Party politics were put on hold as both houses of parliament paused to mark the 13^th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations – but only briefly, and only partially.

The Senate was suspended at midday to allow senators to attend the lower house’s acknowledgment of the anniversary, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and Labor MP Linda Burney – the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the House of Reps – delivering remarks. Wyatt, the son of a Stolen Generations survivor, said that his mother would have been proud, while Burney also told a personal story, referencing the day that the “Bringing Them Home” report was launched, saying that the long-awaited apology had “allowed this country to breathe again”. But politics crept back in within seconds of the speeches’ conclusion, and there was politics to be found within them, even if all were united in acknowledging the significance of the day. 

For the first time in 13 years, there was no Closing the Gap report accompanying the apology anniversary – something Morrison acknowledged in his speech, saying it was part of a new approach for midyear reports. Burney said she supported the approach, but called for some bipartisanship in return, asking to work with the government on a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament – called for in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and supported by Labor. “We extend our hand,” she said. “I don’t care who gets the credit, I just want to see it done.” Albanese, meanwhile, made sure to note who had made the apology itself. While the apology had “taken on a sense of inevitability” in retrospect, he said, in reality it had been anything but, reminding the chamber that some Coalition MPs had left the floor rather than be part of it. 

Only one of the MPs who refused to support the apology remains in parliament, and it was for him that politics quickly returned to the floor today. Mere seconds after the conclusion of Burney’s remarks, debate turned to Peter Dutton, with Labor moving to acknowledge the home affairs minister’s alleged misuse of grant allocations, along with the government’s general tendency to “rort”. It follows further revelations that Dutton spent $36,000 in taxpayer money on chartered flights in order to make grant announcements during the 2018 Braddon byelection – months before applications even opened. The government was quick to shut down debate on the topic, with the man himself among those entering the chamber to gag it. Try as the government might to ignore this one, it’s not going away anytime soon, with Labor finding plenty of time to hammer the government on it through Question Time. 

The Dutton revelations had competition, however, with the Coalition continuing to battle controversies on multiple fronts. A shocking new one was added to the mix this morning, with a former Liberal staffer revealing to news.com.au that she was allegedly raped by a colleague at Parliament House, in Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’s office. The Morrison government’s handling of the incident was a focus in both houses today, with Albanese opening QT with a question directly to the PM, demanding to know how his government had responded when it was reported to it at the time. Up in the Senate, Don Farrell’s 2019 bill to lower the donation disclosure threshold from $13,800 to $1000 has inched closer to being debated – more than a year since its second reading. It’s no doubt got something to do with new analysis from Guardian Australia and the Centre for Public Integrity, revealing that almost 40 per cent of Coalition funds in the past 20 years came from unknown donors.

Of course, there’s no way politics could ever truly be put aside in Canberra, especially when there are industrial relations changes to be debated. The Opposition somehow found some spare minutes in Question Time to quiz the government on its proposed omnibus reforms, after last night launching a threatening, pun-laden national advertising campaign. The latest ad uses images of chefs and knives, accusing the prime minister of “slashing” wages and conditions and “slicing” penalty rates. It follows January’s controversial union-led ad, in which a fake Scott Morrison drove a bus towards a line of workers. It seems Labor and the unions are going to run this one a lot like they ran WorkChoices, which saw a number of highly effective and unforgettable anti-government ads. The chef in this latest ad was sharpening his knives, but the subtext was clear: Labor is sharpening theirs.

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