Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This month we've seen a repudiation of the myth that Queensland is actually comprised of 4.9 million clones of Senator Canavan. And, actually, that didn't just happen once: it happened twice. First, there was the postal survey, where Queenslanders voted strongly for marriage equality. And now, in the state election, Queenslanders have shown that they're not sitting in their homes quietly hoping for a ferociously conservative government.

Those on the other side need to stop projecting their own hopes and their own desires onto the people of Queensland. Note to you: nobody else is pining for the Bjelke-Petersen government—nobody but you. The results on the weekend do lay bare a real crisis in conservative politics. You could call it a clash of ideas, but it's not really that. In truth, it's a clash between a group of moderate Liberals, who have few ideas and even fewer convictions, and a group on the far right who strongly believe in a lot of ideas that simply aren't very good.

I recognise that in politics there are going to be people who don't agree with me. It's healthy; it's how politics works. What is worse is to have people who don't believe in anything. And that's unfortunately the fate that has befallen the Liberal Party. There are large swathes of the Liberal Party that simply don't stand for anything anymore. Entire sections of their party room are populated by careerists whose ideology is nothing more than a hollowed-out managerialism combined with a deep and entitled belief that they deserve power.

We saw an example of it in action last week. It is astounding the Prime Minister cancelled parliament, and the excuse he gave is also telling. The government is waiting for the Senate to deal with marriage equality. Was there nothing else that could have been debated in the other place and passed in the meantime—not a single other initiative? I tell you what, Madam Deputy President, during the Gillard government a week in parliament was a chance to get something done. Parliament wasn't a chore, it was an opportunity.

The problem, of course, with this collapse in ideas in the Liberal Party is that the far right have taken the opportunity to fill the vacuum. Our country faces real challenges. How are we to deliver health care to an ageing population? How should we respond to stagnant wages? What work will people do in an age of automation? What should be the future of our energy policy? Well, I tell you what, we know the LNP's answer, because the Queensland LNP, under Nicholls, had exactly the same policy as that advocated by Senator Canavan. They want a government-funded coal-fired power station in the north of Queensland—an old technology that nobody thinks would be funded by the market, instead funded by the government.

The so-called thought leaders on the right of Australian politics are not equipped in any way to answer serious questions. And it doesn't matter whether they're in the right of the Liberal Party, whether they're in the Nationals or indeed, if they're in One Nation. They have spent too long mucking about in the culture wars. They've learned the wrong lessons, fighting about school curricula and fighting about halal certification instead of thinking seriously about the real problems that confront us and the problems that concern the people of Queensland: jobs and education. You would think that Prime Minister Turnbull, who famously claims to value calm, methodical, grown-up policy debate, would have the good sense to reject this nonsense out of hand. Instead, he actually cuddles up to them. He cuddles up to One Nation. Perhaps it's actually just too difficult to reject the far right's vision when you have none of your own.

The far right are in no position to deal with our challenges. Good policy does actually make good politics. But the converse is not true, and far-right solutions are either the types of glib quotes that look good on a fundraising email sent into your base or they simply deflect attention off to the social issues where they feel more comfortable fighting. These are not real solutions; they are fake solutions, and the results from Queensland show that Queenslanders, like the rest of Australia, see straight through it. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.