Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to say how lucky we are to have such a hip prime minister. I've been contemplating just how lucky we are. I saw him at Woodford one year in a black T-shirt—lately in a white T-shirt—with his black jeans on and his hat on. Nothing wrong with wearing a hat! I think of how lucky we are that he's so hip. He also goes to the tennis. We're very lucky to see him there, swanning it with the top end of town—and good luck to him. We're incredibly lucky we've got a prime minister that can go to Woodford and also go to the tennis—and spend days at the tennis; he obviously has a great love of the tennis.

Now I hear our Prime Minister is going to go to Mardi Gras. Isn't that great—we're so lucky! This guy is so hip! He's 60 going on 16. We're very lucky. I don't know how long he will spend at Mardi Gras—that's his business—but I do know that he only spent four hours in Alice Springs; I know that! There are some rather big issues in Alice Springs, and they continue on. If it's not Alice Springs, it's Garbutt, Townsville, Cairns, Moree, Dubbo—so many regional towns where the issue of law and order is paramount. I'm wondering if the Prime Minister might want to go back to Alice Springs, and maybe visit a few other towns and take this agenda under his belt because that's what's really important to people dealing with the crime issues and law and order issues of these regional areas.

There was another place I didn't see him. I searched, but I really didn't see him at Australia Day. There were no Australia Day ceremonies he seemed to grace. Apparently they're not hip enough! A lot of people in my electorate are very proud of Australia Day. Australia Day is a great day. We recognise the work, especially the civil sacrifice—not the military sacrifice but the civil sacrifice—of so many people who have done so much for this nation. We recognise that Australia is a country that was founded basically on our incredible Indigenous heritage but also on the legacy of people who started as a penal colony—not as an invading army but as a penal colony. We have done so well.

But now we move forward, and apparently the Prime Minister of Woodford, the Prime Minister of the tennis and the Prime Minister of Mardi Gras wants to bring forward constitutional change that will have huge ramifications for how this nation works into the future, for how the operating manual of our country operates. There are real concerns that have been raised over and over again around why we would be discriminating against people and their access to this great article of democracy, why we would discriminate on the premise of their DNA whether they have access or not.

Currently the world is going through very tenuous times. Tonight we are hearing about the fourth balloon being shot down over North America—over Alaska, Canada twice and South Carolina. I don't know whether that calls for someone who is hip or for someone who is totally and utterly focused on what is before us. It would probably be better for the people at Woodford or at the tennis or at Mardi Gras to have someone that they know is focused totally and utterly on the defence of this nation—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I just want to remind the member of standing order 90, about reflecting on the motives of a member. I bring him back to his speech.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it would be best that our nation reflect on what is before us at the moment. It is very sobering to turn on the news tonight and find out that, over the Great Lakes, yet another balloon has been shot down. It is incumbent upon us to make sure that we make this nation as strong as possible as quickly as possible. It is not the time for flirtations with peripheral issues, with issues that might be important but are not central to what this nation needs to sustain itself into the future of what is becoming, more and more and more, a very tenuous world. I hope that as we go forward we focus on making sure that power is as cheap as possible as quickly as possible. I hope we have a sobering and more informed view on such things as nuclear power. And I hope that the Prime Minister, on attending the Mardi Gras, reflects on the other things that are important to this nation.