Given that we have a huge few weeks ahead of us – budget week officially starts tomorrow and then we will be in the official election campaign, we are going to take a small early mark today and start getting ready for what is coming.

We will have the blog open tomorrow from 7ish and run it throughout the parliamentary day, and we will re-start it from when the budget goes live in the evening. So strap in for that!

Thank you to everyone who joined us today – we hope you’ll be back tomorrow as we continue to iron out the bugs in this little project. It has been humbling to see how many of you have come along for the ride. We are working on a few more things – like the ability to comment – but if you have any comments, just send me an email – amy.remeikis@australiainstitute.org.au and I’ll put up what I can, as well as answer any questions.

Hopefully we will see you back here tomorrow – come along for my descent into the existential abyss!

Until then – do good, and take care of you

Labor has held its caucus meeting and the briefing has been given (this is where a party MP reads out the minute notes from the meeting to journalists in a formal briefing, but it is all off the record.

MPs tell me that the caucus has agreed to pass Labor’s proposed legislation which will gut existing environmental laws, and limit what third party civil society groups (like the Australia Institute) can do to support community groups protesting nature-destroying projects.

But MPs were also speaking about the government working to strengthen environmental laws in a second term.

These two positions do not make sense, unless you consider that this is all about the government trying to shore up support in outer-suburban seats by sacrificing any sort of ‘green’ credentials it might still have. So being seen as anti-Greens in those seats is a risk Labor is willing to take, if it means fighting back the Liberals. Which is insane. Because we know that if both parties look the same, it’s not exactly inspiring anyone to vote for them, but is doing damage in other areas.

But this is the strategy.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock says the government has not done enough to transparently show what it is spending on consultants, with the consultant spend tied in with external contractors. The Greens want Labor to “reduce spending on consultants across all departments and agencies by a minimum of 15% each year for 5 years”.

Pocock said:

“We know that outsourcing public service work to the private sector costs three-times as much as hiring public servants to do the work, so reducing the spend on consultants and other contractors is a no brainer.

“What we are seeing is Labor fiddling at the edges. They say they want to eliminate wasteful outsourcing but there is no firm commitment to the kind of long-term reduction needed to bring down Scott Morrison’s record breaking spend of $20.8 billion on private contracting.

“The Australian Greens have recommended a 15% reduction in spending on consultants every year over five years. Labor is yet to respond.”

Further to that campaign, here is some of what David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie had to say, as reported by AAP:

Senator Pocock said Australia didn’t have a gas supply shortage, but a gas export problem with 80 per cent being sent abroad.

“This is a problem that can be solved,” he said on Monday.

“What we haven’t seen is the political will from the major parties who actually say Australians should benefit from Australian gas first before we export.”

Senator Lambie said the nation needed a gas reserve policy of 15 per cent.

“This is not about digging up more gas. This is not about ‘drill, baby drill’. This is about prioritising where our gas goes,” she said.

“The first thing you (government) could be … doing this week, is putting through a gas reserve policy for this country to make energy prices reduced.

“Stop this rubbish of not doing means testing and giving people like me $150 off my electricity bill.”

Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have called out multinational gas companies for pillaging Australia’s gas and pushing prices up for local households and businesses.

The Australia Institute has launched a new campaign, highlighting the fact that these companies take Australia’s gas, export 80% of it at huge profit (which goes overseas), pay no royalties then claim there’s a domestic shortage … which sends prices through the roof in Australia.

Australia does not have a gas crisis. We have a greed crisis and an integrity crisis. But we have more than enough gas to supply all our needs over and over.

As our politicians return to the big house for budget week – and the final sitting days before the election – we’ve taken our campaign direct to Parliament.

The time for subtlety has passed … big gas companies have screwed Australians for too long.

For those catching up on the salmon laws, Tasmanian director at the Australia Institute, Eloise Carr can catch you up:

Jacqui Lambie was among the independents who has spoken out against the Labor government’s proposed legislation which would not only protect the foreign-owned salmon industry in Tasmania from adhering to existing environmental laws, it would also limit third party civil society groups (like the Australia Institute) from helping community groups in their environmental challenges.

All in all, it would not only gut environmental protections, it would also limit community group’s ability to challenge nature-damaging projects. So not exactly democratic either, is it.

Lambie is not happy, telling an earlier press conference she was furious the government was prioritising “a stinking little fish” over cost of living issues:

“The mining industry would never get away with the exemption of what the salmon [industry] is asking for tomorrow. Apparently, that is what your government is prioritising tomorrow, talking about salmon, instead of reducing energy bills in this country. That’s what we’re talking about, a stinky little fish!”

We have said this before – Albanese’s intervention in the salmon issue in Tasmania is not about the salmon industry, or even winning seats in the election. It’s a signal to the bigger polluters, like the fossil fuel industry, that the government is on their side and won’t let environmental laws stand in the way of big projects. That’s what it’s about – power giving a nod and a wink to mining interests that they’ll be protected.

Meanwhile, after the backlash to the ALP’s latest merch drop, it seems the party has now scrubbed all reference to it:

We can no longer find it on Insta or TikTok, (it was never on the ALP’s shop) so it seems that the party has had second thoughts. Understandably – because what the actual.

Speaking of election campaigns, the fight is happening across all platforms;

Anthony Albanese is making the most of the non-sitting day – he is now in Melbourne where he will hold another press conference.

Anyone could think there is an election underway!