This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Greens senator Scott Ludlam has used his last speech in the Senate before the Western Australian upper house byelection to deliver a stinging rebuke to the Abbott government.

Ludlam’s address, sardonic at times, straight at others, and delivered to the senate at 10.08pm on Monday in a near empty house, lasted only seven minutes but covered a broad range of policy areas.

Ludlam invited prime minister Abbott to visit Western Australia. Upon arrival, Ludlam advised: “Understand that you are now closer to Denpasar than to Western Sydney, in a state where an entire generation has been priced out of affordable housing.

“Recognise that you are standing in a place where the drought never ended, where climate change from land clearing and fossil fuel combustion is a lived reality that is already costing jobs, property and lives.”

Ludlam continued: “Mr Prime Minister, at your next press conference we invite you to leave your excruciatingly boring three-word slogans at home. If your image of Western Australia is of some caricatured redneck backwater that is enjoying the murderous horror unfolding on Manus Island, you are reading us wrong.

“Every time you refer to us as the ‘mining state’ as though the western third of our ancient continent is just Gina Rinehart’s inheritance to be chopped, benched and blasted, you are reading us wrong.”

Just one other senator, Liberal Helen Kroger, was present at the time of delivery.

Ludlam continued to blast the incumbent. “Just as the reign of the dinosaurs was cut short to their great surprise, it may be that the Abbott government will appear as nothing more than a thin, greasy layer in the core sample of future political scientists drilling back into the early years of the 21st century,” he said.

He continued: “The fact that your only proposal for environmental reforms thus far is to leave minister Greg Hunt playing solitaire for the next three years while you outsource his responsibilities to the same premier who presides over the shark cull has been noted too.”

His criticism turned to the attorney general George Brandis. He described Brandis’ handling of the revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as a “degrading capitulation to the surveillance state”.

He branded Abbott’s leadership team as “blundering and technically illiterate”.

Finally, Ludlam described Abbott’s handling of asylum seekers as a “heartless racist exploitation of people’s fears”.

“Your determined campaign to provoke fear in our community – fear of innocent families fleeing war and violence in our region – in the hope that it would bring out the worst in Australians is instead bringing out the best in us,” Ludlam said.

Western Australians return to the polls on 5 April.