Federal Election

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:33): I suppose politics in Australia has always been played pretty hard for many years, both at a South Australian level and across the nation. However, it concerns me that in recent years the tone, especially around election campaigns, has changed. Several instances certainly come to mind, and one is the infamous campaign in Mawson about putting your family first.

The Hon. C.L. Wingard: Dodgy.

Mr DULUK: It was pretty dodgy, as the member for Gibson highlights, and a pretty veiled deception for the voters in Mawson. Another recent one that comes to mind is 'You can't trust Habib', an absolutely racist, despicable attack on the then candidate for Elder in the 2014 election, who is of course now the member for Elder. I have to pay tribute to the Hon. Ed Husic MP, a New South Wales Labor member of parliament, who at the time condemned that behaviour in the whole disgraceful affair.

I do not recall anyone from the state Labor Party, nor the author of that flier that went out into the electorate, taking any responsibility. The former premier, the former member for Cheltenham, certainly took no responsibility as the front of that campaign in 2014. Since 2014, that has been the tone of the debate we have heard. I know that the member for Napier is representing the Labor Party, and I really wish he could atone for that on behalf of the party. That is the tone of where we are at. Here we are in 2019—

The SPEAKER: The member for Taylor, not Napier.

Mr GEE: Point of order: I draw your attention to the state of the house.

A quorum having been formed:

Mr DULUK: As I was saying, the whole torrid way in which politics is going started with 'Can you put your family first?' back in the 2010 campaign, and then in 2014 the disgraceful attack on the then candidate and now member for Elder, 'Can you trust Habib?', pure racism from those opposite, and now we are at the 2019 election. I will give the Labor Party at least some credit: they are outsourcing. They say they are not for privatisation, but they are: they are outsourcing a lot of their dirty work to GetUp!

GetUp! is undertaking the dirty work on behalf of the Labor Party. Of course, Bill Shorten was a founding board member of GetUp! and the AWU gave $100,000 a year of seed funding. This organisation takes more foreign donations than almost any other in Australia. It is out there, part of a campaign putting swastikas on corflutes in the member for Kooyong's seat and defacing the corflutes of the wonderful member in Sydney, Mr Julian Leesa, with Nazi propaganda. Here in South Australia, we are seeing a disgraceful performance by GetUp! with its deceptive lies and misconduct. That really bothers me.

Closer to home, unfortunately 12 very small cage-laid eggs were thrown on my office overnight, and that is also the hypocrisy of GetUp! If GetUp! was a true organisation, it would have used barn-laid market fresh eggs. My office was egged overnight, and we made a joke of it because I think you have to make light of this; however, when politicians and people in public life cannot go about their business and interact with the community, that is very sad. We saw an elderly gentleman, a campaign volunteer and a retiree, have his anti Bill Shorten bus defaced on Tuesday night, which is a big concern—defaced by none other than a general practitioner. I hope that the AMA looks at that.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: A medical practitioner.

Mr DULUK: A medical practitioner. Then this morning we find out that the member for Boothby's campaign office was defaced with some disgraceful sexual innuendo. What I would like to do, and I know the Deputy Premier did this as well, is call on and ask those opposite to disassociate themselves from GetUp! and its foreign donations and its role in this federal election and from the behaviour that has been happening in my electorate and the member for Boothby's electorate.

We have seen someone charged for stalking the candidate Georgina Downer, in Mayo, and I believe that there is a court case on 22 May, and the AFP and police have visited an alleged stalker in Boothby. This person is associated with the City of Mitcham Residents Group. I noticed when I went back through Facebook and Twitter that the Labor Party has liked many tweets and posts related to the City of Mitcham Residents Group.

I want the Labor Party to distance themselves from the dirty smear campaign that is happening in Australian politics. We saw the Prime Minister at a Country Women's Association (CWA) campaign function. What have we come to if we cannot support the CWA and go to one of their events without being egged? We have seen Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, try to drag in our Prime Minister's beliefs, views and faith and the way he practices his religion as a campaign point.

The Labor Party have stooped to a new low in Australian politics. They are the ones who always cry wolf, but they are too often the ones who are happy to sit by and allow this disgraceful behaviour to go on unchecked. I call on the Leader of the Opposition and the secretary of the Labor Party here in South Australia, Mr Reggie Martin, to come out and condemn these disgraceful campaign activities.