John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. I invite the Liberal Party to come out and deny that it has not offered this sleazy and disgraceful preference deal. I invite Senator Coonan to tell the parliament that she has no knowledge of this sleazy and disgraceful deal.

Like the Howard government, the Family First Party stand condemned. How can the people of Australia trust a government that has done this to our country? How can the people of Australia trust a government that betrays one of its own and purchases the tainted vote of a non-government member? How can the people of Australia who voted for Senator Fielding ever vote for him again or trust him again? Indeed, how can they ever trust the Howard government again? The Howard government stands condemned for slaughtering our democracy. If any members of the government have any principles or any guts, they will cross the floor and stand against this assault on our democracy.

The people of Australia are looking to Kim Beazley and the Labor Party to save our democracy. I can foreshadow tonight that we will do so, because we are not going to lie down and accept this disgraceful assault on our democracy. I have been speaking out on this issue for more than six years, since it was first raised in 2001. I have asked innumerable questions of successive Ministers Coonan, Williams and Alston and all they have ever done is throw sand in my eyes. The day of reckoning has arrived in the House of Representatives tonight because, as I said earlier in my contribution, our democracy is at stake. We cannot hand over the parliament to James Packer and Rupert Murdoch. We might as well shut down the place if this bill goes through and put out a how-to-vote card, ‘One, Packer; two, Murdoch,’ and we will only have to worry about the donkey vote. (Time expired)

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