Anthony Albanese’s agenda cleared as Labor prepares for election
Anthony Albanese has cleared the decks for a fresh agenda ahead of next year’s election, using the final full day of parliament to ram through more than 30 pieces of legislation.
Anthony Albanese has cleared the decks for a fresh agenda ahead of next year’s election, using the final full day of parliament to ram through more than 30 pieces of legislation after the Greens caved into growing electoral pressure over blocking Labor’s signature policies.
The Prime Minister declared the tidal wave of legislation scheduled to pass the Senate on Thursday would “make a real difference to Australians”, as Labor moves to use the Christmas break to a create a new policy platform and move on from a messy first term in government.
“This is what it looks like to have a government that is prepared to work across the parliament to turn promises into progress,” Mr Albanese said.
“What those opposite have done consistently is just seek to oppose. We are getting things done, they are just getting angry.”
While the government was forced to pull the plug on signature environmental laws and electoral donation reforms, Labor successfully struck deals on other major pieces of legislation, including its Future Made in Australia package, amendments to the privacy act, Reserve Bank reforms, migration bills, family law amendments and the social media ban.
After months of blocking key pieces of legislation such as housing reforms and the Future Made in Australia plan, the Greens this week ticked off 27 pieces of government legislation in a capitulation that followed disappointing results for the minor party in the ACT and Queensland elections.
With polls showing a hung parliament is likely after the next election, Greens leader Adam Bandt declared “pressure works” and that the Greens would push Labor to go further to the left in its next term.
Mr Bandt said the government had agreed to fund $500m in upgrades in social housing – including electrification – and to rule out coal and gas projects being funded under the Future Made in Australia scheme.
“Having delivered good outcomes that will help people, the Greens now turn to keeping Peter Dutton out and pushing for cheaper rents, cheaper groceries and no new coal and gas in a coming minority parliament,” he said.
Bills amending family law, strengthening protections for sexual assault survivors in criminal trials, legislating a student ombudsman following the Universities Accord and increasing competition in the aviation sector by tackling slot hoarding at Sydney Airport were also expedited under a guillotine motion on Thursday.
Ahead of the bills passing parliament, the Opposition Leader said he couldn’t see Mr Albanese going “for too many more months without the leadership change discussion taking place”.
“Australian people cannot believe how incompetent and weak your government has been over the last 2½,” Mr Dutton said during question time.
“Your government wasted $450m on the voice and divided our country, and on economic and energy policies, you’ve done nothing but drive up the prices on everything. Why not call an election now to put Australians out of their misery and allow competent Coalition government to get our country back on track?”
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher responded to speculation that the legislation blitz was being prompted by the spectre of an early election by stressing it was “the intention” of the government to return in February to pass outstanding pieces of legislation such as electoral reforms.
Special Minister of State Don Farrell said he would work with the Coalition, Greens and independents over the break to land on a package that would get “big money” out of politics and which could pass in the first fortnight of the new parliamentary sitting year.
In the face of intense scrutiny over its intention to pass dozens of bills in just one day, Labor on Thursday afternoon was able to secure support for a guillotine motion from the crossbench by agreeing to reduce the number of bills it sought to pass down from 40 and to drop the migration bills and online safety laws from debate.
Key crossbench powerbroker David Pocock revealed he had supported the government’s guillotine motion and was planning on backing a number of its bills as part of a “wide-ranging deal” with Labor that included significant amendments being made to the build to rent legislation and the bringing forward of a mandatory food and grocery code.
Former Jacqui Lambie Network senator Tammy Tyrrell also supported the guillotine motion, which gave the government the ability to clear the backlog of legislation it will face in the new year as a federal election looms.
Mr Albanese’s push to pass more than 30 bills within hours was slammed as “hypocritical” in the Senate, given Labor’s promise for greater transparency before coming to government.
Jacqui Lambie declared that it was “dangerous to shove bills down our throats”.
“When it comes to transparency and integrity in this government, it’s been an epic failure,” she said.
“We were voted in to make legislation better, we have a right to put amendments up, we have a right to debate this and you are shutting us up.”
Senator Lambie’s efforts to move a motion condemning the guillotining of bills as “undermining democratic principles” came close to passing the upper house, but were just one vote short.
Opposition leader in the Senate Simon Birmingham said Labor had guillotined more bills in three years than the previous government had in nine and warned the Greens were “dictating the terms of what the government can and cannot legislate”.
“Where is online safety … Where are the migration bills?” he asked. “Is this because the Greens tail is wagging the government dog?”
Labor frontbenchers were quick to hose down concerns over the long list of legislation passed on the final full sitting day, with Senator Farrell describing the rush as “pretty normal”, while Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said he was part of “an activist government doing lots of things”. “That’s what governments are for,” he said.
While the Coalition voted against the guillotine motion, its outcry over the social media ban and migration bills being dropped from the motion paper prompted Labor’s leader in the Senate Penny Wong to bring both bills back onto the agenda.
Labor MPs told the Australian earlier this week the social media ban was “simplifying a complex issue” and being pursued by the government in an effort to land a win after failures including its botched misinformation laws.
Coalition MPs have also raised concerns with the bill – which was set to be the last piece of legislation to pass to upper house on Thursday night – because of issues including breaches to privacy.
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