With the Coalition finally reunited, the opposition now needs to get on with the work of holding the government to account and interrogating its decisions. It won’t get many better chances than this week.
While government decisions are put under the microscope at Senate estimates hearings, the week-long visit by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog – clearly making some Labor members uneasy – will return attention to the Bondi terror attack. Meanwhile, the hangover from Tuesday’s interest rate hike lingers.
Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has skated through most of its second term with little scrutiny from a disorganised Coalition rabble, which often seemed more focused on fighting each other than their political opponent across the chamber.
Ley’s strongest few weeks as opposition leader coincided with Albanese’s rockiest, as the federal government’s response to the Bondi Hanukah festival massacre was criticised across the political spectrum by business, legal and sporting identities and even by some inside the Labor tent.
It’s easy to forget, with the ensuing Coalition chaos, that just four weeks ago Albanese was pushed into calling an antisemitism royal commission that he and senior ministers had, just days prior, strongly argued against.
What a difference a Coalition split makes, brought about by a disagreement over emergency legislation Ley had demanded Albanese introduce.
Labor’s damaging summer period all but vanished the instant Littleproud’s team once again made it about themselves, formalising the split on the national day of mourning for the Bondi massacre.
Even now, many in Labor can scarcely believe how quickly things changed.
But Herzog’s visit to Australia, including a stop in Canberra, plus a week of estimates hearings, will bring attention back to Bondi – and potentially resurface questions still to be answered about how governments responded.
While Herzog won’t address parliament, large protests will follow his tour, giving Labor’s critics more opportunity to raise concerns over social cohesion, protest rights and antisemitism.
If the Coalition parties have any wits about them, questions to government departments and security agencies should focus on what actions did or didn’t occur before the Bondi shooting, what warning signs might have been missed, and why it took so long for Labor to come around to a royal commission.
How government spending is contributing to the inflation issue should dominate economics proceedings.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, got off entirely scot-free last Tuesday when the interest rate decision was handed down during question time, laughing in the face of clumsy questions from his Coalition opponents. But he was clearly uneasy being asked about public demand on Insiders on Sunday, dancing around questions about the impact of public spending on the Reserve Bank decision.
Labor’s agenda in the parliament this week will again focus on bedding down long-discussed promises: the universities accord, superannuation changes and telecommunications bills on mobile services and consumer safeguards.
Thursday will also see the annual Closing the Gap report on Indigenous health, social and economic outcomes tabled in parliament – another area where a strong opposition could hold the government to account, with outcomes continually failing to materially improve.
Last week, Liberal MPs Andrew Wallace and Aaron Violi claimed Labor was relishing the Coalition chaos because it distracted attention from the government’s own uncomfortable moments, such as their friendless proposed changes to freedom of information legislation and a long-delayed response to Peta Murphy’s report calling for a ban on gambling ads.
These were entirely reasonable arguments (even if the Liberals later voted against Senate crossbench motions for a new inquiry into gambling ads, and to discharge the FoI bill from the agenda).
The Coalition should now make time to interrogate these properly – if they can stop fighting among themselves for a moment, that is.
Because of course, even after stitching the Coalition back together, some in Ley’s inner circle anticipate a leadership challenge this week – potentially as soon as Thursday or Friday. That said, her expected challenger, Angus Taylor, is yet to declare his hand, with rumblings that he wants to hold any spill until he is sure of a decisive victory.
Any further opinion polls with bleak results released this week would further damage Ley’s leadership. But a strong week, under a renewed, if rocky, Coalition could help buy her time.
