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It's one big happy family at the good ship government and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. In interview after interview Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers were jumping out of their skin to tell the world just how aligned they were.
We text all the time, they said. We meet in person all they time, they insisted. Don't believe what you read in the newspapers, they cried.
Questions arose after the Australian Financial Review reported on Wednesday that the two men had held private talks to agree to rein in public expectations about the artist formerly known as the productivity roundtable.
The paper reported any tension was mere "frisson" rather than anything serious but it prompted no shortage of rebuttals.
It's been months since Albanese first announced the treasurer would hold a three-day productivity summit in August.
In the time since, the re-brandings have been thick and fast, as no shortage of ideas emerge ahead of the what's now being called the three-day economic roundtable (productivity is so yesterday, it seems).
There is nothing new about points of tension between prime ministers and treasurers, and there is little to suggest Albanese and Chalmers' relationship is any different to their predecessors.
Treasurers have the freedom to be ambitious, while prime ministers tend to be more cautious, acutely aware of public sentiment.
That's been on display here. Chalmers has bemoaned the "rule in, rule out" game, encouraging people instead to bring forward their best ideas to boost productivity (or whatever word the government is now using).
Albanese, meanwhile, has been very willing to rule out proposals, whether its changes to negative gearing or adopting a
four-day work week. When it was first pitched, the government vowed the roundtable wouldn't bear the hallmarks of the first term jobs and skills summit, the announcements from which seemed pre-ordained before the event.
Leaked Treasury advice, revealed by the ABC on Thursday, went some way to undermining that thanks to a pre-written list of outcomes for the yet-to-be-held event.
The document was prepared for the cabinet. Chalmers insists that it shouldn't be a "big surprise" that briefings had been prepared. But Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, smelling a rat, argued it showed the talks were a "stitch up".
Both men say there is low hanging fruit that they hope the economic reform-nee-productivity roundtable can tackle.
While it remains to be seen what fruit will be picked next week, one thing that is almost certain is that if you drive an EV, you should expect things are about to get more costly.
Labor looks set to use the summit the thrash out road user charging rules to see electric vehicle owners make a greater contribution to road repairs, to help offset falling fuel excise revenue.
As for why no one says productivity? Ask people in Labor and they will tell you the word tanks in focus groups. When people hear it, they think it means they need to work harder, even if the ambition is the opposite.
Mower drowns out Palestine pledge
Albanese's week started with a highly choreographed event, in which he and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong pledged Australia would recognise Palestine next month.
The scale of the moment can't be understated.
Decades in the making, Albanese and Wong have spent recent months painstakingly preparing for the pledge
, knowing all too well that once said, there'd be no going back. Shame no one told Parliament House's lawn mower, the engine of which roared so loudly that the Albanese and Wong could hardly be heard.
You need only look to the windows overlooking the prime minister's courtyard to know Australia was about to mark a milestone moment in recognising a Palestinian state. Albanese has talked about recognising Palestinian statehood for decades and he seemed acutely aware of the moment
. But telling too was how quickly he then donned a hard hat and high-vis vest.
He headed to Melbourne on Tuesday to talk about housing and to Brisbane on Wednesday to talk batteries and to attend the Ekka, where he happily ate a famous strawberry sundae (maybe don't look up the pictures of the consumption).
While questions about Palestinian recognition might have followed him, the image people saw was that of PM moving throughout the country, signalling his agenda was much bigger than events in the Middle East.
Attracting barely a peep from the United States, the Coalition quickly announced it would
repeal the recognition if it won the next election before accusing Labor of emboldening Hamas
.
Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michaelia Cash has taken with gusto to adding theatrical flair to her pronunciation of Hamas, so much so it's almost impossible to describe. Pronunciation aside, this is where things start getting confusing.
On Wednesday, Nine newspapers published comments attributed to one of Hamas's co-founders, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, praising Albanese's "political courage", comments the Coalition couldn't pounce on quick enough.
But then a statement published on Hamas's English and Telegram channels denied the issuing of the statement, insisting Yousef was imprisoned without any means of communication.
Awkwardly for Ley, after saying Hamas was "cheering" on the government, when told Hamas had rejected the comments she replied: "I am not responding to comments by Hamas and nor am I taking them seriously."
The bell tolls for Bishop
A quick look at former foreign minister Julie Bishop's Instagram profile shows a dizzying post-political career filled with curated images of her travelling the world, speaking at global events and attending glitzy opening nights.
The former foreign minister and deputy Liberal leader retired from federal politics in 2019 after failing to replace Malcolm Turnbull as PM.
In the years since, she's opened an advisory firm, joined boards and become a special UN envoy on Myanmar. Among her more prestigious appointments was becoming the chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU).
For such a high-profile figure, Bishop has been noticeably quiet in the role in recent months as festering tensions at the ANU boil over
amid widespread job and funding cuts.
Which brings us to this week and a Senate inquiry interrogating the quality of governance at the nation's universities.
Former member of the Australian National University council Liz Allen uses a Senate inquiry investigating university governance to allege Chancellor Julie Bishop harassed, bullied, and threatened her.
Appearing on Tuesday, ANU academic Liz Allen used parliamentary privilege to accuse Bishop and other members of the executive of bullying
.
Allen, a staff-elected member of the ANU council until she quit earlier this year, accused Bishop of being "hostile and arrogant" to staff and suggested the previous vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt had "kept the chancellor's behaviour in check".
In highly charged testimony, she spoke of the personal toll she had experienced and accused Bishop of blocking her from leaving a room after berating her.
Bishop didn't appear at the hearing but issued a statement to "reject any suggestion" that she had acted in "any way other than with respect, courtesy and civility".
Speaking on Wednesday, ACT senator David Pocock said "everyone in the room was really moved" by Allen's testimony and said it highlighted the human toll poor leadership and governance was having at the ANU.
He's also called for Bishop to stand aside while the allegations are investigated.
For now, neither Bishop nor embattled vice chancellor Genevieve Bell are budging but neither are the calls for their removal. |
