Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wanted to reflect on the contribution we saw from Senator Xenophon last night. We know Senator Xenophon can be a bit of a chameleon, and until I got into this chamber I certainly had admired it from afar. Having been able to observe it over the last 12 months, the way that he performs in this place is very admirable. From what I can work out, there are basically three versions of Nick Xenophon. There's the South Australian battler, sticking up for his home state. There's the fighter against the system, sticking it to the mainstream parties. And then what we saw last night was the sincere and heavy-hearted Senator Xenophon, passing this more out of sorrow than anger, I think, in the way he spoke about this—that they were the toughest negotiations he'd ever had. I thought that was some very good theatre from Senator Xenophon.

If these are the toughest negotiations he's ever had, he didn't deliver up much of a deal, did he? And that's been exposed on the floor here today. Now that we've had an opportunity to look into the detail, what Senator Xenophon has done has really been stripped bare, yet we are going to be living with the long-term consequences for a long time. I think the most significant of those is that, now and forever, this government and Senator Xenophon will be responsible for aiding and abetting the attacks on the ABC. They have legitimatised it and given it an opportunity. That is what they are responsible for, given their actions.

We saw yesterday the efforts of the One Nation senators—and I don't think you could call that a fair and balanced contribution. But the one thing that I have really loved is the contribution in this debate from Senator Fifield and the way that he says 'fair and balanced'. He says it in, actually, such a fair and balanced way. It's very admirable the way he does it. But the problem for the government and the problem for Senator Xenophon is they have let the arbiter on fair and balanced be One Nation. That is what they have done by the way they have conducted this debate, let it happen and agreed to pass the One Nation legislation on this. That is something that the government and Senator Xenophon are going to be responsible for. Everyone else in this place will constantly hold them to account.

When we say 'fair and balanced', I think you only have to look at the contribution that we saw from the One Nation senators yesterday. There was nothing fair and balanced about it. All it actually was was a series of grievances that they had against the ABC. Well, if you don't like the ABC covering stupid comments or stupid things you've done, stop doing stupid things! It's pretty simple. Yet, they came in here, one after one, complaining about the stories that the ABC have done on One Nation. Then we had Senator Roberts come in. I thought that this was really interesting, given his own difficulties with the High Court. I think he's making a case to be the 'fair and balanced commissioner' if Senator Fifield wanted to appoint him. He went through all the empirical evidence that he is building. And we know he loves empirical evidence; he's always talking about it. But it seems like he's been doing his own homework on what he thinks is fair and balanced. We have seen some of the things that they talk about—some of the crazy stuff that they actually want to see the ABC cover more: the anti-vaxxers, the climate change denialists. This is what the government and Senator Xenophon are going to own. You're going to own it. That is what this government has done.

So, Minister, when are you going to stand up for the Australian people and defend the public broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, from the attacks that we are seeing from One Nation and others that you have legitimised through this deal that you have done on media reforms?