Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Nick Xenophon Team love doing deals with the Liberal Party. The Nick Xenophon Team did a deal to cut funding to South Australian schools by $210 million. The Nick Xenophon Team did a deal with the Liberals, a sweetheart deal with the Liberals on media regulation. The Xenophon team did a deal with the Liberals on the ABCC and the Road Safety Tribunal.

The Nick Xenophon Team are a bunch of ex-Liberals doing deals with the current Liberals. Nick Xenophon is an ex-Liberal; Senator Stirling Griff is an ex-Liberal; the member for Mayo is an ex-Liberal. That is why we had the member for Mayo telling the House last week about the cashless welfare card. I reiterate that the Nick Xenophon Team cannot support this bill in its current form until it can be conclusively determined with solid evidence that the Cashless Debit Card is actually effective. That's what the member for Mayo said last week.

Then last night in the Senate they voted four times to pass the cashless welfare card in a dirty deal with the government. Whatever they say—no matter how tough they talk, despite all the spin and populism, all the talk about being in the centre of politics—the Nick Xenophon Team are a party of ex-Liberals who are still conservative at heart. That's why a vote for the Nick Xenophon Team and a vote for Nick Xenophon is a vote for the Liberals.