Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is a social democratic party, a party of practical reformers, as shown by every Labor Prime Minister from Fisher to Gillard. In fact, it was Labor that carried out more successful free market reforms over the past 30 years than any coalition government. It was the ALP that floated the dollar, the ALP that scrapped the restrictive two-airlines policy of the Menzies years, the ALP that liberalised the labour market through enterprise bargaining. It was the ALP that ended the state's role in retail banking, aviation and other areas. Indeed, if I could quote someone expert on the nature of socialism—and this is my quote from another person educated in European universities—Vladimir Lenin was so disgusted by the moderate nature of the ALP that he complained in 1913 that the Australian Labor Party 'does not even call itself a socialist party'. 'Actually,' he went on to say, writing in Pravda, 'it is a liberal-bourgeois party, while the so-called Liberals in Australia are really Conservatives.' I hate to break it to the chamber, but, sadly, the ALP is not the vanguard of the revolution.

I have to say there are people in the ALP who would ensure that we have responsible, moderate policy positions. I've outlined some of those above. Meanwhile, it is the Turnbull government which wants to relaunch one of the largest pieces of state enterprise in Australian history—the Snowy Mountains scheme, a scheme that was opposed then by the then opposition leader, Robert Menzies. I do love quoting Menzies to the government.

While Senator Cormann is denouncing Labor as alleged socialists, his PM is embarking on a great piece of socialist construction. We've also seen Mr Tony Abbott advocating that the state should build and operate coal-fired power stations—a Stalinist idea straight out of the 1930s. What will they do next? Introduce a five-year plan? Collectivise agriculture?

Senator Cormann has a lot of hide for lecturing Labor for allegedly embracing extreme political ideologies. Might I suggest he actually have a look at his own Western Australian branch. This is a party that has sent such ideologues and demagogues as Wilson Tuckey, Ross Lightfoot, Dennis Jensen and Noel Crichton-Browne to this parliament. This is the party which just last month voted that WA should economically secede from the rest of Australia. The WA branch of the Liberal Party has been soft on bigots, racists and divisive people for decades. This is also the party that virtually bankrupted the Western Australian economy, a state which earns $4 billion a year in mining royalties. Not even Chavez could do what the Western Australia Liberal Party did. But there is a serious side to that. You can't go around— (Time expired)