Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy President. Mr Shorten goes to Western Australia and says, 'We'll do you a better deal.' Then he goes to Tasmania and says: 'We'll do you a better deal. We'll take it from the others.' He can't be believed on anything. It's just like what he's facing now with these by-elections coming up. Mr Shorten's desperate not to see by-elections on the same day in Batman and in Queensland, because he wants to go to the inner city of Melbourne and say: 'Look, we're against Adani, and we're not really going to turn back the boats. We're going to be soft on the borders.' And he wants to go to regional Queensland and say, 'Of course we're tough on borders, and we support jobs in regional Queensland.' The guy is a chameleon. He is a phoney, an absolute phoney, and it goes to his character—one message for one state, one part of Australia, and a completely different message for another part of Australia.

When it comes to character, we saw the character of Labor and the Greens on display today in the Senate, in their reprehensible attack on Senator Jim Molan, a fine Australian, someone who has served this nation for decades and has made a much greater contribution than any of the people who launched grubby attacks on him today in the chamber, such as Senator Di Natale and Senator Cameron.

I'm very happy to compare the character of Senator Cameron with that of Senator Molan, because Senator Molan will win hands-down. Other speakers have pointed out the kinds of people that Senator Cameron has supported in the past. He has backed people like Luke Collier, like Ian Macdonald, who got jailed for 10 years because of corruption. These are kinds of people Senator Cameron has supported in his political career. These are the kinds of people he was close to, and yet he has the hide to come into this place and launch a despicable and disgusting attack on a great Australian who has done so much more for this nation than Senator Cameron could have ever dreamed of. Senator Cameron joined with his Greens parliamentary colleagues in launching this disgraceful attack.

Senator Molan comes here after finishing 40 years of service to this nation. I will just comment, for military personnel serving in Australia, on the way that Senator Cameron, on behalf of the Australian Labor Party, described the 40 years of service of Senator Molan with such disdain, saying that he never really sacrificed anything. What would you know, Senator Cameron, about his military service? What have you ever done for this country? When Senator Molan, in his former capacity, was helping to stop 1,200 people drowning at sea, people like Senator Cameron and Senator Di Natale were maintaining support for a policy which would have seen those people drown. Who are the better characters? Not Senator Di Natale and the Greens. Not Senator Cameron.

This was a low point today. It was a low point from the Greens. We thought we had reached absolute rock bottom, and Senator Cameron came back into this place after question time and continued that disgraceful attack. He continued the disgraceful attack on a fine man, Senator Molan. He continued the disgraceful attack with the way he described his military service. I say to you, Senator Cameron, and I say it to Senator Di Natale: I would put Senator Molan up against you guys any day of the week. You should be ashamed of yourselves for this gutless attack. (Time expired)