A Nationals senator will raise dodgy practices in the life insurance industry as a key issue the Coalition must pursue in the new parliament when his party meets in Canberra on Tuesday.
NSW senator John Williams said on Monday he intended to raise concerns about conduct in the industry, and also questionable labour contracting arrangements in the regions, in the first party room meeting held since the Coalition claimed victory in the federal election.
Williams also said the Coalition needed to devote more resources to mental health, particularly with veterans, and said he had established contact with the Soldier On veterans support group to discuss proposals.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, raised the mental health of Australian veterans during the campaign in a speech to the RSL. The Coalition also unveiled a $14.9m mental health policy for veterans, but Williams said he was perturbed by the number of servicemen and women suffering ill health after active duty.
Williams believed he enjoyed “broad support”, including backing from Labor, to pursue both the life insurance industry and suspect labour contracting arrangements through the parliamentary committee system.
The Nationals will meet on Tuesday at 2pm to consider the recent election and to give instructions to the Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, who is expected to meet Turnbull and the Liberals deputy leader, Julie Bishop, on Wednesday to discuss the parameters of a Coalition agreement.
The Nationals will seek greater representation in the reshuffled Turnbull ministry reflecting their stronger performance in the election.
The Nationals are on track to increase their representation from 21 to 22 members if the party manages to hold Flynn and Capricornia in Queensland, and Barry O’Sullivan hangs on in the Queensland Senate count.
There were reports on Monday that the Nationals would push to wrest the communications portfolio from the Liberals given the state of communications infrastructure remains a huge political issue in the bush, but there are mixed views about the merits of this.
Liberals discounted the notion, given the portfolio is held by a key ally of the prime minister, the Victorian Liberal senator Mitch Fifield, and also involves the sensitivities of dealing with media moguls. Taking full ownership of the portfolio would also make the Nationals responsible politically for outcomes, including the slow rollout of the national broadband network, over which the government has only limited control.
Ahead of the talks between Joyce and Turnbull, on Monday Labor declared the new Coalition agreement should be a publicly available document because the various undertakings affected government policy.
The last Coalition agreement included undertakings on sensitive internal policy issues such as climate change and marriage equality.
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said: “Australians are entitled to know what deals are being done to constitute the government of Australia. Not only should there not be a secret agreement, there shouldn’t be secret deals full stop.”
