Source : Perth Now news
Anthony Albanese says Australians “owe it to history” to defeat One Nation in a blistering attack on the populist party’s credibility with voters.
The Prime Minister’s speech to the Labor faithful in Queensland warned One Nation would do and say “anything” to win votes, including bending facts, spreading misinformation and turning “Australian against Australian”.
His remarks come after One Nation unseated Labor in the WA electorate of Secret Harbour in a historic upset on Saturday.
“Across the world, hard-right populists are on the march. Peddling politics that is dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest,” Mr Albanese told the Queensland state Labor conference on Sunday.
“We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history. And we will defeat them.”
Mr Albanese warned “parties like One Nation” were ones of grievance and had “no serious answers” to the problems of Australians.
“Their own divisions and disagreements are now showing through,” he said.
“They think Australians are lazy and overpaid. That people working from home are bludging.
“That domestic violence is sometimes a woman’s fault. That we should – somehow – become a monoculture.
“It’s obvious, One Nation are not on the side of working people … Every time they achieve any success, it leads to chaos and division.”
Referring to the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation as a “coalition of chaos”, Mr Albanese insisted Labor was the “only mainstream force” in the country governing in the interests of the Australian people.
But One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said Mr Albanese had relied on “tropes, bromides and basically fallacious statements” in his characterisation of the party.
“(Labor says) we’re racists … we’re homophobes … we don’t want to protect women in a domestic violence relationship. That’s crazy,” Mr Joyce told News24.
The turncoat Nationals MP accused Mr Albanese of being a chronic liar, referring to Labor’s broken promises on the capital gains tax.
“You just can’t believe these people. They created the metaphor for themselves. They are liars … they are unbelievable,” Mr Joyce said.“So when they talk, you’ve just got to work on the theory that it doesn’t matter or anything.”
In a controversial National Press Club address in June, party leader Pauline Hanson outlined a number of party policies, including winding back paid parental leave – which she later publicly walked back – the cutting of worker entitlements, and rejecting Australia’s longstanding policy of multiculturalism.
In separate remarks about a month later, the One Nation leader labelled domestic violence “two-way street” and urged women “not to put up with it”.
“It is wrong, but it’s also a two-way street,” she told 4BC Mornings.
“I think today everyone’s sitting on a time bomb because the pressures on cost of living and people having to be able to pay the bills, tension that’s going on or if you lose your job or the kids, what’s happening with the children these days.
“Everyone is under so much pressure.”
