It was an extremely busy week in Parliament this week, the second of a double sitting after the winter break.
Prime Minister Albanese hosted Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto on Monday and Tuesday, with Defence Minister Richard Marles and his counterpart agreeing the terms of a new Defence Cooperation Agreement between the two countries.
But outside diplomatic niceties, politicians from all sides of Parliament were brawling about substantial NDIS and aged care reforms, visa processes for Gazan refugees and even the standards of parliamentarians themselves.
The government will be very grateful for a two-week break – parliament returns on 9 September – but they face a growing backlog of legislation that needs to be passed before the election, including some major election commitments. Let’s recap this week’s many talking points.
Opposition continues to push government on Gaza visas
Continuing on from last week, the opposition used Question Time to grill the government on visas issued to refugees from Gaza. Almost every question was related to the issue as the opposition tried to uncover why an estimated 3,000 tourist visas were issued to refugees. As highlighted last week, visitor visas have a lot less requirements and security checks than other visas.
The opposition intensified their attack after a former senior Home Affairs official said the government’s decision was politically motivated and the government had ignored departmental advice. His criticism of the government’s actions suggested the Albanese government prioritised political considerations over national security concerns.
This then led to calls from the opposition for a review of these visas to ensure national security was not compromised. They argue a review is necessary to ensure that no individuals with ties to Hamas or other extremist groups were allowed into Australia under this visa program.
Furthermore, the opposition has demanded the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, release all departmental advice related to the issuance of these visas to clarify whether the department supported the government’s decision. Failure to do so, according to critics, would imply the government knowingly took a political decision that could compromise Australia’s national security.
As a former Home Affair Minister himself, Peter Dutton will be relentless in his attack. He knows the processes that are meant to be followed and how decisions like this are made. Although parliament doesn’t return for a couple of weeks, expect the opposition leader to continue to prosecute this issue and keep it front-and-centre in the lead up to the election.
CFMEU bill passes
The Parliament on Tuesday passed the government’s legislation to force the CFMEU into administration, with the rogue union considering challenging the laws in the High Court.
Having blocked the passage of the bill in the senate last week, the Coalition agreed to support the legislation after it was amended by the government to meet a number of the opposition’s demands.
Those included a minimum three-year administration term, mandatory progress reports from the administrator to parliament and an eventual assurance the CFMEU would be banned from making political donations and campaigning for political parties while in administration. The latter was a particular point of contention, with the government arguing last week a ban on campaigning would be unconstitutional. While securing assurances from administrator Mark Irving, KC that political expenditure would be blocked, the Coalition conceded on its demand to include the ban in the legislation.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced this morning he had placed all of the construction and general divisions of the CFMEU into administration from 8:30am today.
Parliamentary standards in the spotlight
The government this week unveiled legislation to establish the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC) in response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report into Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.
The IPSC will enforce Behaviour Codes for members of parliament and their staff, imposing sanctions which could include fines, suspensions or loss of committee positions for serving MPs found to have behaved badly.
It will cover current MPs, former MPs, political staffers and “other parliamentary workplace participants” which includes members of the press gallery, lobbyists and even café workers at Parliament House.
The teal independents escalated the issue of parliamentary standards this week, accusing both the opposition leader and Prime Minister of enabling the harassment of crossbenchers in the chamber during debates and question time. It follows teal MP Zali Steggall calling Peter Dutton a racist during question time last week.
The teals noted their concerns that the IPSC would only investigate incidents that occurred outside of the proceedings of parliament and said behaviour in the chamber also needed to improve.
Shorten scores NDIS deal with states
After months of squabbling with state disability ministers and leaders over the design of NDIS reforms, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten this week clinched a deal with the states and territories that cleared the way for passage of the government’s first tranche of legislation.
The agreement makes significant changes to the co-governance arrangements for the scheme, giving states the final sign-off on services allowed under the scheme, and a move from unanimous to majority first minister support for any new or amended NDIS rules.
It marks the start of the reform process which the Albanese Government hopes will save $14bn over the next four years. Legislation finally passed this week will put an end to automatic top-ups to plans and put in place ‘transitional rules’ which will limit what services NDIS participants can claim for. A final set of rules will be agreed on by national cabinet.
But the deal with the states and passage of this first bill is just the beginning of the real reform work, with the heavy lifting on the design of a new system of foundational supports outside of the NDIS yet to begin. That process will see the states pick up responsibility for some supports currently being offered through the NDIS, such as for children with mild autism and developmental delays.
The conversation is now also shifting to NDIS eligibility, which must be examined if the government is serious about tackling the escalating growth in scheme costs.
Aged care reforms progress, but stall again
The government was quietly confident of progressing long-awaited aged care reforms this week, after an in-principle deal was reached with the Coalition, but Parliament rose yesterday without the government introducing the legislation.
The major parties have been negotiating for months on the structure of a new Aged Care Act, with opposition leader Peter Dutton saying the Coalition would support the reform process so long as the government didn’t impose new taxes on older Australians or introduce anything resembling a ‘death tax’.
The government this week agreed to remove provisions in the bill that would have seen nursing home directors subject to criminal penalties if they breached care standards and rules, an election commitment from Labor that was staunchly opposed by the Coalition.
Both sides have reportedly agreed to increase personal contributions towards aged care services by wealthier Australians, but the Coalition wants the government to table the bill to be examined first by the Coalition party room before it will guarantee support. This was the cause of the delay this week, with the Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler reportedly refusing to table the bill until the opposition provides written confirmation of its support.
The Coalition is wary of backlash from conservative-leaning older voters, after facing extreme backlash from self-funded retirees for removing some tax concessions on superannuation accounts under the Turnbull Government in 2016.
This week’s breakthrough, then impasse, will only infuriate the aged care industry and stakeholders further, who have been lobbying the government for action since the beginning of the year. Investment in new aged care facilities has stalled, and many current residential aged care facilities are struggling financially – desperate for long-promised funding reforms that will shore up sustainability of the sector.
Enormous legislative agenda
We’ve been saying for some time that the Albanese Government has committed to an enormous legislative agenda and after experiencing significant delays in passing their signature reforms, they are now running out of time to deliver.
In fact, the government has 47 bills currently before the parliament and a number of additional bills they are yet to introduce that will deliver key promises or election commitments.
Assuming Albanese goes full-term with a May election, there will only be a maximum of five sitting weeks in 2025 before the election. Combine this with the six sitting weeks left this year and government has approximately 44 sitting days to pass their entire legislative agenda. That’s more than a bill a day.
Given that a number of the bills are quite controversial and at this point in the election cycle the opposition will want to make life as difficult as possible for the government, it will be impossible for the government to secure their entire legislative agenda.
As such, they will now need to prioritise the bills and focus on non-contro bills or increase their negotiations with the crossbench.
And in news outside the bubble…
A lot happened outside the Canberra Bubble but one surprising development that will have an impact inside parliament is the resignation of ABC Managing Director David Anderson. As a taxpayer funded media outlet, the ABC is bound by charter and subjected to scrutiny by the government and opposition. Anderson had been MD for almost six years, and his calm demeanour made him a stellar performer at Senate Estimates.
Over in the US, the Democrats took centre stage with their national convention. The ever-popular Obama’s gave a ringing endorsement of current Vice President and now officially the Democrats Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris. They were supported by the Clinton’s and Biden’s. However, President Biden’s speech at the convention confirmed he made the right decision to step aside as he gave another bumbling and confusing address.
Australian TVs night-of-night’s took place on Sunday where Aussie celebrities dressed up to walk the red carpet and celebrate the industry. Seven’s Larry Emdur has come a long way from his Price Is Right days and walked away with the top honour, the Gold Logie. My personal favourite The Travel Guides won the Best Lifestyle program while Netflix’s Boy Swallows Universe had five wins from ten nominations. However, it was host Sam Pang who really stole the show. In perfect Aussie humour he managed to roast almost every celebrity in attendance and of course couldn’t help but adding a Raygun reference.
And finally, as millennials, we couldn’t go past the latest pop culture news. Bennifer has called it quits for a second time. This week Jennifer Lopez used the day of their wedding anniversary to officially file for divorce from husband Ben Affleck. Ouch!