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

This is not a subject I particularly want to raise, but Senator Cameron keeps on and on about my position in this parliament. Well, Senator Cameron—as with everything else—gets it completely wrong. I am on the ticket for the next election. He is not. He didn't even have the guts to face preselection with the Labor Party in New South Wales, because the union had tapped him on the shoulder and said: 'Sorry, mate, you're so useless, you're so ineffective, you get the boot. Off you go to Tasmania. We don't even want you back in New South Wales.' That's the sort of person who makes these sorts of accusations against me.

Senator Cameron interjecting—

Senator Cameron miscategorises the preselection panel of the Liberal National Party in Queensland. I wasn't thrown aside by the Liberal National Party. Of the 14,000-odd members of the Liberal National Party, there was a preselection panel of 253—200 of whom came from Brisbane, I might say—and they didn't select me in that No. 1 position.