A sitting week with spooks and ghosts

It’s been a strange sitting week in Canberra, with the Albanese government trying to push through a packed legislative agenda - only to find itself repeatedly dragged onto political ground it hadn’t planned for.

Labor was slow out of the blocks in responding to the Trump administration’s proposed livestream of a US execution. Is the government becoming too reluctant to criticise the president?

Back in parliament, the government suffered a significant setback when the Coalition, Greens and Jacqui Lambie teamed up to knock its private health insurance changes off the Senate agenda.

Meanwhile, a fight over ATO credit card payments has fuelled fresh questions about the relationship between Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers, as Labor grapples with growing signs of midterm malaise.

The Greens are also testing their new leadership team, with David Shoebridge pushing the party into almost every major debate and trying to squeeze concessions from Labor.

And then there’s Josh Frydenberg - back on the media circuit, promoting his memoir, floating policy ideas and doing very little to dampen speculation about a political comeback.

Patricia Karvelas and Fran Kelly are joined by Tom McIlroy, Political Editor for Guardian Australia on The Party Room.

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