With two final parliamentary sitting weeks left in the year, large parts of the Labor government’s legislative agenda remain stuck in the Senate quagmire.
There are more than 30 pieces of legislation scheduled to be considered in the November sitting fortnight.
Some further key promises, such as the long-awaited gambling advertising restrictions, are yet to be seen. Others, like the electoral reform proposals, are still awaiting formal introduction by the government.
Senate sources expect a flurry of last-minute compromise and negotiation from the government to pass their stalled bills, even though Anthony Albanese has declared “our position is final” on key legislation.
Just months from the next election, this is the state of the Albanese government’s remaining legislative agenda.
What’s now in the Senate?
Asked last week about the government’s backlog of legislation in the Senate and what it would do to clear it, Albanese said the government’s position “is final”.
“We want the Senate to pass our legislation,” he said. “What I find astonishing is that things are blocked in the Senate.”
HOUSING LEGISLATION
The Help to Buy bill is one the government would like to have passed, especially just months before an election expected to be fought furiously on housing issues – but having it remain stalled in the Senate, as it has been for months, might not be a bad second option. Labor has pointed to the Greens’ disapproval of the bill as evidence the progressive minor party is in a “No-alition” with the Liberals and Nationals, painting the Greens (and opposition) as blocking the government’s housing plans.
The Greens had said they wanted to make a deal with the government on Help to Buy, with hopes of securing changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, but the government didn’t jump at that. The minor party on Friday watered down its demands again, dropping the negative gearing and CGT demands and instead assembling a new list of requests including immediate funding for 25,000 new social and affordable homes, boosting the number of homes available under the separate Build to Rent program, and tweaks to how Help to Buy repayments are made.
The government wants to take the Greens down a peg after their housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, won Labor-held Griffith at the last election. With the Greens targeting several Labor seats in 2025 and campaigning hard on housing issues in inner-city spots such as Wills, Cooper and Moreton, the government will keep highlighting Greens obstructionism in the Senate.
And despite government denials, there’s a theory the government is using this bill as a double-dissolution trigger.
MIS- AND DISINFORMATION
The government’s second attempt at passing the bill restricting misinformation has few friends in the upper house. The Coalition is against it, as is One Nation, while the rest of the crossbench is still mostly mulling its position. David Pocock, usually a key target of government lobbying, said on Wednesday “in its current form, I don’t believe it strikes the right balance and I will be opposing the bill” – perhaps indicating potential support with some changes.
Guardian Australia understands that the former Labor senator Fatima Payman is still considering her position, as are the Greens. With the Coalition strongly opposed, the government needs the Greens plus several other crossbenchers to back it.
FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA
It arrived with a flourish and a major PR campaign, but we haven’t heard much about the $23bn manufacturing and energy transition bill lately. The Coalition has major concerns about government subsidies going to businesses and claims it could lead to “pork barrelling”, planning to oppose the legislation.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has criticised the plan as an “election slush fund for more coal and gas”, demanding the government rule out any public money going to subsidise fossil fuels – but hasn’t entirely ruled out the Greens backing the bill in another form.
The government has strongly backed FMIA, with Albanese mentioning the term regularly in public appearances and even appointing a dedicated minister, Tim Ayres. Labor sold FMIA as its answer to the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act – but with Donald Trump’s election win, and the potential for the IRA to be pulled apart by the new Republican president, it’s unclear how the government will play this going forward.
AGED CARE REFORMS
The government’s plan to make wealthier Australians pay more for some of their aged care costs is supported by the Coalition, and likely to pass this fortnight without much consternation.
NATURE POSITIVE
Another stalled piece of legislation, and another instance of the government being torn between the Greens wanting stronger laws and the Coalition wanting less restrictions.
The mining sector is strongly unhappy about the plan to make a new environmental watchdog, and the government is struggling to find friends for it. The Greens say they want any such body to have stronger powers, believing the current proposal would be “tokenistic”.
Unless they can win the Coalition or Greens, the nature positive laws seem doomed.
Still to come
The prime minister flagged the government would also be “introducing a range of legislation” in parliament’s final two weeks, signalling some of it would be pushed through by the end of the year.
“But some of that, of course, will be debated next year,” Albanese said. “Parliament’s coming back in February, so we expect that to happen.”
The much-delayed electoral reform changes surrounding political donations and campaign funding have finally been detailed, after much anticipation about the government’s plan. The special minister of state, Don Farrell, has repeatedly briefed out over many months that the electoral changes were imminent, and they will finally be introduced into parliament this fortnight. They are likely to easily pass through parliament, due to the rules already being negotiated with the Coalition, though the independents will put up a major fight.
Several key promises, and long-awaited reforms, have not yet been seen. Those include:
Media reform, including the future of the news media bargaining code, and how to compensate news outlets for the loss of funds under that code after Meta’s refusal to participate.
A response to Peta Murphy’s gambling report, calling for a full ban on online wagering advertising.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, had committed to “to have a comprehensive response in this term” of parliament to the Murphy gambling report, with some Senate sources expressing faint expectations the government’s response may finally arrive in this sitting fortnight – now nearly 17 months after the report was delivered.
The media reform proposals are similarly thorny issues. Media outlets are particularly keen to hear how the government will update or replace the news media bargaining code, which delivered major windfalls to some publications.
With bipartisan support from the Coalition, the social media ban should sail through the parliament whenever the government introduces it – even if there are concerns from some senators about the potential that the bill would be rushed through without proper scrutiny, a Senate inquiry, or the age assurance trial even having begun.
