Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I say, on the same matter, that Senator Fisher might want to move away from themes such as here comes the sun or the Hokey Pokey or the time warp and seriously address the matters that have been before us in question time. However, I must say that, given the opportunity to review several questions asked by the opposition, we do need to seriously address what is an obvious scaremongering campaign.

Let us look at the nature of those questions today. We had them on Christmas Island escapees, political extremism and the impact of the carbon tax. Unfortunately, in this taking-note session we did not even have Senator Fisher understanding the question that had been asked by her colleague Senator Payne. Senator Payne did not, as Senator Fisher indicated, ask the question in relation to the impact of the carbon tax on people in public housing or social housing. Her question was about how many people in housing generally would be shifted into social housing. So please, Senator Fisher, before you put on a performance like that at least understand the question that your colleagues have actually asked. But I thank you at least for the opportunity to reflect on the quality of those questions.

Mr Deputy President, I was somewhat surprised by the nature of your question. I would ask you to reflect on how you question the government when you refer to people such as prison officers doing the government’s ‘dirty work’. It is no wonder that we characterise the nature of these questions as a scare campaign. When the government brings additional resources to Christmas Island to deal with the problems and the trauma—and we all know of the trauma suffered by some of those people who are on Christmas Island—it does not assist in any policy sense or in any reasonable government sense or in any reasonable opposition sense to have that characterised as doing the government’s ‘dirty work’. I would expect better from any senator in this place.

Then we moved on to the discussion about political extremism. The answer from the government here highlighted that there is political extremism across the full political spectrum and that we have seen much of that as well. I agree with Senator Evans that here in Australia fortunately we have been able to proceed politically with a level of political moderatism. If we want to promote extremism, then the opposition can attempt scare campaigns such as this and continue to try to. But I have come across in recent times several examples of where people among the general public have been led to completely misunderstand the nature of a minority government. The reason that they completely misunderstand the nature of a minority government is the way in which this opposition characterises what one is. We in this place all know what minority government is, but there is no excuse at all for the way in which some members of the opposition, particularly those that I would class as having a more extreme perspective, seek to characterise the nature of the arrangements in this parliament. We had an election result and the government has gone on to move forward and deal with the consequences of that election result. We have an opposition though who seek to take advantage of those consequences by scaremongering and using every opportunity they have to misrepresent the circumstances both in this parliament and in the policy perspectives that we are dealing with.

Let me reinforce the messages from the ministers in today’s question time in response to some of those issues. As I said, Christmas Island was also one of the themes in today’s question time. Border security has not and will not be compromised. That is very clear. This government will avoid political extremism. We will avoid political extremism on both sides of the political spectrum, and I wish the opposition would take the same approach.

Finally, this government will take responsible action on climate change. Despite a scaremongering campaign from those opposite, we will take responsible action, we will consult broadly in relation to the mechanisms we use and any scare campaign that suggests otherwise because there are not answers right now—because we will have comprehensive consultation and engagement—is simply that, scaremongering by the opposition, who should know better.