Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

I note, Senator McKim interjecting. Can I simply remind the honourable senator that it was Bob Brown, Leader of the Greens in 1983, who said he did not want renewable hydro energy because he favoured coal-fired energy? Fast forward 30 years—where is he now? Condemning coal-fired power and, by the way, wind power. The Australian people see through this foolishness. They see the cant. They see the hypocrisy. That is why the coalition was returned. Try as the Monash Forum might, no-one elevated the issue of coal mining more than Bob Brown and his petrol-burning, CO2-emitting, anti-Adani convoy. A convoy of southerners gate crashing Queensland to tell Queenslanders what they can't do wasn't exactly the wisest strategy. But, I hasten to add, most appreciated, lest I be seen as ungrateful. The arrogance, the southern superiority, the lack of empathy all helped to expose and publicise the true agenda of Labor and the Greens—an agenda to deny Australians jobs and hundreds of millions of Indians the opportunity to escape energy poverty.

Their desire to access our coal is because of its quality—high energy, low emissions. It's some of the very best in the world, which, in turn, would substitute the energy source of cow manure and forests. People can contemplate what might be best for the environment. And, when the facts don't suit, what do the left do? They simply belittle and besmirch. Those opposed to Bob Brown's convoy, namely the locals, or quiet Queenslanders, were labelled as Nazis and rednecks—always an endearing and winning tactic!—which, surprisingly, didn't win over the locals or, for that matter, other Australians. Indeed, labelling people as Nazis and rednecks might be considered by some as hate speech, but that's a topic for another day.

But the nastiness stakes were won by GetUp!. Their dishonest—blatantly dishonest—campaigns against leading coalition MPs backfired spectacularly with the excellent member for Boothby enduring all the ugly intimidation of sexism, genuine misogyny, threats and physical attacks on her office. Her electors were so repulsed she was rewarded with an increase in her vote. Well done, Ms Nicolle Flint, for meeting such cowardice and corruption with your determination and courage. Mr Josh Frydenberg, the Treasurer, had a dishonest campaign started against him, which GetUp! was shamed into withdrawing. Something similar happened in the electorate of Warringah. For GetUp! there are no boundaries. One of their operatives assaulted a Liberal campaign volunteer. But, when you're on the left and so self-righteous, the end always justifies the means. Thankfully, the public is now awake and has definitely repudiated GetUp! and its tactics. There were similar campaigns in Dickson against Mr Dutton, and, of course, he had a swing in his favour as well. So, it's a close call as to whether the Bob Brown Foundation or GetUp! wins first prize for assisting to raise the ire of the quiet Australians and spur them into determined political action and return the coalition.

When it comes to misreading public sentiment, Rugby Australia's sacking of Israel Folau is up there for the bronze medal, Bob Brown having scored gold just over second placegetter GetUp!. Rugby Australia's ham-fisted, saturated-in-political-correctness attempt to justify the unjustifiable, hot on the heels of the sacking of Professor Ridd of James Cook University, also awakened many quiet Australians into action. For them, enough was enough. Why would you sack Australia's best rugby player because of a paraphrased Bible verse? Are we really to be told that the Bible is hate speech and quoting it is a hate crime? This awoke the sleeping giant of Australians' inherent decency. They didn't take to convoys. They didn't run dishonest campaigns or egg offices or intimidate. They did what decent people do—they let their strong views be known through the ballot box by putting their No. 1 vote next to their local Liberal and National candidates' name. Indeed, these quiet Australians raised over $2 million for the Folau fighting fund within 48 hours, with the average donation less than $100, highlighting the genuine grassroots nature of the campaign. No George Soros funding here. No CFMEU funding and no AWU funding like GetUp! gets—just 22,000 genuine Australians donating less than $100 each on average.

Let there be no mistake: the Prime Minister did a fantastic job in the campaign, as did the federal director, Andrew Hirst, and our candidates and the thousands of supporters right around Australia. They were dedicated, they were focused and they knew what was at stake, so they campaigned right through to 6 pm on 18 May, taking nothing for granted. And they were richly rewarded for their efforts, with the confidence of the Australian people being placed with the coalition. But I cannot help but think that but for Bob Brown, GetUp! and Rugby Australia my colleagues and I may well have been be sitting on the other side of the chamber, in opposition. Given their sterling contribution to the coalition victory, it is only right and proper to thank Bob Brown, GetUp! and Rugby Australia; to fail to thank them may be interpreted as being somewhat ungrateful.

More seriously, I encourage our media and other commentators to reconsider their commentary and reflect: why were they so out of touch with the sentiment of our fellow Australians? Could it be they only wanted to listen to a loud, noisy, unrepresentative group which echoed their own shrill judgements? Those who took very tough decisions with an eye to the Australian people were vilified as wrecking the party, being out of touch, dinosaurs and worse, yet here we are today with an election result which has seen the self-appointed experts pulping their pre-prepared books, changing the titles of their books and rewriting slabs of others, yet not a word of recognition of how wrong they were in belittling and besmirching those who actually helped engineer the foundations of this win for the Australian people—but they never have and, I suspect, they never will.

I remember the scorn applied to the Liberal Party when it elected John Howard to the leadership. 'Back to the future'—they said—'snigger, snigger'. I recall similar scorn when we elected Tony Abbott to the leadership. 'Unelectable'—was their assessment—'snigger, snigger'. I recall similar scorn when we rejected the emissions trading scheme and the carbon tax. 'How out of touch can you get?' was their call—and, again, the snigger, snigger. It has, it seems, ever been thus and is unlikely to change soon. So my thanks goes out to those who stuck with the Liberal Party in the tough times, who helped campaign against all the odds in exposing the folly of Labor, the Greens, GetUp! and the politically correct and who helped empower the forgotten people, the Howard battlers, the Tony tradies and the quiet Australians to achieve a victory for common decency and those virtues and values that continue to make Australia the envy of the world.

We live in the greatest nation on earth, and the Australian people are well and truly onto this. They rejected the constant negative portrayal by the Left of their country, their culture and their values—the negativity in relation to, for example, our excellent refugee policy. The intake of refugees, in numerical terms per head of population, is right up there with the best in the world. What is more, the services we provide to those refugees are second to none in the world. And what do we do with our refugee policy? We seek to ensure that we help those most in need. Yet those of the Left somehow tell us that if you've got a stack of money you can pay criminal people smugglers and never bother setting foot in a refugee camp. They tell us you should be prioritised over those people that I personally visited in western Thailand living in a refugee camp with no sanitation, no air conditioning and no medical services supplied, as we'd provide. These people have been there not only for five years; you can multiply that by three or four—15 to 20 years—not knowing what their future holds and not knowing when they might be given placement in another country. When you've got to make the judgement call: to whom should we give priority? I would prefer to give priority to those people each and every day rather than those who have sought to game the system with their money and their employment of criminals to advance their cause. And the Australian people are awake to these sorts of factors despite the ongoing mantra from the Left, which seems to want to condemn everything that Australia does so exceptionally well. If you go around the world, people will ask why is it that Australia is able to protect its borders and have such a good policy in relation to refugees. It's because of strength, having a moral compass and knowing that supporting those most in need will always be the most appropriate way to move on such issues.

Similarly, there is the Greens' condemnation in the previous speech on drug testing for welfare recipients. This is not about demonising. The best thing you can do for those people who might be afflicted with drugs and unemployment is to say, 'We want to help you, and if you've got an issue, we will seek to help you out of that life, because it's not good for you, not good for your family, not good for society and not good for the economy.' Everybody knows that drugs are often the cause for people not being able to gain employment or maintain their employment. We also know, in relation to employment, that your self-esteem, your mental health, your physical health and your social interactions are all enhanced if you are given the benefit of gainful employment. So why wouldn't we, as a caring, compassionate society, say to people, 'We will seek to assist you, to lift you out of the position you're in, so you can become self-reliant and get the benefits that so many other Australians enjoy'?

Our task as the government is to lead and serve as custodians of the trust placed in us and to proactively deliver for the quiet Australians who want their government to focus on jobs, cost of living, national security, community safety and family, and to resist the folly of the divisive and corrosive political correctness agenda of those that inhabit the Canberra bubble, preaching their agenda of jealousy, envy, identity politics and climate emergencies. Knowing my colleagues as I do, I see us committing ourselves and dedicating ourselves to the continued service of the people of Australia to the very best of our ability during the life of this, the 46th Parliament.