Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The argument put forward by Labor would hold water if I could go through this pile of papers on my table and find the Labor amendment that talks about the protection of independent petrol station owners. But I have been through it, and it is not there. Maybe they do not feel that it is important. We have heard their protestations about why this amendment is not good enough. But their amendment is not there. They do not believe in this. It is a convenient argument to say, ‘Your one’s not right.’ But if my one is not right, your one does not exist. Yours is just a blank sheet of paper: tabula rasa.

Labor do not believe in the protection of independents and are all over the shop. The next week you will be back talking about how you think there should be controls on the cross-media laws. You are Arthur one day and Martha the next. Make up your mind. What do you want? If you believe that we should be protecting against the overcentralisation of the media market, what has happened to you today? Do you realise how foolish you look? Yes, you are on broadcast and the public are hearing this. It is good that they are hearing this. It is good that the Australian people are hearing what a completely mixed-up, all-over-the-shop ship you are. In the next couple of days, every time we hear you talk about protection to stop the overcentralisation of the media market, we will just laugh at you because you are not for real.

You have had your chain pulled by the right people in town and you have listened to them. You are going to look a complete and utter fiasco: insincere, no-one can take you for real. You have gone through with this and you do not realise the bind you have got yourselves into. You have got yourselves into a hole that you cannot dig yourselves out of. I disagree with it. At least these people are constant: they believe in no regulation anywhere or any time. But you: you are here somewhere today and somewhere else tomorrow.

Maybe somewhere, coming up, will be the Labor Party amendment to protect the independents. Maybe it is still on the way. Maybe if we hang around here for a little while longer it will turn up. I would love to be a fly on the wall at your next party meeting. It is just going to be fur and feathers everywhere, because you have made such an absolute fiasco of this one. The Labor Party has no motion on the books to protect the independents, but they are going to charge in here next week and start talking about the protection of the media market.

The whole of Australia will read about this tomorrow. Even your arguments do not hold water. When you say, ‘What is an independent?’ it is there: the independents are the ones who are not the major oil companies and not the major retailers. It will work in a similar fashion, I imagine, to the way it works at the moment in the sites act and the franchise act. It is a case which I think we have the competence to deal with. I really do think that. I think we are smart enough to do it. If we can build this building I reckon we can manage this. I know I am going out on a big limb, but if there is something slightly wrong with it I think we have the capacity to bring it back and amend it. I really do.

The Labor Party are of the view that you legislate from now until eternity. Everything that happens now will happen for eternity. That is an interesting proposition to have. It would suggest that if they ever win government they will not change anything: if they are ever given the power they will never change anything. Maybe they think they are not capable of changing anything; maybe they think they have not got the acumen to change anything; or maybe they think they cannot go through a piece of legislation and suggest better changes. It will be a very interesting time.

On the record is the fact that the Labor Party are going to vote against this amendment. They will be voting for the bill. They will be voting for the major oil companies who pull their chain. They will say that it brings about a socialist type of economy, or some other palaver that they have just dreamt up because they have not had time to have a good think about it. Next week they will all be back in here and trotting out, one after the other, talk about the evils of cross-media ownership laws. Here they come. It is going to be like a circus. It is going to be the funniest show in town. That argument and your arguments today—get ready for them—are all going to be quoted back to you.