QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms RISHWORTH (Kingston—Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (14:50): I thank the member for Bennelong for that question. Yesterday was the International Day of Democracy—a reminder that our democratic system is something that we all, as Australians, must work together to build and maintain. Our democracy is about more than getting out and casting your vote every three years.
It's about being able to speak up and advocate for your communities. It's about promoting facts over misinformation. It's about being able to participate free from intimidation.
Recently, through the important work of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, we have seen the antidemocratic and intimidatory behaviour of some groups from the last election exposed. This includes the Plymouth Brethren, with their ties to far-right extremists, who they used to try to influence the last election. Make no mistake.
The goal of the Brethren was to elect the Liberal Party. The Sydney Morning Herald reported: The stunts were just one arm of the Brethren church's multimillion-dollar, undisclosed effort to help elect Peter Dutton as prime minister. Leaked internal brethren material exposed in the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald showed coordinated plots by the Brethren and their far-right-wing extremist friends to harass and intimidate political participants.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported: Chats on encrypted apps show Brethren figures tailed politicians and fed "private intel" on their locations to far-right activists with a history of white supremacist associations. I note of particular concern in the media reports the allegation that senior Brethren business leaders used a duffel bag of cash to pay far-right extremists and Neo-Nazis to ambush campaign events.
These allegations are disturbing and disgraceful and have no place in our society. The opposition needs to come out and condemn the actions of the Plymouth Brethren, and they need to answer questions about what they knew about these alleged arrangements. On the ground, I heard from too many Australians that they were intimidated and overwhelmed by the hostility of behaviour at polling booths.
I think we can all agree that threats and intimidation have no place in our democracy. They are utterly disgraceful. Politics should be about a contest of ideas about how to make our country better.
We need to be able to have a respectful debate in this country, no matter what side of politics you're on. It's important that all those participating in our elections are able to do so free from physical intimidation and harassment. (Time expired)