AARON PATRICK: In her first Question Time as leader, Sussan Ley has a moment of grace in Federal Parliament

Sussan Ley’s finest moment in her first Question Time as opposition leader was not when she opposed the Labor Government but supported it.

Praising Education Minister Jason Clare for his work improving childcare centre safety, Ms Ley described her revulsion at learning of the systematic abuse of infants and toddlers across more than 20 Melbourne centres.

“I can’t think of many issues in my time in this parliament that have made me feel as physically sick as this one,” she said. “We do stand ready to ensure we continue to get this right.”

Ms Ley and Mr Clare’s contribution was a much-needed reminder that on important matters, Australia’s democracy often functions well.

But Question Time is about politics and the bipartisanship was a passing moment in an early test of Ms Ley’s parliamentary leadership style.

Housing policy

After walking into the House of Representatives flanked by two other women, Angie Bell and Melissa Price, Ms Ley opened question time with an assault on the Government’s house-building record. She challenged Anthony Albanese to work with the Coalition to fix policies that have driven up the average Australian home to more than $1 million.

The Prime Minister expressed no interest in the offer. Clearly prepared for the question, he quoted Queensland’s Liberal National Party housing minister crediting the federal Labor government for new public housing on the Gold Coast.

And so resumed the great political fight. As Mr Albanese and other ministers lapped up friendly questions from newly elected Labor MPs, and four members of the large cross-bench got a say too, the Opposition seemed almost irrelevant.

Its initial focus on the housing crisis quickly shifted to increased taxes on superannuation accounts above $3 million.

Capital gains

No new information emerged on the plan, which the Coalition tried to turn into a campaign issue before the election. When Treasurer Jim Chalmers did not rule out taxing unrealised gains on other investments, his new Coalition counterpart, Ted O’Brien, saw ammunition to go after the Prime Minister.

“Will the Government rule out ever taxing unrealised capital gains on anything beyond superannuation?” he said.

Mr Albanese is far too experienced a parliamentarian to be caught in such an obvious trap.

“The time to run a scare campaign is just before an election campaign, not after one,” he said, to sound of deep laughter from the Labor backbench, one so big it extends to the opposition side of the house. “That’s the time when you stand up and say will you rule things in our out.”

Then he helpfully pointed out that the next election is due in May, 2028.

He went on: “What we took to the election is tax cuts. You took a position to the election, which was to have a tax increase for 14 million Australians.”

The assertion, repeated several times during Question Time, shows the Government intends to continue to use one of the most potent lines from the election campaign against the Coalition.

Which means Ms Ley and Mr O’Brien will be tarred by a decision they were not directly involved in: a vote against election-eve personal income tax cuts introduced as part of the 2025-26 budget.

Warring over Taiwan

One of the key figures in that decision, former Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor, tried to embarrass the Prime Minister over last week’s friendly six-day trip to China.

Describing March’s circumnavigation of Australia by three Chinese warships as “totally unacceptable”, he sought an assurance it “must never happen again”.

Given Mr Albanese had shared details of his lunch with President Xi Jinping, and said the leader revealed private information about himself, the new shadow defence minister had a strong point.

Unfortunately for him, Mr Albanese hadn’t forgotten that Mr Taylor had called for Australia to commit to the military defence of Taiwan, a point of faith among China hawks but a position not even the anti-Beijing Trump White House has taken.

Mr Albanese questioned if the Coalition had abandoned what had been a bipartisan position. “The comments by the shadow minister for defence were entirely irresponsible,” he said.

Which made the question look like a miscalculation, and a reminder that it is a long way back for the Coalition.