Hello and welcome to another parliament sitting – and estimates!

The House will sit as normal and the government plans on using the sitting to forward some of its agenda, including new laws which strengthen the responsibility of being the 000 custodian after the Optus failure led to tragedy.

The FOI legislation the government has foreshadowed, which will make it more expensive (and difficult) to access information will also be advanced, and the government will also be working to show “while we’re fighting for Australians, the Coalition are fighting each other” which is what happens when your entire party is a shit show.

But the shit show that is the opposition is allowing the government to escape having to answer some questions it really should be answering – which is why estimates should be so interesting this week. The crossbench have been working overtime to gather as much information on issues as they can ahead of the senate committees, where the Coalition have so far indicated they are sticking to political point scoring, rather than actual useful information gathering.

Meanwhile in the House, Anthony Albanese will recognise the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, while warning anti-genocide protesters against holding any protests. Given there are Australians who were aboard the Sumad Flotilla, which Israel illegally intercepted, detaining the crews (international law is pretty clear about international waters) and that all major humanitarian groups, including the UN have ruled Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, and its leaders are wanted for war crimes, and a recent poll showed more than half of Australians want to see Russian style sanctions against Israel, it seems tone deaf to be calling for silence. It is possible to mourn the loss of life and acknowledge the horror of October 7, while also acknowledging that ethically, morally and legally there is no justification for what Israel has done in Gaza for the past two years.

We’ll bring you all the day’s events, as they happen. Please feel free to drop us a line, or let us know what is catching your attention, or what you would like to know more about. We’ll have eyes on as many committees as we can, as well as what is happening in the House. It’s a three coffee morning. At least.

Ready?

Let’s jump into it.