Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Science) Share this | Hansard source

And the member opposite says she agrees with her. There are fixes for the great state of Western Australia, but what we have here is a Victorian who is sticking up for Western Australia—but not for South Australia; there's no talk of protecting South Australia's GST revenue stream.

So what we have here is a candidate for a by-election in the Adelaide Hills; a candidate who is a carpetbagger; a candidate—

An opposition member: A blow in!

who's a blow-in; a candidate who's from the Melbourne establishment; a candidate who has adopted very, very orthodox positions on the GST revenue. We know she's against the minimum wage—we know that; there are some quotes about the minimum wage here that I could read for those opposite. She said on the Speers show that the minimum wage was 'all very well for people who already have a job but actually presents quite an obstacle to those 700,000 Australians who are out there looking for work and might not be able to get jobs because of these artificially high wages set by the Fair Work Commission'. It doesn't sound very supportive of the minimum wage.

We also know that she opposed the banking royal commission. She said, 'No, it's not going to achieve anything, I don't think. It's in the public interest ultimately to have a competitive and lightly regulated banking sector.' So she's obviously no oracle, either, because she thought the banking royal commission wouldn't come up with anything. Hasn't she been wrong about that!

The people of the Adelaide Hills—and my mum used to live up there, so I know something of the area—have a very important decision to make. I'm no friend of the Nick Xenophon Team party—

Mr Wood interjecting—

I hear my friend interjecting there. I've made many speeches in this House attacking the Nick Xenophon Team. But would you really back in another Downer—in this case from the Melbourne establishment—into the seat of Mayo?

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