Federal parliament returns today for the first sitting day of the election year with the Albanese government hoping to keep the focus on cost-of-living relief. Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has addressed his party room outlining the busy year ahead.
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00:00This is really an opportunity for Peter Dutton to rev up the troops and we heard a similar
00:07rallying cry from Anthony Albanese yesterday to the Labor caucus.
00:12We also heard the opposition leader taking issue with the fact that during that caucus
00:17speech Mr Albanese did not address the recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks.
00:24So some of the key policy issues that the coalition were talking about, things such
00:28as housing, migration, energy, they're all issues you could say that they hope will resonate
00:34with the electorate more generally.
00:37They also spruiked their minimum mandatory sentencing policy which is part of the coalition's
00:43efforts to try and clamp down on anti-Semitism which as we know will be a key political flash
00:49point over the course of this sitting fortnight.
00:52Ahead of this speech though we have seen a bit of tit for tat between Labor and the coalition.
00:58This morning the coalition is not happy, the shadow treasurer Angus Taylor in particular,
01:04with Labor's decision to cost a coalition policy which would essentially subsidise business
01:09lunches for small businesses.
01:11They've crunched the numbers and they claim that it would cost the taxpayer $1.6 billion
01:17a year.
01:18Angus Taylor, he's so incensed by this that he says that he's going to write a letter
01:23of complaint to the department, the Treasury Secretary Stephen Kennedy in response to this.
01:30He says that it's a politicisation of the public service.
01:33I did ask Anthony Albanese about this earlier and this was his response.
01:38This is the worst, sloppiest policy put forward by any opposition that I've seen in my entire
01:45time since I've been in parliament and that was a while ago.
01:50This shows they are simply not fit as an alternative government.
01:55They have opposed every cost of living measure and this is all they've come up with.
02:01So we're hearing a bit of a change of tone there both from the Prime Minister and the
02:04opposition leader to those messages of unity that we heard at that traditional church service
02:09this morning which marks the beginning of the parliamentary year.
02:13As we know this could well be the last sitting fortnight before an election is called.
02:18There are still a number of outstanding legislative items on Labor's agenda.
02:23They include things such as strengthening hate speech laws, superannuation tax reform
02:28and electoral reform as well.