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

If the last couple of months have taught Australians anything, it is that there's no-one more in touch with middle Australia than Senator Abetz. That's so obvious. We've seen that time and time again, and I think we saw it with that contribution here today as well.

I do want to get onto the substantive issue, following my colleague Senator Watt, but I can't let Senator Fifield go past. I thought his performance today was quite interesting. He gets a question about thousands of people who are going to have their NBN rollout delayed, and he's nonplussed—he gives an answer, but he's not that fussed about it. He gets a question about the triple j Hottest 100 and he's all action. He's sending letters; he's demanding this; he's demanding that. I think that just shows you where they are at on that side of the chamber.

Senator Abetz tries to say they're focused on big issues. They spent more time today talking about the Hottest 100 and Australia Day than they did on energy issues or the important issues of the NBN. We also know that they spent the 24 hours after the election result in Queensland on Saturday saying, 'This doesn't have any federal implications,' yet they've all been talking about it a lot since. And the best thing is that there's no consistency about what happened. They're all divided. We know that they've got form on this, and it's hardly a surprise. Senator Brandis, to his credit—he's certainly been misleading on a lot of things, but we've come to expect that—accurately described One Nation: 'If you deal with them, it's poison.' That I can agree with, but the problem is that there's a failure to act. He says the right thing, but, when he was given the opportunity today to answer a question about putting One Nation last, he ignored it. He said the Prime Minister agreed with him. If the Prime Minister agreed with him, he'd make a simple statement—'We will put them last'—yet he hasn't done it.

I was with Senator Canavan on Saturday night doing TV coverage of the election. He thinks that the primary vote in Queensland going back nine points has been a great outcome. He thinks coming fourth in Rockhampton is a great outcome. This has been the response from Senator Canavan. He says, 'We just need to sell and market better.' The one area where there was policy consistency in the Queensland LNP and the federal LNP was energy. They both want to pursue a coal-fired power station in North Queensland. That was comprehensively rejected on the weekend. That was what Tim Nicholls was running on in regional Queensland—they would build a coal-fired power station. Their vote went backwards. That is the reality of their policy. That is where their policy matches up with the federal team. They attack renewable energy. They said they were going to build a coal-fired power station, and their vote went backwards. That is the response.

Senator Macdonald has probably gone the closest to hitting the nail on the head. He spoke about what the problem with the federal LNP has been:

There's no doubt about it—Malcolm is not seen as representing people in northern and regional Queensland.

He went on to say:

… people don't know what he stands for.

If his own Senate colleague doesn't know what he stands for, how can the people of Queensland know? The policies that they've been pursuing are so out of touch with regional Queenslanders, and the vote that we saw on the weekend is an example of this. Then we saw the member for Dawson, and he's basically going down the cuddle-up path. He wants to appease One Nation voters. The one person they're not listening to is former senator Ron Boswell. He has said this consistently since One Nation won seats back here in the Senate and he's said it again in recent days: 'There's only one way you can defeat them and that's if you fight them.'

That's why they're so divided. They don't know whether to go with the Christensen model. Senator Brandis says the right thing; his actions say something different. But they won't listen to former Senator Boswell. Because we know—he's been consistent on this, and he said this in his farewell speech in this chamber—that the proudest thing he did was take the fight up to now Senator Hanson and defeat her. The present-day Nationals are an absolute shadow of the legacy of Senator Boswell. It's a pity. I'm sure he'll be here next week—Senator Canavan mentioned the Christmas party. It would be worthwhile if the Queensland team got around former Senator Boswell and sought some advice.

The Labor Party in Queensland have taken a principled decision. When One Nation were first on the scene 20 years ago, we put them last. I'm sure, if you listened to former Senator Boswell, you'd get similar advice. On the weekend, Labor was rewarded for taking that principled decision, especially in South-East Queensland, as Senator Brandis knows so well.