Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We're all adults in this place, and I think we'll all agree that through perhaps the effluxion of time, misadventure or folly, or sheerly through being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we've all seen things that we can't unsee. I'm adding one more thing to that list of things that, sadly, I can't unsee, and that is the Western Australian state Liberal conference held this past weekend at Scarborough. What a treat that was! We saw Western Australia's answer to Ned Flanders, Mike Nahan, stand up and talk about the need to find some mates—what he called 'Mike's Mates'. The thing we know about names is—just as the Prime Minister likes to call himself strong—they don't resonate when you make them up yourself. I don't have any confidence in his being able to find those mates. But it got worse. Not only did Mike not find any mates but things really got hot and flustered when they started talking about 'succession'. I thought they were talking about regeneration in the Liberal Party, but they were actually talking about 'secession', as in breaking away from the entire country. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, it became very clear what all that sound and fury was about. It was about the Prime Minister having no answer on the GST and having no support for Western Australia. They should be departing in droves. They should be hanging their heads in shame.

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