Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Speaking to cafe owners and local shop owners and getting them to sign a petition highlighting the preference deal that has now been done between the LNP and One Nation, there was just horror from these amazing multicultural communities in Sydney that the LNP up in Queensland can act so differently to how the Liberal Party has acted previously. The former member for Bennelong John Howard, the former Prime Minister—again, not someone I necessarily agree with on many points—at least had the strength to rule out preference deals with One Nation. Malcolm Turnbull, the so-called giant of the Liberal Party, hasn't even been prepared to pick up the phone and order the Queensland branch to not do deals with One Nation—something John Howard, as Prime Minister, was prepared to do. We will expose the hypocrisy of what the Liberal Party in Sydney and in our multicultural centres say about multiculturalism, say about ethnic communities and say about our migrant communities, and we will expose the reality of the decisions and the deals they make in places like Queensland.

Today, we saw how close the relationship between One Nation and the Liberal Party has become. We see it time and time again. We see it when Senator Hanson gets dragged into Senate estimates to run protection for Minister Cash. We see it in the types of questions, and how the questions are asked, between Senator Canavan and Senator Hanson and we see it very, very clearly in the preference deal that sees 49 seats. Senator Chisholm touched on this point earlier, but these things don't just happen by chance and they have consequences. The consequence is going to be a huge One Nation presence in the Queensland parliament, which is bad for democracy, bad for multiculturalism and bad for the vision of Australia that many of us have.

Question agreed to.