Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

will know that the Liberals have been seething about the behaviour of the Nationals over the years since 2008, when the leader of the Nationals dared to venture across to the other side of the chamber to see if he could form government with Labor at the time. Boy oh boy, didn't that stir up a possum's nest? Thank goodness for us, it did not happen. I am so glad it did not, because then came the Royalties for Regions program. A lot of people will say the regions need to get money that is earned in the mining areas and the agricultural areas. I have no argument with that at all. But I do not know how singing toilets in Bunbury fit in.

So what have we really found over there? I would go as far as saying—as a betting man, I would chuck a $5 bet on this one—that this is a little bit of payback coming from the Liberals to the Nats. They are actually peeved off. The most embarrassing point here is that Mr Tincknell, the leader of One Nation, owned up. They would have done the deal. Now the Liberals, when they get together and hold hands in the joint party room, have to look across and say, 'Gee whiz, you know, we really have done you over.' The preference whisperer, Glenn Druery, is quoted in an ABC article today, I think, saying that this deal between One Nation and the Liberals, which would have been done anyway without the Chinese meal or whatever, could cost six to nine seats.

Now, if I were Mr Barnett and his cracker team of strategists in the Liberal Party I would be finding every rock I could hide under, because this is not a deal that is going to cut. It is not a deal that is going to stick. And we know what is going to happen, because One Nation have proved that they will slap you in the chops over there on that side of the chamber as quick as they will slap us. What this is all about is that a vote for One Nation is a vote for Colin Barnett; a vote for One Nation is a vote for the Western Australian Liberals. You will not be able to split the pair of them. (Time expired)