best insurance companies - Health insurance scheme, Malaysia plan back on table : LABOR will use its new increased majority in the House of Representatives to try to push through stalled policies including means-testing for the private health insurance rebate and the Malaysia plan for asylum seekers.
Labor MPs who have been fretting about the poker machine reforms that Andrew Wilkie has been demanding say they plan to start speaking out for those reforms to be moderated, given Mr Wilkie no longer has the power to bring down the government.
One MP, who did not want to be named, said MPs would call for changes such as insisting on a trial before pressing ahead with mandatory pre-commitment.
'We can't just drop the policy but we'll be pushing for a trial first,'' the MP said. ''This changes the whole dynamic. It's good to have a bit of stability.''
Mr Wilkie has been assured by the Prime Minister that Labor will try to honour its commitment to place mandatory pre-commitment technology on poker machines.
The minority government has 76 votes to 73 on the floor of the House after Harry Jenkins resigned as speaker and went to the backbench, giving Labor an extra vote. The Coalition lost a vote when Peter Slipper replaced Mr Jenkins.
This means Labor now needs the support of three of the six crossbenchers instead of four to pass a bill. The 76 votes gives Labor an absolute majority and much greater powers to control events in the House.
As the opposition railed against the ambush as a grubby deal, recriminations inside the party began, with enemies of Mr Slipper saying he should have been disendorsed years ago.
The federal Liberal National MP Alex Somlyay said the LNP executive, which had been debating this week whether to expel Mr Slipper or fast-track his preselection defeat, should have moved long ago.
''People like me and many other branch members have been warning the party this was going to happen … that something should have been done years ago,'' he said. ''It has all come to a head now, and we'll have to live with the consequences for the next two years.''
It needs now just one vote to means-test the private health insurance rebate, which is worth $2.9 billion to the budget.
It has the numbers to pass through the lower house the legislation for the Malaysia plan in a bid to increase the pressure on the Coalition to back down and allow it through the Senate.
The manager of government business, Anthony Albanese, who lined up Mr Slipper on Thursday morning after Mr Jenkins resigned, denied yesterday that he had advance knowledge of Mr Jenkins's decision. It emerged that Mr Jenkins had consulted Simon Crean on Wednesday and then contacted Government House to arrange his resignation.
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