Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Democracy, the bedrock of this great country, relies on the informed choices of an engaged citizenry. Recently we have witnessed a troubling trend—an erosion of truth, a distortion of reality and an undermining of our institutions. Political rhetoric, once a tool for informed debate, is increasingly deployed as a weapon of deception. False narratives, misleading claims and divisive propaganda threaten the core principles that bind us together. Both by design and often inadvertently they undermine the fabric of a cohesive society. These practices are undertaken by those whose political fortunes feed on the misery of others and whose electoral successes rely not on the merits of their policies and vision for our country's future but on an electorate fearful of the latest fabricated evil and demonised other.

These practices are the daily bread of far-right groups and fringe parties but are now increasingly being utilised by the Liberal and National coalition. As soon as parliament returned for 2024, the opposition once again attacked the independence of the courts. They attacked the independence of not just any court but the High Court, the pinnacle of the judicial arm of government. They moreover persist in undermining national security by spreading misinformation in relation to the government's border security policies. Having given up on prosecuting the case for not providing income tax relief to working Australians during a period of increased pressure on household budgets, the opposition returned to what they, encouraged by their allies in the right-wing commentariat, believe to be their strength: the politics of fear. They don't mind if the truth gets in the way.

Politics is a contact sport. I get that and I'm willing to take as good as I give. However, when the opposition leader, in the pursuit of fuelling a political brawl and to give his cheerleaders and surrogates talking points, went on to what can only be described as an attack on the independence of the High Court, I am compelled to call it out. An attack on a fundamental pillar of the Westminster system, the separation of powers, is an uncomfortable warning sign that the fundamentals of our democracy are being eroded. For him to suggest that our government is somehow derelict in its duty by following the rulings made by an Australian court is absurd. It is a dangerous erosion of trust in the institution of the court. We have seen these attacks on the court further weaponised by Advance Australia in the Dunkley by-election. The Leader of the Opposition knowingly lit that fuse. It serves their immediate interests, and that is all they care about. Again, politics and campaigning can often be robust, but the language disseminated by Advance Australia, fuelled by the coalition, is beyond the pale.

There's more. At the end of the sitting week, I flew home to my electorate of Hasluck only to awaken Friday morning to another bout of divisive and inciteful rhetoric from the opposition leader, this time on the arrival of a boat on the remote north-west coastline of Western Australia. The opposition leader claimed that Labor had taken $600 million out of border protection. Wrong. That claim is at best an accounting trick. In Senate estimates, the head of the Australian Border Force, Michael Outram, stated that Border Force funding is currently the highest it's been since its establishment in 2015.

The member for Dickson also claimed that there had been a reduction in the amount of surveillance flights. Wrong. The reduction in surveillance flights is attributed to operational difficulties and underresourced air crews, not a policy or planned reduction. Senior officials of the Australian Border Force not only immediately corrected the record in relation to funding but reminded politicians that any suggestion that Operation Sovereign Borders's policies or practices had changed is incorrect, and those types of comments could be exploited by people smugglers looking to lure their next victims. From the fact that the record was corrected so swiftly by such senior officials, one can only deduce the possible severity of the consequences of such irresponsible rhetoric espoused by the Leader of the Opposition.

The danger is not only the spread of falsehoods in the present but the erosion of trust in the long term. When citizens can no longer rely on the information presented to them and when truth becomes elusive, the very essence of our democracy is at risk, unity falters and our shared values are overshadowed by the fog of misinformation. I would like to quote some advice from the Turkish journalist and author Ece Temelkuran. To Western societies, which tend to think their foundations are stronger than Turkiye's and that they are better able to resist right-wing populism, she warns:

The final takeover does not happen with one spectacular Reichstag conflagration, but is instead an excruciating, years-long process of many scattered, seemingly insignificant little fires that smolder without flames.

House adjourned at 20:00

See this speech in context