Grant Chapman (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The speech that we just heard from Senator Wong in support of her motion on nuclear power has writ large upon it the absolute hypocrisy of the Labor Party on this issue and is their poor attempt to mask the confusion and inconsistencies of their own position—if they could only actually arrive at one—on energy and climate change. Labor are only interested in short-term political advantage, and that is totally treacherous for Australia’s national interests.

Labor fear an informed public debate. Labor resort to an uninformed, scaremongering, fear campaign, just like they did with the GST, just like they did with the first round of workplace relations reforms, just like they continue to do with Work Choices. Yet again we see Labor demonstrating policy laziness—unwilling or too incompetent to take on the hard issues. They are not capable of debating an issue on its merits; they are not capable of challenging myths.

We might ask: why do Labor rely on uninformed scaremongering? Because they have no practical, workable solutions to current issues. That is because they are driven by ideology which eliminates from consideration and discussion practical, workable solutions. Labor are a collection of reinforcing ideologies that cancel each other out and are incapable of devising practical solutions to problems. That is why Labor are no good in government.