Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

That is what the member for Brand, a former Special Minister of State, said. The member for Brand, unlike those opposite more generally, has been entirely consistent on this point. He said in February of this year:

These reforms simply mean that political parties, including my own, will have to convince the public rather than backroom deal-makers that they deserve their votes.

He is not alone, because the member for Bruce, who sat on the JSCEM committee, Mr Speaker, with you and did joint press conferences with you in relation to the unanimous recommendations of the JSCEM report, said:

The government should be acting on these recommendations and, if they're going to, they need to hurry up because they're running out of time.

The current National Secretary of the ALP, George Wright, said:

… GVTs—

group voting tickets—

are so blatantly being abused to frustrate the democratic will of electors …

You would think that, with all of that support—from head office, from esteemed members of the opposition—the member for Brand, who has served as a Special Minister of State, would have got support in their party room. In fact, you can look at what some of them have said. The member for McMahon said this in December 2013:

I do think the rise of micro parties and the ability of people to be elected on very, very small preference primary votes—

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