament in 2019. She fought a long hard battle and used her position in Parliament to advocate for a number of important causes, including a national registry for metastatic cancer patients. In her maiden speech to parliament, she said she was neither “unique, nor alone” in her cancer battle but vowed to use her platform to benefit others. And she did – she fought all the way to the end. Ms Murphy even attended the final parliamentary sitting week in Canberra last week to launch the Breast Cancer Network Australia National Report. May she rest in peace. Outside the bubble COP28 COP28 refers to the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The annual conference brings together countries to discuss climate change and negotiate agreements and commitments to combat climate issues. This annual event – which started in Berlin in 1995 – has bloomed. The 2013 COP was attended by just 8,000 people, then the much-trumpeted COP26 in Glasgow had 40,000. This year, more than 100,000 delegates have descended upon Expo City in Dubai to attend the world’s largest COP. In addition to thousands of diplomats, some of the world’s biggest companies, including Google and Microsoft, are in attendance. It is believed that COP could soon replace the annual World Economic Forum (held at Davos) as the place to do business. Cricket Former Australian fast-bowler Mitchell Johnson slammed Australian cricket selectors’ decision to allow David Warner to play in the upcoming Test series and name his retirement match. The opening batsman, who is no stranger to controversary, announced he will retire from Test cricket after the Sydney Test. In a column in The West Australian newspaper, Johnson argued that Warner does not deserve to play a farewell series and referenced his involvement in the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal of 2018. Johnson also noted the close relationship between Warner and Australian cricket selector George Bailey. Regardless of this criticism, as die-hard cricket tragics, we hope Warner manages to score a tonne this summer and helps secure a win for the Aussies. |