Federal parliament resumes for the first sitting day of the election year

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Federal parliament returns today for the first sitting day of the election year with the Albanese government hoping to keep the focus on cost-of-living relief. Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has addressed his party room outlining the busy year ahead.

Transcript

00:00This is really an opportunity for Peter Dutton to rev up the troops and we heard a similar

00:07rallying cry from Anthony Albanese yesterday to the Labor caucus.

00:12We also heard the opposition leader taking issue with the fact that during that caucus

00:17speech Mr Albanese did not address the recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks.

00:24So some of the key policy issues that the coalition were talking about, things such

00:28as housing, migration, energy, they're all issues you could say that they hope will resonate

00:34with the electorate more generally.

00:37They also spruiked their minimum mandatory sentencing policy which is part of the coalition's

00:43efforts to try and clamp down on anti-Semitism which as we know will be a key political flash

00:49point over the course of this sitting fortnight.

00:52Ahead of this speech though we have seen a bit of tit for tat between Labor and the coalition.

00:58This morning the coalition is not happy, the shadow treasurer Angus Taylor in particular,

01:04with Labor's decision to cost a coalition policy which would essentially subsidise business

01:09lunches for small businesses.

01:11They've crunched the numbers and they claim that it would cost the taxpayer $1.6 billion

01:17a year.

01:18Angus Taylor, he's so incensed by this that he says that he's going to write a letter

01:23of complaint to the department, the Treasury Secretary Stephen Kennedy in response to this.

01:30He says that it's a politicisation of the public service.

01:33I did ask Anthony Albanese about this earlier and this was his response.

01:38This is the worst, sloppiest policy put forward by any opposition that I've seen in my entire

01:45time since I've been in parliament and that was a while ago.

01:50This shows they are simply not fit as an alternative government.

01:55They have opposed every cost of living measure and this is all they've come up with.

02:01So we're hearing a bit of a change of tone there both from the Prime Minister and the

02:04opposition leader to those messages of unity that we heard at that traditional church service

02:09this morning which marks the beginning of the parliamentary year.

02:13As we know this could well be the last sitting fortnight before an election is called.

02:18There are still a number of outstanding legislative items on Labor's agenda.

02:23They include things such as strengthening hate speech laws, superannuation tax reform

02:28and electoral reform as well.

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