State Election

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:44): I rise today to speak about the deplorable, dirty and desperate tactics used by the Labor Party, and their counterparts in the unions, during the recent election. In the more than six years since entering this place following the resignation of Nick Xenophon, I believe I have worked fairly, constructively and transparently with all sides of politics and stakeholders. Obviously, I cannot agree with everyone, but I feel that even in instances when I did not agree I have explained my reasons for taking my chosen position.

I have worked hard on a number of notable matters, including the Dust Diseases Act, the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act, WorkCover and, most recently, work health and safety. These examples and others clearly show that I have been an advocate for workers' rights and are contradictory to the sentiments expressed by Labor and the unions.

The smear campaign used by these parties during the election smacked of their desperation to use whatever means possible to turn voters against me and the X-Team, including corflutes, personalised letters, radio ads and even robocalls to some 250,000 households. Coincidentally, my running mate and I both received these robocalls encouraging us not to vote for the X-Team. Worst of all, they were all based on blatant lies.

Some may say that I am being a little oversensitive. After all, the Labor Party has demonstrated that it does not discriminate with who they play their dirty tricks on. At the 2010 state election, Family First became familiar with the lengths to which the Labor Party would go to secure votes after Labor Party volunteers were caught wearing blue T-shirts saying, 'Put your family first,' and handing out how-to-vote cards which had the same message. The how-to-vote cards directed preferences to the Labor Party candidate instead of the Liberals.

Changes to the Electoral Act followed to stamp out this deception, but they invented other devious means to circumvent the legislation and trick the voting public. At the last election, residents in the seat of Elder received a Labor Party flyer with the words 'Can you trust Habib?' emblazoned across what looked like a bullet-ridden brick wall. The flyer clearly had dog-whistling undertones and was concocted to utilise the Liberal Party candidate's ethnic surname and play on the fears of some in the community. Despite protests otherwise, this was clearly a targeted campaign to capitalise on prejudices. We did not see, 'Can you trust Barry?' flyers in Colton or, 'Can you trust Wingard' flyers in Mitchell.

In the seat of Reynell, voters were led to believe that the Labor candidate and now incumbent, Katrine Hildyard, was the doyenne of doorknocking after receiving handwritten calling cards saying that she was sorry she missed them when she called. After questions were raised regarding the differences in handwriting on the cards, it was revealed that notes signed off as, 'Kind regards, Katrine,' were in fact signed by the Katrine team and not Ms Hildyard herself. These actions were seemingly taken to mislead voters into thinking the candidate had personally visited the household.

Traditionally, the Labor Party volunteers wear red T-shirts. Incidentally, on 14 March I noticed Labor Party volunteers in the Bright electorate wearing bright orange T-shirts, the same colour that Nick Xenophon has been widely using since 1997—a mere coincidence, I am sure. In all these examples, the actions have been condoned and encouraged by the Labor Party leadership. No apologies have been made or, if they have, they have been drowned out by those defending the tactics. At least the Leader of the Opposition had the decency to apologise for misleading ads authorised by their party.

The anti X-Team campaign deliberately misconstrued the truth and highlighted to the public that Labor and the unions were running scared. Instead of focusing on what they had to offer the public of South Australia, they focused their attention and finances on attacking an independent group which has historically fought hard for workers' rights. Despite their best endeavours, I am still here but, had it not been for the lies and deceit I am sure I would have been joined by my running mate, Connie Bonaros. The nature of the unhealthy relationship between the ALP and the unions has been highlighted of late, and I am glad the public were smart enough to see through the lies of this incestuous pairing.