Following a good first meeting between Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump, the government is in a euphoric mood as the federal parliament resumes its work on Monday.
This week's absence will be due to the prime minister's departure for the ASEAN conference in Malaysia and his subsequent flight to South Korea for the APEC meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The US president's trade battle is probably going to be discussed by the two leaders. Security concerns like Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, may also be discussed.
"During ASEAN and APEC, we will be focused on continuing to expand our critical economic and trade connections, since one in four Australian jobs depend on trade," Albanese stated on Sunday.
Labor's attempt to enact long-awaited reforms, such as creating the first national Environmental Protection Agency, is not assured because it does not have the Senate votes necessary to pass legislation.
Murray Watt, the environment minister, declared that he was "completely delighted" to support the bill.
"With these measures, we are aiming to present a well-rounded product that genuinely improves both our business and our natural environment," he told Sky News.
The changes include tougher sanctions and enforcement authority for violations of biodiversity and environmental protection legislation, including fines of up to $825 million.
By streamlining procedures, the law will cut red tape and expedite the approval of energy and housing projects.
The coalition is likely to criticize the government for how it handled Optus' triple-zero outage last month, which was connected to three fatalities.
Next Monday, the Greens are certain they have the backing they need to launch a parliamentary investigation into the fatal outage.
Optus management might anticipate an awkward interrogation over the fatal failure if it comes up.
The opposition and cross-bench will probably criticize the government's hasty attempts to pass legislation creating a watchdog for emergency call networks as being too late.
The future of Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce is still up in the air as he considers Pauline Hanson's invitation to join her far-right party One Nation.
Joyce claimed that his relationship with Nationals leader David Littleproud was irreparably damaged while he was still a member.
After separating from the Liberals in response to the dismal May 3 federal election, the Nationals are still unsure of their stance on net-zero emissions by 2050, which might cause the coalition to break apart once more.
Senator Matt Canavan of the Nationals was unable to verify on Sunday if a study of the matter had been finished.
He told Insiders, "A lot of effort has been done on it."
"In my opinion, the Nationals Party is steadfast in its pursuit of better terms for Australians. We are not benefiting much from net zero right now.
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