Peter Dutton made a captain’s call by declaring that the opposition would vote against the legislation. While most of his colleagues were so inclined, it set a bad precedent for the new leader to preempt this week’s party room discussion.
In fact, it would have been better for the opposition to refrain from a position and just fill in the legislation. The government had a clear mandate for this policy, which was spelled out well before the election. The Coalition opposition has exposed the unhappy position of the very reduced liberal moderates.
Liberal MP Bridget Archer (back row, centre) crossed the floor to support the legislation. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Tasmanian Liberal Bridget Archer crossed the floor to vote with Labor. The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, said that if the 43 per cent target had required legislation, then “I would have wanted to vote on it in an instant. However, it does not require legislation”. sense.
The opposition has been stuck as an asset on the climate issue, adrift by a pragmatic business community that wants to promote trust. Anthony Albanese was fond of citing what he described as “an alphabet soup” of business groups supporting “a vote for certainty”.
He hit where it hurt when he taunted the opposition about “what business people are saying about themselves in private”.
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The government, with a majority in the House of Representatives, did not need any cross-party deputies to pass its bill. But, in a gesture, he accepted modest amendments from some of them.
It was a sign of the government’s desire, wherever possible, to be inclusive towards the Greens (‘good manners’ as well as ‘good governance’, as Climate Change Minister Bowen put it). The Teals, by the way, had met to discuss their amendments.
The climate vote was the culmination of what was, in legislative terms, a fast start for the government in its first parliamentary fortnight.
Albanese, anxious to bolster the perception of momentum (which he had first generated in his travels abroad), piled the maximum number of bills into parliament.
Among them were his elderly care reforms, which passed both houses. Also on the agenda, as a private but government-facilitated bill, was the removal of the ACT and Northern Territory’s ban on voluntary assisted dying legislation. This passed in the lower house overwhelmingly, with a conscience vote on both sides. It is expected to pass the Senate in September.
While it has been a happy fortnight for the government on the legislative front, it was marked by a darker moment when Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered his grim economic update to the house last week. After Tuesday’s interest rate hike, the government can’t escape the fact that the coming months will get tougher and tougher as the rising cost of living bites deep.
The early days of the Albanian government have sent some signals about who is influencing it. His determination to watch the Greens was firm. On the other hand, we have seen their willingness to give concessions to the unions.
Labor’s policy of removing the “watchdog” of the construction industry, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, was a well-known policy. It was more surprising, however, that Labor Relations Minister Tony Burke acted so quickly to remove the ABCC’s teeth by regulation, well before the legislation was introduced later this year.
Even more unexpected, and highly questionable, has been the government’s intention to roll back the more detailed disclosure requirements that the Morrison government introduced for superannuation funds. This can only be seen as a soup on industry funds, without any good argument that is in the interest of the fund members.
‘We are learning from history’: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Garma Festival over the weekend. Credit: Getty
While the victory on the climate bill was the parliamentary spectacle of the fortnight, Albanese’s most ambitious work took place outside parliament, when he attended the Garma festival in Arnhem Land last weekend . There he announced draft wording for his proposed constitutional amendment for an indigenous “voice” in parliament.
Albanese is deeply committed to getting the Voice, opening his election night victory speech with the promise of “the Uluru declaration from the heart in its entirety”, and talking about it often since then. One influence is his chief of staff Tim Gartrell, who a decade ago went to work for the Recognize campaign, under the auspices of Reconciliation Australia. Recognize aimed at raising awareness about constitutional reform, without betting on a specific model.
Later this term, the legislation will go to parliament for a referendum. It will easily pass both houses. But unlike climate legislation, on which the Coalition’s position ultimately did not matter, except for its own credibility, its position on the referendum bill will be crucial. Not to whether the bill is approved, but to the prospects of the referendum that does so.
If the referendum went without bipartisan support, it would defy history. This exercise needs a united position across the political spectrum.
However, it is already clear that the opposition is divided in the Voice. Finding the way to a common position on the Voice referendum will be even more difficult for the Coalition than forging a new climate policy.
Michelle Grattan is a lecturer at the University of Canberra. This article was first published on The Conversation.
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