As Judith Collins responded to Jacinda Ardern’s constant self-praise of her own supposed ‘kindness’, if someone tells you how honest they are the first thing you should do is check your wallet. New Zealanders soon found out the truth about Ardern’s ‘kindness’: nowadays the former PM is a despised pariah in her own country.
Similarly, when a new government vows to be ‘more transparent’ and to improve parliamentary standards, you just know they’re going to do the complete opposite.
Anthony Albanese has delivered less legislation than Scott Morrison, presided over fewer parliamentary sitting days and slashed opposition questions, despite his 2022 election pledge to make parliament more transparent.
Ahead of the last election, the prime minister promised more robust debate in parliament and restoration of the integrity of our democratic system. On his own key performance indicators, Albanese has come up short.
Big. Surprise. Did anyone really believe this slippery worm in the first place? Well, apart from the fawning, clueless mainstream media?
Analysis of the 47th parliament, prepared by the coalition and based on House of Representatives Procedure Office and Parliamentary Library data, shows Labor got less legislation through the parliament than the Morrison government, with 366 bills passed versus 438 bills.
Compared with the pandemic-plagued 46th parliament which sat for 170 days, Albanese’s parliament has sat for 168 days. While the sitting calendars are almost identical in duration, there were 1069 hours for government business compared with 914 hours in the previous parliament.
At the same time, departing minister for the NDIS and government services Bill Shorten has refused to answer 362 questions from Senate Estimates. In all the Albanese government has left unanswered a staggering 4441 questions. That’s not all this ‘transparent’ government is doing to evade scrutiny.
Another trend under the Albanese government was the volume of bills referred to the secondary Federation Chamber, which the Coalition claims was used as a “clearing house” to avoid public scrutiny. Labor moved 45 per cent of all House of Representatives bills to the Federation Chamber, compared with the Morrison government’s three per cent […]
Another defining parliamentary statistic is the sharp reduction in allocated questions for Peter Dutton’s opposition compared with Albanese’s Labor opposition under Morrison.
But then, Albanese vowed that he is ‘a man of his word’. Is everyone checking their wallets?
Opposition manager of business Michael Sukkar said Albanese, a leader of the house in the Rudd and Gillard governments, was “not a man of his word”. “Before the election he promised to increase transparency and change the tone of politics, but the data doesn’t lie and he has once again broken his promise and failed. What’s also evident is how scared this government is of scrutiny. During question time, we’ve seen record-low numbers of questions asked and QT cut short,” Sukkar said.
Labor’s dodging and hiding is coming back to bite it on the arse. Not only does the Australian public think they’re a bunch of shifty, incompetent bastards who deserve to be given the boot, even their parliamentary colleagues are sick of being treated like mugs.
While scoring some major legislative wins, such as sweeping IR changes including several that weren’t taken to the 2022 election and climate change-related laws secured via deals with Greens and crossbenchers, the Albanese government’s first-term agenda was undermined by delays to big-ticket funding vehicles including the $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund.
Ahead of an expected April 12 election, Labor has lost friends throughout the term over criticism around transparency and fairness, including forcing stakeholders to sign non-disclosure agreements, rejecting and delaying FOI applications and cutting staff allocations for independents.
Here’s hoping Albo’s next ‘transparency’ trick is a disappearing act from the government benches.
