Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Again I am surprised that the opposition have got nothing to contribute to policy debate in this country and are making themselves increasingly irrelevant. It is the case that there are sometimes extreme views, or views that I regard as extreme, held in politics. There are many on the opposition benches whom I regard as holding extreme views. I find the Liberal Party’s industrial relations policy to be an extremist policy—one that seeks to attack workers in this country. At the moment Senator Abetz has been put on the leash and told to say nothing. I understand why you might keep him under wraps, particularly if you are trying to lift your vote. We still know extremists run the Liberal Party’s industrial relations policy. If you want to debate climate change and extremists, we are happy to debate that at any time, because we see Senator Bernardi, still on the front bench of the Liberal Party, who represents some of the most extreme views in Australian politics—not just, I might say, on climate change, but on issues of race and religion as well.