This week the House sat while the Senators were in estimates - a lot happened.

Here’s the 5&5.

BEST

20% off HECS debt
Same Job, Same Pay
Protecting kids online
Closer to higher wages for early childhood educators
Sharing the National Collection

WORST

Have you heard about fee-free TAFE?
And the award for worst Health Minister goes to…
The call that stopped the House
Is a cartoon worth a thousand words?
Desperately unhappy

1. It’s been a year or two since I was at uni – but some things never change. Like Labor’s commitment to education and giving young people a leg up. This week the PM and Jason Clare announced a plan to cut 20 percent off student debt repayments for three million Australians. It’s aimed at encouraging more people to pursue higher education. And guess who wants to stop it? The Liberal Party. That's what they said on the weekend. At least three million Australians now know where they stand. That's everyone from chippies and sparkies with a TAFE qualification to teachers and nurses with a uni degree. They now know that, if Labor wins the next election, we will cut their debts by 20 per cent and, if the Liberals win, they won't.

2. On Monday Dan Repacholi made sure that the House found out about one of our Government’s proudest achievements. This month, our ‘Same Job, Same Pay’ laws came into effect, giving thousands of Australian workers a significant pay rise. It means 320 labour hire workers at the Batchfire mine in Queensland will receive pay rises of up to $20,000 a year. Two hundred labour hire meat workers are now getting up to $500 a week more in their pockets. Thousands of Qantas flight attendants will now take home the same pay as their colleagues doing the same job. But make no mistake, every single dollar is at risk under Peter Dutton. He’s voted against wage rises for workers at every opportunity, and if he wins the election, he’ll tear up the pay rises we delivered.

3. The PM and Michelle Rowland made the announcement on Thursday that we are another step closer to better protecting Australian kids online. On Friday the PM got the endorsement from State and Territory Ministers to set 16 as the minimum age to access social media. The PM said “I want Australian parents and families to know that we have your back. I want to give children a childhood and give parents peace of mind.”

4. A huge priority for our government this week was to continue delivering on our cost of living relief measures. Our legislation for a 15 percent wage increase to early childhood educators will make a real difference and I’m happy to say on Monday this legislation passed the House of Representatives. Now it’s up to the Senate. Anne Aly put it best: “The Albanese Labor Government is committed to supporting early childhood education services and the invaluable educators who inspire our youngest learners every day. That’s why we’re proud to announce a 15% pay rise to recognise the critical contributions of the sector.”

5. I don’t always get to highlight the arts portfolio in the 5&5 but this week the news was too good not to share. At any point in time 98 percent of the National Gallery's collection is in storage. Our Sharing the National Collection program means that we can loan out all the incredible artwork in storage with galleries right across the country. On Tuesday night at Senate Estimates, National Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich went through just how successful the program has been. As a result, Justine Elliot has brought a Monet to the Northern Rivers, Fiona Phillips has taken the massive ‘Broken obelisk’ from outside the National Gallery and put it in front of her local gallery in Nowra and Tracey Roberts has a life size Elvis courtesy of Andy Warhol in Wanneroo Regional Gallery in Perth.

1. The Liberals’ Jenny Ware seems to have missed the news that we're extending our free TAFE program to help train the next generation of tradies. "The National Electrical and Communications Association has spoken about the chronic shortage of trades within this sector and the chronic shortage of electricians—we need at least another 85,000 by the end of 2050. This government has no plan on workplace relations to address the critical shortages that our country is facing". Ed Husic broke it down for her - explaining how half a million free places will ease the construction worker shortage. “You'll see a lot of hand-wringing from those opposite about the shortage of tradespeople. Just yesterday in the Federation Chamber, the member for Hughes was name-checking every trade she could think of—boilermakers, fitters, turners, toolmakers, steelworkers and the like—and then asked the question: 'Where is Labor's plan to address the shortage of manufacturing workers?' This is our plan: 500,000 fee-free TAFE places. We are investing in TAFE.”

2. When we came to Government - after a decade of cuts and neglect from Coalition governments - bulk billing was in freefall. Mark Butler didn’t hesitate to remind the House just who was responsible after being asked a question from the Coalition. Directed to Peter Dutton, Mark said “I will say this, I am happy any day of the week to have a debate on bulk billing with this man. The worst Health Minister in the history of Medicare! And I don't say that as an opinion that was the opinion of Australia's doctors.”

3. You may not know this, but Michael McCormack used to be a race caller and during the race that stopped the nation, we were all fixed on McCormack’s 90 second statement that stopped the House. The PM managed to catch it before the start of Question Time saying “Whilst the content could have done some adjustment, the delivery was magnificent.”

4. On Monday, Angus Taylor tried to ask a question to Jim Chalmers about an IMF report. The IMF, or International Monetary Fund, should be something the Shadow Treasurer is familiar with, yet Taylor seemed a bit confused. Jim didn’t miss a beat, “He asked me about the IMF report, and I'm obviously not going to read to him the IMF report. I assume he has someone who turns the IMF reports into little cartoons so that he can understand them.”

5. Years ago, Bronwyn Bishop kicked Julie Collins out of the Parliament for laughing. Today Paul Fletcher got fired up over Jim Chalmers pointing out that Angus Taylor was really sad, check out the Hansard.

Jim Chalmers: The member for Hume is desperately unhappy because both headline inflation and underlying inflation went down in the data last week and it went down in the forecasts for the Reserve Bank this week, Mr Speaker. Now, it has been…

Paul Fletcher, on a point of order: Standing Orders are very clear on imputations of improper motives to suggest as this Treasurer just did that the Shadow Treasurer's quote, desperately unhappy, is to impute improper motives to him. This Treasurer does it all the time and he should be required to comply with the Standing Orders.

Mark Butler, on a point of order: Happiness or unhappiness is not a motive, and I encourage the Manager of Opposition Business to have a look at the shadow Treasurer's face.

I want to take a moment to thank all our Senators for their long hours in estimates this week.

Both the House and the Senate will be back a week from now for our final sitting weeks of the year.

'til then,

Tony

PS. In honour of all our great education wins this week, the song of the week is Ivy League by Alex Lahey.

5&5: Pete don’t need no education