Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for the question. The state native vegetation laws introduced more than a decade ago have for a long time provoked a good deal of concern and anger among many farmers throughout Australia. When they were introduced we were in opposition and did not complain about them. Some of those opposite—including the former Treasurer—when they were in government took credit for them. This debate received publicity in a new way over summer when one particular New South Wales farmer climbed up a pole on his property and engaged in an action of self-harm. For a long time in this place both governments and oppositions have observed the principle that when someone engages in an action of self-harm neither would gain a political dividend from it. I saw this many times as shadow minister for immigration, and I have no evidence that the current shadow minister for immigration has behaved in a different fashion. We get calls from the media saying: ‘There has been an action of self-arm. This is a free kick for you. Why don’t you go out and do some media.’ The rule has always been that none of us in this place would engage in that way because we do not want to be the sort of country where self-harm is a way of getting political attention.

There is no grey area in this. It has remained the situation that you do not say, ‘I’ll criticise the self-harm but I’ll give them some publicity anyway,’ because we know where that would lead. I do not know what level of self-obsession, erratic behaviour or twisted morality it would take for someone to view an action of self-harm as a political opportunity, but that is exactly what the Leader of the Opposition did a few weeks ago. I do not know how you can trust somebody who is willing to do that.

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