Q+A Live Stream | Monday May 22, 2023 - Video

This week on Q+A… the Class of 22. One year on from the election that changed Australia’s political landscape, five first-term parliamentarians join the panel. So just how different is the reality of a political career to what they imagined?

With an economy under pressure amid fears of a global recession, a worsening housing crisis and the approaching winter putting more strain on energy supplies – how much impact can one politician have on the problems Australians are facing?

The Senate is proving pivotal to the government’s legislative agenda, and independents Tammy Tyrell and David Pocock have been making their presence felt. From securing commitments on social housing to putting more scrutiny on economic inclusion, these first-time senators are fighting for the issues they’re passionate about.

In the lower house, Max Chandler-Mather was swept in on Brisbane’s Green wave. A renter throughout his adult life, he has made housing his priority, but is his party’s refusal to pass the housing future fund bill helping or hurting the very people living through housing stress?

Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah – who turned one of Melbourne’s premier blue-ribbon seats red – hasn’t been shy about putting her views forward, including calling for an increase in JobSeeker. And Zoe McKenzie held off a Teal challenge in her Liberal Victorian seat – so what does she make of the Coaliton’s post-election woes?

What does the Class of 22 make of being inside the “Canberra bubble”?

Among the cost-of-living measures – more rent assistance, energy bill relief, a boost to bulk-billing and cheaper prescriptions. The single parent payment cutoff is being lifted from eight to 14 and there’s a modest boost to JobSeeker, Austudy and Youth Allowance – but the extra money won’t flow until September. And with the stage three tax cuts still in the mix, how much difference will the changes make?

How does this budget align with Labor’s claim to be good economic managers? Is it simply postponing some difficult decisions that must be made as the global economy continues to falter?

Submit a question: https://ab.co/3RF45r8

Panellists: Labor Member for Higgins Michelle Ananda-Rajah, Liberal Member for Flinders Zoe McKenzie, Independent Senator for ACT, David Pocock , Independent Senator for Tasmania Tammy Tyrrell and Greens Member for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather


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Q+A is a television discussion program that focuses mostly on politics but ranges across all of the big issues that set Australians thinking, talking and debating.

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