A Liberal frontbencher has likened Anthony Albanese to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in a major speech decrying Labor\u2019s \u201ccommunist\u201d tax reforms.<\/p>\n
Opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg fronted the National Press Club on Wednesday to present the Coalition\u2019s plan to fix the housing affordability crisis and \u201ctalk honestly\u201d about the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in an Australian tomorrow which is prosperous, where we treat each other as equals, where we are secure in the world, and our children have a better shot at the future than we had,\u201d he said, adding that his \u201cview of tomorrow makes me dissatisfied with today\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeak governments have ceded power to unions, and minor parties stoke division \u2013 both have given up aspiring for our country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me dissatisfied and grumpy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He declared that the \u201ccountry is sick\u201d and said the Liberal Party was the cure.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabor is the government for vested interests,\u201d Senator Bragg said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabor\u2019s North Korean-style national conference confirms their strategy: reward vested interests and punish small businesses and punters.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabor has killed enterprise. They\u2019ve killed small business. They\u2019ve instituted state-sanctioned corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his party had \u201chas contributed to our malaise by not being prepared to develop enough alternative policy and wear political risk\u201d, and that \u201cindolent\u201d leadership over the past two decades had made Australia \u201cmore fragmented\u201d.<\/p>\n
Senator Bragg later took aim at the \u201c$77bn in new taxes\u201d introduced under Labor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese communist style taxes are nonsensical,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Coalition and conservative commentators described the Prime Minister as ruling Labor with an \u201ciron fist\u201d after the party\u2019s highly orchestrated national conference last month.<\/p>\n
He and senior members of his government faced claims of muzzling debate after backbencher Ed Husic failed to find a seconder to back his resolution acknowledging UN probe findings that Israel \u201cdeliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank\u201d.<\/p>\n
Delegates at the conference, which sets Labor\u2019s national platform each three years, instead backed a position that closely aligned with the Albanese government\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Jewish MP Josh Burns and Palestinian-Australian MP Basem Abdo underscored the display of unity by embracing after choosing \u201cempathy over outrage\u201d and \u201cdialogue over division\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese rejected debate had been stifled and insisted he had \u201cno problem\u201d with Mr Husic or any other delegate \u201chaving their say and making their contribution\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEd, like every other delegate, has a right to come along and to pursue whatever they \u2026 see as their objective,\u201d he said of his former minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s fine by me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese also rejected there was a lack of transparency with how consensus was built in the party, even though he conceded debate had changed since the fiery battles of ideas he took part in as a younger parliamentarian.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe party has changed and one of the things that\u2019s happened in the party is we are more cohesive, more united than we\u2019ve ever been before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n