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The Right have a history of suspending democracy under the guise of emergency, only to bring about sweeping social and economic changes that stick. While there can be no doubt that coronavirus is a public health crisis that requires us to act urgently to protect life, it must not become an opportunity for governments to evade scrutiny or effect unrelated changes while the public are literally fighting for their lives. The Australian Parliament sat through two world wars. It sat throughout the Great Depression. But last Monday, after passing the biggest spending package I’ve ever seen in my ten years as an MP, the Coalition suspended Parliament until at least August and provided Finance Minister Mathias Cormann with a $40 billion slush fund to spend without parliamentary oversight. This suspension isn’t just undemocratic, it also threatens our ability to appropriately respond to the health and economic crises we’re faced with. And while the government is introducing measures to save lives, these measures also have an impact on our personal freedoms. With the state more powerful and active than it has been for decades, we need more democracy, not less.

The Importance of Parliament Late last Monday, the government passed their massive stimulus package through the Parliament in record time, but not before submitting to Greens Party scrutiny, in particular, over why the government was excluding so many categories from its welcome doubling of Newstart (now JobSeeker) payments. As a result of this debate, the government finally relented and extended its coronavirus supplement payments to TAFE and university students, who had previously been left behind. This win was only possible because of community pressure, including from the Australian Council of Social Service, the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, the Greens, and thousands of people working together to demand that this group not be left behind. But we wouldn’t have been able to secure this win without the instrument of Parliament. Similarly, in New South Wales and Tasmanian Parliaments last week, the Greens secured amendments to protect renters by banning evictions. This then became a national eviction ban a few days later. Again, this was only possible because Parliament was sitting. Australia is facing an unprecedented crisis, and the situation is rapidly transforming every day. Each time the government announces a new measure, it leaves whole sections of the population behind. Yet the government wants to hide their response from parliamentary scrutiny. Even now, they’re still leaving behind those receiving disability support payments and carer allowance and up to a million casual workers, who all stand to go without appropriate additional support. We need to not only campaign in the community but also in Parliament to see this changed. When it comes to the finance minister’s $40 billion discretionary spending budget, Labor has managed to negotiate for the opposition’s approval to be sought when the spend exceeds $1 billion. It’s perhaps some measure of accountability. But Parliament will still be left without any recourse to hold the executive to account. Parliament sitting isn’t about slowing down vital life-saving measures. It is about holding to account a government that has spent seven years making life harder for Australia’s most vulnerable while delivering generous corporate payouts.