Maverick Nationals MP George Christensen is using his final hours as the party's whip to lash out at his leader and other senior government figures over race-hate speech laws.
The north Queensland MP has dismissed as "nonsense" arguments for not rewording a contentious section of the Racial Discrimination Act which outlaws speech likely to offend or insult someone based on their race.
"As far as I'm concerned this is a fundamental issue not only for democracy, but for the base of the Liberal and National parties," he said in a statement on Thursday.
"I would expect that those parties who form the coalition would not walk away from it."
Earlier in the week Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and a number of his party colleagues said the issue was not being raised by people in their electorate.
"They weren't talking about the Australian Building and Construction Commission either, but we still brought it back," Mr Christensen said.
The MP also has Treasurer Scott Morrison in his sights.
"I have heard it stated that this issue doesn't create one job - neither does the Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform Bill, but we're still doing that."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says any decision to change Section 18C of the Act will be up to cabinet and ultimately the government party room.
"We should never, ever be ashamed or afraid of looking at the balance between protecting people from race hate speech and freedom of speech," he told reporters in Canberra.
Free speech was not something that should be taken for granted.
"If you lose it, you'll know that it's gone," Mr Turnbull said.
But like the treasurer, the prime minister said changing 18C was not going to "result in people making another investment and taking on more employees".
Mr Joyce says he is focused on fixing the biggest issue in his "'good mate's'... seat" - solving the dispute between sugar milling company Wilmar and marketer Queensland Sugar Limited.
"I'll go up and talk to the cane farmers; I'll say, 'Fellas, I was going to try and sort this out but apparently I'm going to talk about 18C. Now you haven't looked it up so Google it'," the deputy prime minister told reporters in Canberra.
"You know full well that what those cane farmers will say to me is, 'if you do - we will rip your head off'."
Other top priorities on the minds of regional people were new dams, cheaper power, inland rail and having a properly defended nation.
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