Usually the House of Representatives is the main game. But until July next year, it is a bit of a sideshow. The government can pass all the legislation it wants, but to turn it into law it must go through a Senate which is controlled (for now) by the ALP and the Greens. This was reflected yesterday when at the moment it came time for the bills to dismantle the carbon tax to be voted on, they went through on the nod.
Given the numbers in the House there was no point for the opposition to force a vote.
And so the carbon tax went with a whimper in the House, but the big bang is to come in the Senate. The government continues to believe – or would like us to believe that it continues to believe – that the ALP will fold and will either vote for the bills or, more likely abstain when they come before the Senate.
And so we look to the Senate in two weeks time for the fireworks and tension, and an actual vote.
This week also demonstrated that the House, dominated as it is by a speaker who decides how relevant (or irrelevant) a Minister can be, is not a place for answers to be given. The Senate was the place to go to get questions actually answered.
The “Budget Estimates” hearings are a great time for the opposition to glean information – from how many terracotta pots have gone missing from parliament house (361), to when the ABC will be showing the next season of Rake (the first half of next year).
It also provided an opportunity to question the head of “Operation Sovereign Borders”, Lt General Campbell, who in his 5 hours before the senate committee did his best to answer nothing.
When asked about media reports that an asylum seeker boat had sunk while being towed to Christmas Island, he declined to comment. When asked if that meant the report was not true he replied:
“No. I am not offering a comment. As is usual, and now routine, and for the reasons I have outlined in my opening statement, each Friday I will provide an update, at the weekly Operation Sovereign Borders press conference, the events of the previous week.”
Not surprisingly the suggestion that senators be content with waiting till Friday when the Lt. Gen may or may not tell journalists what he would not tell senators was regarded with a fair degree of contempt.
His stonewalling only mirrored what was happening in the House. There Scott Morrison responded to all questions from the ALP by suggesting that answering might assist people smugglers. On Monday he was asked about the government’s boat buy back policy. He replied with a non-answer, saying “I can assure the House that this side of the House has deployed and is deploying the full arsenal of measures that we have available to stop the boats.”
But the senators in estimates had more luck. On Tuesday, when Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked Lt Gen Campbell if any boats had been purchased, Lt Gen Campbell had to admit that no boats had been bought.
On Wednesday question time, when asked about the difference in their answers, Morrison was allowed by the speaker to ignore the question and instead talk about the budget blowout.
Richard Marles followed up by asking Morrison, “Why does the minister even bother turning up to question time?”
The question was ruled out of order, and thus Morrison did not need to provide an answer. Coincidentally, this made it no different to any other response he gave this week.
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