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

Through you, Deputy President: senators for Victoria, like Senator Ciccone and others, would be highly embarrassed by the line of attack from the Labor Party today, where, in comparing and contrasting their woeful record of spending, they decided to go after the Urban Congestion Fund and the fact that Melbourne—which was growing very rapidly up until COVID—had significant investment from the Commonwealth government in helping people to get to and from work more quickly and more safely. The modern Labor Party decide that that is their line of attack, or that support for small business is their line of attack, or that environmental remediation on the Great Barrier Reef is their line of attack, and they invite us to compare and contrast.

We do compare and contrast today, because of the critique of the Labor Party that is coming from the member for Hunter. The member for Hunter has very much belled the cat on what the modern Labor Party stands for. I would put this to senators today: if there is no room on the Labor Party front bench for people like the member for Hunter, Mr Fitzgibbon, that is a message to millions of Australians that there is no room in the modern Labor Party for them—for working people in our regions, for people in the Hunter, for people in Central and North Queensland, for people in Northern Tasmania or for people in regional Victoria. These are the people to whom the Labor Party, by forcing the member for Hunter out of his frontbench position today, have sent a message. They have sent a message saying: 'You're not welcome. We no longer stand for you.' That is what Mr Fitzgibbon is effectively saying today.

The Leader of the Opposition—'Each-Way Albo', as he's known, but we'll refer to him as the Leader of the Opposition in here—is constantly changing tack. He is pro-gas when he's in the Hunter and pro-coal when he's in Central Queensland, but anti those things when he goes back to Grayndler or central Melbourne. He is trying to be all things to all people. This week we saw the embarrassing thing where he wanted the Prime Minister to call President Trump, and then he said, 'No, no, I didn't say he should call him.' They are embarrassed over that side. They are embarrassed at what the opposition leader is doing, but they are more embarrassed, and the member for Hunter is more embarrassed, at what the modern Labor Party stands for. If people like Mr Fitzgibbon aren't welcome in the modern Labor Party on the front bench, then millions of Australians aren't welcome in the Labor Party either.