Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

is going to be an interesting part of relevance to this, but I digress. As I was saying, the member for Hume declared he would take up the fight to One Nation. We're not seeing that in tonight's debate. We're not seeing them take up the fight to One Nation in this motion at all. They're leaving it to the Labor Party, time and time again, to take up the fight to One Nation. They said they were going to draw a line, but what did we get? We got a conga line instead.

It's getting a bit awkward—the dumping of net zero, the mass migration dog-whistles, the 'cash is king' stuff. When One Nation says something wild in the morning, by lunchtime the Liberals are coming into this place saying: 'Actually, we've always thought that. That's always been our policy.' I'm sure we're going to hear that when they back in this motion tonight. We know that backing in One Nation for the Liberal Party is a fraught endeavour. The primary vote for One Nation exceeded that of the Liberal Party in South Australia. Hitching your wagon to their star is just going to result in the complete annihilation of the Liberal Party.

What is in danger here in this particular motion is something much deeper. This is not just about cash and it's not just about regulation; it's about the type of politics that we allow to take root in this country. On one side, you have leadership from Anthony Albanese, making it clear that Australia is a modern, multicultural nation. It's a nation that moves forward, not backward. It's a nation that rejects the politics of division and fear. From the other side, silence, accommodation, complicity.

I will acknowledge that, up until recently, there has been one voice on the other side who's been willing to speak plainly on One Nation, and that was Senator Matt Canavan, who has called out the divisive rhetoric that we have seen from One Nation, until today, when he signalled a preference deal with One Nation. So who is going to stand up to One Nation? It's not those guys. Apparently, on the opposition benches, it takes courage to do the right thing because leadership means more than saying things that are not always popular; it means standing for something.