What happened in Parliament this week that wasn’t the damn plebiscite

The back and forth over the way the government will conduct the marriage equality plebiscite, sorry postal ballot, sorry, postal survey has dominated political reporting this week, but while the government has tied itself in constitutional and regulatory knots, there’s been a lot else going on in Parliament this week:

Energy company confab

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull loves meetings with energy companies — this week it was all about how to keep bills down for Australian consumers. While the meeting did nothing to address structural issues around Australia’s energy mix, the PM did get commitments from the energy retailers to inform customers when they come to the end of a discounted deal “in plain English” and that customers on hardship plans shouldn’t be taken off discounted offers. The PM, Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and Treasurer Scott Morrison all hailed the meeting’s outcome as giving power back to consumers, but the energy companies had a demand of their own. They want certainty on the clean energy target recommended by the Finkel Review — the only recommendation from the review that hasn’t been agreed to by the government so far.

We might go to war with North Korea

Australia’s leaders also dealt with the increasing tensions between the United States and North Korea. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop led the charge on Australia’s diplomatic involvement, saying Donald Trump’s provocative “fire and fury” statement was what exactly was needed in the situation. “As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson put it, the United States President was responding with language that Kim Jong-un should understand because he is clearly not understanding the diplomatic messages that are being sent.”

It has been reported that North Korea has the ability to miniaturise its nuclear warheads to be fitted to intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the North Korean dictator has threatened to target the American island of Guam.

This morning former PM Tony Abbott called for Australia to consider a missile defence shield to protect the country against nuclear weapons, but the PM talked that idea down, saying it would be “unhelpful” against North Korea. The PM also said this morning that Australia would enact the ANZUS Treaty if the US were attacked by North Korea — going one step further than Bishop’s comments earlier in the week that the treaty would not be automatically invoked.

Malcolm Roberts’ citizenship 

While Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts didn’t give most of the press gallery any notice that they would be giving a press conference on Roberts’ citizenship status, it didn’t take long once the cameras were rolling for the media to make it to the Senate courtyard to lob questions. The man who demands empirical evidence of climate change didn’t have much to say on any of his own empirical evidence (we’ve already covered his changing story), but told reporters: “I have always thought that I was British, that I was Australian, always thought that I was Australian.” His own party leader, Hanson, ended up moving the Senate motion to refer Roberts to the High Court to sort out if he really was eligible to be elected in last year’s election. 

Greens leader Richard Di Natale gave us cause to wonder about his washing practices, saying: “His story has changed more times than I’ve changed underpants.”

Whatever this was from Bob Katter

The member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, was given his chance to ask a question of the government yesterday, and it was a cracker. We’ll go to the Hansard to give you the full idea of just what went on:

“Mr KATTER (Kennedy) (14:18): My question is for the Attorney-General. Secularist attacks upon Christianity inundate. Nativity scenes are gone. Stars are removed from Christmas trees. Now the Queensland government eradicates Christian moral teachings from schoolyards. Can we be assured that the replacement won’t be humanism — to quote Lenin, ‘communism’s father and mother’? Stalin and Mao, 72 million dead; Charles Darwin; Adolf Hitler’s master race, 26 million dead — and education in Australia tells of Pax Romana replacing Roman tyranny. The Magna Carta, the abolition of slavery, the collapse of communism and history’s six greatest scientists — all of this from the carpenter preacher from Nazareth? Honourable members interjecting —

The SPEAKER: If members can cease interjecting, please, I’ll just point out to the member for Kennedy that the Attorney-General is not in the House, but the Minister representing the Attorney-General is obviously happy to address the wide range of remarks in the member for Kennedy’s question. And he only has three minutes.

Mr KEENAN (Stirling — Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for CounterTerrorism) (14:20): Yes.”