Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I love these debates, propagated by Labor senators from Queensland, when the Labor Party is in power in Queensland—or might be next week—only because of the One Nation preferencing of Labor Party candidates. Labor, if they win in Queensland, will be there only because they received One Nation preferences in Queensland.

This motion was moved by Senator Watt who, as we all know, was ingloriously thrown out of the Queensland parliament in the election before last. He was in one of the safest Labor seats in Brisbane, the seat of Everton, yet Senator Watt managed to lose that to Mr Tim Mander, who is the current sitting member and who in this last election did incredibly well in the electorate of Everton. I suspect that's because voters thought if they didn't support Mr Mander they might get Senator Watt back as a Labor candidate in the future. It was certainly the high point of the LNP vote in Queensland.

I'm sorry to disappoint Labor senators, but there is only one party in Queensland. There's no National Party and there's no Liberal Party; there's a Liberal National Party of Queensland. Every single one of us in this federal parliament from Queensland on the right side of politics is endorsed as a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. That will continue.

The result in Queensland was an appalling result for Labor. If it hadn't been for One Nation, Labor would have lost the election. In the Central Queensland area is the electorate of Rockhampton, as opposed to Rockhampton South, which was once held by Rex Pilbeam, a Liberal member and former mayor, I might say. I cannot recall when the electorate of Rockhampton has not been held by the Labor Party. Can I tell you, Madam Deputy President, in the next parliament it will be held by someone who is not from the Labor Party and is also, curiously, the current mayor of Rockhampton.

The One Nation vote, particularly in the north, has caused real difficulties with two excellent members of the LNP. Dale Last is my member in the seat of Burdekin, which encompasses Collinsville, where the coal-fired power station would have gone. Regrettably, the only reason that Mr Dale Last, the LNP candidate, is struggling in that seat is because the One Nation candidate, who was previously an LNP member for Thuringowa in Townsville, preferenced 'Mad' Mike Brunker—'Moscow Mike', they used to call him—in the electorate of Burdekin, the seat where the coal-fired power station was going to go. I cannot understand that. Andrew Cripps is struggling in Hinchinbrook, though he is an excellent minister and an excellent member. Why? Because One Nation preferenced the Labor Party or Mr Katter or both in that particular seat. The Labor Party candidate for Townsville, who nobody has ever heard of—he's more than a candidate; he's the sitting member, but nobody has heard of him—won, I regret to say, on LNP preferences. That puts the lie to the rubbish we've heard from the Labor Party in this debate.

The Turnbull government has spent and committed a lot of money and a lot of effort to Queensland. The northern Australia policy, which is the hallmark of the Turnbull-Abbott government, commits over $6 billion of investment there. We've committed to dams and we've committed to roads. The commitment made by the Turnbull government to Queensland is enormous. That sort of commitment to Queensland will pay results in the future. As for the moment— (Time expired)