One Nation, Closing the Gap and props in parliament: This week's winners and losers in federal politics
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A good week for the crossbenchers, not so much for the government. Fran Kelly and Patricia Karvelas, hosts of the Party Room, choose their winners and losers.
Winner: One Nation
The WA Liberal Party's preferences deal establishes a pathway for One Nation.
It's the first test case: if One Nation has the ability to increase its influence in the states, then it may be able to increase its numbers federally at the next election.
The Liberal Party talks about them as an entirely different kind of political party than they did 20 years ago, and that puts them on the map to be a significant player.
One Nation is now playing that role on the right that the Greens play on the left. Patricia Karvelas
Loser: Renewable Energy Target
Mark Butler, the shadow minister for energy and climate change told us on RN Breakfast this week that Labor has no plans for the Renewable Energy Target after 2020.
Their whole argument is that if they're in government they'll have an emissions intensity scheme, and by 2020 the RET will have done its work.
That's how they reckon they're going to get to their goal of 50 per cent renewables now: it's no longer a target, it's a goal. Fran Kelly
Winner: The crossbenchers
Members of the crossbench called the Government's bluff on the link between $3 billion worth of funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the passage of the Omnibus Savings Bill.
I'm not necessarily saying it's great if the whole bill goes down, and I'm certainly not saying it's not important, but I think linking the two things like the government did was a strategic misstep.
It was out of bounds, really, and I think those on the crossbench who made that clear: good on them. Fran
Loser: Closing the Gap targets
The losers this week are definitely the Government's Closing the Gap targets.
Only one of seven targets that were set out almost a decade ago to improve outcomes for Indigenous Australian are on track to be met.
This is shocking stuff. It's incredible that we're going backwards.
The whole point of this annual report is to force the Government to pay attention to how it's tracking, to have genuine objectives.
If six out of seven are not being met or are not on track to be met, we're in big, big trouble.
The government has given some indication that it wants to work with Indigenous Australians, but until there is more clarity about how it's going to reach those targets I think that this is pretty grim news. Patricia
Loser: Props in parliament
I just thought the whole image of the Treasurer waving around a lump of coal last week was shocking and pathetic.
Equally sad was Adam Bandt coming in with a solar panel this week.
I'm not a big fan of props in the parliament. Never have been — whether it's charts or pajamas talking about GST, I don't really go for them. Fran
Topics: turnbull-malcolm, political-parties, federal-government, government-and-politics, canberra-2600
