Speaker 1: It is now my duty and my honor to declare
Speaker 1: the forty eighth Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia open.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: When Parliament returned this week, the seating chart set at
Speaker 3: all with one hundred and twenty three Labor members in Parliament.
Speaker 3: The Government is taking up much of the room, but
Speaker 3: it was the Nationals taking the oxygen with their growing
Speaker 3: calls to abandon that zero. Their position is at odds
Speaker 3: with Science, Economics and many within the Joint Party Room
Speaker 3: as Susan Lee tries to keep the coalition on life support.
Speaker 3: Support for the Coalition is the lowest it's been in
Speaker 3: forty years. I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to seven
Speaker 3: AM today Contributing editor for the New Daily, Amy Remikus
Speaker 3: on the mess and mayhem of the first week back
Speaker 3: in Parliament. It's Friday, July twenty five, Amy, thanks for
Speaker 3: speaking with me. It's a new parliament. Albanese's thumping majority
Speaker 3: is on full display. So how is he talking about
Speaker 3: his mandate?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Anthony Albanezi has stuck to the message that he
Speaker 4: started pretty much straight after the election win, when it
Speaker 4: became clear that Labor not only had a majority, they
Speaker 4: had a thumping majority in the House of Representatives.
Speaker 2: So he has been on this we are going to remain.
Speaker 4: Humble, let's stay away from hubris, while also at the
Speaker 4: same time saying we have a mandate and this is
Speaker 4: going to be what he's calling a.
Speaker 2: Year of delivery. That is our focus.
Speaker 5: We've just been through an election, we had clear commitments
Speaker 5: and we want to deliver them.
Speaker 4: He said it practically in every single media interview that
Speaker 4: he has done since parliament started, and what he's doing
Speaker 4: there is trying to signal to people who have been
Speaker 4: frustrated at the lack of the action of the Albanese
Speaker 4: government in the last three years. He's trying to say
Speaker 4: to those people, now we're actually going to start in
Speaker 4: acting policy. The question is, though, whether what they want
Speaker 4: to enact is actually going to go anywhere near close
Speaker 4: enough to addressing all of those major issues that all
Speaker 4: of us are experiencing.
Speaker 3: So what is he actually promising to deliver in this
Speaker 3: year of delivery?
Speaker 4: So the first up was reducing existing hex loans by
Speaker 4: twenty percent.
Speaker 6: We have a good education system in Australia today, but
Speaker 6: the truth is it can be better and it can
Speaker 6: be fairer, and this bill is part of that.
Speaker 4: That legislation was the first piece of legislation that went
Speaker 4: into the Parliament, which they've made a very big song
Speaker 4: and dance over, but it has to be said, does
Speaker 4: kind of distract from the fact that they haven't actually
Speaker 4: addressed the fee increases that the Morrison government put in
Speaker 4: place for incoming university students.
Speaker 6: Now the opposition have a chance to get this right,
Speaker 6: not just by voting for it, but actually speaking in
Speaker 6: support of it.
Speaker 4: So while if you've got an existing debt, you are
Speaker 4: going to save, you know, a couple of one hundred
Speaker 4: to a couple of thousand dollars a year by the
Speaker 4: reduction in your debt, if you're entering in university, you're
Speaker 4: going to be paying higher fees for a whole lot
Speaker 4: of courses because the Albanese government hasn't got around to
Speaker 4: implementing any parts of the review that it is.
Speaker 2: Doing on university fees.
Speaker 4: They are enshrining the new penalty rate changes and they've
Speaker 4: also addressed some of the concerns around childcare safety when
Speaker 4: it comes to workers and effectively, what that bill does
Speaker 4: is that if childcare centers do not maintain national minimum standards.
Speaker 2: If they start slipping, they can lose their federal funding.
Speaker 3: The government this week was also one of twenty eight
Speaker 3: countries we signed a letter demanding an immediate end to
Speaker 3: the war in Gaza and for Israel lift aid restrictions.
Speaker 3: How significant is.
Speaker 4: That look in terms of language, it is significant because
Speaker 4: this is the strongest that the Australian.
Speaker 2: Government has been on it.
Speaker 4: But it doesn't actually have any concrete action behind it.
Speaker 4: There are some sanctions on individual settlers, but that's to.
Speaker 2: Do with the West Bank. That's not to do with
Speaker 2: what is.
Speaker 4: Actually happening in Gaza. But beyond that there hasn't been
Speaker 4: much action. And in fact we saw stronger action in
Speaker 4: the Parliament just this week when the Senate, with the
Speaker 4: Government and the Coalition banding together to chastise Green Senator
Speaker 4: Marine Feruki for her protest in the Senate on the
Speaker 4: day that the Parliament opened.
Speaker 7: The Gada is starvin thanking it.
Speaker 4: She held up a sign saying Gaza is starving. Words
Speaker 4: won't feed them sanction Israel. Now that set off a
Speaker 4: whole chain of events in the Senate where we spend
Speaker 4: a lot of time on Wednesday discussing the disrespect that
Speaker 4: Marine Ferruki showed to the Senate.
Speaker 7: Your actions during the Governor General's address were utterly disrespectful
Speaker 7: and showed a complete disregard for the rules, the traditions
Speaker 7: and the customs of this place.
Speaker 2: And so while she wasn't officially censured, the Senate did
Speaker 2: pass emotion expressing its displeasure and asking her to apologize.
Speaker 1: Labor and the coalition in this chamber wants to avoid
Speaker 1: the truth. You don't want to see it or hear it.
Speaker 1: And now here we are you want me, you want
Speaker 1: forced me to apologize for telling the truth. Well well done.
Speaker 1: You can all patch yourselves on the back and move on,
Speaker 1: move on while Palestinians are slaughtered.
Speaker 4: The juxtaposition to that was on the same day that
Speaker 4: Marine Ferruki did her protest One Nation, senators turned their
Speaker 4: back on Mass on the indigenous Welcome to Country ceremony.
Speaker 4: It was done on that most sacred day of Parliament openings,
Speaker 4: when you know the sovereign representative, the Governor General was
Speaker 4: in the Parliament, which was a very big deal apparently
Speaker 4: for Marine Ferruki, But there was nothing.
Speaker 2: Done about One Nation.
Speaker 4: And so this is also at a time when there
Speaker 4: were hundreds of people protesting outside the Parliament for Gaza,
Speaker 4: for the Australian government to actually act. And while the
Speaker 4: government keeps pointing to the statement, and you've had senior
Speaker 4: ministers like Tony Burke come out and say Australians are
Speaker 4: just sick of seeing the slaughter. We're not actually seeing
Speaker 4: any action. So significant on words, not very significant in
Speaker 4: the big picture.
Speaker 3: After the break, Barnaby Joyce yelling out a cloud. I
Speaker 3: mean this week we had an extraordinary display from the
Speaker 3: Nationals really highlighting the challenge that Susan Lee faces as
Speaker 3: he tries to hold together the coalition. Can you tell
Speaker 3: me about the fight over net zero?
Speaker 2: This is so ridiculous, isn't it?
Speaker 3: Like it's just I couldn't possibly comment so effectively.
Speaker 4: What has happened is that Barnaby Joyce, who has been
Speaker 4: anti net zero from date dot and who has rebuilt
Speaker 4: his political career multiple times by being anti renewables, by
Speaker 4: being anti net zero, he has now taken that fight
Speaker 4: to the Nationals party room and he is saying to them,
Speaker 4: our constituency does not want renewables. It is going to
Speaker 4: destroy them. We need to actually stop net zero.
Speaker 6: If you get rid of net zero, then what does
Speaker 6: our energy system look like?
Speaker 5: So what's the point of us doing this if the
Speaker 5: rest of the of the world, majority of the economies.
Speaker 2: Of the world's.
Speaker 5: Though zero.
Speaker 4: Now all of this is just happening in the national's heads.
Speaker 4: It has zero impact on Australian policy. This bill to
Speaker 4: scrap and at zero that Barnaby Joyce wants to put
Speaker 4: through the Parliament, it's not going anywhere. It might as
Speaker 4: well just be a piece of paper that he's yelling
Speaker 4: at a cloud with.
Speaker 5: He used to have the chiefs power in the world,
Speaker 5: with those evil coll fire power stations. You just have
Speaker 5: really cheap, reliable power. Now you've got really unreliable, hellishly
Speaker 5: expensive power. And it's on the premise of you trying
Speaker 5: to achieve this ludicrous idea that Australia and the minority
Speaker 5: of the globe can somehow change droughts, change cyclones, reduce
Speaker 5: the extinction of species because Australia is going to change
Speaker 5: the temperature of the weather, which Unit is worried about.
Speaker 4: Miss but it is hijacking the conversation and that's the point.
Speaker 4: He wants to continue to suck up as much oxygen
Speaker 4: as possible he joined forces with Michael McCormack, the former
Speaker 4: leader of the Nationals Party, who he toppled to.
Speaker 2: Get back the Nationals leadership.
Speaker 4: But the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and
Speaker 4: David Little Proud is the enemy of both of those men.
Speaker 2: So you've got a pincer movement happening within the Nationals.
Speaker 2: You've got the net zero attack.
Speaker 4: You've got those who don't like David Little Proud as
Speaker 4: the leader joining forces to basically say we are going
Speaker 4: to destroy the coalition if we have to in order
Speaker 4: to get our way on this.
Speaker 8: Mister Speaker, This new parliament begins after an election where,
Speaker 8: to be frank, the Coalition.
Speaker 2: Would have preferred a different result. That is the nature
Speaker 2: of democracy.
Speaker 4: You mentioned Susan Lee's job there, I mean still in
Speaker 4: the party. Most people consider Susan Lee to be a placeholder,
Speaker 4: and I think that what we have seen this week
Speaker 4: from the Nationals show that she does not actually have
Speaker 4: authority over the joint Coalition party room.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, mister Speaker.
Speaker 8: Well, colleagues, it feels a little bit like back to
Speaker 8: the future coming in here, and the reason for that
Speaker 8: is because we all recall those of us that were
Speaker 8: here when we left parliament. The jeering, the sneering, the
Speaker 8: hubris and the born to rule attitude from this Labor
Speaker 8: Prime Minister and this Labor government, I mean.
Speaker 3: Place hold her or not. Susanly also tried to set
Speaker 3: the tone this week with her party room. The coaltion
Speaker 3: is going into the new turn with lower support they've
Speaker 3: had in forty years. So how is she handled the
Speaker 3: first week?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Mostly with delusion. She is definitely leading with.
Speaker 4: Delulu is the Sululu as the way to get through
Speaker 4: this part of the coalition's history.
Speaker 2: There was the exceptionally awkward meeting.
Speaker 4: With Anthony Albanizi at the church where ahead of Parliament,
Speaker 4: where they basically both acted like divorced parents who had
Speaker 4: not seen each other in twenty years having to get
Speaker 4: together for the kid's wedding.
Speaker 2: It was very, very frosty.
Speaker 4: She came out of the church steps and immediately started
Speaker 4: right back into the politics, talk about how this government
Speaker 4: needed to be held to account and her coalition was
Speaker 4: the ones to do that. And then she told her
Speaker 4: party room that the government just wants the coalition to
Speaker 4: get out of the way, for the opposition to stop
Speaker 4: being obstructionist. But they're not going to get out of
Speaker 4: the way because the Australian people just want the government
Speaker 4: to get out of the way, which is a bold
Speaker 4: statement for somebody who has been left with twenty nine
Speaker 4: percent of seats in the House of Representatives.
Speaker 3: Is that what we can expect from her more of
Speaker 3: that type of rhetoric when it comes to working with
Speaker 3: the government, And is that a risk given how low
Speaker 3: her party support is and how dominant Labor is right now?
Speaker 2: It's a complete risk.
Speaker 4: I mean, part of the reason that she's handstrung is
Speaker 4: that every policy under the coalition is under review, which
Speaker 4: is standard after an election. It is quite normal to
Speaker 4: have all of your policies under review. But they don't
Speaker 4: even have a position. They don't even have like a
Speaker 4: start position.
Speaker 2: On where they want to go on this.
Speaker 4: And so that just means that they're falling back onto
Speaker 4: old positions even when they come up with positions. Though,
Speaker 4: given what we've seen from the Nationals, given what we
Speaker 4: know other tensions within the Liberal party room itself, it's
Speaker 4: probably not going to play well for them anyway, because
Speaker 4: they haven't actually worked out a what it is they
Speaker 4: stand for, b what it is they want the Australian
Speaker 4: people to think of them and see how they actually
Speaker 4: ever get back to government.
Speaker 3: So, finally, Amy, given what we've seen this week, how
Speaker 3: would you characterize this term of parliament that we're likely
Speaker 3: to have based on the first week?
Speaker 2: MESSI it's going to be messy.
Speaker 9: Labor do have a giant majority in the House of Representatives,
Speaker 9: and as much as you want to pretend like that's
Speaker 9: not going to give you sub hubris, of course it is.
Speaker 4: The Senate is still the main game, and as we
Speaker 4: saw this week, the Coalition and Labor are still going
Speaker 4: to play respectability politics when it suits them.
Speaker 2: That doesn't particularly.
Speaker 4: Vote well in terms of the Greens or the Independents
Speaker 4: actually managing to have some of their agenda put up.
Speaker 4: But I think it's just going to be messy, and
Speaker 4: not necessarily even because of the parliamentary personalities. There are
Speaker 4: so many outside influences. There is so much happening in
Speaker 4: the global space. The world is effectively on fire, and
Speaker 4: so while there are massive domestic issues to be addressed,
Speaker 4: I do think it's going to be largely overshadowed by
Speaker 4: what is happening overseas and how the government.
Speaker 2: Responds to that.
Speaker 3: Amy great the heavy on the show again, thanks for your.
Speaker 2: Time, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Also in the use, the US says it's made agriculture
Speaker 3: great again as Australia relaxis reached drictions on US beef imports.
Speaker 3: No beef from the States has entered Australia since twenty
Speaker 3: nineteen due to the risk of mad cow disease. The
Speaker 3: US Agriculture Secretary said the relaxed restrictions were another example
Speaker 3: of the kind of market access the President negotiates to
Speaker 3: bring America into a new Golden age of prosperity. Meanwhile,
Speaker 3: the Albanesi government insists the decision was made based on
Speaker 3: science and not as part of wider tariff negotiations, and
Speaker 3: the New South Wales Court of Appeal has knocked back
Speaker 3: a coal mine expansion in the Upper Hunter region. The
Speaker 3: ruling followed a campaign by a community environment group who
Speaker 3: successfully argued that the state's Planning Commission failed to consider
Speaker 3: the impact of the projects greenhouse gas emissions when approving
Speaker 3: the expansion. If it went ahead, Mac Energy's Mount Pleasant
Speaker 3: coal mine expansion would have made it the largest in
Speaker 3: the state. The community group demed Heg, said they hoped
Speaker 3: their win has wider implications for fossil fuel projects across
Speaker 3: the state. Seven Am is a daily show from Solstice Media.
Speaker 3: It's made by Atticus Basto, Shane Anderson, Chris Dangate, Ruby Jones,
Speaker 3: Sarah mcveee, Travis Evans, Zotonfecho, and me Daniel James. Our
Speaker 3: theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of
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Speaker 3: See you next week.