Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

We have just heard from that great sycophant of billionaires, the Leader of the Opposition. All the lectures he is trying to run are politics of envy. When he was a regular dinner guest at Raheen—always there with Dick Pratt, sucking up to Dick Pratt—did he knock back the Cristal? I do not think so. There was never a union leader in Melbourne that tucked his knees under more billionaires' tables than the Leader of the Opposition. He lapped it up—oh yes, he lapped it up! He was a social-climbing sycophant if ever there was one. There has never been a more sycophantic leader of the Labor Party than this one, and he comes here and poses as a tribune of the people. Harbourside mansions—he is yearning for one. He is yearning to get into Kirribilli House. Do you know why? Because somebody else pays for it: just like he loved knocking back Dick Pratt's Cristal; just as he looked forward to living in luxury at the expense of the taxpayer.

This man is a parasite. He has no respect for the taxpayer. He has no more respect for the taxpayer than he has respect for the members of the Australian Workers Union he betrayed again and again. He sold them out. Some of the lowest paid workers in Australia, cleaners working at Cleanevent—he sold out their penalty rates. And what did they get? They got nothing. But what did the union get? Cash, money, payments. He sold them out in return for a payment to the union. That is what he did when he was their representative. What does he do now as Leader of the Opposition? He is selling out the jobs of Australian workers every day he perseveres with his ludicrous policies on energy, which will have the result of further unsustainable increases in the cost of electricity.

I think I have seen more members of the AWU lately than he has—I saw them at Portland Aluminium—and they know that their jobs depend on affordable electricity. They know, with the closure of Hazelwood and the crazy policies of the Victorian Labor government, supported by the policies of the Leader of the Opposition, that their livelihoods are at risk.

And where is the champion of the AWU now? He is here in Canberra selling them out, just like he sold out the workers at Clean Event. He has no interest in standing up for those workers. I was also at Viridian glass. There are also members of the Australian Workers' Union there. Viridian's biggest and most volatile cost element is the cost of energy, the cost of gas. It is becoming unaffordable. They moved their plant from New South Wales to Victoria and closed their plant in New South Wales because energy was too expensive. They consolidated in Victoria, and now, thanks to the Labor Party's ideologically driven energy policies, that too is put at risk.

That is the reality. That is the front line where members of the Australian Workers' Union and many other unions find themselves today. The Labor Party cannot keep living in a parallel universe where you can preach ideological energy policies without any regard to how you are going to deliver reliable, affordable energy and, yes, meet your emission reduction targets—but meet the responsible ones we entered into in Paris, not just doubling them for no return from any other country. This is ideology. They call themselves the Labor Party. Well, 'manual labour' is a Mexican bandit as far as they are concerned. Most of them have never done a day's work in their lives. I am old enough to remember when the Labor Party's benches were filled with union officials who had actually worked. Nowadays, look at the serried ranks of apparatchiks and political hacks who are totally out of touch with the men and women they claim to represent.

This social-climbing sycophant, this would-be tribune of the people, complains about cuts to company tax. Well, let me tell you, it is pretty straightforward: if you want more investment—and we do—

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

See this speech in context