Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week we saw further cracks open up in the LNP in Queensland and further fighting between the Libs and Nats here in Canberra. I want to talk further about the main reason for this, and that is the lack of leadership within this government. First we saw the most senior LNP member of parliament, Senator Brandis, say:

I'd say that the state opposition is very very mediocre …

He went on:

… but the thing that's alarming everyone is, as you would expect, is the sudden spike in One Nation, which is now at about 16 per cent. And One Nation, as you know, their strength is in heartland National Party seats …

When speaking of the state of the LNP merger, Senator Brandis said:

I think there might be a revisiting of things as a result of compulsory preferential voting.

So in one brief conversation the Attorney-General has managed to both destabilise the Queensland LNP state opposition and reignite the debate around the merger of the conservative parties in Queensland, which we knew from the beginning was always going to end in failure. This went further. An unnamed LNP MP summed up the sentiment of those opposite when he said of Senator Brandis:

London can't come soon enough.

It is no wonder that the Queensland LNP is in serious trouble as an organisation. We have seen numerous examples of the Queensland Nationals and Liberals at loggerheads, and this will develop into a full-scale war over coming months. I note Senator Canavan refused to back Senator Brandis this week in question time, and we have reports out of the Nationals party room meeting that, under Mr Turnbull, this government is focussed on issues that 'very few people in the real world are worried about'. The Prime Minister was also reportedly referred to as 'out of touch' by his National Party colleagues. The Queensland LNP is coming apart at the seams, and the poor leadership of both the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General is the cause of it.

Let us go through some of the greatest hits that we saw this week of this LNP unravelling. We have to hand it to the Deputy Prime Minister, who obviously saw the writing on the wall and moved out of Queensland a couple of years ago. We have seen a trio of policy issues that is really driving a deep wedge inside the LNP: the backpacker tax, the 457 visas and the Adler shotgun issue. The member for Dawson, George Christensen, talks a big game when he is in Mackay, but he meekly pulls his head in as soon as his plane lands at Canberra Airport. On the backpackers, he has gone from threatening to quit the party a few months ago to now toeing the party line. His colleagues in the Senate are not much better. National Party senators were prepared to cross the floor to vote for more shotguns, but they are not prepared to cross the floor to stand up for regional Queensland and protect it from this Scott Morrison tax grab. That is how low the Nationals have become. Scott Morrison could have easily axed this tax over a year ago when he took over from Joe Hockey, but he is prepared to leave it in place, and we know that this shambolic government is responsible for what we have seen. We have also seen the member for Dawson and the member for Flynn contradict the government when it comes to 457 visas in Queensland. It is clear that the National Party is a hollow shell of what it used to be and that the days of the LNP merger are absolutely numbered.

This week we also had former senator Ron Boswell in town. The National Party of today is a very poor imitation of the National Party that Ron Boswell was a member of. You only have to look at his valedictory speech in 2014:

I must single out John Howard. In delivering gun control, he took the most courageous action I have seen in my time in politics. Every time I hear about another gun massacre in America, I know that bringing in those gun control laws was the right thing to do and I give thanks for his courage and leadership.

That makes the Nats' crossing of the floor on the Adler shotgun issue all the more galling. He went on to say of John Howard:

He also understood small business and the ethos of the bush. John Howard was the best Prime Minister the Nationals ever had.

You only have to look at that and at what the National Party have done this week on the backpacker tax to know that they are a poor imitation.

But the real kick in the guts to the legacy of Ron Boswell and the National Party is their unwillingness to stand up to One Nation. The Nationals have become a shadow of their former selves. Again, I quote Ron Boswell's words in his valedictory speech in 2014:

… to be taken seriously, you have to stand for something. In the fight of my life, against Pauline Hanson, I risked everything to stand up against her aggressive, narrow view of Australia. Defeating Pauline Hanson and One Nation in 2001 has been my greatest political achievement.

Well, Pauline Hanson is back in the Senate and she still has her narrow view of Australia, which Ron Boswell clearly identified. The thing that has changed has been the National's unpreparedness to stand up to that legacy, like Ron Boswell did. It is just two years ago that former Senator Boswell made his speech, but it seems like a lifetime in terms of where the Nats are now. This vacuum in leadership in the Nats is reflected in the 'very, very mediocre' opposition that we have in the Queensland LNP. You also have to add into the mix what we saw in New South Wales, with them losing the seat of Orange to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party—truly a black mark in the history of the Nats. We have also seen them cosying up to Campbell Newman.

It is clear on several fronts that the Prime Minister, in his efforts in keeping this government united and focused, is in for some very rough times. The actions of the National Party this week have only added to that. Not only did former Senator Boswell cast a giant physical shadow; he left a political legacy that he should be proud of, and I am sure he would be bitterly disappointed in what he sees from the current-day Nationals.

Senate adjourned at 18:23