Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise tonight as we give our 20-minute orations about a whole range of issues that apparently are the address-in-reply. The first thing I'd like to say, just being here, is something I brought up in my maiden speech back in the Senate—back in 2005. That was a long time ago. Why on earth don't we have electronic voting in this parliament? Why are we still in the Dark Ages? They're talking about changing the Constitution, but they won't change the most basic thing. When we walk into the chamber we should be able to vote electronically. You could do it on your phone, look up at the screen and go: 'Oh yeah, that's me, the member for New England, Barnaby Joyce. I'm with the ayes.' Or: 'I'm with the noes. That's what I'm supposed to be. Thank you very much; out I go.' If you make a mistake, you can say: 'Oh, that's not what I want. I'll clear it, change it and put it back where—'

In the United States they have electronic voting, and their democracy seems to work alright. In the United Kingdom they walk in through a gate, and that seems to work alright. But we go through this process. Why? I'm sitting here in the Federation Chamber, they shut it down, everybody goes down there and it's about eight minutes—it's absolutely absurd. The day will come when I leave here, and I hope that we've somehow managed to make our way into the 21st century. Having two people as whips—this is an absurdity. If someone has got a huge objection about their vote because they think it was wrong, I'm sure they could bring it up just like they can now.

Now, let's go back to more mundane matters. It was a great honour, obviously, from the people of New England, who I serve and who I love, for me to get the great opportunity to be returned in New England. We got a two per cent swing to us from the previous election. As a person who grew up there and lives there, and as my family is there and all my children were born there, it's about having a plan for what you want to do for the area. Our plan, unfortunately, does not really align with the Labor Party's, the Greens' or the teals' plans. I've brought that up in this chamber just recently when discussing the Labor Party candidate, Laura Hughes. The promises that the Labor Party made—and there were several locked in, regardless of who won the election—they reneged on. You can't trust them. You can't believe them. So when they tell you about such things as the Voice, and that there's nothing to worry about, borrow from what they've actually done. Be very, very worried. When they say, 'Trust us about the Voice,' say, 'Yeah, like we had to trust you about the $275 electricity cuts.' And now there's this perverse, ridiculous scenario where they say, 'We're going to promise you that, at some time in the future, power prices will still be rising, but they won't rise as much.' What on earth does that mean? That is something for Peter Pan, that speech!

I was down below and we had the member for McMahon. I can understand why he loves solar mirrors. I understand why this guy loves mirrors.

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