Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

and that is the very definition of the modern Liberal Party. They are the useless box of Australian politics. They have become the party that are Liberals in name only. They are the lino party. Now, lino was a great floor covering in the 1950s. That is the modern Liberal Party today—a party stuck in the past. A party mired in negativity. No wonder former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull spends so much time criticising them. And those on that side grumble about expelling Malcolm Turnbull from the Liberal Party. They say Malcolm Turnbull isn't a real Liberal. What they don't realise is that they are the ones who have ceased being true liberals. All political parties lose their way from time to time. Mine was once headed by Billy Hughes and once headed by Mark Latham! But when you're in a hole, the least you can do is stop digging. The 'Trumpification' of Robert Menzies's former party is truly sad. They think that their way back to the centre is by listening to the Sky After Dark crowd. I know some of those on my side of the House will be telling me that I shouldn't be giving helpful advice to our political opponents. I shouldn't be reminding them that the way to win elections is from the centre of Australian politics.

But I'm not worried by that. This is a party which has lost federal seats once held by Julie Bishop, Peter Costello, Joe Hockey, Josh Frydenberg, Malcolm Turnbull and Robert Menzies, and still comes in here rejecting the need for climate action, voting against their very own safeguard mechanism. This is a party who, in Victoria, has just seen its leader rolled in his attempt to expel one of their MPs, who attended an anti-trans rally that included black-shirted members of the far right performing Nazi salutes on the steps of the Victorian parliament. In being rolled, the Victorian Liberal leader was being lobbied by members of the federal Liberal Party, urging him to keep that member in the party.

The MPI is apparently about affordable housing, although the shadow Treasurer didn't seem to display much concern for the issue in his remarks earlier. Their concern over housing is as genuine as a fox crying tears for the wellbeing of the chickens. This is the party that cut social housing programs. This is a party that allowed the home ownership rate to fall to its lowest level in half a century. The coalition purport to be caring about inflation—a concern that's as genuine as a $3 note, because the single quarter of highest inflation this century was March 2022, when the coalition were in office. Interest rate rises began under the coalition and, indeed, the opposition leader said at the time:

… nobody wants to see interest rates go up, but it's a reality of a world where there's inflation.

Those opposite claim that they're the party of lower taxes. The Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments were the second-highest taxing governments since federation, behind only the Howard government. They came into office in 2013 promising that they would deliver a budget surplus each and every year. By the time their last Intergenerational report came down, it was projecting deficits all the way out until 2060. They're the party that say they are the safe custodians of taxpayer monies, and yet they gave $20 billion of JobKeeper to firms with rising revenue. We supported measures that saved jobs, but giving JobKeeper to Harvey Norman, AP Eagers and offshore billionaires did not save a single job.

This weekend, the voters of Aston will cast their ballots. We know of course that no government has taken a seat from the opposition in a by-election since 1920. We know the seat of Aston has been held by the Liberal Party since 1990. But I have a simple message for the voters of Aston: the Liberal Party has abandoned you. It's time to abandon the Liberal Party.

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