STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms SITOU (Reid) (13:53): Former prime minister John Howard issued a clarion call to today's Liberal Party. Don't countenance a coalition with One Nation. Find your principles and oppose their divisive politics.

Pauline Hanson has loomed large over much of my political life. I remember hearing, as a teenager, her first speech. It was the first time I questioned my place in this country.

As the daughter of migrants, I knew it was my family and my community that she was targeting. She has spent almost three decades stoking fear and division in Australia, providing glib solutions to challenging issues and blaming and demonising migrants. During all those years, there have always been members of the coalition who were willing to take a stance against her divisive politics.

John Howard disendorsed her. National Party senator Ron Boswell ran against her and won. Malcolm Turnbull rejected her anti-immigration policies.

This time, it's time the Liberal Party found its principles again. It's time they stopped flirting with One Nation. It's time the Leader of the Opposition stood up against some of his colleagues and ruled out a coalition with One Nation.

Because that's the position of the Labor Party—we will never demonise migrants for the sake of populist policies.