11 votes

Coronavirus stimulus package worth $84 billion passed without objection by Australian Parliament

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  1. Algernon_Asimov
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    This is nothing short of amazing: the Opposition pushed the Government to give a minister more unilateral powers. In any other circumstance, oppositions try to restrict the powers of ministers,...

    Under pressure from Labor and the Greens, the Coalition amended its own legislation to give the social services minister the power to make changes to the stimulus payments, including rates, means testing, eligibility and residency requirements.

    This is nothing short of amazing: the Opposition pushed the Government to give a minister more unilateral powers. In any other circumstance, oppositions try to restrict the powers of ministers, and apply more checks & balances. Here, an opposition is telling the government to take more powers. The motives are understandable: it's a left-wing party which wants to make sure people on welfare can get more access to more payments if necessary, knowing that the Parliament won't sit for another 5 months (!) to legislate changes. But it's still a big deal.

    And, they haven't lost all their common sense: "Labor demanded an end date to the extra powers for the social services minister be included in the legislation." Very sensible!

    4 votes