John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, he did not, Senator O'Sullivan. Why hasn't he spoken on the Senate committee report? He has had plenty of opportunity to do so. The self-declared champion of the sugar industry has not fired a shot. Senators Sterle and Bullock travelled all the way from Western Australia for the hearings in February. I travelled from northern New South Wales. Senators O'Sullivan, Canavan and Macdonald came from various parts of Queensland. But Senator Lazarus could not even step out his front door! I am sure the senators who took part in the inquiry are, like me, disgusted by his comments after all the hard work we put in over the weeks of the hearings. A check of Hansard reveals that, before Senator Lazarus's speech on 19 August, he had only mentioned the sugar industry once in his 15 months here. That was in his maiden speech. That is how much of a champion he is of the Queensland sugar industry! We met with the cane growers. I had them in my office. We took evidence from them at Murwillumbah, Mackay and Townsville. We heard about their problems, we questioned the millers and so on.

Between the time Senator Lazarus became an independent on 15 March this year and these sittings, he has voted in divisions 21 times with the government, 40 times with the opposition and 51 times with the Greens. As for his opening remarks in his speech on 19 August that the Abbott government has no regard for industry or jobs, we know where he stands on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement because he was one of the speakers trotted out by the Electrical Trades Union at a rally in Brisbane in July. Maybe Senator Lazarus is interested in learning that the signing of the Japan-Australia Free Trade Agreement has resulted in the doubling of exports of mangoes in the first three months of the year. Tell the growers around Mareeba, Burdekin, Rockhampton and Bundaberg that that is not good news!

The truth has to be spoken here. Senator Lazarus has not stuck up for the people who elected him. He was elected as a conservative, not as a left-wing socialist Green—which is what his votes in this place are showing—and he ought to look at the people who voted him in. (Time expired)