The federal government will kick off the first week of the 45th parliament by introducing 25 bills, including its omnibus savings bill, tax cuts, changes to media ownership controls and industrial relations changes.
But some of the biggest stoushes in the new parliament will be about the superannuation changes that are still being debated in the Coalition party room and the same-sex marriage plebiscite, the fate of which is unclear until Labor announces if it will block it.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said the government would introduce bills for tax cuts to middle-income earners, the $48bn 10-year company tax cut and the $6.5bn omnibus savings bill on Wednesday and Thursday.
Cormann told Radio National among the first to be introduced would be the bills to create two tougher union watchdogs, the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission, which triggered the double-dissolution election.
The government will also make changes to the Fair Work Act to boost the bargaining position of Country Fire Authority volunteers locked in an industrial dispute in Victoria.
Asked whether the government was genuinely involved in a give and take, Cormann said it was “duty bound” and “honour bound” to attempt to pass its legislative agenda, although there may be negotiation in the Senate.
The Coalition government, which has 30 votes in the Senate, needs nine votes from the Greens, Labor or minor parties to pass legislation.
The Coalition party room will thrash out its differences on superannuation reform on Monday. The government’s restive backbench has called for the proposed $500,000 lifetime non-concessional cap on after tax contributions to be increased.
The Greens have warned they won’t support watered down changes, whereas Labor has proposed a compromise to ditch the backdated application of the cap to 2007, which the government rejected.
Cormann said the government had taken a package of reforms to the election to make superannuation fairer and more sustainable but would not explain how it would resolve demands for changes to the policy.
On Sunday Malcolm Turnbull said the “vast bulk” of the $6bn superannuation package was “broadly accepted” and changes to the $500,000 cap were only worth $500m.
Industry Super Australia has backed the changes. Its chief executive, David Whiteley, told the Australian Financial Review that they “improve the equity of the system and, while the package isn’t exactly how we would design it, it strikes a reasonable trade-off between competing priorities”.
On Monday the opposition leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, played down the importance of the government’s legislative agenda.
“These 25 bills, things like levies in the agricultural sector and the statute amendment bill, may well be worthy but I’m not sure you’d trumpet them as the centre of your agenda,” she told Radio National.
Wong said the push to introduce 25 bills was an attempt “to demonstrate a legislative agenda, particularly when [the government] are all at sea on superannuation and are particularly divided on that issue”.
“It says something about them that their biggest focus is the extent of the concessions they can give the highest income earners in Australia.”
Asked if Labor would back scrapping of the energy supplement to 2.2 welfare recipients as part of the $6.5bn omnibus savings bill, Wong repeated that Labor’s position would reflect its position before the election, suggesting it would accept the cut.
The proposed marriage equality plebiscite is shaping up as a key battle in the new parliament. Cormann said he “did not take it as given” that the plebiscite enabling legislation would be blocked because Labor had not taken an official position.
He said the government would “cross that bridge when we get there” if the popular vote were blocked. On Sunday Turnbull refused to rule out a parliamentary vote if the plebiscite were blocked.
But on Monday, the education minister, Simon Birmingham, told Sky News a plebiscite was “the only way” same-sex marriage would be achieved in the next three years, after a number of Liberals warning it would be off the table if the plebiscite were blocked.
Wong said the plebiscite was “a political deceit, imposed by Tony Abbott and the conservatives”, criticising it for being “expensive, divisive and non-binding”.
She said the only thing stopping marriage equality was that Turnbull lacked courage to allow a free parliamentary vote.
Pushed on whether Labor blocking the plebiscite would delay marriage equality for three years or more, Wong said she did not accept that delay would result because community pressure could force Turnbull and Liberal moderates to allow a free vote.
