Self-professed Labor “rat” Rob Pyne has told Queensland parliament that critics of his move to desert the Palaszczuk government are motivated by careerism and “neanderthal tribalism”.
Pyne, giving his first speech as an independent in the House on Tuesday, quipped that his critics’ ignorance of Labor history meant that “they can’t even get their pejoratives right”.
“I have been referred to as a traitor, megalomaniac and an LNP dog, whereas anyone with an ounce of knowledge of Labor history would know the correct term is ‘rat’,” he said.
“So get it right, pass the cheese and make sure it’s [far north Queensland’s] own Mungalli Creek ricotta.”
Pyne, a day after joining a pact with the Katter’s Australian party to try heading off an early state election by threatening to install a Liberal National government, said he retained a “lifetime of commitment” to the broader labour movement.
He believed he would vote in way that was “if anything more consistent with the commonly held beliefs of rank-and-file ALP members and working Queenslanders”.
“The most difficulty the parliamentary Labor party will find securing my vote will be when they stray from those very values,” Pyne said.
“Many party members who are motivated by progressive values will continue to support me.”
Among those critics who got Labor’s terminology for defection correct – according to Pyne’s definition – was the Electrical Trades Union, which said he would “go down in Labor history as a Labor rat, who not only ratted on his constituents but also the hard-working men and women that put him there”.
The union’s state secretary, Peter Simpson, said Pyne had committed a “gross betrayal” of electricity workers by countenancing support of an LNP government “hell bent on selling the state’s assets”.
“As Lawrence Springborg has repeated time and time again, he is open to having a conversation on asset sales, and will have no qualms selling off the state’s electricity network if given a chance,” Simpson said.
“Rob Pyne, by signing this letter, has given him that chance.”
Pyne and KAP MPs Robbie Katter and Shane Knuth said on Monday they did not expect Palaszczuk to test their threat to back the LNP, saying the move was to “neutralise the threat” of her calling an election before the government had served a full term.
The crossbench MPs argued that voters oppose an early election and support the extra check on executive power that their hold on the balance of power allows in Queensland’s single house of parliament.
Labor has flagged a possible early election as a chance to win clear popular backing.
Pyne told parliament that those “most outraged by my decision have been those for whom party politics is little more than a partisan game, based on neanderthal tribalism, and those for whom the Labor party is not a matter of conviction, but a vehicle for career advancement”.
“The irony in some of the criticism from those folk has been their lack of knowledge of Labor history. I doubt they would know of Tom Aitken, Fred Patterson or other icons of the movement. In fact I doubt some of them would know TJ Ryan from OJ Simpson.”
The Cairns MP has cited “historic neglect” of his city and the far north, saying standards in some health facilities were “third world”.
“In saying no to ‘business as usual’ I am fully aware of the political price, but I am prepared to sacrifice my position in a safe Labor seat so I can deliver outcomes for Cairns and sleep better at night by knowing I have voted with what my conscience tells me is best for Cairns and Queensland,” he said on Tuesday.
