Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia (Senator Canavan) to a question without notice asked by Senator Watt today relating to the Queensland state election.

Haven't the last couple of days in Canberra been interesting? All of a sudden, we have seen a flurry of activity from each and every one of the Queensland National Party representatives who pretend to be part of a united party back in Queensland, the LNP. After years of silence and acquiescence as regional Australians and regional Queenslanders have been ignored or hurt by cuts made by the Abbott and Turnbull governments, all of a sudden those in this band of weak, lazy, ineffective representatives, particularly from Queensland, have almost—not quite, but almost—discovered their spines. We've seen this flurry of apparent independence and flurry of concern for the welfare of people in regional Queensland after years of silence and going along with what the Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, and his predecessor, Mr Abbott, have done to regional Queensland.

You might ask why, after years of silence and doing nothing, we have all of a sudden seen this burst of independence and activity from the Queensland National Party representatives who come down here to Canberra. The answer is obvious: it is all about what happened on Saturday, 25 November, back in Queensland at the state election, where right around the state, but in particular in regional Queensland, the LNP vote absolutely collapsed. Clearly, if you look at the results, you can see that there was a slip in the Labor vote in some parts of Queensland—and we have work to do as well. But there has been a mass defection of LNP supporters to One Nation and to other parties right across Queensland but in particular in regional Queensland, to the point where right across Central Queensland—in the federal electorate of Capricornia where I'm the Labor duty senator—in every state seat in Capricornia the LNP didn't run first, didn't run second, at best ran third and, in some cases, came fourth. Perhaps that might be why, all of a sudden, the National Party representatives here in Canberra have almost, but not quite, discovered their spine.

So what have they done over the last couple of days? We've seen Senator Canavan out there saying that they've got their separate party room and they're going to run a separate campaign to the Liberal Party in Queensland. Today's front page of The Courier Mail talked about how all the Queensland Nationals were going to run under a separate banner—that they were going to run as Nationals and not LNP; that they were going to paint their election signs green, not blue; that they were going to drop the word 'Liberal' and drop Malcolm Turnbull's face off their posters; and that they were going to do all sorts of spin, advertising and rebranding to do everything they could to put distance between themselves and this failed Turnbull government. The problem for them is that the people of regional Queensland are not as stupid as the LNP think. They can see right through what the LNP are doing here. This is all about one thing, and that is about the LNP representatives from Queensland desperately trying to hang onto their own jobs. There's not an ounce of concern for the jobs of people in regional Queensland; it's all about them trying to preserve their own jobs.

Poor old Senator O'Sullivan, for weeks now, has been talking about maybe moving a motion about setting up an inquiry into the banks. This week he charged down to Canberra, beating his chest—he was full of blood and guts—and he was going to take it up to the Prime Minister and get that inquiry going. But we read today that, on the verge of getting it through, he's backed off—he's withdrawn his bill. That's how gutsy, that's how tough, that's how brave our Queensland National Party senators are. Just when they're on the verge of having a victory, they back off and roll over yet again to the Prime Minister and to the Liberal Party.

Whatever spin and whatever rebranding we might see from the LNP down here in Canberra and back home in Queensland, regional Queenslanders are going to see right through it. Whatever rebranding and whatever spin we see from Queensland Nationals, it is not going to make up for the years of selling out regional Queenslanders and letting them down. With every single thing that the Prime Minister and Mr Abbott before him have done that has hurt regional Queenslanders, the National Party have been right beside them, sending their votes and helping them get it through—and it doesn’t matter what it is. When Mr Turnbull cut Medicare, the Nationals voted for it. When they cut penalty rates, the Nationals voted for it. When they stopped the banking royal commission, the Nationals voted for it. When they gave millionaires a tax cut and gave nothing to middle-income earners, the Nationals vote for it. They are sell-outs and they are gone. (Time expired)

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian people rightly expect a lot better from their representatives in the national parliament than that which they just heard from Labor's Senator Watt. The Australian people are not interested in the petty politics of a state election result. What they want to know is that the federal parliament is determined to deal with the issues of job creation, for example. In the past year we have seen about 1,000 jobs per day being created in the Australian economy because the government is getting the settings right, which enables the private sector to gainfully employ our fellow Australians. They're the sorts of issues that the Australian people expect us in this parliament to be grappling with. But, of course, that is good news. That is getting a thousand people a day off welfare and into employment, making them self-reliant and capable of looking after not only themselves but their whole family unit. So what does the Australian Labor Party seek to do? Talk about anything else but job creation.

What about energy prices? They are a very real issue for job creation, for our manufacturers, for our pensioners and for household budgets. The Australian Labor Party don't want to ask questions about that. They don't want to take note in relation to those issues. Why? Because Labor have been abject failures in that area. That is why the Liberal-National Party government has come to grips with that issue and developed the National Energy Guarantee. These are the sorts of issues that the Australian people rightfully expect the federal parliament and its representatives to deal with.

I've been here for a while and I have seen the National Party in Queensland, right, wrong or indifferent, elect senators who have a mind of their own, be it Senator Ron Boswell or Senator Barnaby Joyce. Therefore, to falsely assert that independent thought amongst National Party senators from Queensland commenced from last Saturday is historically untrue. It is objectively untrue. It is not based on any fact other than somebody thinking they would be a smart alec and come into this chamber and gloat for five minutes over what they are expecting to be a Labor victory—a Labor victory in Queensland which will be based on One Nation preferences. Let's be quite clear on this. The Labor Party claim that they are cleaner and purer than the driven snow. But do you know how they crawl into government? They do it on the back of One Nation preferences and then seek to condemn us in relation to One Nation preferences. But I have been distracted by the nonsense put to us by Labor's Senator Watt from Queensland. They are not the issues that the Australian people actually want us to talk about—albeit the National Party from Queensland has a heritage of providing excellent senators who are independently minded and provide an extra dynamic to the coalition.

Unlike the Labor Party senators, we aren't all cookie-cutter trade union aficionados who think of the Senate as some sort of retirement place or a reward for having been a trade union official. This is about the serious business of government and developing public policy to ensure that the men and women of Australia are able to get jobs. A thousand of them a day are being created as we speak because we're getting the policy settings right. They're the sorts of things the Labor Party don't want to talk about, and I understand why: because of their dismal failure in their six years of government, which left a legacy of such high unemployment and so many bankrupt businesses. We on this side are focused on the real issues and are seeking to serve the Australian people to the very best of our ability to ensure that there is job creation, to ensure that there is the capacity to balance household budgets and to ensure that pensioners can use their air conditioners in summer.

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

If the last couple of months have taught Australians anything, it is that there's no-one more in touch with middle Australia than Senator Abetz. That's so obvious. We've seen that time and time again, and I think we saw it with that contribution here today as well.

I do want to get onto the substantive issue, following my colleague Senator Watt, but I can't let Senator Fifield go past. I thought his performance today was quite interesting. He gets a question about thousands of people who are going to have their NBN rollout delayed, and he's nonplussed—he gives an answer, but he's not that fussed about it. He gets a question about the triple j Hottest 100 and he's all action. He's sending letters; he's demanding this; he's demanding that. I think that just shows you where they are at on that side of the chamber.

Senator Abetz tries to say they're focused on big issues. They spent more time today talking about the Hottest 100 and Australia Day than they did on energy issues or the important issues of the NBN. We also know that they spent the 24 hours after the election result in Queensland on Saturday saying, 'This doesn't have any federal implications,' yet they've all been talking about it a lot since. And the best thing is that there's no consistency about what happened. They're all divided. We know that they've got form on this, and it's hardly a surprise. Senator Brandis, to his credit—he's certainly been misleading on a lot of things, but we've come to expect that—accurately described One Nation: 'If you deal with them, it's poison.' That I can agree with, but the problem is that there's a failure to act. He says the right thing, but, when he was given the opportunity today to answer a question about putting One Nation last, he ignored it. He said the Prime Minister agreed with him. If the Prime Minister agreed with him, he'd make a simple statement—'We will put them last'—yet he hasn't done it.

I was with Senator Canavan on Saturday night doing TV coverage of the election. He thinks that the primary vote in Queensland going back nine points has been a great outcome. He thinks coming fourth in Rockhampton is a great outcome. This has been the response from Senator Canavan. He says, 'We just need to sell and market better.' The one area where there was policy consistency in the Queensland LNP and the federal LNP was energy. They both want to pursue a coal-fired power station in North Queensland. That was comprehensively rejected on the weekend. That was what Tim Nicholls was running on in regional Queensland—they would build a coal-fired power station. Their vote went backwards. That is the reality of their policy. That is where their policy matches up with the federal team. They attack renewable energy. They said they were going to build a coal-fired power station, and their vote went backwards. That is the response.

Senator Macdonald has probably gone the closest to hitting the nail on the head. He spoke about what the problem with the federal LNP has been:

There's no doubt about it—Malcolm is not seen as representing people in northern and regional Queensland.

He went on to say:

… people don't know what he stands for.

If his own Senate colleague doesn't know what he stands for, how can the people of Queensland know? The policies that they've been pursuing are so out of touch with regional Queenslanders, and the vote that we saw on the weekend is an example of this. Then we saw the member for Dawson, and he's basically going down the cuddle-up path. He wants to appease One Nation voters. The one person they're not listening to is former senator Ron Boswell. He has said this consistently since One Nation won seats back here in the Senate and he's said it again in recent days: 'There's only one way you can defeat them and that's if you fight them.'

That's why they're so divided. They don't know whether to go with the Christensen model. Senator Brandis says the right thing; his actions say something different. But they won't listen to former Senator Boswell. Because we know—he's been consistent on this, and he said this in his farewell speech in this chamber—that the proudest thing he did was take the fight up to now Senator Hanson and defeat her. The present-day Nationals are an absolute shadow of the legacy of Senator Boswell. It's a pity. I'm sure he'll be here next week—Senator Canavan mentioned the Christmas party. It would be worthwhile if the Queensland team got around former Senator Boswell and sought some advice.

The Labor Party in Queensland have taken a principled decision. When One Nation were first on the scene 20 years ago, we put them last. I'm sure, if you listened to former Senator Boswell, you'd get similar advice. On the weekend, Labor was rewarded for taking that principled decision, especially in South-East Queensland, as Senator Brandis knows so well.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love these debates, propagated by Labor senators from Queensland, when the Labor Party is in power in Queensland—or might be next week—only because of the One Nation preferencing of Labor Party candidates. Labor, if they win in Queensland, will be there only because they received One Nation preferences in Queensland.

This motion was moved by Senator Watt who, as we all know, was ingloriously thrown out of the Queensland parliament in the election before last. He was in one of the safest Labor seats in Brisbane, the seat of Everton, yet Senator Watt managed to lose that to Mr Tim Mander, who is the current sitting member and who in this last election did incredibly well in the electorate of Everton. I suspect that's because voters thought if they didn't support Mr Mander they might get Senator Watt back as a Labor candidate in the future. It was certainly the high point of the LNP vote in Queensland.

I'm sorry to disappoint Labor senators, but there is only one party in Queensland. There's no National Party and there's no Liberal Party; there's a Liberal National Party of Queensland. Every single one of us in this federal parliament from Queensland on the right side of politics is endorsed as a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. That will continue.

The result in Queensland was an appalling result for Labor. If it hadn't been for One Nation, Labor would have lost the election. In the Central Queensland area is the electorate of Rockhampton, as opposed to Rockhampton South, which was once held by Rex Pilbeam, a Liberal member and former mayor, I might say. I cannot recall when the electorate of Rockhampton has not been held by the Labor Party. Can I tell you, Madam Deputy President, in the next parliament it will be held by someone who is not from the Labor Party and is also, curiously, the current mayor of Rockhampton.

The One Nation vote, particularly in the north, has caused real difficulties with two excellent members of the LNP. Dale Last is my member in the seat of Burdekin, which encompasses Collinsville, where the coal-fired power station would have gone. Regrettably, the only reason that Mr Dale Last, the LNP candidate, is struggling in that seat is because the One Nation candidate, who was previously an LNP member for Thuringowa in Townsville, preferenced 'Mad' Mike Brunker—'Moscow Mike', they used to call him—in the electorate of Burdekin, the seat where the coal-fired power station was going to go. I cannot understand that. Andrew Cripps is struggling in Hinchinbrook, though he is an excellent minister and an excellent member. Why? Because One Nation preferenced the Labor Party or Mr Katter or both in that particular seat. The Labor Party candidate for Townsville, who nobody has ever heard of—he's more than a candidate; he's the sitting member, but nobody has heard of him—won, I regret to say, on LNP preferences. That puts the lie to the rubbish we've heard from the Labor Party in this debate.

The Turnbull government has spent and committed a lot of money and a lot of effort to Queensland. The northern Australia policy, which is the hallmark of the Turnbull-Abbott government, commits over $6 billion of investment there. We've committed to dams and we've committed to roads. The commitment made by the Turnbull government to Queensland is enormous. That sort of commitment to Queensland will pay results in the future. As for the moment— (Time expired)

Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great delight to follow Senator Macdonald in this debate. Senator Macdonald is certainly one who speaks his mind. Earlier today, Senator Macdonald did that when he said on Sky News that following the Queensland election there's a lot of work to be done to convince voters that Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, understands regional Australia. He went on to talk about the fact that Labor's win has many coalition members reflecting on the implications for the Turnbull government. It must be an extremely sobering result for the LNP, and the repercussions are ongoing. We saw Mr Christensen's tweet. We've seen Senator Macdonald's reflections. We've seen Senator O'Sullivan looking at issues. We've seen Senator Brandis himself reflecting on whether or not, down the track, there should be a division between the National Party and the Liberal Party in Queensland. There are huge ramifications flowing from the state election when, really, what happened was we had a state Labor government adopting a principled position on the issue of One Nation—putting One Nation last—and now we're seeing the result. The people of Queensland warmed to that position. It's my fervent hope that Annastacia Palaszczuk will be returned as Premier of Queensland.

It's quite clear that Senator Macdonald is correct: the people of northern Australia do not understand what the Prime Minister stands for. I don't think the Prime Minister understands what he stands for either. Senator Macdonald would be aware that one of the issues in Northern Queensland is the NAIF facility and whether any jobs flow out of that for Queensland. None have flowed, despite the fact that this was announced some years ago. We're still in the pipeline. Nothing has come out of the NAIF.

Northern Australians—and North Queenslanders in particular—have some of the highest insurance premiums because of their exposure to natural events. We saw the Northern Australia Insurance Premiums Taskforce hand down a recommendation, but we are yet to see this government come up with a response. We'll be waiting years for a response to that important issue for northern Australians. On disaster relief, we see the Turnbull government's woeful track record on NDRRA funding and their disregard for the people of Central Queensland and North Queensland at their greatest time of need.

It's quite clear why the people of northern Australia don't understand where the Prime Minister is coming from, because he has forgotten Northern Queensland and he has forgotten northern Australia. He doesn't focus on those types of issues; he's focused on other issues. This is another of Senator Macdonald's observations. He says, 'For traditional people, the issues we seem to be supporting are not the issues that they want.' I take my hat off to Senator Macdonald. He is quite correct on that.

But we're continuing to see a series of thought bubbles come from the Prime Minister. He is wishy-washy. He 'wibble-wobbles' on a range of issues. We've seen things such as states having the power to levy income tax and, flowing from that, states funding state schools and the Commonwealth funding private and Catholic schools. He floated the idea of increasing the GST and backed away from all these things. He talked about reining in negative gearing excesses. Nothing came out of that. He talked about tax cuts for millionaires, foreign companies and the banks—they, of course, need tax relief! At the same time, he talked about tax increases for ordinary Australians. But when under pressure, in relation to the scrapping of sittings this week for the lower house, he came up with another thought bubble: let's talk about income tax cuts down the track.

This is a Prime Minister—and a government—who is desperate to portray to the people of Australia that he knows what he's doing. He does not know what he's doing. The National Party have woken up to him. They understand that, in order for them to survive the oncoming electoral oblivion at the next federal election, they need to differentiate themselves. It is too little too late. The lapdogs have made their run too late.

Question agreed to.