Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to rise to speak this morning on the Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill. Before I start, I invite the members of the opposition to call a quorum as soon as possible so that many of my colleagues can join me, to hear my speech and the points I have to make!

But, firstly, the reason for this bill is that it is a fundamental tenet of our democracy that we have free and fair elections. We cannot have elections in this country where there's coercion, intimidation, threats and also downright deception; where one side of politics takes it upon itself to impersonate a Commonwealth agency to deceive, hoodwink and con the Australian electorate.

The Australian public knows that truth is not a leftist value. We can all remember the former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and that speech, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' In the public debate, when a member from the Labor Party stands up, the Australian public knows that they speak with a forked tongue. But what the Australian public trusts are government agencies, so I think that what we saw at the last election—what became known as the Medicare scare campaign—was one of the most disgraceful campaigns in the electoral history of this nation. I well remember, in the early part of the election, standing on a railway station down at Jannali, handing out flyers and talking to constituents who were going to work early in the morning, catching the train from Jannali into the city. When there was a queue of people, someone walked past and yelled out, 'They're going to sell Medicare!'

I thought to myself: what a stupid comment! What a stupid phrase! You cannot sell Medicare. It is not something that can be sold. What are you actually going to sell? Medicare pays out money. There's nothing there; even if you wanted to sell it, it's not worth anything. That is simply an illogical comment, a comment that simply doesn't make sense. I thought no-one would actually believe that. If a Labor person stood up and just said that by themselves, they would be laughed at, and people would dismiss them, knowing the Labor members' history at election campaigns. But what gave credibility to that deception, that lie—and I hate to say that word in this House—was that text message that they sent out. The text message was unauthorised and created the false impression in the minds of millions of Australians that it came from Medicare itself. There was no political disclosure that this was a message from the Labor Party so that people could see, 'This is a message from the Labor Party,' and they would know, from the track record of the Labor Party, that it would be based on falsehoods and dishonesty. Because that disclosure was not there, people were tricked, conned, hoodwinked.

You would think that, having engaged in such disgraceful conduct, against the very principles of our democracy—being involved in a deceptive scheme that undermined free and fair elections in this country—members of the Labor Party would be a little bit contrite. You would think that they would come in here and apologise and say: 'Yes, that was a step too far. We didn't mean it. We are sorry.' That is what you would expect. But, instead, members of the Labor Party come in here and they wear that deception as a badge of honour. They actually think that it is clever that they deceived and misled the Australian public, that they impersonated a Commonwealth agency. They are actually proud of that. This tells us everything we need to know about today's modern Labor Party.

You would hope that, during this debate, at least one member of the Labor Party would get up, or rather stand up—not GetUp!; I'll come to GetUp! in a minute—and say: 'We are sorry. That campaign misled the Australian people.' But no. It's a badge of honour, and they actually laugh about deceiving the Australian public. They actually boast about undermining a fundamental tenet of our democracy. That's why this legislation is necessary.

(Quorum formed.) I thank the member for Fremantle for calling my colleagues here to the House, so I can remind them that truth is not a leftist value. I can remind them that the Labor Party has a long history of deception and of misleading the Australian public, that it engaged in that fraudulent Medicare scare campaign at the last election, that it was trying to undermine our democracy and our right to free and fair elections and that it is actually proud of that. That is the greatest disgrace. It is a disgrace that the Labor Party is actually proud of. It boasts about it and wears it as a badge of honour.

We will remind the Australian public at the next election about the tricks that the Labor Party gets up to. You think you may have gained some short-term political advantage by deceiving the Australian public, but at the next election we will remind them how they were deceived at the last election by a dishonest and fraudulent campaign underwritten by the Australian Labor Party. That's why this legislation is needed, because, otherwise, what will happen at the next election? What is to stop the Labor Party from masquerading as Centrelink and sending out messages to Centrelink recipients, pretending that there will be cuts to their Centrelink pay? What is to stop it from sending out, as if they were from the department of immigration, false, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive and untruthful emails and text messages that people would be migrated? What about the Department of Veterans' Affairs? Nothing would stop the Labor Party. That is why this legislation is needed.

At the next election, as another example, there will be a debate on many issues. There will be debate on energy policy. The Labor Party will argue, as they are entitled to in a democracy, for a 50 per cent renewable energy target. They will say to us: 'Look at the wonders of South Australia. Look at how brilliant the South Australian economy is—look how wonderful,'—it actually has the highest electricity prices in the world—'Isn't this something we should achieve? This way we will save the world.' This side of the House will remind the Australian public that high energy prices actually d the economy, destroy jobs and cause hardship and suffering to those who can least afford it. The Labor Party will explain that they think we can just build all these wind turbines and we'll have all this power: 'Isn't this wonderful? Don't they look fantastic?' We'll explain to the Australian people that when the wind doesn't blow the power does not flow.

There is nothing wrong with that. That is how debates in a democracy should go. It should be a contest of ideas. We get up and we argue our cause; Labor get up and argue their cause—of course, with their friends the Greens and GetUp!. That's how a democracy should work. People listen to both sides of the argument and make their decision at the ballot box. That is the concept of fair and free elections. But that gets undermined when one side decides that they will masquerade as a Commonwealth entity—that they will send out bulk text messages in their hundreds of thousands, if not millions, masquerading as Medicare, the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Department of Veterans' Affairs or Centrelink.

We know that there is no deception that the Labor Party will not go to. That's why this legislation is of such importance. I believe that our democracy is important. I believe that free and fair elections are something that 100,000 Australians have sacrificed their lives for. If we lose the debate in a fair and free election and if we cannot argue our cause, that is democracy. But what is not democracy is impersonating Commonwealth agencies. That's why we must have legislation in this country that requires authorisations on bulk text messages. That is a technology that was not there when the Australian Electoral Act was first written. It is an absolutely essential, fundamental thing that we must do to protect democracy in this country.

I hope that the Labor Party, the Greens and their mates at GetUp! support this legislation. I hope that they would also go further and they would make it a criminal offence to impersonate a Commonwealth body. Our democracy is so important. We must have fair and free elections in this country. That is what this legislation protects, and I commend it to the House.

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