Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

over a long lunch—which they want to subsidise—the Leader of the Opposition made jokes about our Pacific neighbours. He made jokes about the water coming up and the real consequences of climate change. I've been to the Pacific; I've spent a lot of time in the Pacific. You cannot step off the plane without people telling you about how frightened they are, how serious this is for their children and how much of a program will be required to move community centres and schools—assets that are right on the edge of the coastline—up inland so that communities can literally just survive. This is a real threat to the people in our region. Since coming into government, we have worked extremely hard to ensure that Australia aligns with the priorities of our Pacific family. This Leader of the Opposition was making jokes about the water running up above their knees. That is the climate denial that these people will bring to government.

Then, of course, there are the culture wars. Time after time, instead of looking to unite this country, the Leader of the Opposition has sought to draw lines and put people on one side or the other. I still remember him commenting that Melburnians were too afraid to go out to restaurants and targeting migrants. Funnily enough, Christopher Pyne was asked about it, and he said: 'What do you mean? I love restaurants in Melbourne'—which is the normal answer, because restaurants in Melbourne are fantastic. But that's not the way that the Leader of the Opposition saw things. He just wanted to try and create division in society. I don't think anyone's ever said it better than this:

Peter's got one tune that he plays, and it's been all his political life, and that is division and animosity, generally targeted at immigrants. I couldn't think of anyone less suited to be Prime Minister of a multicultural society like Australia.

It wasn't a Labor member who said that. It wasn't even a member of the crossbench. It was former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull who said that.

These people want to take us back to cuts, climate denial and culture wars. That's not the direction we're going to take. We're going to build Australia's future and unite this country around a good, prosperous future for all Australian citizens.

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