The 'stark' gender split in parliament

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As the corridors of parliament roar back to life, the Prime Minister is starting his second term with a spring in his step, fresh off the back of a landslide win, a successful six-day visit to China, and now a news poll showing the coalition has fallen to a 40-year low.

More on that later.

But while the swelling Labor caucus has been warned to avoid complacency or even, well, he didn't quite put it this way, but hubris perhaps, the opposition leader, Susan Lee, is still trying to introduce herself to the nation.

So what can we expect from Australia's 48th parliament that sits for the first time this week?

Welcome to Politics Now.

Hi, I'm Patricia Carvellis.

And I'm Jacob Grieber.

And Jacob, we're here together in the studio, face to face.

I'm here for the parliamentary sitting week.

The parliament coming back is a big deal.

It's a very different parliament, but we're reunited and that's all that really matters.

It is so good to be back, isn't it?

It feels like it's been, well, it has been four months.

It feels like it, because it's true.

And that's because,

well, I don't know why it's taken this long, but normally it's a bit quicker than this.

Parliament comes back, but I guess they felt like they had a bit of time to reset, rethink, have a...

some people have gone on holidays, some people have,

you know, had to go and find other employment.

Yes,

there's been a lot of that.

Anyway, it's all back on and the place is sort of getting that.

I think tomorrow is going to be a bigger deal, but today you can feel a little bit of the energy in the buildings lifting from its very, it's been very sleepy in here, Peter.

It certainly has.

It's been very sleepy.

And what's remarkable about the current circumstances are that the parliament is going to look quite different.

Now that's a bit weird because you still have the same government in charge, so you'd think, oh yes, status quo, but the numbers are quite different.

And so the parliament will look different.

There's a lot of maiden speeches to be delivered.

Some by

first speeches.

Some by people who never expected.

to give their first speech in parliament.

Realistically, they thought they were running for seats that Labor wasn't going to win.

So interesting dynamic.

But just to get to what this week means, yes, tomorrow, you're right, is the Tuesday.

It's going to be, you know, all the ceremonial stuff, the pomp, the ceremony, just to give you some background on what happens.

There's kind of like a lot of, you know, elaborate sort of parliamentary process, which is Westminster tradition.

We have inherited, of course, from the British tradition.

You'll have the Governor-General, for instance, read a speech, which is actually prepared to deliver the government's agenda in the Senate where everyone sits.

So even the lower house MPs come in and sit and they will hear that speech, which will really explain the government's agenda over the next three years.

Now, there are things we all largely know, but there is interesting detail always in it, I find.

I know that sounds very nerdy of me, but don't you reckon?

Like just the emphasis, the things the government decides to put in that speech to say what they'll focus on.

Definitely, definitely that.

The other thing, there'll be a smoking ceremony out the front of parliament.

There'll be cannons.

You just wanted to mention this.

The cannons are great.

He's already talked to me about the cannons this morning.

Anyway, yeah.

And people wearing lots of frilled collars and carrying weird objects wandering around the building.

All part of, as you say,

that old Westminster tradition that we've got with a bit of the new, with a bit of the new as well.

The speeches will be interesting.

They are an opportunity to frame up where things are headed for the government, what their priorities are.

Are they going to do anything with this thumping majority, or do they stick to the knitting of what they took to the last election?

We'll be talking about that particular challenge, I think, ad nauseum for the next couple of months because it is a fundamental question of the government.

But I don't know, are you expecting any surprises tomorrow with the way they present this?

It is interesting that the first speeches,

of the first of the first speeches, there will be Ali France

and, and I've just forgotten her name, the MP.

Sarah Wishy.

So they are the two who knocked off leaders of other parties.

Yeah, I mean, that's no mistake, obviously.

Labor gets to decide the order of the first speeches.

I used an old-fashioned term, but, you know, the first speeches that are delivered by all their new MPs.

And these are really important moments for those MPs.

Because in your first speech, you kind of say a lot about why you wanted to come to this place, not just your party's platform and just your party's lines, but a bit of your own

reason for being passionate about politics.

But Labor has chosen to let those two MPs give their speeches first to send, I suppose, the most blatant of signals about what this election victory was, that they defeated the hard left, that's how they see it, I'm not adopting this language, and they defeated the hard right, that's how they see Peter Dutton.

And they were both leaders of the parties that they saw as pushing to the extremes of the right and the left.

as Labor sees it again.

They would contest that.

I think Adam Vant and Peter Dutton that they were that.

And, you know, they'll give the first speeches.

I just think that's pretty interesting that they've gone down that road.

Oh, it's definitely.

I mean, it's let's let's not kid ourselves.

It's it's a little bit of hubris there.

They're gonna

fight about this.

It's hubris.

It gets there because you you're it's a political thing, it's the hard politics, and you're celebrating it and you're doing it for your own side.

Let's face it.

The whole backbench wants to hear those speeches, and it's that they're coming from those two people makes it all the sweeter for that labor base.

Yeah, they're celebrating.

This is a dance on the remnants of the previous leaders, you know, their bones and tools and shields and swords under their feet.

The dust rises up.

They're all, it like I'm thinking here, brave heart scenes, you know, it's that kind of thing.

Yeah, look, they are dancing a bit, but they're also

by doing that, the bit that I don't see as hubris per se is

it's their political identity at the moment that

the Prime Minister.

The hard centre.

The hard centre.

The radical centre, as beautifully, that term comes from actually Noel Pearson once talked about the radical centre.

Sometimes it is the most radical thing to be in the centre because it's not, you know, you're not sucking up to anyone, are you?

The left doesn't love you, the right doesn't love you, you're always making compromise, and therefore it is quite radical in some ways.

And that's, I suspect, a bit of the flavour, and I've been given this, you know, information as well from both of those speeches.

But they will be talking about their own journey.

I mean, in terms of Ali France's incredible journey as an individual.

So, here's a secret.

I was a cadet with her.

What?

At a newspaper back in the early 90s.

She wasn't Ali France back then.

She had a maiden name.

Maiden came up again there, Sarah.

Yeah, but it's, I think, or knee name.

What's the technical here?

Look.

So, really?

What was she doing?

Well, she's a journalist.

She was great.

She was wonderful.

Worked really hard, was good at breaking stories.

Well, she's just broken the parliament.

Boom, boom.

Yeah, exactly.

That's really interesting.

I had no idea, Jacob.

But I was surprised that Sarah did win.

I think Ali has been really working that electorate for longer.

I'm pretty sure this was her third

go at Peter Darton.

She's been chipping away.

So she's well, well known in that community,

has lived there for a long time, and I think her story will get told over the coming days.

There is some really interesting people arriving.

The 21-year-old Labor senator from South Australia, who's been labelled the baby of the Senate.

21's pretty young in this.

Is that younger than Wyatt Roy was?

Remember Wyatt Roy?

No, I think Wyatt was even younger.

20, I think, he was.

Look, regardless, you know, the voting age is 18.

You can run from 18 in this country.

I think that's a good thing.

You should have old people, young people, all sorts of people that represent the country.

And look, in the UK, they're being as brave as making 16-year-olds be able to vote.

Now, we're not ready, apparently, for that in this country.

I'll hold my cards close to my chest about my views on that.

But I do think young people, my daughter's 16, you've got a 16-year-old too.

We're in the 16-year-old daughter club, you and I.

I know they work, both of our kids, don't they?

I would trust my daughter to make a political decision.

But she works.

My point is, she pays,

she's probably under the tax limit.

But either way,

they're contributing to this country.

I have discovered that the coffee shop industry for a 16-year-old does not put you into a very high tax bracket.

Yeah, no.

I have discovered that there is a lot of hard work you do, but we've done some hard work in the past too.

It starts that way.

So what's on the government's agenda this week?

Like what do they want other than the first speeches and the cannons and all of that will be on the TV screens and people will be like, oh yeah, all those dudes are meeting in Canberra again, whatever, like just impressions.

What legislatively, did I do that right?

Yeah, the bills.

What do they want to actually do?

So look, I think they will do a lap of honour

where they will try and really underscore just how much the parliament has changed, how many more women are now in the parliament, how different their side looks to the other side.

So that'll be part of the sort of presentational fight, if you like, between the two sides.

And then the policy agenda, frankly, is quite light on.

They will legislate quite quickly the 20% reduction in student debt and tweaking the childcare

funding arrangements.

This is to enable the federal government, my understanding, to come in and check on childcare centres to make sure the numbers of

kids that they're looking after is indeed what it says on those.

So the ratios are being met, yeah.

Yeah, and just, you know, if they say they've got 40 kids and they walk in and there's only 20, they're actually getting funding for 40.

And so they're tightening up some of the sort of testing and credit cards.

Sort of spot checks, departmental

workers will be.

But for that, they've got bipartisan support, so the opposition sort of indicated or hinted that they're going to back them on it.

And they obviously have the Greens for the student debt relief.

But they've also got the coalition now for the student debt.

I mean, John O'Duniam yesterday told David Spears on Insiders that they won't stand in the way.

They understand Labor has taken it to the election and they were quite clear about it.

I thought that was interesting back to the coalition and the way they're revisiting their role in this parliament, that they're not going to stand in the way of some of these things.

Now, it has to go to the party room, he said.

My understanding is that he will advocate essentially that they do vote for it.

But, you know, obviously, the party room has to agree.

But it's interesting because remember, they called that elitist.

Remember that?

Yeah, they definitely hit it and suggested at the time that it was all good and well to give a university graduate

a reduction on their debt, but it wouldn't do much for a tradey in the outer suburbs.

But look,

elections are as sort of clear-cut as this one.

You are a bit foolish to stand in the way of it,

a measure like this.

The government won.

The government won.

It's funny, though, Jacob, because I agree with you.

I think they're looking for future fights.

Yes.

And they will definitely find things to get into the government about.

But at this early phase, and maybe we talk about it, you know, the polls, some polls have come out, the first really since the election.

And

the coalition's in a very, very weak position.

And I think this goes to sort of Susan Lee's view of, let's listen, let's be quiet a bit more and figure out how we reconnect.

Let's see how that goes, because politics is also about filling the news every day.

Yeah, her line is, as she's being reported, so she did 60 minutes to sort of introduce herself to the country.

She's got a good story to tell, right?

Blies Plains, has grandchildren, has been a career woman across the, like she does, as her personal story is quite compelling.

I think my favourite is of her camping somewhere on the way to might have been Thargaminda and she was on the side of the road in her swag and somebody showed up on a motorbike and said oh are you here by yourself this is a story she told the women's weekly

oh you're here by yourself and she said just me and my long skinny friend and picked up a rifle that was next to her that she had according to the story bought legally from a gun shop but yeah i do love the according to the story like you know a politician aware that this could be an anecdote that goes badly.

Look, yeah, she has to do it.

So she's doing her own myth-making, her own storytelling, her own.

Which you need to do on and on again.

Think about the way Anthony Albanese has done the same storytelling about, of course, his, you know, living in public housing with his mum on welfare and disability.

It's Abraham Lincoln.

It's the log cabin story.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But how many times has he repeated it to the point where Journos

gets so cranky, like, oh, he's telling that story again.

And actually, one of the criticisms of Peter Dutton was that he didn't quite do that in the same way he his personality didn't like talking about that so he he there was criticism that he should have told his log cabin story well he's one

i i actually think and this is absolutely just my own uh analysis of australia rather than anything you know with hard evidence but i think the cop story is a harder one to tell i really do i think the police

are loved by some people uh but are not loved universally they have a difficult relationship with different parts of the country.

And so there is something that is more difficult to tell about that story.

Perhaps there was sometimes a reluctance, then he'd lean into it, then it made him look too hard.

Anyway, he's gone, whatever.

But back to Susan Lee.

I mean, she said the coalition will not roll over and accept the government's agenda.

Interestingly, so, you know, the whole line from Albanese, which is get out of the way, you know, because we've got this thumping majority.

By the way, it's directed at the Greens as much as the Liberal Party and the coalition.

Right.

So you said they'll be looking at future fights.

Yes, they have

read the room on some policy issues.

Obviously, the 20% hex reduction.

Childcare is a no-brainer, quite frankly.

Imagine if they hadn't supported it.

Anyone.

You have to fix this system.

They want the government to do more on childcare.

And it's a collective responsibility, the childcare failures, because it happened under their watch that

ignoring recommendations from the Royal Commission as well.

John O'Duniam said on my show actually a couple of weeks ago, yep, we stuffed that up.

We should have.

So they they all know that.

Okay, so childcare is one thing.

They should, should go very hard on that, both sides, in my view, because it's very serious.

But you say they take the lessons.

Well, no,

not on net zero, not on not on renewables and stuff.

I'm going to push back on that one.

I'm going to push back on that one.

I think on net zero, they are aware that...

Certainly on the Susan Lee side of the ledger, that they need to be credible in this space.

They can't pretend it's not happening or that you can have some kind of a policy where you don't do anything about it until the middle of the century.

The memo hasn't arrived for people like Barnaby Joyce, who is going, because partly he's no longer on the shadow front bench, he's actually free to do what he wants.

And he has a very, very strong view, as you and I both know, that net zero is really a load of nonsense, a whole bunch of hooey, and

we're going down this mad path in his his mind towards uh renewables that will end in tears and so he's putting in a bill he's got a private member's bill which i suspect the government cannot wait to bring on for debate because it will just be a debate where they get to remind everybody that the coalition

it's it's the kryptonite for the coalition it is it continues to be the thing they can't solve and there's a bit of selective message adaptation you know oh yes we've got that message from but oh there's other messages that they they interpreted as

I think that's going to be a problem for them.

I do, you're right.

And remember the history of this, Barnaby Joyce did the deal with Scott Morrison

to have the National Party support net zero in late 2021 because Morrison was on his way to Glasgow and he needed a credible story to tell.

He couldn't sort of go there and say, we don't do net zero by 2050.

Barnaby agreed to it on condition of really an exquisitely large amount of public money to go to his favourite favourite projects.

David Littleproud, the current Nationals leader, fought a motion about 18 months, two years ago inside the party

at the party conference that year, which would have overturned that policy.

He fought that motion because there was an element of it being a Barnaby sort of push.

So Little Proud fought that motion.

Now Little Proud's sitting there, they've got this internal process underway,

led by Matt Canavan, who is, well, to call him a sceptic, is probably a huge understatement.

So this is still very much

got a long way to go.

And

yeah,

the government will make hay with it.

Well, why wouldn't it?

So

the only thing that I would say, though, is

if we were to have a whole bunch of grid failures, like the power went out for a long period of time, whatever the reason, people will retrofit the reason for why it's happening.

Will they add a narrative that suits them?

And then I think politically the thing becomes a little more live and maybe tricky for the government.

But that's an if, that's a what if scenario.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's absolutely true.

You are absolutely right about that.

Look, we won't have question time, Jacob, till Wednesday.

And that question time, I think, will be quite the moment.

I mean, you know, you'll see the parliamentary numbers and the lack of women for the coalition earlier than that when they all sit together, of course, you know, when the governor general's delivering a speech that packed senate room where they were all sort of scrambling for it you know but then in that question time the first face-off between Susan Lee and Anthony Albanese across the dispatch box everyone will be very excited about the optics of that first woman to be facing off against the Prime Minister in the opposition role 80-year-old party first woman leader incredible in and of itself so that's that'll be a moment and then you'll be able to look as you sit from the press gallery seats.

You look down where we sit and on the left is the opposition and you will see only six women, only six women, incredibly unbelievable, right?

Isn't it, Jacob?

Apologies, it'll be really stark.

Liberal women.

And I think people have also been pointing out that

you could let every male member of the Labor Party leave the chamber and there'd still be more women on the Labor side than the entire coalition side.

There's been some fantastic lines like

I'll give her some credit because she's my mate and she's also awesome.

Annabel Crabb, who described it as, you know, filling a Toyota Corolla.

I've got a Toyota.

Well, I've got a Corolla because I'm old.

It's a cricket team.

It's a rugby team.

It's a Corolla.

It's a Tarago.

It's a Morris Minor or something.

Either way, it's a Corolla, and that's because she's got Susan Lee in the comm car.

It's going to be visually very blatant to the problem they have.

Not an academic, I'm writing another column about this moment, but actually, visually, Australia won't be able to miss it.

And, you know, women wear more colour because of all sorts of gender norms that I think, you know, men should wear better fashions too.

You've got a nice tie today, just to give you some credit, so I'm not going to judge you.

I've been upping my tie possessions.

Well, of course, because you're on the fancy show now and you need to look good.

You look your best, mate.

You look good.

Thank you.

But you'll notice that.

The customer's good now.

I can go home.

It

can all go to customers.

Gen X man got a compliment in a radio studio.

Day's done.

So it'll be a moment, right?

Yeah, absolutely will be.

And a great moment for Labor.

And also actually a moment for

Susan Lee.

Think about it.

She's probably got the most thankless job at the moment in Australian politics.

As the news poll numbers showed.

As the news poll numbers showed, a political movement really, really in the doghouse.

not knowing how to go forward.

She's got to come in there and land a blow on

a Prime Minister riding high.

Let's see how she goes.

But it's tough.

They'll be

psyching each other out, trying to work each other out.

But here's a question for you.

And I don't want to get into trouble here, but

between Dutton and Albanese,

they actually respected each other in private, I suspect.

They both understood the roles they played, but they got quite rough against each other when they were seated over the dispatch box.

The Prime Minister, I can still remember one episode where he said, you know, sit down, buffed, when they were going at it.

Does the Prime Minister change his style now that he has, you know, a woman across from the state?

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

No, you're not going to get into trouble because I think we should ask controversial questions.

And I suppose maybe it is a controversial question, but it's certainly one that was raised by lots of liberals when she was running.

I know, because they said it to me.

Ah, that'll really know, be confusing for the Prime Minister.

So almost like they wanted that, so it would be hard for him.

I found that offensive on a personal level that I think don't treat us like we're idiots.

I've said it before.

So much more than just that.

So my view is

we are fully, you know, functioning political creatures, us women.

We are political.

If he uses any gendered language, yeah, he will be in trouble, right?

But if he kind of generally is like rough and tumble, I don't think he'd call her a buff head because I don't know if that's a word that anyone would think about with her yet.

But, you know, as long as it's not gendered, I think he probably passes the pub test or the press gallery test or my test at least.

If it strays into that, which I suspect it won't if he knows what's good for him, but if it does, I think he will be.

Yeah, I think he'll get in trouble.

You've been warned, Prime Minister.

And sometimes those things, because they're hard-wired, I haven't heard him do it too much, to be fair to him, but some of those things do happen and come out, especially

and if you've been raised in a different era and you haven't reprogrammed your brain as you should.

You know, hopefully he won't.

But if he does, that'll be a moment for him.

But yeah, it'll be interesting.

I hope, you know, in a weird way for women, I hope he doesn't go, so to speak, soft because I think it's silly.

It's insulting to women.

She's been in the parliament since 2001.

She could give as much as she can get.

She's pretty tough.

I've heard things she said about him.

Like, you know, one more thing I want to just touch on, not at length.

It's been a lot of analysis about whether the China trip was successful or not.

I just want to touch on this.

I thought it was really a bit odd that the coalition tried to call it.

I think it was...

Indulgent was...

Yeah, that was the word.

Thank you.

James Patterson called it.

I don't know about that.

I don't know if Australians see it that way.

It seemed to me like a trip which was very diplomatically necessary.

And business leaders today have really come out in favour of Albanese, haven't they?

I mean, and also the idea that it was just a holiday.

That's what they were implying.

I'm sorry, I'm going to say this in defense of all prime ministers, not just him.

If you think having 700 cameras, and I'm exaggerating, but like on you, watching everything you do, is a holiday, you haven't been on a good holiday.

That is not a holiday.

We need one in that country.

That is not a holiday.

I just, I'm going to go for a holiday to my homeland where my parents are from, Greece.

That will be a holiday with no cameras.

I'm barely going to take my iPhone.

Like, that's a holiday.

This is not a holiday.

I think it was

a lazy lazy shot.

Yeah.

And I suspect the public wants the Prime Minister working closely with our closest trade partner.

They probably also know that he should be working closer with our other big trade partner, our direct trade partner and security partner.

But people are also aware of the circumstances of this regime, this White House.

He's made the effort and I'm sure there will be a meeting.

There will be a meeting this year.

I have no doubt about that.

But I think the Prime Minister actually turned that attack around back on the opposition when he said, look, there are more than a billion people watching me potentially visit these pandas and walk on the wall.

That has its own message to the Chinese.

People who we want to come here as tourists.

Exactly.

And by the way, the bit he didn't really say, but was implied was, why do you still have a problem with this to the opposition?

And that goes to some of the things that Susan Lee's trying to fix, which is neutralise their image with the Chinese community.

The damage that was caused during that election campaign

for the Liberal Party within the Chinese community.

So, yeah, it's a tricky one, isn't it?

Yes, that's right.

Well, Jacob, I love hanging out with you.

I know you've got a lot of work with 7.30 to do.

I've got afternoon briefing this afternoon too.

So let's say goodbye.

Tomorrow, I'll be back with Claudia Long again in the studio face-to-face.

And if you have a question for us, please send a short voice note to the partyroom at abc.net.au.

Fran and I are back this Thursday, and thank you.

The party room was excellent this week.

We both weren't on it.

It was a bit weird, but I listened to it and enjoyed it.

So I was like, oh, yeah, I'm enjoying being a consumer here.

See you, Jacob.

See ya.