Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not come here to praise Tony Abbott. He is intolerant of alternatives. He views them as ideas only fools could favour. He promotes suspicion and rejection of science, industry and expertise; he draws a sharp line between those he sees as being in and those he sees as being out. In Mr Abbott’s world, foreigners are out. The ugly result of Mr Abbott’s politics is that hostility to reason increases. This is especially so when media demagogues, who have long abandoned any pretence that their role is to report and inform, are happy to fill his sails with the putrid winds of intolerance. For them, it is all about the ratings, and our democracy dies a little every time their ratings tick upwards.

It will surprise many that, having already reflected favourably on the words of Bob Menzies once today, I should conclude with more of his words. In his inaugural Sir Robert Menzies lecture in 1970, he said this of the Liberal Party:

A political party must never be a party which chronically says “No”. If it never loses sight of its own ideas, it will be positive and creative. It must constantly formulate and fight for its own ideas, and never let either the people or its opponents remain ignorant of what those ideas are.

In brief, Australian Liberalism must present itself as the party of action, and the party of the future. We are not the ANTI party, but the PRO party. We must have a continuing faith, and such a belief in it that we become its constant crusaders.

Today’s Liberal Party has abandoned its roots. It is led by a man with no moral compass and no appreciation of his party’s origins.