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

That's certainly not the Australia that I encounter when I travel the country, and they are not the discussions that I have with men around the country at those times. It says a lot about what the Liberal Party have become in recent years, when you see a contribution like that and we see the effort from the opposition leader, Mr Taylor, yesterday, which was the weakest explanation that I have ever seen at a press conference from an opposition leader in my lifetime. Absolutely disgraceful! I think anyone over there that might have had any engagement with Angus Taylor or supported him as opposition leader would be shivering in their boots about that sort of performance yesterday. He would have known that question was coming, and the best he could do was gibber on without any defence of multiculturalism.

But that is the Liberal Party in 2026. That is what they have become: they come into the chambers like this and actually think that that is a contribution that they want to make and that advances their party or advances the interests of the country. That is not what I encounter when I go out and talk to people. To be honest, it's not a lot that you get when you talk privately with the members of the Liberal Party as well, but they're not actually brave enough to stand up against that sort of contribution, and that's why they are suffering at the hands of One Nation at the moment—because they actually are not brave enough to stand up and fight.

At the start of this year, we had a contribution following the passing of former senator Ron Boswell, who said his proudest achievement was actually taking on One Nation and defeating Pauline Hanson in an election—defeating Pauline in the Senate. This lot here, the Liberals and Nationals, are a pale imitation of that. We saw evidence of it in the contribution from Senator Antic. We saw evidence yesterday in the contribution at the press conference from the opposition leader, Angus Taylor. Australia deserves so much better from the Liberal and National parties than what we're seeing dished up by this mob. We will stand up for multicultural Australia, and we will stand up every day of the week.