Welcome to the week, the first sitting week of the 48th Australian Parliament, where we will see, for the first time, 94 ALP MPs, 43 Coalition members, 10 Independent MPs and three from minor parties on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The May Federal poll seems eons ago, and in the 11 weeks since we have focused often on the government’s duty to use its majority to tackle big challenges. Last week, we saw Ken Henry put one of the biggest on the table. Addressing the National Press Club, he made the case for “urgent reform of Australia’s broken national environment laws".

He argued: “We cannot afford slow, opaque, duplicative and contested environmental planning decisions based on poor information, mired in administrative complexity.” We ran this important speech in full, so you can make up your own mind with all the facts at hand.

Seasoned investigative reporters Peter Cronau and Kelly Tranter confirmed what many of us had suspected: “Parts for Israel’s F-35 fighter jets are being exported directly to Israel from Australia, despite repeated government denials of the trade.”

Perhaps my favourite piece of the week came from former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad with a personal reflection, made days after his 100th birthday. He begins with: “Something has gone wrong with the world, with human civilisation. For centuries we have been ridding ourselves of barbarism in human society, of injustices, of the oppression of men by men.”

This morning John marks 50 years of Medicare. It is easy to become blasé about homegrown public policy achievements. You only have to spend a short time in the United States to understand how important universal health care is to a compassionate, functioning democracy.

We will continue analysis of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s week-long trip to China, but note that even the most unfriendly media commentators struggled to cast it in negative light.

The very successful visit contrasts starkly with recent frosty relations. It was just a few years ago that Australian ministers could not secure a phone conversation with their Chinese counterparts.

Until next week.