Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I paid heed to the point of order, and it was kind of irrelevant: it started badly, faded away a bit in the middle and the less said about the end of it the better. What we actually see with the Labor Party is that they will completely avoid the issue that is pertinent to how you actually get working men and women back into work. You have a choice: you can either have cheap labour or cheap power. They do not believe in cheap power, they do not believe in actually looking after the working men and women.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

The member for Shortland knows that, and the member for Shortland will know that he is now on camera and he has to explain to his constituency why he has become a patsy for the Greens. Why has he become a patsy for the Greens? Because he probably got Greens preferences, the member for Shortland—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

his whole political agenda within the Labor Party has now been determined by Greens preferences. As was the member for Hunter, who no doubt got Greens preferences. He is very proud of those Greens preferences. Because I know, to his bootstraps, he believes in the Greens agenda. Of course, I know one person—that is, the member for Grayndler—who almost is a Greens member! He just sits there—he has to get The Daily Telegraph to go into bat for him, for The Daily Telegraph to go, 'Save Albo', 'Save Albo from the Greens'. Because the Labor Party has been taken over by the Greens. The Labor Party is a paid-up member of the Australian Greens. And yet we never hear about what their policy agenda is.

Remember, it is the Greens that want to get rid of coal mining completely. Send our whole nation down the financial tube, but they do not care about that. The Labor Party does not care about that; it has been overtaken. The problem with the Labor Party these days is the Labor Party does not have any people who actually have done any labour in it. There is no-one who has done any labour. There are no actual workers in it any more. They have given up on workers and taken up on union officials and university students. That is what the Labor Party is: union officials and university students. You do not have the people who are actually the shearers, who are actually the work men and women—

Opposition members interjecting—

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