Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too would like to contribute to the debate on this motion. What we have seen here from the opposition today is more muckraking, more negativity, more trawling over ancient history, more sleaze and more personal vilification—all of those things that they specialise in, things that they have learnt from the opposition leader, Mr Tony Abbott. We notice that he has withdrawn from that sort of attack line at the moment, because he knows that it does not wash with the Australian public and he knows that the Australian public does not like it. So, instead, he sent out his attack dogs—the masters in sleaze, the gutter dwellers: Senator Brandis and Senator Fierravanti-Wells, and I know we are going to hear Senator Ronaldson making loud pronouncements, for sure, following me. We saw the same thing happen in question time. You would have thought that the opposition might use this general business time to debate something that is really important.

I know, for example, that if I were in my home state of South Australia today, my constituents would probably be asking me questions about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. That is the news story of the day. That is what is really important to people in my state—how the government has acted, after a long period of time and a long period of consultation, to introduce a plan that is genuinely going to support South Australia, that is going to restore our river to health and support our river communities. That is what is really important in South Australia. But, instead, we have got the opposition gutter dwellers here reading out excerpts from their favourite newspaper, the Australian,and reading out transcripts from the ICAC inquiry that is currently happening in New South Wales. I would not want the public to think that the opposition are actually doing any of their own research. They just recite what is already in the public sphere. Do not think they are smart or clever or anything like that; they just pick up on what is already being talked about out there.

It continues the opposition's long campaign of denigration of our Prime Minister. They have been doing that for a long period of time. I think they will wake up fairly soon to the fact that the Australian public do not like that either. Perhaps that is why they are turning their attention now to Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr, one of Australia's most important public figures, who is engaged in some of the most important debates not just in this country but in the world. But what do they do? They come in here and trawl through the history of the New South Wales Labor Party and the New South Wales government in the 1990s. My goodness me!

This motion is about the relationship between the Labor Party and the trade union movement, and I am more than happy to talk about that relationship and about the culture of the Labor Party. The relationship between the Labor Party and the trade union movement has delivered great benefits for working people in Australia—for all Australians and their families—and that relationship continues to deliver benefits. I am going to trawl over a bit of ancient history myself in my contribution today by talking about what that relationship has delivered for Australians, because it is always worth reminding ourselves how important it is.

The Labor Party was formed as the legislative arm of the labour movement. It was formed so that issues of importance to working Australians could be prosecuted in the parliament.