Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, there's Len Harris. In fact, I think he's one of the only ones who didn't get thrown out, resign or get kicked out, expelled. Let's forget for a moment the fact that, over One Nation's entire history, 21 of the 30 One Nation MPs or senators have been thrown out for one reason or another and look at things more recently. Let's just think about what's happened since the double dissolution in 2016. I remember very well, because I was there for the induction of new senators, the parade surrounding Senator Hanson and her three new senators: Senator Burston, who's still with us; Senator Culleton, gone; and Senator Roberts, gone. If you look at that photograph of the One Nation senators who appeared down here, the only one still standing as a One Nation senator is Senator Hanson herself. Through her own actions, through letting down her own party members, she has managed to lose three of the four senators she arrived with. Not only that but she's actually managed to lose a fourth in Senator Anning. So this is a person who arrived in Canberra with three senators and has already managed to lose more than that—a total of four.

Obviously I have been very vocal over the last two years about the number of times Senator Hanson and One Nation have sold out their constituency of battlers right around Australia but particularly in my own home state of Queensland. They have sold out battlers on penalty rates by voting with the government to support cuts to penalty rates. They have sold out battlers on everything from childcare payments for low-income families to pensions. At one point they were going to be cutting bereavement allowances for grieving widows, until I and other Labor senators called them out on their behaviour. They have also continued to support this government in its cuts to public health, to hospitals, to schools, to training, to apprenticeships—every kind of government service that is provided to support the battlers Senator Hanson and her colleagues say they stand up for but come down here and vote against. I have lost count of the number of times Senator Hanson and her One Nation colleagues have sold out the battlers they say they care about.

It's no surprise that they keep doing this. Look at their voting record: all up, over the last couple of years, they have voted with this government, the Turnbull government—a Liberal government that is into supporting the top end of town—90 per cent of the time. If you just look at this year, the calendar year of 2018, One Nation and their senators have voted with this government 100 per cent of the time. Every single time there has been a bill before this parliament, where there's had to be a division and where Labor has stood against some action of the government—cutting health care, cutting education funding, cutting pensions, cutting apprenticeships—every single time Labor has voted against that legislation and tried to stop One Nation and the government from hurting battlers, what have One Nation done? They've toddled over and sat down with their friends in the Liberal Party. We know that's where they really line up. They don't actually care about battlers. They spend all their time out in regional Queensland saying that they care about battlers and that they're going to 'take it up to them in Canberra', but what do they do? They come down here, they get their riding instructions from Malcolm Turnbull and his Liberal Party and they continually sell out battlers.

I've noticed that Senator Hanson has had a lot to say about Senator Burston, her former colleague—one of her most loyal supporters over 20 years. She has actually managed to alienate someone who has been one of her closest confidantes for 20 years. I noticed that when Senator Burston raised some objections about the way the party was being run, Senator Hanson turned on him rapidly and said that she felt incredibly let down by Senator Burston. The only person—