The 2021 parliamentary year has begun, with a sharper-looking Labor Party shooting out of the gate to tackle the government over Craig Kelly, industrial relations and the impending end to JobKeeper. The government is spruiking an economic “comeback”, but it’s Labor that might be having one.

The day opened with the government shutting down an MP making comments about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. But it wasn’t Craig Kelly. New shadow health minister Mark Butler was the one silenced, after he moved a motion to censure Kelly for publicly making “irresponsible and dangerous” comments, with the government instead successfully moving that the member for Hindmarsh no longer be heard. “You never shut down Craig,” someone from the Labor benches observed. The Opposition remained laser-focused on Kelly, however, making him and his conspiracies the focus of press conferences, speeches and tweets throughout the day. The government continues to stand by Kelly, even as Kelly defends his appearance on COVID-sceptic Pete Evans’ podcast – an appearance condemned by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Labor’s other focus is on JobKeeper, which the government insists will come to an end as scheduled at the end of March. Labor is putting pressure on the government over the wage subsidy’s demise, with many sectors still unable to return to normal trading conditions – the Queensland tourism industry in particular. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, though sick of certain states wanting more economic assistance, has continued to signal that the government will provide targeted assistance to the tourism sector when the scheme ends, but insists it’s bon voyage to JobKeeper itself. The sector has launched a campaign, “Save the travel industry”, claiming that only one in 10 travel agents will keep their jobs beyond April 1 without assistance.

The Liberal Party sure is keen to put an end to the JobKeeper program, which, as it turns out, it actually took advantage of itself. A Guardian Australia report on the major parties’ financial disclosures found they banked a record amount of taxpayer funding in 2019–20, including $2.4 million in grants from the finance department. Labor declared two JobKeeper payments totalling $96,000 while the Liberal Party received two worth a combined $78,000. More JobKeeper declarations are expected in the 2020–21 financial year.

And despite the government’s insistence that it can’t continue paying wage subsidies, or else unfairly burden future generations with the cost of assistance for today’s workers, it has little interest in reclaiming money from companies that claimed JobKeeper only to then record massive profits – profits that often went to executives and shareholders. (When asked at the National Press Club yesterday what he would do to ensure companies paid tax dollars back, Morrison said he wasn’t in “the politics of envy”, and “good for them” if companies felt they wanted to hand money back.)

Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh, who has been calling out companies that haven’t paid the money back (and praising those that do), contrasted this with the ferocity with which the government hounded people on welfare under robodebt. Labor also used Question Time to attack the government’s industrial relations “omnibus” bill (though not quite as bluntly as this Electrical Trades Union ad, showing Scott Morrison running down workers in a bus), with question after question about why the government hates workers so much.

The parties have been sharpening their key messages for a possible election later this year, so get ready to hear the following soundbites ad nauseam. For the government, it’s “comeback”, with market research telling them this is the term that will best sell their message. For Labor, the magic words (other than “Craig Kelly”) are “no one held back” and “no one left behind”. They’ve also added “on your side” as a slogan – four soundbite points to Tim Watts for slipping it into his doorstop interview at least four times this morning. It could even work, with Essential Media director Peter Lewis arguing that “on your side” is compelling – and could even win Labor an election. 

The prime minister insisted again today that the next election would be next year, in no way dispelling rumours that the poll is more likely to be in the latter half of this one. But the latest Essential poll suggests an early election could be seen as an act of opportunism, with 58 per cent of voters preferring that the government hunker down and govern. Essential has also released its quarterly “two-party-preferred ‘plus’ sequence” (introduced after the 2019 election put a stop to the fortnightly horse race), revealing that things have been much closer for the ALP than previously thought. Perhaps “comeback” might be a more appropriate 2021 slogan for the Labor Party instead.

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