Sussan Ley finds her feet as Albanese reaches for the Medicare card again

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4 days ago

Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House.
To the casual observer, Question Time is little more than an insult to intelligence.
Sit in there for five minutes and it's clear why it was never called Answer Time.
When they get a question from the opposition or crossbench, ministers filibuster their three minutes to prevent having to give an actual answer.
When they get a question their side of politics has scripted, ministers find themselves talking about opposition policies.
In one of the more ridiculous moments this week, Labor tasked new MP Ali France, who has arrived in parliament with one of the most compelling life stories, to ask the prime minister how Labor's pursuit of its agenda compared to others in the parliament.
It's as if Labor forgets the nation just made very clear what it thought of the policies the Coalition took to the last election. It won the battle, now its job is to get on with governing, rather than looking in the rear vision mirror.
The Coalition finds itself in the political wilderness, numbers diminished and at sea over which policies it will retain.
Sussan Ley is fledgling in her leadership and yet to assert her control of the opposition.
Ley and her office have taken steps to open up the party, making it a more professional operation and moving it away from the closed shop Peter Dutton led.
At an optics level, you can see just how timid her early steps are, including quite literally when she arrives at Question Time.
When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives (or even when Dutton used to arrive), the frontbencher sitting in their seat immediately vacates it. Ley instead enters and takes her old seat on the frontbench, patiently waiting for the person sitting in her seat to vacate it.
More telling of her uncertainty at the top was her handling of the scenes of starvation emanating from Gaza.
Ley found herself unwilling to say if starvation was occurring in Gaza, something even Benjamin Netanyahu's biggest backer, Donald Trump, was willing to concede this week.
The opposition leader said she was "incredibly distressed by the images" but declined to say if starvation was occurring.
She wasn't alone. Fellow frontbencher Dan Tehan laid the blame solely at the feet of Hamas.
Liberal Dave Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, struck a different tone, arguing there was overwhelming evidence of malnutrition and food shortages and argued the way to counter Hamas would be for Israel to allow for aid to flow freely into Gaza.
Detractors of Ley will say partyroom changes since she became leader have seen her support in the room go backwards — a point her supporters flatly reject.
But if she's having to spend her days looking over her shoulder, it makes it hard to navigate a path forward.
She's also not alone in finding herself in a bind over Gaza.
As nations by the day offer their support for Palestinian statehood, Albanese has repeatedly insisted it was a matter of when, not if.
To date, his line has been to accuse those calling for recognition of seeking to win political points. It's a criticism he's intending to level at the Greens. But as France, then Britain, then Canada all moved to recognise Palestine, Albanese has unintentionally found himself offering a rebuke of the leaders he otherwise says he respects.
A House of Representatives attendant walked into the chamber on Tuesday about 30 minutes into Question Time.
They handed Albanese a yellow envelope, which he discreetly opened.
A flash of green could be seen between his fingers as he slipped the item into his suit jacket. It wouldn't remain hidden for long.
Four minutes after its arrival, Albanese was brandishing his Medicare card, repeating in parliament a stunt he became renowned for during the campaign.
A day earlier, Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh showcased her digital dexterity as she sought to cover the numbers on the Medicare and credit cards she was holding up, accusing Albanese of misleading voters over their prospects of a bulk-billed visit to the GP.
Speaker Milton Dick, who on Monday was quick to remind McIntosh to "not use props", was more muted in his rebuke of the prime minister.
"The member for Lindsay used a similar tactic yesterday," he said.
"I'm sure the prime minister will look after that card carefully and will continue with his answer."
By Wednesday, Albanese was again brandishing his Medicare card, in another clear rebuke of the Speaker's earlier rulings.
Dick was again elected to parliament as a Labor MP at May's election. But like in the last term, he resigned from the parliamentary party and doesn't attend caucus meetings, in a bid to bolster his impartiality credentials overseeing the chamber.
A clearly respected figure, the Coalition broke with convention and supported his return to the prestigious position last week.
His ability to retain respect in the chamber rests on politicians seeing him as an impartial figure, something the prime minister has repeatedly tested this week.
Where there has been no shortage of respect is between an unlikely duo on the outer fringes of Labor's back bench.
First-term man-mountain Matt Smith finds himself squeezed into a two seater alongside fellow giant Dan Repacholi for Question Time.
Across the aisle sits Labor's Tracey Roberts, the second term WA MP who the Queenslander physically towers over.
Earlier this year, Roberts announced she'd been diagnosed with multiple systems atrophy, a rare progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects her mobility and speech. Despite the diagnosis, she vowed to serve a full term if the voters of Pearce again backed her in, which they did in spades.
On paper, there's little the former professional basketballer from Far North Queensland and a former mayor from Perth's northern suburbs would have in common.
But their seating arrangements has led to gentle moments of quiet kindness.
After Roberts stood to ask a question in Question Time, Smith reached out his lengthy arm to assist her.
When Roberts leaves the chamber, he's often nearby, offering a stabilising guide.
They say if you want a friend in politics get a dog. But every so often you see signs that alternatives to a dog still exist.