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

It's just a few days until Tasmania votes. This campaign has been a lot dirtier than usual, and that has been a pure case of fear. What are Premier Rockliff and Tasmanian Liberals so afraid of? Sharing power, that's what. It's brought them to their knees. At the last federal election, the polls were telling us that Tasmanians are looking to independents and micro-parties, like the Jacqui Lambie Network, in record numbers. It's very clear to me why this is happening. The Tasmanian Liberal Party put their ego and their party politics before the people of Tasmania. Both of the major parties in Tasmania take money from big corporations, and, in Labor's case, the unions. Instead of asking what the voters want they ask their donors and get their talking points from their party headquarters. Every election, they pull dirty tricks.

Last week, the Tasmanian Liberals got right down in the dirt—six feet under with those worms. They bought a website address almost identical to the Jacqui Lambie Network, they used a photo of me, mucked around with our logo and then lied about the network and our candidates. The day I found out about it, emotionally it hit me like a brick. Honestly, I have never felt so violated in my life. They were using my name to lie about our candidates. Come the next day, I was beyond that, I was just plain angry. This is the kind of gutter politics that the Liberal Party is indulging in before the state election in Tasmania. Apparently, it's fine to throw your principles to the wind when you're running for political office.

I'm not the only Australian who gets angry about this behaviour. Tasmanians hate it and Australians hate it. The Australia Institute did some polling last year, just after the Voice referendum, and it showed that more than nine in 10 Australians want truth in political advertising laws, and they think they should be in place in time for the next federal election campaign. The problem we have is that it is perfectly legal to lie in a political ad. That is absolutely rubbish. You can't lie in ads about beauty products, you can't lie in ads about baby food, but you can lie about your political opponent.

This government is apparently, maybe quite soon, going to bring legislation to parliament that has spending caps and new powers for an independent regulator to enforce truth in political advertising laws. The federal opposition leader has also said that the laws to stop lies in political advertising are, and I quote, 'probably welcome'. Get ready. There's a bill being introduced in this sitting of parliament that could fix this, and if this government is fair dinkum about fixing the problems in our electoral system, putting trust back into Australians and cleaning up lies in political advertising—like what the Tasmanian Liberals have chucked at me—they could get on with it and show Australians they are serious about cleaning up Australian politics. Australians want it. In fact, they don't just want it, but they are begging for it. If the Labor Party and Liberal Party don't support this bill it will confirm what most Australians already know: that the major parties only care about hanging on to power and, like the Tasmanian Liberals, they will do whatever they have to do to hang on to power.

Both the major parties in Tasmania are chucking out promises like they're lollies. I've never seen anything like it, but I don't think Tasmanians believe them anymore. The Tasmanian Liberals have had 10 years to fix our health system and our schools and get roofs over the heads of Tasmanian families. They have failed miserably—actually, more than miserably. The only way Tasmanians and Australians will get parliaments that have integrity and transparency is by electing candidates like the ones I am running—independent thinkers who won't be dictated to by donors or party bosses and who will be members of parliament who will put Australian people first.

As I have said, we are just a few days away from polling in Tasmania and the majors are worried, especially the Liberals. If the polls are right, Tasmanians are looking to independents and micro-parties like the Jacqui Lambie Network in record numbers. That's because we are more in touch with Australians than the major parties are. Take, for example, donation reform. The Liberals promised Tasmanians they would fix our donation reforms in 2018. They finally came up with a bill to disclose donations at $1,000, Then, at the last minute, they changed it to $5,000. Instead of holding them to account, the Tasmanian Labor Party rolled over just like that. You can't trust them, can you?

The Prime Minister came to Launceston last week, supposedly to launch the Tasmanian Labor Party's campaign but really it was to hold a fundraiser dinner and breakfast. Those are also known as boardroom lunches, charging Tasmanian businesses thousands of dollars for access in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis to sit with government powerbrokers. Seriously? If the government refuses to debate this legislation from the crossbench and refuses to pass it they will drive more voters into the arms of independents and micro-parties like the Jacqui Lambie Network. I challenge you to try your luck before the next election. Let's see what you're made of. I want some truth back to the Australian people.