August 19, 2026
The Senate passes the NDIS bill 30 to 12, the House races to finish the news bargaining package, and the gambling reform bills head to the Senate under their own guillotine.
The Senate sat past 8.30pm last night to pass the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, 30 votes to 12, under a guillotine that cut debate short mid-afternoon. Most of this morning's coverage, including Crikey and the ABC, is framing it as passing "with Coalition support" as part of a wider deal with the government. Worth a closer look at the actual division list though: only two Coalition senators, Maria Kovacic and Dave Sharma (both Liberal), are recorded as voting, both with the government. The rest of the Coalition simply wasn't in the chamber for the final vote. The bill now needs the House to deal with the Senate's amendments, which isn't yet listed.
That single vote closes out more than three months of the fortnight's most-watched inquiry, but it's not the only ledger being squared today. The House is racing to finish the five-bill news media bargaining package before the week is out, plus the Universities Accord bill and a tax adviser misconduct bill, while the Senate picks up yesterday's gambling reform package fresh from the House, under its own guillotine tonight. And the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion enters its final fortnight of hearings in Sydney, after a Coalition push to extend its timeline was adjourned rather than resolved yesterday; Commissioner Virginia Bell has said she won't be seeking an extension herself, with her final report still due 14 December.
Here's where to watch.
The day picks up where last night left off: the deferred division on Melissa McIntosh's (Liberal) amendment to the News Journalism Payments Bill 2026, which argues the government's replacement scheme is unproven against the money the Coalition's old bargaining code delivered. Once that's resolved, the government intends to push the whole five-bill package to third reading today, inside a week of introduction:
Between them, the bills set the charge on large platforms at 2.5 per cent of Australian digital advertising revenue, with the option to offset it through commercial deals with at least eight publishers. Of any charge actually collected, 90 per cent goes to publishers by a statutory formula and 10 per cent to grants, with AAP getting a dedicated 5 per cent slice.
The Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026 is also due to finish today. The question goes first on Dr M Ryan's (Kooyong, independent) amendment, which notes standard bachelor's degrees will top $54,000 next year and calls on the government to direct the new Tertiary Education Commission to treat Job-Ready Graduates funding rates as an urgent priority. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026 is also listed through to third reading.
In the Federation Chamber, three bills continue second reading: the Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Bill 2026, the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 and the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2026. The Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026 also returns there, on debate first joined back in June, with both a Coalition amendment (Hastie, on the size of the black market) and an independent sub-amendment (Dr M Ryan, on tobacco industry lobbying) still to be resolved.
Two big packages, two different clocks. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 2) Bill 2026, fresh off passing the House yesterday, is due to clear all remaining stages by 10.10am.
Then the gambling package arrives from the House, to be introduced and guillotined through to a vote by 9pm:
Senator David Pocock (independent) used a two-minute statement yesterday to flag how little debate the guillotine leaves for a bill three years in the making since the Murphy report. Formal motions today include Andrew Bragg's (Liberal) reference of Housing Australia's governance and performance to the Economics References Committee, and a check on the government's compliance with last week's order to produce the Prime Minister's correspondence from the Government of Japan.
The gambling package cleared the House in full. The government secured Coalition backing after negotiation, including amendments that push the sport-adjacent ad blackout out to 15 minutes before play and restrict inducement marketing (no offers within 14 days of signing up, or within three months of coming off BetStop). Only two Coalition MPs crossed the floor against final passage: Pat Conaghan (Nationals) and Andrew Wallace (LNP), voting with the Greens and independents. Earlier, a Chaney (independent) amendment pushing for a full ad phase-out and a national regulator, and a harder Watson-Brown (Greens) amendment to decline the bill a second reading outright, were both defeated with only Labor recorded in the noes; the Coalition wasn't in either division at all, so that result reflects the government's numbers rather than a coalition-versus-crossbench split.
The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 2) Bill 2026 also passed the House with only minor government amendments, uncontested, and heads to the Senate today.
Julian Leeser's (Berowra, Liberal) bid to have the House debate extending the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, and calling on ministers and the Prime Minister to appear before it, was adjourned 87 votes to 48 rather than resolved. Leader of the House Tony Burke (Labor) opened by stressing there was no division in the House over antisemitism itself, only over process.
The NDIS bill's passage (above) dominated the day. A limitation-of-debate order set a hard cut-off for the bill's remaining stages, and amendments from Steele-John (Greens) and Roberts (One Nation) were both put to a vote and defeated in the rush before final passage. Separately, the Senate appointed a Select Committee on Corruption in the Construction Industry, and gave first and second readings to three private senators' bills: Broadcasting Services Amendment (Register of Media Interests), and crimes amendments prohibiting shackling during childbirth and strip-searching of children.
The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties tables Report 234 today, covering three inquiries at once: the Australia-Indonesia Treaty on Common Security (the Jakarta Treaty), the Australia-Spain classified defence information agreement, and the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security also tables its advisory report on the Foreign Relations bill (linked above), ahead of that bill's own debate today.
One public hearing runs in Canberra: the Standing Committee on Education takes evidence for its inquiry into the factors driving educational attainment, 10.45 to 11.45am.
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Until tomorrow!
— Mia
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