Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In a few minutes, my friend Susan Lamb is going to walk in here with some other people and be sworn in as the member for Longman. I'm very happy to see that—someone that personifies Labor values more than almost anyone else in the chamber. But I am concerned that what I saw in Longman—not the 10 per cent drop in the primary vote of the Liberal and National parties; that's a problem for those opposite—was three out of 20 voters who supported the One Nation political party.

Whilst the senator from Queensland representing that party was off on a boat cruise at the time, she has said lots of things in the past. She has said: 'I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians.' She has called for the Muslim faith to be banned. She has said: 'Islam is a disease, we need to vaccinate ourselves against that.' She has disrespectfully worn a burqa into the Senate.

Mr Speaker, how could any sensible, mainstream political party of government swap preferences with a party that stands for such hatred? It was a grubby deal, and the Prime Minister should have known better. Why? Because Prime Minister Howard said in 2000: 'the One Nation Party should be placed last on all Liberal Party how-to-vote cards in Australia.' And just last year, Senator Ron Boswell, someone who knows a little bit about Queensland politics, warned against swapping preferences with One Nation. I've mentioned the hillbilly-harbourside alliance before, but now we're literally seeing their boundaries blurring— (Time expired)

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