Let's get more now on the first sitting day of parliament for 2025 an election year. Chief Digital Political Correspondent Jacob Greber explains what's got the attention of the politicians from our parliament house bureau.
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00:00We've entered this sitting week with a kind of real sense around the building that this
00:08is, if not the second last, it won't be the last week, but it's probably the last, definitely
00:14the last fortnight. We'll see the government, the Prime Minister in particular, still dangling
00:20out the prospect that he brings down a budget in March that would push an election out to
00:27something like May. But I think there's a real sense that we're watching the shadow
00:32boxing of a campaign that's going to be called, you know, reasonably soon.
00:40Who wants to talk about what, do you think, Jacob? Because there were so many things that
00:44potentially could have been brought up today. Let's start with the Prime Minister. What
00:48does he want to talk about?
00:51He's really focused on convincing people that life will be better under him in another term
00:59and that the thought of Dutton having been in control of the country over the last three
01:04years would have meant people were worse off. It's very much a cost of living focus. It's
01:10about the government emphasising, and we saw that all the way through question time today,
01:16and it was quite a willing, lively question time, I'd have to say. The government's emphasis
01:20was really on talking about all the relief it's brought via packages on energy bills,
01:28for childcare, for student debt relief. You name it, the government goes through its list
01:34every time it speaks. And it's contrasting that critically with what the coalition is
01:41talking about. The coalition has been defending its policy today to provide tax breaks for
01:49small and medium-sized businesses to have lunches, essentially. The government's poo-pooing
01:54that idea, saying on the one hand it's looking after families, while the opposition is really
02:01focused on helping out business. So they're making that the contrast between the two.
02:07During the break, a lot of talk amongst the politicians as they started to emerge and
02:12come back into work was about hate speech and anti-Semitism. Did that appear in question
02:18time today? So, interestingly, the anti-Semitism issue, I would say, was quite muted during
02:25question time. The opposition leader didn't challenge the Prime Minister on this topic.
02:32He certainly did do that last year repeatedly, portraying the Prime Minister as slow to respond,
02:40you know, not attuned to the concerns of the Jewish community, and sort of sending a message
02:46of ambivalence about these anti-Semitic attacks. Now, that didn't dominate question time. There
02:53was one question from the opposition about when the Prime Minister knew about this caravan
02:59that had explosives in it in New South Wales, but it didn't get into that sort of more direct
03:04full-on attack. Now, one of the reasons for that was also that there was a motion moved
03:09by Allegra Spender, one of the independents, condemning anti-Semitism, and there was across
03:17the Parliament support for that motion. I have got four more things that were on my
03:22bingo list in terms of what might come up. Gambling reform, tech regulations, digital
03:28duty of care, if you like, political funding and childcare subsidies. Any of them? Certainly
03:34the gambling thing reared its head today with the Greens suggesting that they were ready
03:40to do a deal on a ban for gambling advertisement. My understanding is that's still looking pretty
03:47unlikely as something the government thinks it will land this week. They would prefer
03:51that to go away. There is also discussion about some hate crimes legislation. That is
03:59also in the mix, probably has a greater chance of getting up given no-one wants to be seen
04:05to be giving a green light to that kind of expressions of hate. Certainly the argument
04:12that freedom of speech, the sort of advocates for freedom of speech, they have taken a definite
04:17back seat in this argument. It is now about who can be toughest on this sort of odious
04:22and terrible expressions that we have been seeing. You should also put onto your bingo
04:30card the prospect of a vote on the future made in Australia bill, specifically the production
04:39tax credits that go to minerals companies that start to produce. That is really aimed
04:45at the West. The government wants to get the opposition on the record as opposing that.
04:50The government feels that will help them in that big resources state.