Business as usual despite the promise of more decorum

Anthony Albanese faces Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in question time on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese breezed through his first parliamentary question time after winning an election and facing an eviscerated opposition.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at least showed intent and a refusal to be cowed.

But, while the House of Representatives wasn’t febrile, there were still a few blips and slips to show the “new politics” and a “new tone” hadn’t completely taken over from the old politics and tone.

It took the Prime Minister only 19 minutes to start yelling – after promising “less yelling” – and Dutton no time at all to go “back to the same old bucket”.

Albanese didn’t seriously break his undertaking and Dutton didn’t get Albanese to seriously lose his temper and display “his glass jaw” but it was a sign that the old politics wasn’t yet buried by the new.

As expected, the Labor government spent its time in response to the old faithful and friendly Dorothy Dix questions promoting its agenda and introduction of new legislation.

And, as expected the Coalition opposition steered clear of references to its previous years in government and tried to use the abolition of the building industry watchdog to mire the new ALP administration.

Dutton’s first question as Opposition Leader to Albanese was about the abolition of the ABCC, $5m in donations from the CFMEU to the ALP and the thugs, corruption and criminality associated with the union.

His second question was not about the disastrous inflation figure, but whether Albanese had met any of the CFMEU members, as were a series of questions from other Coalition MPs.

Albanese responded with an attack on wasteful spending from the ABCC and yelled demands that if there was an allegation to be made it should be made and the observation “politics should be better than this”.

“I believe if someone commits assault, they should be charged with assault and dealt with,” Albanese said, and called for equal treatment to be applied to both building workers and construction bosses.

Realising he was falling into the trap of raising his voice, Albanese quietened down and turned the focus back on the Coalition for not asking about the most important issue of the day: the cost of living.

Addressing Dutton, the PM said: “Back to the same old bucket, the same old bucket that saw them have a royal commission into trade unions.”

New government, new opposition, new MPs, new parliament but business as usual.