John,

Welcome to Labor’s Senate Select(ions) - a wrap of this week’s developments from the Senate – and the Senate Select Committee investigating the Morrison Government’s coronavirus response.

Parliament resumed this week with more marketing and muddled messages from his Government. 

1 – Power’s six-figure allowance

The Senate Select Committee investigating the Morrison Government’s coronavirus response continued its work, this week hearing from the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 

The Committee learned that Nev Power, the Chairman of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, will be paid more than a quarter of a million dollars to cover “expenses”, which can be used to fuel his private plane.

Officials initially told the hearing Power would receive $500,000.

Hours later, the PM’s department issued a correction, saying Power will “only” be paid $267,000 to cover his travel and accommodation expenses.

2 –PM’s right hand man leaves us in the dark on how National Cabinet decisions are made

Senator Keneally asked the head of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Phil Gaetjens – Scott Morrison’s right hand man in the Public Service, and former Chief of Staff – whether the Commonwealth Government’s Cabinet has to endorse the decisions of National Cabinet. It was a simple question, followed by a long pause… and then a not so simple answer.

3 – A worker in need of a break instead gets a political attack

Moving back in with his parents at 30 wasn't part of the plan for Darcy.

Darcy’s never been unemployed in his adult life but, because of the transient nature of hospitality work, he'd only technically been employed for a few months by his current boss, making him ineligible for the Job Keeper scheme

This week, Labor Senator Jess Walsh told Finance Minister Mathias Cormann about Darcy.

The response? A partisan attack on the Victorian Premier and Darcy was told to get in the Centrelink queue.

This is not what Australian workers need. It’s time the Government fixed Job Keeper and included over a million casuals who have been excluded.

4 – Push to expand JobKeeper eligibility

NSW Senator Tony Sheldon, this week spearheaded a disallowance motion to ensure that aviation and university workers are included in JobKeeper. 

5,500 Dnata airport catering workers have been denied JobKeeper because their company is part of foreign- government-owned Emirates. It’s a bitter irony for these workers - who pay their taxes like everyone else - because it was this same Coalition Government who approved the sale of their company from Qantas two years ago and now they are being punished for that decision. 

Despite the fact the Senate has deferred the disallowance motion until the next sitting week Tony did move a general motion expressing support for these workers and calling on the government to extend support to them. Needless to say the Liberals and Nationals voted against it.

5 - Bushfire victims left out in the cold

While the Morrison Government is busy patting itself on the back for a “tremendous” job well done with recovery efforts, Senator Watt raised the challenges bushfire survivors are still facing.

There are young families are living in caravans and sheds on the rubble of their burnt down homes in towns across Australia. And there are small businesses, brought to their knees by flames, beaten down further by COVID-19, and now facing many more months of empty tills.

This week the Government finally turned their attention back to marketing the bushfire recovery, re-announcing old funding promises while still delivering nothing.

Surely their newfound interest wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain by-election in a bushfire affected region, would it?

6 – Morrison backbencher goes rogue on China

In Question time on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed she wasn’t consulted by Queensland MP George Christensen, before he issued his own personal invite to the Chinese Ambassador, demanding he appear before Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth. It was a clear breach of diplomatic protocols and ratcheted up tensions – while the Foreign Minister faced concern for not actively managing the situation. When pressed on whether it was in the national interest for a backbench LNP Member to be so prominent in the handling of Australia’s relationship with China, Senator Payne claimed it was just ‘free speech’.

We’re of the view Senator Payne should engage in a little more free speech and take the wheel in managing a critical trade relationship.

In welcome news, the Government has now agreed to our demands for Parliament to sit regularly, so we’ll be back in Canberra in June. Until then the Senate Select Committee will continue to scrutinise the Government’s response to coronavirus.

If you have any views on the government response to the COVID-19 response and how it has affected you or your business then the Senate Committee would like to hear from you. You can make a submission by emailing [email protected]. Your voice will be important in informing the committee’s work moving forward.

Thank you for taking the time to read this week’s Labor Senators Select(ions).

Until next time,

Senator Penny Wong
Labor Leader in the Senate