James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Flares are a particular individual taste, Senator Urquhart, and I don't think they'd fit my rather masculine body particularly well. You'll be interested in this, Senator Urquhart. I had some spare time today. On the Australian Labor Party website—alp.org.au, if you want to go there because you've got no life—under its policy proposals page, there is a section titled Better wages for Australian workers. I kid you not. I think this is one of those comedy websites. It states: 'Labor governments are good for wages'. This would have to be one of those fake Betoota Advocate misinformation websites. This is the Labor Party saying that they're good for wages. Well, guess what? They're good for their wages, and they're good for the wages of an extra 50 politicians that they want to bring into the other chamber, which means an extra 20 politicians into this page. That's 70 extra politicians and their wages.

We're in a cost-of-living crisis in Australia. The Labor Party website says that the Labor Party are good for wages, and the Labor Party want to bring more highly paid politicians to Canberra. Canberra doesn't need more politicians. It needs better politicians, particularly those sitting around the cabinet table. Let's face it: their best days are well behind them. We need good people who understand business and understand real life sitting around that cabinet table, but we also need common sense. We don't need more politicians; we need more common sense in Canberra. You're not going to get that, because the Labor Party have hit upon a cunning plan to ensure their real action by expanding the House of Reps and getting more senators into this place.

Senator Scarr and I speak on behalf of the LNP contingent in Queensland. We're very happy with the quality of the LNP politicians from Queensland.