Comment

Paul Bongiorno
New parliament kicks off

On the flight home from his six-day China visit, the prime minister gave a series of interviews to accompanying journalists. In one he revealed he was impatient for the 48th parliament to begin, to give his 24 new Labor MPs every chance to fully participate as soon as possible with their first speeches.

His eagerness, no doubt, had calculated political intent: a message to his opponents that the emphatic election win made even their most senior people vulnerable.

On day one, the first speaking slot was given to Labor’s giant-slayer, Ali France, who after three attempts defeated opposition leader Peter Dutton. She told the House her victory was highly unlikely and to some the campaign seemed “an insurmountable mountain to climb”. She said it took seven years “as a single mum with one leg battling one of the most prolific politicians of our time”.

The second speaking spot was given to Sarah Witty, who shocked Greens leader Adam Bandt by taking his seat of Melbourne. She thanked him for his 15 years of service to the community and said she would continue his fearless advocacy but ground it in Labor values.

Albanese said parliament didn’t have to meet until August, but he brought it back a bit earlier to showcase the party’s new talent and to begin delivering on his campaign promises.

The innocent bystander might be forgiven for thinking convening the new assembly 80 days after the election is hardly a rush or a vote of confidence in parliamentary democracy, but this framing suited his purposes.

When the politicians finally made it to the national capital, the full extent of the Albanese landslide was on show, with the 94 Labor members spilling into the opposite side of the chamber. The 43 MPs of the diminished Coalition share that side with the 13 members of the cross bench.

In the Senate the government’s improved position still leaves it 10 short of a majority vote. To achieve this threshold, it needs either the support of the Greens or the Coalition. Depending on the issue, it can go to the left or the right to get a preferred outcome.

The Greens’ new leader, Larissa Waters, is promising to be constructive but also to play the role of a progressive ginger group challenging Labor to live up to its “best self”. She will support Labor’s super tax changes but will also push for greater gender equity in taxation and the inclusion of dental in Medicare.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is pioneering a new stance that seems closer to constructive negativity. She fired a shot across the prime minister’s bow in the televised gee-up of her dispirited party room, defying Albanese’s calls for the Liberals to get out of the way. “Well, we won’t be getting out of the way,” she said, and flagged she will support only what she considers is in the national interest.

Ley, no doubt with an eye to appeasing her partyroom hardliners and base voters, promised to “fight every step of the way” if Treasurer Jim Chalmers heeds Treasury’s advice by raising taxes to boost the budget bottom line.

Ley said she hasn’t met one Australian who wants to pay more tax, and that includes standing up for the richest 0.5 per cent of the population who have more than $3 million in their superannuation accounts.

In the first Question Time of the year Ley also seized on Treasury’s leaked analysis to accuse Albanese of already breaking his promise to deliver 1.2 million new homes over five years. The prime minister had little trouble in citing industry groups and the Queensland LNP government, who had welcomed the fact Labor was making a real start towards the goal.

Only in opposition can you promise to raise spending on defence to 3 per cent of gross domestic product while at the same time promising not to raise taxes. Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien did both on the weekend, adding that he would target government spending.

It’s a formula that failed for Peter Dutton when he refused to back Labor’s cost-of-living relief measures, including waiving 20 per cent of student debt.

Midweek Ley declined on television to support Labor’s priority legislation on student debt, despite the Coalition needing to bridge the chasm between itself and younger voters.

Nevertheless, you would have to go back two decades, to the Howard government, to get as favourable opportunities for a government to pursue its agenda as Albanese has now.

It is an open question as to how ambitious the successfully cautious Anthony Albanese will be, not only in delivering on his promises but in going beyond them to restore productivity and greater fairness in the way revenue is raised. More revenue is desperately needed, as the inadvertently released Treasury analysis confirmed.

Hopefully the Aboriginal smoking ceremony, now an uncontroversial part of the official opening proceedings, will inspire higher standards in parliament’s interactions. It signifies cleansing and healing and the warding off of bad spirits, and is also intended to foster unity and respect. Most of our elected leaders enthusiastically participated, covering themselves in the pungent vapour.

When the smoke cleared, the entrenched and scarcely hidden racism of Pauline Hanson’s enhanced presence in the Senate – she now has four senators – was glaring. The One Nation members turned their back on the president of the Senate, Sue Lines, when she acknowledged the Traditional Owners of the land on which the parliament meets.

It’s a reminder that the sentiment informing much of the refusal to recognise the special place of First Nations people through the Voice referendum still has potent influence on how our national affairs are negotiated.

History suggests Albanese’s super-majority will be a passing phenomenon. In pollie-speak, many of the new members, especially in hitherto traditional non-Labor seats, will be “oncers”, destined to serve one term.

The prime minister will have none of it.

In caucus he held out the possibility of all of his MPs being returned if they maintained discipline. He called for a “sense of purpose” and a clear idea that they are in parliament to represent their electorates. Albanese even suggested Labor could add to its numbers next time.

At face value this is a wildly optimistic forecast, except it is a prospect that has some in the Coalition nervous. “Look across the Nullarbor,” says one Coalition MP. “If the WA state results are any guide, it could get worse for us.” They say even those who held their seats saw their margins cut drastically, making them vulnerable next time.

This pessimism is only slightly ameliorated by the results in Tasmania’s state election last weekend, which saw a swing to the Liberals. Ted O’Brien took heart from the fact Premier Jeremy Rockliff handsomely outpolled Labor, suggesting the party still has a pulse.

If the first Newspoll since the election is to be believed, however, that’s the best that can be said. Coalition support in the survey collapsed to its lowest point in 40 years, with a primary vote of 29 per cent, almost three points below its May election result.

Labor lifted its primary vote to 36 per cent. When preferences are allocated, it saw a two-party preferred result of 57-43, broadly in line with the Resolve survey result in The Age and the latest Roy Morgan poll result.

Our preferential voting system compensates the major parties for what is a sure but unmistakeable erosion in their support over the past decade. It masks the fact that Albanese’s victory is wide and shallow, based as it is on preferences and not primary votes.

In effect, this puts the onus on the Albanese government to perform more strongly than in its first term. No longer a welcome relief from the appalling Morrison government, it will be judged on what it does to convince Australians it is prepared to take on reforms that will improve their lot.

Sussan Ley has a much more formidable task. After the TV cameras left the party room she admitted the Coalition had hit “rock bottom” and that the only way from here is up.

Not everyone in the room was convinced, but even Angus Taylor’s supporters say a pre-emptive move against Ley as the first woman to lead them would be political suicide. One told The Age Ley will “sink or swim on her own merits”.

Even those who voted for Ley, The Saturday Paper is told, think that unless the party’s stocks begin rising, they could not afford to stick with her if they hope to save their own necks.

Ley’s problem is that some of her colleagues, particularly in the Nationals, are doing nothing to help bolster her credibility on the key policy area of energy and climate change.

Barnaby Joyce has gained an ally in another former deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, in seeking to repeal Australia’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

Ley herself is refusing to commit to the target pending a party review, which her Liberal colleague Jane Hume says flies in the face of the broader electorate’s message over the past two elections that they want “to see a net zero energy future”.

McCormack is suggesting the Coalition could go to the next election with the Liberals and Nationals contradicting each other on net zero.

Ley’s mountain to climb keeps getting steeper.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on July 25, 2025 as "The first week, the first speeches".

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