Katharine Murphy theguardian.com, Monday 11 November 2013
Prime minister appeals to voters via social media after weeks of controversy over spying, asylum and expenses
Tony Abbott and foreign minister Julie Bishop speak at the WA Liberals conference in Perth. Photograph: Will Russell/AAP
Tony Abbott will use the opening of the new 44th parliament to focus attention back on his planned repeal of Labor’s carbon price after weeks of controversy over MPs perks, strained relations with Indonesia over asylum arrivals and regional surveillance, and displays of internal division over foreign investment and industry policy.
The new parliament will sit in Canberra on Tuesday for the first time since the September election, and Abbott took to YouTube and social media on Sunday night with a visual press release arguing that the repeal of the carbon price would reduce the average household’s cost of living by “$550 a year.”
Abbott says in his short self-published video that “on average” repeal of the carbon price will take $200 off household power bills and $70 off gas bills.
While partisan debate around the carbon price will dominate the opening of the new Australian parliament, no Australian minister will attend international climate talks in Warsaw this week. Ahead of those international talks, Guardian Australia reported last week that Coalition ministers raised objections to Australia’s ongoing commitment to the Green Climate Fund during recent cabinet deliberations.
News Corp on Monday reports that cabinet has resolved not to sign up to any new international climate agreement that involves spending money or levying taxes. Australia will be represented in Poland this week by the ambassador for climate change, Justin Lee.
Labor is meanwhile keeping political pressure on the government’s asylum policy following a climb-down over the weekend which saw 63 people transferred to Christmas Island after Indonesian authorities refused to accept the group rescued in Indonesia's search and rescue zone, south of Java. The decision to take the group to Christmas Island followed a 24-hour stand-off.
While unauthorised boat arrivals have declined over the past few months - starting under Labor’s punitive Papua New Guinea resettlement agreement, and continuing under the policies of the new government – co-operative relations with Indonesia have proved vexed.
Indonesia appears to be digging in on the asylum issue in a serious setback to the Coalition’s policy. It became clear over the weekend that Indonesia has refused to accept other would-be asylum seekers rescued in Jakarta’s search and rescue zone – not just in the most recent stand-off, but on other occasions since the change of government.
Prior to the election, the Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa was emphatic that Indonesia would not accept turned-back boats – and the bilateral relationship has faced further complications since reports surfaced of Australia spying on the region out of embassy facilities.
Given the complications, and the uncertainty over whether Jakarta will take a more cooperative approach, Labor was quick to capitalise on the Coalition’s political and diplomatic discomfort.
Shorten said the Coalition was not only failing to live up to its election commitments on asylum policy, it was “hiding behind Australia’s military” and refusing to answer legitimate questions about significant on-water operations.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the Coalition's boat-person policy is just absolutely not working,” the Labor leader declared on Sunday.
The Coalition goes into the new 44th parliament battling significant internal divisions over a range of policies, including the proposed $3.4bn foreign takeover of GrainCorp, future support for the Australian car industry, and concerns over Tony Abbott’s signature paid parental leave scheme, particularly from Nationals.
Abbott has also been under increasing pressure, particularly in recent weeks, for his decision to largely avoid media scrutiny since the election. Once parliament is underway, the Greens will move a motion to try and force more transparency surrounding the management of boat arrivals.
The government has refused at weekly briefings carried out under the Operation Sovereign Borders policy to answer specific questions about efforts to turn boats around, or interceptions.
Facing the imminent resumption of parliament, the Coalition moved over the weekend to try and neutralise rolling public controversy over parliamentarians expenses, promising some minor tweaks to the system, including penalties in the event that MPs have to repay their claims.
Over $20,000 has been paid back by various MPs, including by the prime minister, over the past month.
The opposition leader Bill Shorten has provided a tepid response to the changes. Appearing on ABC television on Sunday, Shorten said the opposition would be constructive, but he feared the proposal was more cosmetic than substantive: “The jury is out for me on this, and indeed for Labor.”
With the prime minister declaring the first order of parliamentary business the repeal of Labor’s carbon price, Shorten on Sunday indicated Labor will support a parliamentary inquiry into the Coalition’s “direct action” climate policy.
In a speech in Melbourne on Sunday, the former prime minister Julia Gillard urged her former parliamentary colleagues to stand up for the carbon price during the transition to opposition. Gillard said if Labor scheme was to be replaced by another system, then “It is incumbent on those advocating the new approach to show it will cut emissions by at least 5% by 2020, and by a lesser cost per tonne of carbon abated.”
Abbott and Shorten will begin the political day on Monday by attending ceremonies in Melbourne and Canberra for Remembrance Day, before moving on to ministerial and party room meetings later in the afternoon. Parliament begins on Tuesday, with a ceremonial opening. The normal legislative business and Question Time does not get underway until Wednesday.
Other early business for the new government over the four parliamentary sitting weeks scheduled for between now and Christmas will be the planned repeal of the mining tax and a move to increase the debt ceiling to $500bn.
The Greens and South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon also want to push an agenda for the reform of the senate voting system to implement optional preferential voting in the upper house.
