What’s the scam with the 76 bills the government has queuing and the three sitting days left of Parliament to legislate them?
Labor faces a tactical nightmare. The Mis and Disinformation Bill (MAD) has bitten the dust in the Senate. The Greens have caved on Labor’s housing package, so that’s shaping to pass. Yet things like money-laundering (AML-CTF) has been kicked off to a committee (after 17 years), multinational tax dodging reform hangs by a thread, and the government is still dithering on gambling ad reform. These are merely the tip of the legislative iceberg.
The scam is they can use the ‘guillotine’, that is, bring a guillotine motion – a deal in the Senate – with either the Coalition or the Greens and cross-bench to shove through bills as a package. No debate, just whack them through.
They were whacking them through with the Libs today, three ‘let’s be nasty to migrants’ bills to send migrants packing anywhere they want, stop them using mobile phones in detention and pay other countries to take them.
Problem is the guillotine motion is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition with either the left or the right. So, for instance, the Greens might object to the Electoral Reform Bill (for the major parties to give themselves more money while penalising third parties) and the Libs might object to the Housing package to force Labor into recess with no housing solution.
They could do two guillotines – one with each side – but that would be a big effort. Is banning under 16s from social media more urgent (and more sensible) than multinational tax reform? Rupert Murdoch’s Libs are up for the former but not the latter.
It took last week just to get the Aged Care Bill through. It is a big, big week; a mighty conundrum for the Albanese Government. Good news is Labor just passed its student debt legislation which delivers $3B in relief to 3m students.
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.