Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Courtney Gould gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House.
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Gould → welcome → House
Angus Taylor arrived at the three-corned migration battle this week with a plan aimed at the middle road between One Nation and the government.
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Taylor → arrive → Nation
Vowing to slash Australia's temporary workforce by 650,000 people over four years, the opposition leader was trying to land the twin objectives of bringing the fight to One Nation while also presenting an economically sound policy.
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leader → vow → policy
With a top line designed to grab headlines — "the largest cut to immigration in Australia's history" — the opposition has pledged deep cuts to graduate, refugee and bridging visas should Taylor get handed the keys to the Lodge.
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Taylor → design → Lodge
The opposition is the last to join the migration debate.
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opposition → join → debate
Labor released its own policy several weeks ago, forging ahead with changes to reduce the Net Overseas Migration figure to its Treasury forecasted cap of 225,000 people.
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Labor → release → people
One Nation got out of the blocks first, though, flagging a period of negative migration before its policy settles at 130,000 people per year.
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policy → get → year
The Coalition hit the middle: two years at 100,000 before rising to 160,000 in the fourth year.
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Coalition → hit → year
That's a deeper cut than Peter Dutton proposed ahead of the last election.
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Dutton → propose → election
So far, Taylor has done a better job at selling the plan than his predecessor.
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Taylor → do → predecessor
Dutton's pitch was mired in confusion as he struggled to explain which visa categories would be targeted.
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categories → mire → confusion
But time will tell if the Coalition's revamped policy stacks up.
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policy → tell → ?
Business groups claimed the plan would harm economic growth, concerns dismissed by Taylor as being made by "vested interests".
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plan → claim → interests
The aged care sector also raised the alarm.
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sector → raise → alarm
"I think the problem is that whenever any party talks about immigration they use these sort of flashy headline numbers that … appeal hugely to people who want less immigration, terrify everybody who relies on immigration, and we get this sort of big swirling debate and we need to stop doing that," Aging Australia chief Tom Symondson told ABC's Radio National this morning.
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Symondson → think → National
The policy wasn't formally costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), despite senior figures insisting they worked closely with the independent watchdog.
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they → cost → watchdog
Taylor's office modelled the policy and asked the PBO to confirm if it was budget neutral.
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it → model → PBO
The Australian Financial Review reported that Taylor's team had told MPs not to say the migration policy was officially costed.
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policy → report → MPs
Of course, the PBO can't discuss what it's working on.
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it → discuss → what
It declined to comment when asked on Wednesday.
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It → decline → Wednesday
It's a far cry from Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam's declaration last month that the Coalition would do the work One Nation failed to do.
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Nation → fail → work
He argued this morning that it would be done.
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it → argue → ?
That job will be completed closer to election day and by that time Duniam will be well out of the political fray, having confirmed he'll be exiting politics by the end of the year.
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he → complete → year
The shadow of One Nation looms large over the policy.
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shadow → loom → policy
Both the Coalition and One Nation have used the term "breathing space" to describe why Australia requires the cuts.
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Australia → use → cuts
The blueprint was also released just days before Taylor is scheduled to headline the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brisbane.
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Taylor → release → Brisbane
He's the first Liberal leader to attend.
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He → attend → ?
Flyers promoting CPAC placed the opposition leader in a trio alongside Pauline Hanson and Nationals leader Matt Canavan.
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Flyers → promote → Hanson
While the government largely stayed out of the migration debate this week, it was facing another storm over a decision to wind back surcharges.
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it → stay → surcharges
A ban on additional card payment fees, announced earlier this year by the Reserve Bank, came into effect last week.
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ban → announce → effect
The move was originally championed by Labor MP Jerome Laxale before the RBA even started looking at the issue.
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RBA → champion → issue
The central bank expanded it beyond Laxale's original focus on debit cards, arguing the change was a win for consumers.
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change → expand → consumers
As such, the government started selling it as a cost-of-living measure, with Anthony Albanese and other MPs taking to social media to herald the change.
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Albanese → start → change
But within days the sentiment began to shift — turbocharged by the Australian Tax Office's decision to jump on board and ban credit card payments on tax bills.
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sentiment → begin → bills
That opened another can of worms.
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That → open → worms
The ATO refused to budge, despite holding a crisis meeting about the issue on Wednesday.
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ATO → refuse → Wednesday
It argued that only 2.3 per cent of payments to the ATO are via credit.
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cent → argue → credit
So far, the government has shown little interest in helping the ATO solve the problem.
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ATO → show → problem
Labor may be a little relieved that it's the tax office that's become the focus of the story, rather than the additional 50 cents many people are paying for their coffee.
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people → become → coffee
He's been off in Fiji and the low-lying atolls of Tuvalu where Australia had organised an international conference to highlight the impact of climate change on the Pacific.
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Australia → lie → Pacific
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
