Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy President. But I understand why they want to interject: because they don't like hearing the truth of these failed attacks from Mr Dreyfus and the Labor Party and the politics of smear. What is this about? This is about the fact that the Labor Party can't live with the fact that they lost the election, and Mr Dreyfus in particular can't live with the fact that he lost the election. So he thinks he can just fire off letters to the police asking for investigations. In the past he has referred other ministers, and where has that led? Absolutely nowhere.

Minister Cormann made the point rightly in question time today: what if this were the new standard to be adopted by this serial vexatious complainant, the frustrated, angry Mr Dreyfus, who can't cope with his position in life, is considering his position in this parliament, wants to go off and be a QC again and can't cope with the fact that he is not the Attorney-General right now? I've got news for Mr Dreyfus and the Labor Party; the way to get there is not through the politics of smear. It is not by bringing good people down. It is not by firing off letters to the police. It is by going and convincing the Australian community that the plan you have for them is a plan in the national interest—that you have the better plan. But you took a plan for $387 billion of taxes, and the absolute politics of envy, fear and smear is now being brought into our federal parliament to replace policies of substance.

So we're not going to be lectured to by the Labor Party, and we're certainly not going to adopt this standard that the Labor Party never adopted. We're not going to adopt a standard that, when you get complaints from this serial vexatious litigant, the frustrated Mr Dreyfus, we would have to stand ministers down. It is an absurd claim from the Labor Party, and they would be laughed out of court. Mr Dreyfus would be laughed out of court, and he should be laughed— (Time expired)