Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to place on the record of the Senate my congratulations to the member for Blair, Shayne Neumann, on his outstanding seventh election victory for the community there. I said during the election campaign that you would be hard-pressed to find a harder-working member of parliament than the member for Blair. In his election victory and the commitments he was able to secure for sporting and multicultural groups, as well as a commitment of $200 million for the Amberley interchange upgrade, were a testament to his work ethic and commitment to delivering for his community.

That is why it is with deep disappointment that I place on the record of the Senate some of the misinformation, scaremongering and aggressive behaviour which were employed by those in the LNP during the campaign in Blair. The member for Blair and his campaign team had to put up with some of the worst campaign behaviour I have ever seen in my 20 years as a Labor Party member. Anyone who drove through the suburbs of Ipswich or the Somerset region would have seen the juvenile and misleading attacks on the member for Blair made by those opposite and their mates.

There were thousands of corflutes placed on the streets of Blair by those opposite. This included hundreds of plainly bizarre caricatures of Shayne as a Lego character which were illegally authorised by a made-up 'Ian Renkin from Battler Voice'. These were later sanctioned by the AEC and revealed to have been authorised by former Queensland Liberal Party vice-president Graham Young. The same authoriser peddled misinformation on other corflutes, claiming that Labor were going to introduce a tax on utes and that Shayne Neumann was personally responsible for crime in Blair. There were also deeply concerning reports from multiple voters in Blair that received cold calls from individuals who purported to be from the Labor Party pushing divisive issues with voters to turn people off from voting for the Labor Party.

It is a credit to the member for Blair and his campaign team that they rose above these lies and misinformation put forward by those opposite. They were laser focused on talking to voters about the issues which mattered to them, delivering more cost-of-living relief, strengthening Medicare with bulk-billing and delivering Shayne's plan for better roads for Blair.

I would also like to put on record the deeply disturbing relationship between the LNP campaign and the Exclusive Brethren. This was first revealed by the Age during the election, which reported that members of the Plymouth Brethren Church had been deployed to at least 17 marginal seats across the country, including in the seat of Blair. On the ground, the Exclusive Brethren had rented out multiple mobile billboards and LED message trailers across the electorate which encouraged voters to 'Make Australia happy' and 'Put Labor last'. In addition, it was reported that the Exclusive Brethren had made nearly one million phone calls for those opposite during the campaign.

Polling booths in Blair were overcrowded with as many as 20 members of the Exclusive Brethren handing out for the LNP at each polling booth. Their behaviour at polling booths was absolutely atrocious. As the member for Blair recalled in his address-in-reply last week:

Exclusive Brethren members stood in front of Labor volunteers and verbally abused them—men and women—physically blocked them from handing out how-to-vote cards, filmed Labor volunteers …

When I helped on the Raceview early voting booth, I heard from voters who complained about the intimidating environment heading into the booth and the absurd number of volunteers handing out. The scale of the Exclusive Brethren operation across the country begs the important question: what did those opposite promise the Exclusive Brethren in return for their support on the campaign? If those opposite are committed to renewal, they should come clean in terms of the agreement they reached.

I want to again congratulate the member for Blair on his victory. Those opposite threw everything at his campaign and stooped to an all-time low in campaigning. Anyone who was associated with the LNP campaign in Blair should be ashamed of their behaviour and that association. But it still wasn't enough. The member for Blair stood strong. He stood on his principles and track record of what he delivered for his community, and I know that, now that he is re-elected, he will go on to continue to deliver for his community and deliver the election promises that he made as a member of the ALP. Those opposite continue to push the politics of division and commit to scare tactics rather than actually having a meaningful policy offering for the community, but those on this side of the Senate will get on with the job of delivering for Australians and doing what we can to ensure that we're there to help them.