The resumption of a skeletal Parliament for just a day has given everyone concerned the opportunity they wanted to express their position on yet more stimulus packages to battle the COVID-19 crisis.
Scott Morrison delivered an appeal to “team Australia” to keep up the good work that has been done already, to promote and pass the $130 billion JobKeeper program and provide some hope.
The Prime Minister’s imagery of fighting a war and the need for more sacrifice was designed to keep in check any early hopes of lessening the restrictions on people’s lives and justifying huge expenditure.
“Through the actions we have taken to date, we have bought valuable time, to chart a way out over the next six months. But there are no guarantees, and it could well take far longer. Our country will look different on the other side. But Australians will always be Australians,” he told Parliament as he concentrated on what must be done now.
“(We are) putting in place the big economic lifeline and buffers for Australians in this, their toughest ever year in 2020. We are charting the road through. We are all in. Our institutions are strong. Our people are strong. Australia is strong and will continue to be strong.
“We will respond to this challenge, and we are up to the fight. We will pay the price needed to protect our sovereignty, and we will chart our way out,” he said.
While leading Labor’s support for the JobKeeper to go through Parliament, despite reservations and amendments, Anthony Albanese, has an eye to what will come later for workers and the economy despite the Coalition’s close liaison with the ACTU.
“I’ll be impressed by is what happens after this event. The truth is that it is working people largely in unionised industries of health, transport, hospitality cleaners, who are teachers, nurses, who are keeping this economy going. Workers are deserving of respect, not just when the Government finds it convenient, but each and every day,” he said before Parliament resumed.
“I’ve been impressed by is the discipline of the trade union movement and working people in going to work each and every day, each and every day, putting themselves at risk in order to look after their fellow Australians. That’s what I’ve been impressed by, not by politicians. I’m impressed by working people who kept us going during this crisis,” the Opposition Leader said.
Albanese also welcomed the Senate committee, with a Labor chair, being established as Parliamentary oversight for the unprecedented spending in the next two years as Labor struggles with being essentially locked out of the big decisions being made where they have no choice but to agree.
Labor’s Treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, also told Parliament he had an eye to the future — he was after all Treasurer Wayne Swan’s senior adviser during the GFC — and said: “Any commitment of this magnitude must be responsibly spent, carefully monitored to ensure we get bang for buck and that the money is going where it’s supposed to”.
Having learned from the GFC Chalmers warned that what is “equally important is how these necessary interventions are phased out”.
“The PM speaks of a “snap back” – once again, looking for a way to differentiate what he’s doing now from what Labor did just over a decade ago in the GFC. We cannot risk the Prime Minister’s “snap back” stopping the recovery in its tracks,” he said.
“Yes this support should be temporary, but it needs to be withdrawn carefully, intelligently – not driven by an arbitrary political or ideological deadline,” he said.
So Parliament resumes with emergency MPs, a sense of inevitability and each trying to get the best out of the opportunity.
More Coverage
Don’t worry about perimenopause, says a doctor who’s not gaslighting you
Women are concerned about a decades-long hormonal rollercoaster and doctors are accused of ‘gaslighting’ their patients. Dr Steve Robson tries to make sense of the perimenopause discussion.
Angry Ange digging his own grave
The Australian’s tenure as Spurs has the same stench as his final days as Socceroos manager.