Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

If you wanted an example of why the Labor Party are in opposition, we saw it in today's question time. We saw it in that performance from Senator Chisholm, talking about their performance in Queensland, which we will come back to, and we see it in the pathetic attacks on Senator McKenzie in this place. Senator Bilyk asked about bullying in one of her questions. What I have seen over a period of time from the Labor Party is that every time we have a high-performing senior female cabinet colleague the Labor Party seeks to bully them. We're seeing it again with Senator McKenzie. We see it with Senator Watt all the time. We heard it from Senator Chisholm. We used to get it ad nauseam from Senator Cameron. Every time there was a female colleague, particularly people like Minister Cash, you would have the disgraceful bullying attacks coming from Senator Cameron.

Let's be clear: this pile on is not based on any substance. I listened very closely to these questions. Issues around the dairy industry are very important, as is getting these things right, but the questions didn't go to that. They went to tidbits of gossip that are being published by unnamed sources in such and such a paper, in such and such a publication, asking about absolutely nothing. This is what the Labor Party have resorted to. They're not prepared to actually sit and debate the issues.

Senator McKenzie is going through the process of getting this right. Do you know what? A reform like this is not easy. You are dealing with disparate interests in different parts of the country. If it were that easy, it would have happened a long time ago. She is getting on with the job of taking on that difficult reform. Instead of engaging in that discussion, we have the politics of smear and bullying from the Labor Party which we have seen so often. I'm reminded again of Senator Cameron, when he would come into this place and say to Senator Cormann, 'Why do you need to hold Minister Cash's hand?' I remember Senator Cameron coming into this place and calling female colleagues 'silly school girls' when he didn't like what they were saying. This has been the modus operandi of the Labor Party, right up to the last election. They have been at it for the whole six years they have been in opposition. They have been at it for the six months since they were consigned to opposition again. If you want to get to the why, it is because they don't want to address the substance.

There are a lot of important issues to be talking about in this place, and the Labor Party have failed to address them. That is why they go to the politics of fear and smear. They are walking away from their attack on Minister Taylor. After having a fruitless go at Minister McKenzie, they come right at the end. I wonder why they're walking away from that attack. I put it to senators: why? It might be because, far from it being Minister Taylor's credibility that's now on the line, it's now shadow Attorney-General Dreyfus's credibility that is on the line.

Senator Walsh interjecting—

You may laugh, Senator, but when you've got a record of that many vexatious referrals to the police, that much wasting of the resources of police on your baseless political attacks, who is going to hold you to account? If the police were to come back and say, 'Nothing to see here,' as they have every other time that Minister Dreyfus has actually referred someone, wouldn't it be time that shadow Attorney-General Dreyfus resigned? How many more times can he get it wrong?

They don't want to talk about that anymore because that attack isn't working. They're very comfortable in the bullying, gossipy, aggressive attacks on Minister McKenzie, which are getting nowhere near the substance. I'll tell you this, Deputy President: they don't want to talk about the facts because when it comes to policy, we know where they stand. When it comes to the economy, they know they don't have a leg to stand on. What was their economic policy, and what is still their economic policy? It's $387 billion of extra taxes. The politics of envy. The politics of class warfare. They talked about the NDIS in their questions. Let's look at their record. They weren't able to deliver the NDIS. They didn't have the money. They left a funding gap. They couldn't list drugs on the PBS anymore because they couldn't manage the budget and couldn't manage the economy.

When your record is as bad as the modern ALP, I would suggest it is time to change tack. Senators opposite, the bullying and smearing and politics of fear may suit your personalities but it does nothing to benefit debate in this country and nothing to bring you back into government. (Time expired)