Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

It will be. I hope that, when the member for Lyne makes his contribution, he will move an amendment to this legislation—because he ought to. If he is going to keep faith with the commitments that he and every other National Party member made when they went to the polls in 2013, he should either move an amendment to this legislation or vote against it. The Nationals should either stand here and move an amendment to the legislation to introduce the policy in the national policy platform that they took to the last election or vote against it. When they went to the polls, they led electors to believe that they were actually going to lower the PBS safety net—and that is exactly the opposite of what this legislation does today.

Mr Deputy Speaker Broadbent, I encourage you and other members to refresh yourselves on what they took to the polls in 2013. Go to page 51 of your policy platform, have a look at it and remind yourselves of what you promised to do when you went to the polls in 2013. I ask you to do that before you make any contributions to this debate. I am looking at the member for Lyne, who is courageous enough to contribute to the debate. There are many other National Party members who have not had the courage to come in and contribute to this debate. But I ask the member for Lyne to look at the policy that they took to the last election and either stand here and speak and vote against this legislation or move an amendment to give effect to your policy platform. That would be the honest thing to do; that would be the right thing to do. I am looking forward to listening to the member for Lyne's contribution and his amendment to this legislation so that he can keep faith with the people who voted for him and so that he can keep faith with all of those other National Party members.

I think there are some very good people within the National Party. When I read their policy platform, I thought, 'There's some pretty good stuff in here.'

See this speech in context