Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources and Minister for Resources and Northern Australia. Will the Deputy Prime Minister advise the House how the government's energy policy will guarantee reliable and affordable energy for hardworking farmers and businesses in regional communities like those in my electorate of Flynn? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and note that in his past he has actually done blue-collar work: he was a fettler. He actually believes in blue-collar workers' jobs. Unfortunately, those on the other side are a lot of university graduates—no problems with that—and a lot of solicitors, but there are no labourers in the Labor Party anymore. They actually believe that labourers are politically incorrect, and you can see that in their jihad that they run against some of the vital coal-fired assets in the member's electorate. The member for Flynn will be aware of Callide B, Callide C, Gladstone and Stanwell, all employing blue-collar workers and creating blue-collar jobs, because the member for Flynn is not embarrassed about blue-collar workers. He has been a blue-collar worker, unlike those in the Labor Party.

Very rarely do you ever find someone in the Labor Party who has actually done a labouring job. The teachers all stick up their hands. I have no problems with teachers either. Teachers are good people. The member for Melbourne Ports has stuck up his hand. Where are these people who have actually ever worked for a living in the Labor Party? Where are the labourers in the Labor Party? They don't exist anymore. But we are going to make sure that we keep the jobs of the people in Flynn, in the industrial city of Gladstone. We're going to look after the people of Gladstone rather than just looking after the people of Annandale. We are going to make sure that the basketweavers do not reign supreme in the power policy of this nation.

We look for the member for Maribyrnong, who apparently used to represent labourers—he never did any labour himself, but he used to represent them—to come to the dispatch box and tell us about his grand vision for Australia: 50 per cent renewables. There won't be a job left in this place. They say today in the paper that 75 per cent of coal-fired power stations will have to be closed down. So what does the member for Hunter have to say about that? What does the member for Shortland have to say about that? What does the member for Herbert have to say about that? They say nothing, because they don't stand up for workers anymore.

Then we hear the piece de resistance. Of course, we're all waiting for Mr Rudd's book to come out, because in that we hear that the member for Lilley, the former Treasurer of the millennium, was put there as a poison pill. He was there to blow up Rudd. He ended up blowing up a whole budget. He ended up blowing the budget of the nation. He was there as a joke. Well, they never saw the funny side of it. They kept him there. They made him the Treasurer of Australia. What an enlightenment the Labor Party is! What a wonderful grace to our economic future the Labor Party is! You know what? The joke is still here. I think the joke is making a comeback.