Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Maybe I have just touched on a nerve with the member for Goldstein, because many in his electorate would have objected to what they saw happening in the streets of Melbourne.

We have really high vaccination rates across our country and it's something we should all be embracing. There are some who've chosen not to get vaccinated, and how does that relate to this bill? They will be politically active in this campaign. We are already having discussions in my electorate about how we can keep people safe during the election period. We've not seen any focus whatsoever from this government about how we can ensure people are safe when they're voting, how they won't get harassed if they're voting. We've not had any genuine discussion from this government about how we can improve our election processes. What we've had instead is this bill and another bill, a bill which is all about disenfranchising people from participating. That is what really disappoints me about what we're seeing.

This is at a time when we want people to be encouraged to be positive about our democracy, to know that their vote can make a difference. It is at a time when we want to encourage civil society to participate—organisations like the RSPCA, like St Vincent de Paul, like our unions. We stood side by side with our unions and said: 'Your members are essential workers. Thank you for what you've done. Nobody deserves a serve.' Members of the United Workers Union ran hotel quarantine and put themselves at risk. Because this government didn't do anything about hotel quarantine, the states picked it up. Our security guards and our cleaners—some of our lowest paid workers—kept the virus out of our community; they did everything they could. Now this government is saying that their union needs to meet a new, higher threshold when it comes to political campaigning. If anybody deserves an opportunity to have a voice in this election about how this government has participated, about the kind of government that they want, and an opportunity to organise collectively, it's the workers in those unions, who really stood up and kept Australia safe. It drives me bonkers that we have a Prime Minister who pretends he did the job. He did not. In his absence, these organisations stepped up.

I strongly encourage the government to drop this bill. This is the wrong time to be looking at something like this. What we want is a bill that talks about truth in advertising and truth in political campaigning. What we want is a bill that talks about donations and disclosures—real-time donation disclosures. What we want is a bill which is about genuinely engaging and encouraging people to participate in our democracy. What we want is a bill that ensures people are safe. There is a real threat happening out there right now in our democracy. There are some really huge concerns that are going on, and all we have from this government is game playing.

See this speech in context