After ending 2018 with a defeat on medevac, the Morrison government is looking to close out 2019 with its repeal

The government will enter the final sitting fortnight of the year looking to cross off two big items on its agenda, with unions and medevac both in its spotlight.

After finishing the last sitting year with a historic defeat, when the medevac bill was passed against its will, the Morrison government is looking to go full circle and close out 2019 with its repeal.

But first, Christian Porter is looking to tick off a legacy Coalition policy to have trade unions placed under increased scrutiny.

The attorney general ended last week increasingly confident he had the numbers to have the government’s “ensuring integrity” bill passed in the Senate, after agreeing to a number of amendments from the crossbench party Centre Alliance.

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The bill has been criticised by the opposition and trade union supporters as an ideological push by the Coalition as part of its “union busting” agenda, with Tony Burke accusing the government of having one standard for corporate Australia and another for trade unions.

“What I can say is with this government there is no doubt at all they are putting forward one rule for corporate Australia and a completely different rule for the organisations that represent workers,” Burke told Sky News on Sunday.

“And we have to think about the sort, the types of offences that I just referred to. One is paperwork breaches, where they want to come down like a ton of bricks. The other breaches that attack the laws, the money laundering laws that deal with anti-terrorism, that deal with protection against child sex exploitation. These are serious breaches – 23 million of them. And that gets the tick. Three and you get thrown out.”

But Porter believes the negotiated amendments, which increase the thresholds before a union or individual official can be deregistered, will allay any lingering concerns, although he still has to bring One Nation the final step across the line, with the Pauline Hanson-led party having released its own demands in exchange for support.

Without One Nation, Porter would need Jacqui Lambie to agree to support the bill, but the Tasmanian senator’s has been largely quiet on the bill in recent weeks, despite having publicly declared she would vote for it if the Victorian CFMMEU secretary, John Setka, remained among its ranks.

After the notable absence of the bill in the last Senate-only sitting, Porter has listed it for debate on Monday afternoon.

Another piece of legislation absent from the notice paper earlier this month was the medevac repeal bill, which has now been listed for debate on Wednesday.

Lambie remains the decision maker, and has refused to say which way she will cast her vote, with Peter Dutton leading the charge on those negotiations.

Information about medevac cases the government has been dealing with has been released to the media in the lead up to the debate, with Kristina Keneally fronting Labor’s defence of the legislation. Advocates continue to rally outside parliament for the bill to remain in place, but the outcome remains uncertain.

But the government will start the week welcoming back an old face, with Jim Molan to be sworn back into the Senate as the replacement for Arthur Sinodinos, who is heading to Washington to replace Joe Hockey as ambassador.

Molan lost a preselection battle for the New South Wales Senate ticket, landing at the unwinnable fourth spot, at the last election.

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He embarked on a controversial counter-campaign in a bid to nudge out the Nationals senator who held the third spot and retain his seat in the Senate, but despite receiving a record 112,000 below the line first preference votes, the former army major general fell well short of the necessary quota.

Molan won the replacement bid after promising to vacate the seat at the next election.

His return boosts the number of right-aligned Liberal MPs in the party room, with Molan a popular Sky News guest and declared champion of conservative values.

In the lower house, the government has put forward bills aiming to expand the cashless debit card trial, which has been rejected by Labor and Greens senators, as well as to increase the national broadcaster’s responsibility to regional and rural areas.

The government is also expected to release its exposure draft for a national integrity commission, despite misgivings within its own party room it will not go far enough.

The matter is expected to be presented to cabinet in the next two weeks, before being presented to members. The Queensland MP Llew O’Brien has warned Porter, both publicly and privately, he may cross the floor if he believes the final proposal lacks “teeth”.