Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This country needs development in infrastructure and it needs leaders that embrace new technologies that will enable our economy to grow and prosper to benefit all Australians. Recently, the global media have reported on a study funded by the United States National Institute of Health, which confirmed that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and billionaire industrialists planned the formation of the American Tea Party movement more than a decade ago. This movement has been exposed for what it is, and I think that the opposition leader's real motivations will also continue to be exposed. It will become clear that the Liberal Party has been aggressively opposing vital legislative reforms, obfuscating on issues of national importance, causing undue alarm within the community and undermining the integrity of the democratic process because it is acting in its own interests and not those of the nation as a whole. The opposition is in the pockets of wealthy climate change denialists, self-interested mining executives and litigation-prone tobacco companies who refuse to play by the rules.

The opposition leader is not a man of the people concerned about protecting jobs and development any more than the Tea Party is a genuine grassroots movement. His party is not interested in governing for all Australians. It is imperative that Australians consider the real motivations for the direction in which the opposition leader has taken the Liberal Party. So consider his initial opposition to the tobacco plain-packaging reforms encapsulated in the following comment: 'I don't like smoking any more than the next person, but overwhelmingly these are some of the least privileged, least well off, people in our community.' Then consider that he made his remark at a time when 97 per cent of British American Tobacco's political donations worldwide went to the Liberal and National parties. If elected, Mr Abbott will govern for big tobacco, not for all Australians. Then consider his opposition to the minerals resource rent tax on the basis that he would not support another 'great big new tax' that threatened jobs. Consider that the mining tax saw an extraordinary increase in donations to the coalition that has opened up a huge funding resource. He would, as we know, if he were ever to assume the government benches, be governing for mining royalty, not for all Australians.

Governments should be held to account for decisions made, policies pursued and legislation passed—our democratic process depends on it. But the process begins to crack and fail when an opposition like the Liberal Party oppose every measure so as to stall progress, halt momentum and cynically exploit simple mantras like 'great big new tax' without putting forward any new ideas for how to ensure Australia's future prosperity and safety. I believe this country deserves better. I believe this country deserves better than an opposition that pursues radical Tea Party style political tactics at the expense of informed debate. I believe this country deserves better than an opposition that ignores expert opinion and evidence-based decision making on policy in favour of simplistic slogans, fearmongering and shrill opposition to any reform on the basis of shallow, predetermined political calculus. I believe this country deserves better than an opposition leader who is motivated by attaining power rather than examining the merits of government's reforms.

The opposition is not acting in the best interests of Australia; it has given in to elements of the party who refuse to believe that Labor should ever lead this country. This is because the Liberal Party has a born-to-rule mentality. When this state of mind is unleashed so recklessly by an opposition leader like the one we currently have, it can be incredibly dangerous. The opposition leader is not an 'ordinary bloke', he is not concerned about the opinions of those he refers to as battlers and he is not humbly reflecting the will of the Australian electorate. He is the orchestrator of an incredibly destructive political strategy—