A fortnight of high tempo, summarised

Just me? 22 June feel like a long while ago...

That number also, incorrectly, featured in yesterday's edition - Parliament returns on 11 August, not 22 August. Which makes the winter recess shorter than in recent years but gets it back to what it 'used to be' (if anyone can remember!). And that is what we're now in - the recess. Both Houses rose last night and the only live proceeding today is the Royal Commission's third hearing, continuing in Sydney.

Today's Krafted. does two jobs: a tight wrap of yesterday's final day, then the promised recap of the sitting fortnight by policy topic, because the recess arguments have already been set. It's a long one, but deliberately so - skip what's not relevant as this edition is unavoidably long.

Yesterday, in the House

The main event arrived early in what was always going to be a busy day: the Communications Minister introduced the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, banning wagering ads during live sport between 6am and 8.30pm, capping TV ads at three an hour, banning ads on radio during school runs and on sporting uniforms and venues, barring athletes, celebrities and influencers from promoting gambling, and restricting online ads to logged-in, over-18 users who can opt out.

A crossbench push to refer the bill to House committee was defeated. The bill is instead headed for a Senate inquiry, risking the government's slated start date for the legislation of 1 January 2027. Unsurprisingly, it has dominated this morning's radio media.

The day ended in a procedural storm. After Question Time, Dan Tehan (Liberal) attempted to censure Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy (Labor) for calling Sir Robert Menzies a "Nazi appeaser" at the National Press Club. The government shut the motion down 90 to 41, then voted 90 to 42 to bring on the third reading of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, which passed, a reversal of Wednesday's decision to hold it over to the next sitting. Tim Watts (Labor) later withdrew a remark that Menzies was a coward.

The Health Insurance Amendment (Incentive Payments and Other Measures) Bill 2026 passed the House as expected. It reached the Senate but did not make it to a vote, so it waits for August, as does the Universities Accord bill, the debate for which was interrupted mid-speech and never resumed, and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 2) Bill 2026, which never came on.

In the Federation Chamber, the minister responsible for the National Redress Scheme spoke on the Christian Brothers' application for a moratorium on child sexual abuse claims, noting the government filed submissions in the NSW Supreme Court on 30 June and that several hundred redress claims against the order are pending.

The Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS tabled its scheme integrity report, recommending an NDIS worker registration scheme and tougher fraud penalties.

Yesterday, in the Senate

In a failed vote for the government, the Aged Care Amendment (Restoring Human Override for Aged Care Needs Assessments) Bill 2026 passed 32 to 20, with the Coalition, the Greens, One Nation and independent senators combining against Labor. The bill needs the House, where the government has the numbers, so nothing changes before August.

The Unfair Trading Practices bill passed its third reading after Senator Canavan's (Nationals) amendments to delay the start date for small businesses were defeated, and Senator McKim (Greens) pressed the government on why financial services are excluded (answer: "there will be future reform"). The Senate also let the podiatrist-prescribing standoff go, not insisting on its amendment, so the Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits bill has now cleared the Parliament with its expansion of prescribing for the country's 400,000 nurses intact. The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 also passed.

The winter homework was assigned: the Selection of Bills Committee made ten referrals covering twelve bills, including the Universities Accord bill to Education and Employment (report 3 September), the Administrative and Judicial Review bill to Legal and Constitutional Affairs (7 August), the Cash Distribution Framework bills to Economics (7 August) and the therapeutic goods bills to Community Affairs (1 September).

David Pocock (independent) introduced his Commonwealth Land (Affordable Housing) Bill 2026, and orders for documents were agreed on the NACC appointments process, a state-by-state breakdown of the Homes for Australia plan, and the Nauru and Papua New Guinea agreements. The Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee's long-awaited report on offshore processing and resettlement arrangements was tabled, without a word of debate. Senator Hanson (One Nation) closed with her grocery prices motion.

The fortnight, by policy topic

Before the topics, a note on the coverage. The media's fortnight had three acts: the tax deal (saturation coverage until the Senate vote, then silence), the temper (Garth Hamilton's suspension and the Menzies row led bulletins), and the gambling bill (running criticism that it falls short of the Murphy report). Almost everything below the fold, the aviation package, unfair trading practices, the offshore processing report, passed with barely a mention. Here's what actually moved.

Tax and the economy. The fortnight's defining outcome was the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and its rates companion clearing both Houses and went for royal assent. Passage came via the government's deal with the Greens (an extended NDIS inquiry and a curb on super fund borrowing), which the Opposition called a "dirty deal"; their indexed-brackets amendment, backed by David Pocock (independent), failed. The professional press has now taken over the analysis where the political press left off. Fuel excise relief of 16 cents a litre was extended to 2 August, so expect that argument to reignite almost as soon as Parliament returns. Tax Reform No. 2 sits unpassed.

Disability and the NDIS. This was the fortnight's longest arc. The Greens tried to have the NDIS bill withdrawn, then traded their tax votes for an eight-week extension of the Community Affairs inquiry, now reporting 14 August. In the House, all 39 crossbench amendments were defeated, mostly on Labor's numbers alone with the Coalition largely absent from the divisions, before the third reading was deferred, then abruptly passed on the final day. The bill still needs the Senate, where that inquiry report lands first, so the recess is when the real NDIS fight gets argued in submissions rather than the chamber. The joint committee's integrity report, with dissents, now sits alongside it (link above).

Health and aged care. A productive fortnight that mostly escaped notice. Two reforms cleared the Parliament outright: patients will be able to compare what individual specialists charge before committing, with insurers also banned from quietly reopening near-identical policies at higher prices, and nurses won wider prescribing rights. A third, the Medicare incentive payments bill, got halfway, passing the House but running out of Senate time. The story to watch is aged care assessments. The algorithm that sets Support at Home care levels is under Commonwealth Ombudsman investigation, and review requests have jumped from 170 to 989 in a year. The Senate's answer was yesterday's human override bill, per above, where the government's own voting position failed. When Parliament returns, the government must either adopt it in the House or visibly kill it.

Gambling and online safety. The government moved its social media minimum age enforcement bill through the House and used that debate to flag the gambling bill that landed yesterday. The gambling package is where the pressure sits: the Greens, crossbench and harm reduction advocates say it ignores the Murphy report's phased advertising ban and a national regulator, the Coalition wants more scrutiny. Yesterday, both chambers used Question Time to expose which parliamentarians sat at gambling companies' tables at the Midwinter Ball. With a Senate inquiry reporting mid-August, expect gambling to be the loudest policy story of the recess.

Workplace relations. The Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026 went all the way through, 87 to 43 in the House and 31 to 25 in the Senate, with minor amendment and Labor and the Greens voting together. The contested core is the power for the Commonwealth to favour employers whose staff are on enterprise agreements when awarding grants and contracts, which Allegra Spender (independent) argued filters $830 billion of annual spending through an industrial relations test and David Pocock (independent) called "a corruption risk written into law". Master Builders and the housing industry say it was rushed; if this is your industry, watch for implementation detail over the recess.

Consumers and competition. Quietly, a big fortnight. Per above, the unfair trading practices ban passed the Senate in spite of crossbench concern on the consequences for small business. The aviation consumer protection package cleared the House but ran out of Senate road before the break started. The Economics committee's payments report put numbers on the Mastercard-Visa duopoly (up to 400 separate scheme fees, $2 billion in a year) and recommended investigating Apple's control of NFC technology. New cash distribution framework bills, guaranteeing the movement of physical cash, went to a committee reporting 7 August - submissions close 17 July.

Education. Labor and the Coalition voted together, 11 to 30, to defeat the Greens' bill reversing the Job-Ready Graduates fee hikes, despite Treasury analysis that some humanities graduates won't clear their debt until their 40s. The government's own answer, the Universities Accord bill (and a separate Fix HECS bill), is now parked: the Accord bill unfinished in the House and under a Senate inquiry until 3 September. The Security and Prosperity in Asia report tabled by the House Standing Committee on Education identified "a pipeline in crisis" and could easily sit under the 'Defence and foreign affairs' section below as well.

Housing. Beyond the negative gearing changes, housing was the fortnight's persistent undercard: the Senate ordered ministers to front the chamber over unanswered Home Guarantee Scheme document orders, added a demand for state-by-state Homes for Australia data, and received David Pocock's (independent) bill to use Commonwealth land for affordable housing. The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council's call for more social housing investment frames all of it.

Integrity and standards. The National Anti-Corruption Commission is leaderless from Monday: Commissioner Brereton's resignation takes effect 6 July, the Senate twice ordered the Attorney-General to hand over appointment documents, and the House voted 93 to 45 to refuse. Add the committee evidence calling the NACC a "timid" "fizzer", the Greens' KPMG motions, and the electoral matters interim report recommending polling place "campaign zones", and accountability is quietly the richest seam of the fortnight. The chamber conduct thread, Garth Hamilton's (LNP) 24-hour suspension, the Menzies row, multiple forced withdrawals, wrote the headlines, but the documents fight is the one with consequences.

Defence and foreign affairs. Australia signed the Vanuatu-Australia Nakamal Agreement with Vanuatu, its first comprehensive bilateral partnership treaty with that country, with the text now before the Joint Standing Committees on Treaties alongside four new treaty inquiries (submissions close 22 July). Government responses landed on sanctions policy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps listing as a state sponsor of terrorism; the Russia sanctions inquiry continues. Committee scrutiny of the defence legislation implementing the veterans' Royal Commission recommendations was extended into September, and of the sexual assault prevention commission bill to mid-October. Two new inquiries were also announced by the new Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence, both on 1 July and both accepting submissions: Inquiry into the annual report of the Department of Defence 2024–25, and Inquiry into the annual report of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs 2024–25.

The committee calendar is the map: report releases cluster on 7 August (I'll cover these in an out of session edition), 14 August and early September. Public hearings during the recess will focus on aviation (in Cairns) and regional Medicare access (in Brisbane).

That wraps the sitting fortnight... Know a colleague who'd find Krafted. useful, including this summary of the fortnight? Forward this on, or point them to https://www.statekraft.au/krafted.

Until next time!

— Mia