Australia politics live: Scott Morrison to miss first sitting week of parliament | Australia news

Mike Bowers was there for pic fac number two (and three, the photos just haven’t loaded as yet)

So for anyone who hasn’t paid attention to federal politics since May 22, that speech probably helped catch you up on what Labor is planning on doing.

Albanese thanks party, tells caucus to ‘enjoy tomorrow’ as parliament returns

Anthony Albanese finishes with:

Our task is very different. Our task is to unite people, look for common ground and common purpose. That’s something I want this caucus to do.

This caucus has such a critical role to play … We have a great responsibility to the people who have sent us here. People who need a Labor government to make a difference to their lives.

I’m very confident that over coming weeks, months and years, that is precisely what we will be doing.

So, welcome to Canberra. Welcome back. And enjoy tomorrow.

This is the fourth time since World War II and the fifth time in 100 years that Labor has formed government from opposition.

We are only able to do that because of your hard work, because of your commitment, because of your principles, because of the people, the party members and volunteers and union members who have sent you here, you do so much work and will never be interested in appearing in a public forum.

We have a great responsibility to those people to really be the best government that we can possibly be and to make them proud. I’m very proud to lead this party and to lead this government and I hope that we make the people who have sent us here collectively proud each and every day.

PM says asylum seeker boat announcement during election campaign was ‘unprincipled’ and ‘appalling’

He then moves on to the report of the Sri Lankan boat announcement, on the last day of the election campaign (Paul Karp covered that report here):

Albanese:

I think if we needed a final reminder of the legacy that we inherit, it’s come out on the weekend with the report into what occurred on May 21. Actions by a government breaching all convention. Breaching all principles and breaching everything that is decent. Trying to scare people into a vote on polling day and trying to trash the separation that is there between government and the independent public service during caretaker convention periods.

This is unprecedented for a government to act like that on polling day … what we know now is that then prime minister gave a statement before any public statement had been given by the department.

This is a guy who used to say that he would not give answers to anything about these issues, they were on-water matters. And here we have an unprincipled action by a government that was desperate and was prepared to do anything whatsoever to try to retain power.

And it was an appalling act, and it should be – they should be held to account for that appalling act on the final day. That trashing of convention which is the way the politics has to operate if we’re going to have faith in the political processes. It was one last example of a government that will be defined by its seeking of division in society.

PM: ‘We’re not really interested’ in wedge politics

Anthony Albanese:

The former government sat around and talked about how do we wedge the other side of politics? We’re not really interested in that. What we are interested in is getting solution to people for the challenges that are there and we will be doing that.

We will also, of course, be dealing with the legacy that we’ve inherited. $1 trillion of debt with not much to show for it is a real challenge. For the people that we represent, who are suffering under cost of living pressures, and we know that that is the case, but we know as well that you can’t continue to spend money without having consequences. We want value for money, which is why we will be going through the budget line by line, getting rid of the waste and the rorts that we have seen that costs so much, not just in terms financially but has cost in our humanity as well.

Schemes like robodebt have cost us as a society but as well, of course, sports rorts and all of these things that were baked into the budget. We will be going through, going forward.

Then he moves on to legislation:

Labor governments don’t just occupy the space, we are here to make a difference and this week we will have legislation, at least 18 pieces of legislation, including legislation for our climate change target. Legislation for 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave, something we’ve spoken about for a long period of time. Legislation to respond to the aged care royal commission. Why do you have a royal commission and then, you sit on the recommendations? That’s what the former government did. And legislation to create Jobs and Skills Australia which is important in the lead-up to the jobs and skills summit that will be held here in a little over one month’s time here in the Parliament.

In addition to that, in coming weeks we will have child care legislation. We will be acting on our urgent care clinics, putting them in place. We will, by the end of the year, have legislation on the anti-corruption commission.

We will, as well, be advancing the Voice to Parliament enshrined in our Constitution. In all of this, in all of this is the what, and the how is also important, so we want to change the tone of politics in this country. We want to be more inclusive.

We want to make sure there’s less shouting more delivery.

He moves on to covid and foot and mouth disease:

In addition, we have the ongoing challenge of course of dealing with COVID and Mark Butler has been working with the health authorities and I’ve been working with states and territories to deal with the consequences of Covid, making sure that we get those messages out there, making sure that people continue to do the right thing, get their boosters if they are eligible, making sure that support is available and that’s why we’ve extended support for the hospital network, beyond that which was envisaged by the former government. We of course have also had to deal with natural disasters. All of these things are not unrelated. The floods, where many people in Susan Templeman’s electorate have been hit with three floods and a bushfire in the last few years.

The consequences of that, we were there, providing support earlier than ever before, the earlier deployment of the ADF, earlier deployment of state support, the support that goes from the two levels of government but also, earlier engagement of support that is provided by the Commonwealth with those payments and Bill Shorten was straight onto the government services to make sure that that support was available really early and Murray Watt has had an enormous amount to deal with between that and dealing with responsibly the foot-and-mouth disease issue that we know is affecting Indonesia.

We were there, up on the ground, making a difference and making a difference here, not trying to create opportunistic positions, like our opponents, but working with the National Farmers’ Federation, the northern Cattlemen is association, the sector that were directly affected and doing action in consultation with them.

Climate change is a national security issue, says PM

Anthony Albanese continued:

Already we have made the changes that we made to the minimum wage and I said during the election campaign I held up my $1 coin and said that people on $20.33 deserve an extra $1 an hour which is what we’re talking about and, indeed, the fair work commission granted them $1 and now with an increase there is no doubt that that would not have occurred had the change in government not happened on May 21.

We already submitted our naturally wonderful nationally determined contribution to change the climate change targets to the United Nations framework convention on climate change. 43%. Consistent with what we took to the election. But is meant we have been able to walk through the door of international discussions, not just about climate but about trade and economic relationships, about how social relationships, whether that be at the Quad leaders meeting, whether it be at Indonesia, the NATO summit, where European countries welcomed the change in our position and we’ve restarted negotiations for a European trade agreement that’s very much in the interests of Australia. That change has made an enormous difference.

PM: Labor government ‘will hit the ground running’ in parliament

Anthony Albanese continued:

It will be a big deal tomorrow, particularly, there are many people who have been here for a while without having sat on a different side of the chamber.

And, believe me, as somebody who has done both, one is much better than the other. But it is also an enormous privilege and one that we should never take for granted and we should cherish each and every day.

We have an incredible responsibility is the political party in Australia that seeks positive change in the interest of working people, that seeks to change existing power relationships in society in favour of more equality and in favour of fairness, to make a difference in the way that we legislate on the way that the government acts each and every day.

And the government has, fair to say, in its first two months that we celebrated just a day or so ago, on the 21st, we have certainly hit the ground running and we have hit the ground running because Labor governments are passionate about changing things for the better.

We were elected with a significant platform, one in which you will be reminded of with the governor general speech before the parliament tomorrow when parliament opens.

That governor general speech will outline a government of ambition, a government which sees it has a responsibility. To break Australia out of the inertia that the former government was stuck in. We often came to the parliament without much to do in terms of an agenda before the parliament.

This Labor government will not be like that and we will hit the ground running.

Anthony Albanese addresses caucus