COALITION OF DIVISION A DISASTER FOR US ALL

It is now clear that the next Federal election will be Labor against the emerging Liberal-National-One Nation Coalition.

Some Liberals are already pushing for a formal three-way coalition. That would be chaotic. A minority government that hates minorities. When One Nation was facing its first election as a party, Kim Beazley asked a simple question: “When are we going to hear One Nation talk about something that means something to ordinary Australians?”

It is three decades later, and we are all still waiting.

When people are facing pressures on their household budgets, they deserve more than false hope from a political brand built on grievances not solutions. I despise the divisive politics of One Nation. Their enablers in the Liberal and National parties who have helped them out for 30 years are no better. Now with Angus Taylor taking over the Liberal leadership we are seeing the Liberal Party at risk of becoming little more than a One Nation cover band.

Thirty years ago, Pauline Hanson blasted into national consciousness as a dumped Liberal Party candidate.

Jim Barron, then Queensland State director of the Liberal Party, had warned Hanson twice about her extreme views on Indigenous Australians and Asian migrants. But it took a third strike of extremist hate before Hanson was “out”.

“The third and final straw was a newspaper interview she gave, bagging welfare payments to Indigenous people and to Chinese and migrants. And that was it for me,” Barron said.

John Howard and the Queensland Liberals took a firm stand and kicked Hanson out.

Already the Australian public have figured out that Angus Taylor is no John Howard. It was Howard who put One Nation last in Farrer in 2001. Now Taylor is desperately weighing up preferencing One Nation to help get them elected in Farrer. Preferences is not the only encouragement on offer. Just last year the Nationals gifted One Nation a former deputy prime minister.

I have seen 30 years of Pauline Hanson taking parliamentary salaries, cashing in on political party funding and delivering nothing but stunts. She barely turns up to Parliament, and when she does it is normally to do a reheated stunt for the cameras - like an overcooked steak on a sandwich press.

But here is the problem with One Nation. They have achieved nothing. Can you name three things One Nation has achieved in 30 years? Can you even name one?

I can think of many stunts. But not a single achievement.

No achievements, but I have seen the damage. Hanson's comment that “I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians” still reverberates around the world.

Investors and visitors to our country still raise it. This matters because how we are seen in our region has a real world impact on local jobs and on investment.

Only Labor has stood steadfast against the divisive politics of Hanson, Barnaby Joyce and their growing band of rats and rejects.

What is also clear is that only Labor can stop One Nation. Labor puts One Nation last on our how to vote cards. We have been doing so for the entire time they have existed as a political party. In 2007, as a shadow minister, Anthony Albanese said: “We are putting One Nation and Pauline Hanson last on all of our how-to-votes, right across the board.” And this year, heading into the election, he was asked who the Australian people should preference last.

The Prime Minister's answer was consistent with his views 18 years ago: “I want people to vote 1 Labor. There is something called One Nation whose views on race are pretty repugnant as well.”

Sadly, one of the reasons that the Liberal Party is being seduced by One Nation is because the Liberals no longer know what they stand for.

Labor doesn't need to go looking for what we stand for. We stand for the ordinary Australians. For their jobs, their health and the future of their environment - and we always have. The Australian people have trusted us to deliver on that vision. Because they trust Labor to deliver mainstream government for a modern Australia.