TRANSCRIPT
Parliament is back again in Canberra - and the name of the game is accountability.
One of the first orders of business was a private members bill to require political donations be reported in real time (Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Lowering the Donation Disclosure Threshold) Bill 2023).
South Australian MP Rebekah Sharkie says her bill would make the flow of money in politics transparent.
"Under existing regulations, Australians had to wait nine months after they voted in the last federal election to be able to follow the money - from candidates, from donors, from donors to candidates - due to our lax political donation requirements. And this means, for example, that voters did not learn before the election that the Minister for Communications with responsibility for online gambling received cash donations of around $19,000 while she held the shadow portfolio."
Labor's sights are set on accountability in the workplace.
With 91 workers so far this year fatally injured in their workplaces, the government is introducing an industrial relations bill that proposes criminalising industrial manslaughter under the Commonwealth's work health and safety laws.
They're also introducing a bill that's expected to set minimum standards for independent contractors in the gig economy, and ensure labour hire workers are paid the same wages as those covered by enterprise agreements.
Business groups say those laws would make it harder for companies to use labour hire workers at all, and may force some to put their prices up.
Shadow digital economy spokesperson Paul Fletcher says the opposition also believes it's the wrong approach.
"Australians might rightly ask why is this very long bill is being introduced today and the Parliament being required to debate it tomorrow. This is nothing less than a legislative smash and grab raid."
The legislation is expected to quickly pass through the lower house, despite the reservations of the opposition.
Employment Relations Minister Tony Burke says the changes are a win for employees.
"It means better job security. It means better pay. It means finally as well, for the businesses that have had unfair competition where they're competing against a business that's willing to exploit these loopholes, they know that they're back to a level playing field."
But it remains to be seen what the Senate crossbench will make of the changes.
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie says she doesn't consider it a high priority in the circumstances - especially when she hasn't even seen what the lower house is considering.
"When you tell us, and take advisers off us, and in the same breath you're telling me you're going to beef up the library, that is rubbish. You have not done that, to the point where the library's not even coming back with the stuff that we need. They're giving us links to go to send back to our advisers to go look at the research themselves. That's where we're at this morning, so we're considerably under the pump. So I can tell you the last thing I'm thinking about is those IR bills this week when I have 14 pieces of legislation since lunchtime Thursday to get through in the last 72 hours."
Senator Lambie is not the only one interested in giving matters the attention they deserve.
David Shoebridge wants more information on taxpayer-funded trips taken on government owned planes.
Documents on politicians' taxpayer-funded R-A-A-F flights have been tabled in Parliament for years, until 2022.
Richard Marles' office has already defended its refusal to release those details on national security grounds - but Senator Shoebridge says that doesn't make sense.
"The Defence Minister has managed to take some $3.6 million of special purpose flights in just over 12 months in the job. He and his office were a key part of refusing transparency on the details of those flights. The Greens don't accept the security argument that some pattern of life will be disclosed by telling us where the Deputy Prime Minister and the Defence Minister flew 12 months ago. We will be using the Senate powers to force release of those documents."
Meanwhile Nationals MP Bridget McKenzie has announced plans to push for an inquiry into the Federal government's decision to reject additional flights for Qatar Airways into major Australian cities.
The senator says the extra Qatar flights had the potential to reduce airfares and boost the Australian tourism industry at a time when everyone could use the break.
"Australians want an aviation industry that is affordable, that's reliable, and that is safe. And right now, that's not what they're getting. .. We need to get to the bottom of it, because heaven knows the Labor Party doesn't know what it's doing with aviation."
Parliament will sit over the next fortnight.
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be away for a sizeable chunk of the sitting, as he travels through Asia and attends the G20 summit in New Delhi.
