Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government is again pressuring the Labor opposition to agree to its carbon price repeal legislation, which is currently stalled in the upper house Senate.
The Liberal-National leader of government business in the lower House of Representative, Christopher Pyne, said tests were mounting for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who must decide on how his party will vote on the carbon laws repeal.
Mr Pyne called on Mr Shorten to pass the carbon repeal during the next two weeks of sittings, saying that by opposing the legislation he was on the “wrong side of workers”.
“This will be another test for Bill Shorten,” Mr Pyne told Sky News.
“He’s got himself into quite a pickle actually because now he’s so negative and so against change.”
The conservative government is seeking to repeal all of the carbon price legislation introduced in 2012 by the then Labor government.
The legislation has been blocked in the upper house Senate since last year as the Labor party and the Australian Greens hold the balance of power.
The Liberal-National government claims the carbon price laws are holding back manufacturing in Australia and force up prices.
However, Labor and the Australian Greens strenuously oppose the alternative program, Direct Action, as it will be funded by taxpayer money, paid to companies to introduce carbon abatement.
Parliament resumed after a week’s break today, with Senate estimates hearings running alongside a sitting of the House of Representatives.
Labor and the Australian Greens Party will seek details on health and education cuts, privatisation and the government’s handling of asylum seekers in the wake of last weeks violence on Manus Island.
AAP Newsagency reports today, the Senate’s finance and public administration committee is probing the public service commission on job cuts and is likely to seek some insight from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet into its role in a scandal engulfing Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash.
Senator Nash’s chief of staff Alastair Furnival resigned over his involvement in the removal of a food-rating website, when it was revealed he had an interest in a lobbying firm representing the food industry.
Labor and the Australian Greens want to know how Mr Furnival came to be hired and who was responsible.
AAP reports the community affairs committee will follow up this on Wednesday when it asks questions of health department officials.
Immigration department and Operation Sovereign Borders officials will be quizzed tomorrow over the management of offshore detention centres and breaches of Indonesian waters by border protection vessels.
Medibank Private officials will face questioning as the government prepares to privatise the health insurer.
Department of Finance officials will be asked to give details on budget planning and the national disability insurance scheme, as well as the Future Fund.
The Australian Electoral Commission will face questions over the mishandling of the West Australian Senate poll and how it plans to avoid mistakes in the future.
AAP reports the government’s legislative agenda will include changes to the Fair Work Act to be introduced in the lower house, and the release of a drought aid package.
The Fair Work amendments, promised at the 2013 election, would speed up greenfield workplace agreements, limit union officials’ access to work sites and broaden the use of individual flexibility arrangements.
