Last week, government and opposition found themselves singing from the same song sheet in parliament on a range of issues, from the NDIS to ASIO, and big tech to gambling advertising.
On the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Labor and Liberal chose to ignore a chorus of voices urging them to reconsider drastic cuts, including the voices of disabled people themselves, as they rushed through the government’s NDIS changes.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s main concern was to bundle in a completely unrelated provision, on so-called ‘widows tax’, which relates to inheritance/compensation arrangements affected by the government’s recent CGT changes, something Labor was planning to fix anyway.
While Coalition amendments gave some extra protection to disabled people with very high support needs, and demanded heavier punishments for those defrauding the scheme, none of the government’s key NDIS reforms were affected, including measures to drastically reduce the number of NDIS participants, greater use of automated algorithms to make decisions instead of humans (Robodebt, anyone?) and much tighter eligibility requirements.
Secret powers
Despite the objections of Greens and some crossbenchers, amendments to the laws governing ASIO also sailed through the Senate last week with the support of Labor, the Coalition and One Nation.
Grounds for compulsory questioning, intended as temporary and ‘extraordinary’ powers, have now been solidified and expanded with warrants covering such vaguely defined areas as espionage, politically motivated violence and foreign interference.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights noted that this legislation potentially affects Australian rights to privacy, liberty, freedom of movement, fair trial and freedom of expression. There’s also the potential for protesters of various kinds to be caught up in the new security umbrella.
While the ASIO debate was severely curtailed by the big parties’ use of the ‘guillotine’, the Coalition did at least restore a sunset clause on the new legislation, the kind of thing old Labor would have demanded. Two Liberal senators, Alex Antic and Andrew McLachlan, spoke strongly against the entire bill, before being squashed by the combined numbers against them.
As Antic put it, ‘Extraordinary powers should never become ordinary.’
Murder most foul
Speaking of extraordinary powers, Israel’s ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman has not been expelled by the Australian government, despite his country’s refusal to properly investigate the murder in Gaza of Australian aid-worker Zomi Frankcom, let alone apologise.
As human rights lawyer and war crimes expert Geoffrey Robertson has pointed out, despite Israel’s claims, there’s no evidence that any court has been involved in the country’s belated decision to find ‘no criminal liability’ on the part of their armed forces, who targeted and destroyed a clearly marked humanitarian aid convoy which was travelling on a route that had been communicated to them, in April 2024.
Key evidence, including video and audio of the incident, has been denied to Australian investigators.
Labor’s response thus far has amounted to no more than a few strong words. Key opposition figures, including Angus Taylor, were entirely silent on this matter last week.
Media law
On big tech and media law changes, the government sought once again to find common ground with its supposed class enemies on the opposition benches, rather than deal with the Greens or crossbenchers.
Both big parties agreed on the basic principle that big tech has too much bargaining power over Australian journalism, at least in terms of the major players, and is going to have to pay something for that, while rejecting Greens/teal amendments that might have protected smaller, independent publishers, such as The Echo.
Gambling
On gambling advertising, even those on the Labor side who wanted the government to go further were ignored last week in favour of a deal with the opposition.
There will be no total ban on gambling advertising across television and other platforms, as the inquiry led by the Labor MP Peta Murphy said there should be, nor a complete ban on gambling inducements, despite the spectacular recent publicity of the industry’s track record in that area.
Once again, the only people showing any real courage on the issue were on the Coalition side, with Liberal Andrew Wallace and Nationals MP Pat Conaghan crossing the floor to vote against the legislation, and other opposition figures making it slightly stronger, while stopping short of what their previous leader Peter Dutton proposed a few years ago.
Pat Conaghan co-chaired the comprehensive gambling harm inquiry with Peta Murphy, and said last week’s final deal discarded too many of that inquiry’s 32 recommendations, relied on gambling companies to police themselves, and would fail to break the stranglehold of gambling on Australian sport.
He described the final legislative result as a ‘marginal improvement’. Andrew Wallace said a crucial opportunity to usher in meaningful change had been squandered.
As for Labor, its supporters made their usual pathetic excuse: something is better than nothing. Is that really all that this government with its massive majority can aspire to?
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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