Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The interesting thing about this is not that these senators are the only people within the Liberal and National parties who support these propositions; the interesting thing is it accretes its way across almost all of them. So few now are prepared to call this nonsense out for what it really is. So few are brave enough. So few have the moral character and moral fibre that is required to stand up to the far right and conspiracy theorists. So now what does the Liberal and National Party do? They accommodate it. Previous serious conservative leaders—Mr Howard, Mr Fisher, former senator Ron Boswell and others—understood the danger of far-right extremism, particularly in the bush. They took a hard line against the League of Rights characters and all of the other kooky conspiracy theorists, but no longer. It's part of the political strategy. Mr Dutton supported Senator Rennick's ill-fated bid for preselection, despite his obvious extremist tendencies and behaviour.