As Ley tried to tear strips off Chalmers, more than half her MPs weren’t even listening
By Paul Sakkal
It makes some sense for opposition MPs to appear crestfallen returning to parliament. The election loss is still raw, the Coalition is barely back together and Barnaby Joyce keeps talking about scrapping net zero targets.
But the performance of the 43 opposition members in question time on Monday was embarrassing. Flat would be an understatement.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during question time on Monday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Sussan Ley’s troops barely raised a whimper as she tried to use the theatre of parliament to convince Australians that Labor’s economic roundtable was fruitless.
If frontbencher Tim Wilson raised his eyes above his iPad, it wasn’t for long. Angus Taylor was also fixated on a tablet. Nine others, including MPs Tony Pasin and Zoe McKenzie, were glued to laptops.
Last term, under Peter Dutton, laptops and tablets were never seen on the opposition frontbench. This time, a remarkable 22 Coalition politicians, more than half of the whole team, were on a device as Treasurer Jim Chalmers was on his feet talking about his economic record.
If they had put WhatsApp away, they would have clocked something interesting.
Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien in question time on Monday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien came to the floor of the House of Representatives with a coherent line of attack against the Albanese government’s fiscal record. He started the manoeuvre last week when he slammed Chalmers behind closed doors at Labor’s economic roundtable. In the cabinet room, O’Brien – author of the Dutton-era nuclear plan that blew up in the Coalition’s face – argued for restoring rules that curb government spending.
The term “fiscal rules” no doubt causes eyes to glaze over. But the roundtable stunt was designed to draw attention to Labor’s forecast decade of deficits. The fight led to a day of media attention, followed by news that Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood and former Treasury secretary Ken Henry backed O’Brien in the room.
Chalmers was then asked awkward questions about spending guardrails on ABC’s Insiders over the weekend, when he suggested Labor may update its budget rules.
Then on Monday, O’Brien followed up with a series of questions, including one which prompted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to jump up from his chair when it appeared Chalmers was going to respond.
This might all seem like standard stuff. Opposition attacks government – hold the front page.
This masthead’s Resolve polling shows that, under Dutton, the Coalition shed its historic advantage on economic management, even as Labor presided over an inflation crisis. Taylor was the butt of regular Labor gags in question time while shadow treasurer. Rarely, if ever, did the Coalition get under Chalmers’ skin.
On Monday, Chalmers threw a personal barb at O’Brien, citing a recent, slightly confused, speech in which O’Brien referred to Chalmers as the big-spending “candy man”.
“I hope that these questions continue. Because when I was told that [O’Brien] gave a speech about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I confess that the word Wonka was almost the word that came to mind,” Chalmers said, implying the rhyming Australian profanity.
Albanese and Chalmers largely swatted away the attacks because the former Coalition government broke its own spending rules. It’s baby steps for the dishevelled Coalition.
But it was a promising start for O’Brien to bait Chalmers on Labor’s overspending. Forecast deficits for as far as the eye can see should be a sore point for the government.
If only O’Brien’s colleagues were listening.
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