Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I rise to speak on the electoral legislation amendment bills. Well, what do you know! Here we go! You've just been chipping away, tryi ng to get rid of these micro parties for year s , haven't you? You 'd think you would have learnt your lesson back with preference deals and how you went into a double- D. That actually came back to bite you fair on the backside, let's be honest.

But, with n o more satisfaction from chipping away and trying to get rid of micros and normal people in the parliament , you're now coming in with the jackhammer. Here comes the jackhammer. How about that ! Heavy - handed. Here come the major parties trying to take out the little bloke. Here come the heavies. Can't stand competition. I can tell you, you people, if you had any idea just how diff icult it was out there as an I ndependent in the first place , and then making them get 1,500 signatures—it just goes to show how disconnected you really are from politics. I can tell you that right now.

What you are doing this morning is absolutely disgusting —a nd then rushing this through ! What, is there an election coming up? Did I miss something? Because I tell you what, it sure as hell does not help normal Australians and microparties out there to get into parliament. Every which way we turn, you want to put that brickwork up against us. Well, Australians are waking up to it ; I can tell you that right now. Whatever happened to elections being about voters choosing their politicians? Instead, no, this bill flips that around. This bill makes elections about politicians choosing their politicians. This bill gives every existing party an incredible amount of power and makes it harder for any other party to challenge them.

The justification for this bill is that some parties are using similar names to larger parties, and that that is confusing voters. Really? You think we're all that stupid ? How demeaning! My G od, what is wrong with you people? Who says that? The Australian Electoral Commission, which already checks new parties to make sure they're not designed to confuse voters, doesn't think any registered party is confusing voters. They say voters aren't stupid. The Liberals say that voters obviously are. Labor says that voters are. They say you can't tell the difference between the Liberal Party of Australia and the Liberal Democrats. Do you know what? You don't own the word 'liberal' just because it's in your name. You don't own that. You don't have the rights to it. Liberalism is a political philosophy. It describes what you stand for. Other people are allowed to stand for the same thing. You don't own this.