Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I regret to say that I have been alerted to a speech delivered in the Senate last Monday evening by Tasmanian Greens Party Senator Nick McKim. I do not generally pay much attention to speeches by members of the Greens, but the speech in question deserves a response. Senator McKim, as we know, has been in this parliament for only a very short period of time. Before that, he served in the Tasmanian Labor-Greens government. Labor Premier David Bartlett and his successor Lara Giddings both did a deal with the Greens to secure government. That deal elevated Mr McKim and later his Greens partner in politics and life, Ms Cassy O'Connor, as ministers in the Labor government.

Given Mr McKim's record as a minister, there is no basis for the boastful comments he made in the Senate last Monday. Senator McKim said:

I am shocked that the newbie has to stand up and give you guys a very well-deserved lecture …

There you have it, Mr Speaker. Senator Newbie from the Hobart latte set has come to Canberra to save us. But what really caught my attention was Senator McKim's extended rant against the citizenship bill, where attacked me, the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, of which I am a member, and every politician—Labor and Liberal—who voted for the bill. I remind the House that support for this important piece of counter-terrorism legislation is bipartisan. Labor and Liberal members on the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security have helped deliver four tranches of national security legislation, with a fifth currently before us. Our reports have been bipartisan, with 136 recommendations accepted by the government. So, to hear Senator McKim, with no involvement in our committee, with no experience in national security, state that the passage of this bill was 'an outrageous collusion between the government and the Labor Party' is most disappointing. It reflects his ignorance of parliamentary process.

But it gets worse. Senator McKim referred to me and every MP who supported this bill as 'extremists'—the very threat that our counter-terrorism laws seek to address. He said:

They are extremists, Senator Rice; I could not agree more.

What an appalling slur on members of this parliament. We know from Senator McKim's maiden speech that he was formerly an apple picker, a shepherd, a gardener and a public relations expert—an interesting background to proclaim oneself an expert in parliamentary affairs and national security. This is the same man who commentators say was amongst the very worst ministers in the history of Tasmanian politics and who presided over catastrophic losses for the Greens at the last state election, giving an embarrassing, ungracious concession speech. The mess that he left in the Corrections and Education portfolios are still being cleaned up today in Tasmania. Who can forget the hapless Minister McKim announcing multiple school closures in Tasmania, which caused angst and pain to many of the communities which I am a part of. Then he embarrassingly had to backtrack on those closure decisions.

Senator McKim and his partner Cassy O'Connor enjoyed four taxpayer-funded cars—two private-plated vehicles (Audis, if I am not mistaken) and two chauffeured ministerial cars—in the same household. So much for Greens concerns about CO2 emissions! As leader of the Tasmanian Greens, Mr McKim said environmental protesters who broke the law were like Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Seriously!

I know that thousands of Tasmanians who lost jobs in the timber industry do not see Mr McKim and his activist mates as heroes.

I also read Senator McKim's maiden speech in the Senate where he said that he knows how hard it is to 'choose between paying the rent and putting food on the table'. Well, his rent issues appear to continue in 2015. The Tasmanian media revealed in January that Senator McKim and Ms O'Connor were named on a debtors list for not paying their rates. This Greens power couple on a combined income of about $400,000 per year failed to pay their rates bill. What extraordinary arrogance! A senior Tasmanian tells me that, in the state parliament, Mr McKim was regarded by public servants in Hobart as 'a delight to work with'—an interesting comment delivered with a twinkle in the eye and linked to the fact that Mr McKim never appeared to be across his ministerial brief.

What Senator McKim demonstrated during his time in the Tasmanian parliament and in his speech last Monday is how thankful Australians should be that he is nowhere near the national security decisions of our country. I call on him now to unconditionally withdraw, at the first available opportunity, his appalling slur that members of this House are extremists.

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