ELLEN RANSLEY: Why Labor is in a hectic hurry to settle its Bills before Parliament breaks for the year

If the past 2½ years of Government have been a marathon, this week has been Anthony Albanese’s 100m dash.

On a mission to chalk up as many political wins as possible before Parliament breaks for the year — potentially for the last time before the next election — debate on Bills will be truncated, politicians will be kept back late, and Senators could be asked to sit an extra day in order to deal with the Government’s legislative logjam.

Even if Parliament does come back for two weeks in February, there’s a feeling of “now or never” this week. The nightly end-of-year celebrations in the backdrop only add to the scramble to get as much done as possible. All sides want to stand on their strongest leg before they go to voters.

The Prime Minister reeled in a big win on Monday. Having been prepared to let his two housing Bills fail, the Greens finally capitulated on their demands and agreed to wave through the Build to Rent and Help to Buy schemes.

Housing is set to be a major theme of the next election, and the win lets Labor take new ideas to the electorate. Though they’ll face a battle with the Greens, who in folding on the Bills vowed to double down their campaign efforts on negative gearing, capital gains tax and rent increases, as part of their ploy to move Labor into minority and yield more power.

But Labor will use their recent wins to build their own election agenda. Beyond housing, the deal Labor have struck with the Coalition on once-in-a-generation aged care reforms are now law.

The Senate was due to sit until very late Tuesday night to deal with more of the Government’s priority reforms: giving early childhood workers a 15 per cent pay rise over two years, wiping some student debt for millions of Australians and paying prac students a stipend, increasing funding for public schools, and ensuring multinational corporations pay their fair share of tax.

And, despite having only been put on the Parliament’s agenda last week, electoral laws cracking down on the Simon Holmes à Courts of the country are set to pass this week while social media will be banned for under 16s — notwithstanding a fractured Coalition and widespread criticism.

Politicians hoping to flee Canberra for the summer on Thursday could even be kept back an extra day to do all this.

All of those wins are crucial for Labor, who knows it is in danger of falling into minority government.

But there are crucial items on Labor’s long list that it is running out of time to pull off. For all that Albanese talks about his Future Made in Australia agenda, the legislation is still stalled in the Senate with the Greens holding firm on their demands over coal and gas projects.

The same goes for the new environmental protection agency — although Labor and the Greens are edging closer towards a deal, which could be clinched by Thursday.

And then there are the items the Government gave up on before the final sprint of the year. It withdrew its misinformation Bill, and won’t attempt to bring it back if re-elected.

The third and final tranche of Labor’s Nature Positive plan has been put on the backburner until after the next election. The plan to double the tax earnings on superannuation assets over $3m — still friendless — also looks to have been kicked down the road.

And, despite promising a response to the Murphy inquiry and its recommendation for a ban on gambling ads by the end of the year, the Government has ruled out introducing legislation this week.

Albanese has one eye on the ballot box. Even if he waits until the last minute to fire the starting gun and MPs come back in February, this week has been about prioritising what can be achieved. What’s leftover could become fodder for his re-election pitch.

He knows there’s “more to do”, and told his party room on Tuesday he vowed to leave “nothing on the field” in order to keep Labor in majority government.

MPs have been called on to help over the summer break, with the PM telling them they need to be out on the hustings and winning people over during December and January.

Ultimately, Albanese says, voters will compare his Government’s wins of the last 2½ years with the Coalition’s agenda.

“Compare the pair. Because that’s what Australians will have the opportunity to do next year. An optimistic government working for Australians to make life easier, or those opposite working every day to make things harder because they think that advantages them,” he said during Question Time.

Alive to the possibility he could call an election any day, the Coalition are ramping up their own campaign rhetoric, questioning whether Australians can afford another three years of Labor.

Peter Dutton told his party room on Tuesday Australians were struggling and couldn’t risk a Labor-Greens parliament. He too is pushing MPs to focus on their electorates over summer as they gear up for an election year.

“The Government is faltering and taking decisions that are making it even, even harder for families people believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, but they also understand that if you get the economics right, you support families, and if you focus on what matters, that the country can get back on track. But you can only imagine what would happen under the chaos of a Greens-Labor coalition,” he said, according to a Coalition source.

All sides of politics know they’ve got to give this week — including the long nights — their all.

But even as they limp to the finish line, with the election starting gun ready to fire at any time they need to keep something in the tank for the next race.