Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

That was a pathetic effort from somebody who was carried as a carcass up to the backbench some time ago now. I want to talk a little bit about the media to start with and then I want to get back on to policy. I have a good reason for doing this. When I see stories in the media that refer to a supposed backbencher or a senior minister or whatever, I believe that to be code for a manufactured story. If they cannot name people, I do not believe what is in the story.

Why do I say that? I will give you a number of reasons. I have been in politics for 23½ years and I can give you a number of reasons, even ones since I have been down here. There was a story manufactured by Sue Dunleavy about some comments that were made to the member for Gellibrand. That was an absolutely manufactured story and the paper had to apologise.

Back when I was a member of the New South Wales parliament, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story in Spectrum called ‘In the Nationals’ interest’. It was two pages of fraud against the Nationals. That cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in court because they did no background on it, they did not do their homework and they did not even have the ethics to ask me my side of the story. I will give you another example while I am at it. Quentin Dempster, David Margan and Murray Hogarth—Murray Hogarth, by the way, was the reporter on the Sydney Morning Herald story—did an item on the 7.30 Report about the redevelopment of the Ryan Hotel in Lismore. All they did was crawl around the pubs and get the pub gossip and run a story on it. They did not come near me or the respected mayor of the city. All I can say is that they were lucky I was busy with the Sydney Morning Herald, or they would have copped the same. There are no ethics and they do not do their homework.

Let us talk about some policies. The member for Grayndler talked about policies. The member for Grayndler and the member for Kingsford Smith are fanatical ideologues. The member for Griffith, the Leader of the Opposition, is running around to the businesses of Australia saying: ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got control of this. There won’t be any problems with our environment policy; it won’t affect industry.’ But the member for Hunter, who comes from an area where we have an aluminium smelter, has not told them the price of electricity will go up three times. The member for Richmond has not told her electorate that, if they are going to go to wind power, there will be windmills all over St Helena in her electorate. That is the policy.

If the member for Griffith thinks he is going to control ideologues like the member for Grayndler and the member for Kingsford Smith, I have got news for him. I know them both. I know the member for Kingsford Smith from a long way back—when he was head of the ACF and I was a minister in the New South Wales government. These are situations that are going to put a lot of pressure on the Leader of the Opposition. He cannot resist it. He cannot win that. He is weak. We have seen that whenever real pressure has come on. He is weak and he cannot control it. So that is what the Australian people have to look at very carefully.

We talk about the fact that the Prime Minister might be retiring. He has been honest enough to say that he probably will not continue right through the next term—unlike a lot of other people—and we have the prospect of the member for Higgins, the Treasurer, as Prime Minister. I put it to you, Mr Deputy Speaker Somlyay, that the prospect of having the member for Higgins as Prime Minister is a long way in front of the prospect of having the member for Lalor, the deputy leader on the other side, as Prime Minister. I think the Australian people would be terrified if they knew there was a prospect that, in the faction fighting that will occur within the Labor Party if they ever get into government—and most certainly if they lose the election—that the member for Lalor might be the leader of the Labor Party. It is a terrifying thought. That is the sort of thing we have to look at. We have to look at who these members along the front bench are and what they represent. I think that is fairly clear.

Let us have a close look at the member for Hunter. He claims that he represents the mining industry and the Hunter Valley. The mining industry and the Hunter Valley are going to be under extreme pressure from the policies of the Labor Party. Again, the people of Australia have not been told that if they do go to clean coal technology it is twice as expensive as the coal we have at the present time. Do you think the people of Australia are prepared to pay two or three times the price for electricity? Do you think the people of Australia are prepared to have a carbon tax on petrol which will increase the price of petrol by 7c a litre? These are the issues that must be addressed. (Time expired)

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