Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the Chair of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee has said very clearly, this debate on the Wild Rivers (Environmental Management) Bill 2010 [No. 2] is a stunt. It is a political stunt and it has nothing at all to do with the economic aspirations of people who live in Cape York. It has everything to do with the gathering of votes in the lead-up to an election later this year. I am terribly disappointed that the behaviour of the Liberal-National Party I have observed on Cape York is being continued here today in the Senate. We have observed over years Liberal-National Party members intentionally dividing the community of Cape York Peninsula for their own political benefit and I am tired of watching communities that Senator Scullion himself described as not being able to have an economic advantage being used by those of you who sit over there and would like to sit over there in the other place for your own political advantage—and you know it. You know that this is the purpose of what you are doing. The Liberal-National Party has form in this area.