All eyes are on Payman's future with Labor, but Dutton has his own woes playing out behind closed doors
All eyes are on Payman's future with Labor, but Dutton has his own woes playing out behind closed doors
The last week of parliament before the winter recess can often be messy — and this week proved to be no exception for either Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
All eyes will be on Fatima Payman as parliament wraps up this afternoon, with many in Labor expecting she will quit the party after crossing the floor to support a Greens motion on recognising a Palestinian state and committing on ABC's Insiders to do so again if needed.
For a government trying to hold onto a majority at the election, this is hardly a welcome development, but the prime minister will at least take heart from the solid support he's received from the rest of the caucus for the firmer approach he's taken this week.
Free-market Liberals, increasingly uneasy with Dutton's willingness to embrace heavy-handed government intervention in the private sector, weren't happy with the latest policy offering.
About half a dozen Liberals raised concerns in this week's joint Coalition party room meeting over a new policy to potentially force Coles, Woolworths or Bunnings to sell stores if they're found to be misusing market power.
He mocked CEOs who backed the Voice, called for a boycott of Woolworths for failing to stock Australia Day merchandise, and attacked "green millionaire" renewable energy investors.
Will Dutton venture into the seats where he wants to build nuclear plants and start explaining how his energy plans won't simply lead to higher power prices?
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