New Liberal leader Angus Taylor in hot seat as MPs return to Canberra
Angus Taylor is preparing for his first parliamentary sitting week as opposition leader, with global affairs front and centre of the political debate.
The prime minister will have a new chief sparring partner when MPs return to Canberra as the opposition leader prepares for his first sitting week in the role.
Angus Taylor took over the Liberal leadership in mid-February after ousting his predecessor Sussan Ley, but today will be his first opportunity to take the government to task from the parliamentary post.
The opposition is set to press Labor on the return of so-called “ISIS brides” and the government’s speculated changes to capital gains taxes on investment properties.
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The opposition argues they pose a security risk and more should be done to bar their entry but the government says it’s not helping them beyond what is legally required for Australian citizens.
The Liberal leader has already had a small bump in the polls since knifing Sussan Ley for the party’s top job.
The coalition’s primary vote ticked up to 20 per cent in the most recent Newspoll, published in The Australian, that surveyed more than 1200 voters in the final week of February.
It’s up from the historic low of 18 per cent in early February but still well behind One Nation’s 27 per cent.
Conservative doyen Andrew Hastie urged his colleagues to take the right-wing minor party seriously, saying there were frustrations in the community over the cost of living and immigration levels.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was widely condemned, including by members of the coalition, for recent comments that there were no “good Muslims”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong will move to censure Senator Hanson in the Senate on Monday, just months after she was censured in November for her burqa stunt.
Former Liberal prime minister John Howard urged caution over any preference deals with the minor party.
“Look at what I did when I was prime minister ... and that was not to do a preference deal,” he told the Nine Network.
Mr Hastie said he was “fine” with the Liberal Party directing preferences towards One Nation, saying he would work with anyone to ensure better centre-right outcomes for Australians.
Labor will on Monday introduce legislation to strengthen laws for people providing intelligence and other sensitive information to the royal commission stemming from the Bondi terror attack.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will address MPs during his four-day visit to Australia later in the week.
