Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's important to put the Leader of the Government in the Senate's comments, which I do support, in context. The context is that of course it is poison for any political party to be not focused on the main game, which is to win votes and win seats, and to flirt with other minor parties. I would point out that there were at the Queensland election no deals done between the Liberal-National Party and One Nation. Senator Watt—through you, Mr President—if there had been a deal done, it would probably have been the worst deal in history because One Nation preferences have helped to elect something like 10 or 11 Labor members to the Queensland parliament. So how could we have done a deal with One Nation when that was the outcome and the result? In fact, One Nation votes and One Nation preferences have delivered government to the Labor Party in Queensland. Good luck to them.

The only party at the Queensland election—the absolutely only major party—that did a deal and flirted with minor parties was the good old Australian Labor Party. They do it every time. They did a deal with the Greens, because they got preferences from the Greens in every seat. There had to have been a deal—and guess what? The Labor Party gave the Greens preferences in every seat. How did they come to this conclusion? Did they do a deal with them? They won't tell us. They never reveal the backroom discussions, backroom deals, and the regional jobs that they are willing to sacrifice to try to keep their jobs in inner-city electorates. They do it at every election; they do it every time. If I get a supplementary I can expand a bit further about the timing of some of these deals and arrangements that may have led to some suspicions that perhaps a deal was done between the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Greens.