Marcus Paul from 2SM and I discussed our support for JobMaker, Joel Fitzgibbon on losing support of blue collar workers and renewables destroying our productive capacity.

Transcript

[Marcus Paul]

Ah look, interestingly I noticed that One Nation have kinda changed course. If we’ve got time, we can put it up now. They’ve changed course a little in relation to JobMaker and JobKeeper and issues in the Senate allowing the passage of the change of legislation. We’ll talk to Malcolm about that in just a couple of moments and also I mean, JobMaker itself, the legislation’s very important. It involves subsidies for employers to hire two groups of unemployed people, et cetera. I mean they supported two of the labor Green’s 11 amendments and so an extension is now happening. What do you make of it? One Nation itself, how it operates, I mean they’ve copped a little bit, certainly in Queensland of late. So anyway, let’s speak to Malcolm now, we’re good to go.

And now on Marcus Paul in the Morning, Senator Malcolm Roberts.

There he is, hello Malcolm.

[Malcolm Roberts]

G’day Marcus, how are you?

[Marcus Paul]

I’m well, thank you very well. So JobMaker, tell me what’s happening here.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Well, as you pointed out that Pauline and I both opposed this when we first spoke about it on Tuesday but you know we have the courage and the integrity to change our mind when we get new data and there are two pieces of data that are really important. 10.4% and 4% and Pauline had a talk with the treasurer yesterday then consulted with me and we changed their mind on JobMaker because the people under 35 years of age have an unemployment rate of 10.4% but people over 35 years have only, well only 4%. And that means we need to get young people back to work, they’ve been hit harder by the COVID restrictions, we need to get them back to work, prevent the life of drugs and crime, get them on the right path quickly. So that’s why we changed their mind.

[Marcus Paul]

Okay, I mean look, obviously with younger people, they’re generally involved in the industry’s hardest hit by the pandemic, whether it’s hospitality, in retail and that’s, yeah it makes perfect sense to me. That’d be why the unemployment rates for those under 35 is so much higher than those over.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes and you know the impact of COVID restrictions on the unemployed in Australia double the unemployment. In other words, have increased unemployment by a hundred percent. But the unemployment of people under 35 went up by 150%. So whichever way you look at it, the young need a lot of help and there’s protections already with JobSeeker and JobKeeper that are already available. But we have to have to get hold of the young and we have the courage and the integrity to change our mind, we’re not worried what people say because it was the right thing to do so we did it.

[Marcus Paul]

Well that’s right and that’s the beauty of having One Nation and others there. I mean, I don’t think you’ll find any disrespect because it’s obvious you’re a minor party but you do make a lot of difference. That’s why it’s important to get key legislation across the line to have people like you and Pauline who are able to listen, analyse the data and then make decisions accordingly.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes and we don’t get into fights like we saw the labor Party and The Greens yesterday trying to pit young people against old people. That kind of division is just pure politic and it’s rubbish, it hurts our country. We’ve gotta work for the benefit of the country, work in the national interest.

[Marcus Paul]

All right. Now I spoke to Fitzy yesterday on the programme and I’ve been very strong in my editorial stance on this this morning. I’ll just tell you my stance and then you and I can have a blue about it, okay? Look, what I’m saying is I believe that labor is imploding a little at a federal level. For labor to have any chance if you like, at the next federal election, the party needs to be more pragmatic about its climate change targets and policies, that’s not to say that climate change isn’t important but it needs to be tempered with the realisation that the party can’t leave blue collar workers behind. Now whether Albo and other senior labor members accept it not, I mean they should, they need to look at what happened with the last federal election. Blue collar workers, those in mining, manufacturing and other sectors relying on strong power supply, believe the party has forgotten them. And also Joel Fitzgibbon obviously he’s stuck between a piece of coal and a hard place up there in the Hunter. Well, I mean he believes that mine workers and blue collared workers in his constituency have been forgotten about by labor. What do you make of it all?

[Malcolm Roberts]

What did you, you said we were gonna have a blue about this. I agree with you, I agree–

[Marcus Paul]

That’s to come All right, we’ll do it the next time. We’ll fight over the US election, okay?

[Malcolm Roberts]

labor has lost its way and that’s absolutely correct because they’ve abandoned the blue collar workers. And Joel is not the only one who’s taken this path in labor. We know there are a number of senators, I’ve spoken with them. They think that the, what the labor Party is doing is lunacy not just abandoning miners, but abandoning blue collar workers across all sectors. And labor Party, but you know what really Marcus? labor Party’s fault is just not looking at the data. It’s exactly the same with the Liberal, Nationals and Greens. They’re not looking at the data. The data says you do not need to do anything about carbon dioxide from human activity. You do not need to stop burning coal, oil, natural gas, it’s all rubbish. And Joel Fitzgibbon he’s on the right path to try and drag his party back but it looks like a path that’s gonna be very difficult for Joel because his party is just resolved to abandoning people, abandoning blue collar workers. It’s just insane.

[Marcus Paul]

Well, I mean, obviously Albo’s a part of the extreme left if you like of the labor Party, Joel is the head of the right faction and never the twain shall meet which isn’t good when you need to have a united front hitting into a federal election and the will to- See the problem is that’s why I believe that labor need to be a little bit more pragmatic about this, be realistic. You can’t make any changes from the wilderness of opposition and that’s where they’ll find themselves in the next federal election unless they alter their stance on it. Unless they accept that, look setting targets in 2050 is, well it’s just unrealistic. I mean, look what’s happened with, We’re supposed to be going into a federal budget surplus and then comes COVID-19. You can’t predict bush fires, you can’t predict droughts, you can’t predict floods. You can try and do everything you can to mitigate them in some respects but at the end of the day, if we stop burning coal, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any more bush fires, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any further droughts and other issues. The climate does change.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yeah, you’ve nailed it, you’ve absolutely nailed it. And the thing is, there’s one other point that I would add to what you’re saying. 170 years of human history has shown us, the last 170 years from 1850 onwards, the industrial revolution, one clear trend. Ever decreasing prices in real terms after inflation of energy. And when you have that, you have a dramatic increase in productivity. When you have that, you have dramatic increase in wealth and general community prosperity. And that is what’s driven human progress. Think of how far we have come in the last 170 years. That’s an eye blink in the history of this planet an eye blink in the history of human civilization. And yet we have come so far and now labor Party and the Liberal Party and the National Party and the Greens want to destroy that and it’s just insane. In the last 20 years, we’ve reversed human progress and increased the price of electricity through stupid regulations that are not necessary.

[Marcus Paul]

All right, maybe this is where we start our blue but that does not mean Malcolm that we can’t look at newer, greener technologies in the future to include in the mix. Now I’m one of those, I’m a pragmatist, I understand we need baseload power and the only way to get that and the only way to keep the lights on is to continue on the path we’re at. But down the track, we do need to have private investments, let them take the risk in more wind field, more wind farms and solar farms and other renewable sources of energy and include them in the mix. Because I think we do need to at least acknowledge that there are some things we can do to look after our environment.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Marcus after we’re gonna have a blue, I happen to agree with you. Again on this one. You still can’t get me into a fight because I agree with you mate. But you know there’s just something really simple to remember. The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones, it ran out, the stone age ended because we got better metals and materials. And each of the ages has not ended because we ran out of something. The Copper Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Coal Age will end because we’ve come up with a better form of electricity generation and energy generation and that will probably be some form of nuclear. But fundamentally, the second point I’d make is that fundamentally with physics, you cannot get sufficient energy density out of wind and solar, absolutely impossible. That’s why they will always take more resources to make a wind turbine, more resources to make a solar panel than you will ever get out of the damn thing. And so that’s why they’re very expensive and there’s no end to that, they will always be expensive. But there will be other things developed and I agree with you, let the private sector do that, let them take the risk.

[Marcus Paul]

All right. Speaking of the Stone Age, when is the caveman going to vacate the White House? The time’s up, I mean–

[Malcolm Roberts]

Now we’re getting a fight.

[Marcus Paul]

You can do it, you can recount as many states as you like but Donald needs to accept that he’s on the outer and off he should trot.

[Malcolm Roberts]

No, not at all. The presidency, the presidential elections are not declared by the media, not declared by one of the candidates, not declared by the political parties, not declared by the commentary. The presidential election is declared by each state legislature. Not even a governor in the state, but each state legislature and that’s not even close to being declared. And what we’ve seen now is a hell of a mess in America with the Democrats, all of the, I think almost all of the changes that they’ve found that need to be made in vote counting has gone away from the democrats. And that’s because there’s a lot of corruption involved and Trump is absolutely right. And he’s not gonna walk away from this. I think he will bow gracefully once the count is finished but we’ve got–

[Marcus Paul]

Hang on, that’s almost sounding a little like conceding a bit. I know we know Donald won’t concede are you conceding that he may concede eventually.

[Malcolm Roberts]

No, no, not at all.

[Marcus Paul]

But I think he might be Malcolm, I think he might be. You just said–

[Malcolm Roberts]

I honestly think Trump’s got it. I think Trump will win this but we won’t know and what I’m then saying is that, that Trump if he does lose, he will vacate.

[Marcus Paul]

He’ll have no choice. The Secret Service will wander in there, lift him up and throw him out by his big boy pants which he fails to wear every day, get out.

[Malcolm Roberts]

No no, I think Trump is actually, he’s got America at heart and he will do what’s right for the country and he’s got to pursue these illegal votes from the democrats. There’s a lot of fraud going on, he’s absolutely correct and we’ve known that for years in the Democrat Party in America. This is the first time a Republican has stood up and I think Trump anticipated this, he planned this before months.

[Marcus Paul]

Here we go. All right mate. Malcolm, it’s always great talking to you. Look, I’ve gotta go, next week let’s concentrate on the bail in situation and the legislation that certainly does need to be changed. We don’t want banks taking our money just to keep themselves afloat. We’ll talk about that next week mate, okay?

[Malcolm Roberts]

All right mate, thank you very much.

[Marcus Paul]

Have a wonderful day. There he is, Malcolm Roberts, see he’s become a bit of a sparring partner and I love it.

Transcript

Hi, one nation has voted to approve the government’s JobMaker scheme. You know, at first with JobMaker we had concerns and raised these openly in the Senate as we do. As senators, it’s our job to get the facts straight. So Pauline met with the treasurer and discussed the concerns we received from people about JobMaker.

The treasurer to his credit provided solid data and we have the courage and integrity to change our view and I want to tell you why. Firstly, it became clear that our youth have been hit particularly hard in terms of access to jobs. After the COVID-19 workplace restrictions started, the unemployment rate for 16 to 35-year-olds is 10.5%, 10.5. And for over 35, it’s 4%.

When we learned that it disturbed us and I’m sure it’ll trouble all Australians because we need our youth in jobs as soon as possible. They’re our future. And they’re also our future taxpayers for decades to come. And it costs our community and economy dearly when they disengage and languish at such a critical time in their lives.

You know travelling around Queensland, I’ve had many conversations with local business leaders and citizens who highlight that when our young people are not employed trouble follows, drugs, crime. Secondly, our concern was that jobmaker will allow a company to sack an older worker and replace them with a subsidised younger worker on JobMaker.

The treasurer showed us, this is not the case. The government has addressed this by ensuring an employer can only get JobMaker if the number of employees goes up. So there is simply no point in sacking an older employee to put on a younger worker, as this will not lead to any increase in the number of employees.

JobMaker would not be available and therefore would not motivate or drive this behaviour. Plus, there are serious penalties for such behaviour built in to the legislation. Finally, there were concerns that workers are worried that they will have their hours cut back so that a new worker can come in under JobMaker.

The protection put in place by the government is the requirement that states the number of hours must go up. It’s clear that JobMaker is only available to a business that can demonstrate extra hours being worked. There’s no point in cutting back hours of an existing employee to give to a new employee because JobMaker would not be available.

Plus there are serious penalties for such behaviour. Now we accept and we know that some employers don’t do the right thing. And that’s why there are financial penalties for employers who do the wrong thing.

And if a person feels they have been fired or had their hours cut back unfairly because of JobMaker, then that person can ring the tax department hotline anonymously to report the situation and have it investigated. Any employee is also free to report an employment matter to the fair work ombudsman for either a permanent reduction in hours or a dismissal.

Those protections have always existed for every Australian worker and one nation will ensure they always exist. One nation are for workers of all ages and we believe JobMaker will tackle the task of job recovery at its most critical point for our future economic prosperity.

Now I’m sure all people young and old care, really care and want to ensure the young are supported in this challenging period with very high unemployment for the young. All Australians care about our country’s future.

On Tuesday we supported 2 of 11 amendments to the JobMaker scheme but on receiving new information on Wednesday afternoon we changed our position. We listen and when we get new data we have the courage and integrity to review our position.

There was concern that employers would put off older workers and only employ younger workers to receive the JobMaker scheme.We now know this is not the case. The legislation only offers JobMaker for businesses who increase their payroll & head count. Sacking an elderly employee & hiring an under 35 wouldn’t qualify for a subsidy.

The Treasurer advised Pauline that unemployment in people 35 years of age or younger is 10.4%. In people older than 35 is 4%.There is a crisis for those in our community under 35. A job can make all the difference. When Covid restrictions came in unemployment increased 100%. And unemployment among younger people increased 150%.

Transcript

Hi, we just had a bit of a kerfuffle in the Senate about the job makers scheme. It’s to subsidise hiring of two groups of people. Those from 16 to 29 years of age, and those from 30 to 35 years of age. Yesterday, I spoke strongly opposed to it. And we then supported two amendments, two of 11 amendments. We rejected nine of Labor greens amendments, rejected nine, we supported two.

One was on reporting and the other one was on duplication. Here’s some new data. And when we get new data, we look at it, because we use these things, this thing, and our heart, and we assess the data honestly, and we don’t care what people think just because we changed our mind. We have the courage and the integrity to change our mind.

So here’s some of the data we got from the treasurer through Pauline today, she went in to see the treasurer, and we were told that the unemployment rate for those under 35 years of age is 10.4%. The unemployment rate for those over 35 years of age is just 4%. So that means the young have been really hammered. We’ve got to get those people back to work.

Another set of figures, the increase in unemployment, across all of Australia, due to the COVID restrictions, was 100%. The increase in unemployment due to the COVID restrictions on people under 35 years of age was 150%. So it’s really savaged the young. And we have to help these people back to work. Now, the treasurer gave us this data, and as I said, that caused us to rethink.

He also reassured us about the two amendments that we had previously supported. One was about reporting, and he assured us that the ATO will do that. And we also were reassured that the data will be reported to the COVID inquiry, the COVID committee. The second amendment was about duplication. We’ve been reassured on that too. The treasurer gave us the facts.

We have the courage and the integrity to change our position. Sadly, the Labor party and the greens are pitting old versus young. We know that that’s crap. That’s complete rubbish, because Australians care. And Australians who see those figures will do exactly what we’ve done. They’ll try and help the young and everyone. We know that all Australians care and will want this fixed.

And this programme is necessary to get the young back to work quickly. There are other programmes for other groups, and they’re at work already and have been at work in some cases for months. So that’s why we changed our position, because we’re honest and straight. No deal done, simply facts. Labor and the greens can’t understand that, because everything they do has to be grubby.

Yesterday, Joel Fitzgibbon stepped down as the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources. This seismic decision is traced back to the 2019 election when One Nation’s Stuart Bonds won close to 22% of the vote causing Joel’s first preference vote to collapse by 14%. The blue collar workers in the Hunter sent a very clear and blunt message to the Labor party – you no longer represent us.

The Labor party have committed to a net-zero 2050 climate policy which means the end to coal and gas use and the end of tens of thousands of mining jobs across Australia. Joel has taken the blue collar workers in the Hunter for granted for the past 24 years, popping his head up before each election while doing nothing to stop the Labor party from slipping into the hands of the cultural elites and inner city Greens.

Stuart Bonds is a miner and the voice of the Hunter Valley. It’s time to elect a representative who will serve the people rather than someone who expects the people to serve him.

Transcript

[Malcolm Roberts]

Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts, and I’m in our Canberra office on the Senate side of Parliament House. And I’m with Stuart Bonds, our One Nation candidate in the seat of Hunter last election, last year. Stuart, your campaign is still causing tremors around the place.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yeah, yes. Well, it was one of the untold stories, I think, of the last election. And it’s come home to roost with Joel Fitzgibbon. I think it’s shaken him out of bed. And I think it’s, you know, it’s woken him up. Before this, he’s been strong. As soon as the election was finished, he was, bang, he was out there, he was the biggest friend to coal. And I think he’s made too many waves and he’s been pushed out.

[Malcolm Roberts]

It seems strange that he didn’t really care about blue collar workers’ jobs and miners’ jobs in the Hunter until his job was threatened by you.

[Stuart Bonds]

Oh, absolutely. That’s one of the funny things, is that until someone comes for your job, right, you’re happy to sell everybody else out, you know what I mean?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Well, I don’t think you would.

[Stuart Bonds]

No, no, absolutely not. But I mean, you see this with the ABC, that they, they’re hammering the coal miners and then when they get threatened to have their funding cut, it’s the worst thing in the world. I mean, it’s terrible to have people gunning for your job.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And Joel’s now a backbencher. He’s resigned and gone back to the backbench. He was Shadow Agriculture and Resources Minister.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yep.

[Malcolm Roberts]

So if he couldn’t help the Hunter from the front bench, how the hell is he going to do it from the backbench?

[Stuart Bonds]

I have no idea. I mean, if you’re in the prime position, they’re meant to come to you for counsel, and they’re obviously going to Joel and then ignoring him, right? Because everything that he’s saying is the opposite of what the party’s saying.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yeah, and people who are supposed to be in the Labor Party, are supposed to be from the blue collar, and support the blue collar, but they’ve abandoned Joel in place of the Chardonnay sippers and the latte sippers.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yep.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And we’ve got no real connection with the blue collar worker, the producer in Australia anymore in the Labor Party.

[Stuart Bonds]

No, no, and Joel was one of, if not the last members that were sitting from the Labor Party in a rural area. So they’re really losing their voice. Rural Australia is losing their voice, the hard working coal miners, gas, the oil producers. The miners in general are losing their voice from the Labor Party.

[Malcolm Roberts]

What should he do, mate?

[Stuart Bonds]

He should step down, he should resign. I mean, if he’s going to stand there and have no voice whatsoever, he should put it to a by-election and let people have a choice. Have their voices heard.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And would you stand?

[Stuart Bonds]

Absolutely, I would stand. Because the reason I stood in the first place was Labor’s policies. It was never Fitzgibbon’s policies, it was Labor. And they have not changed their policy. They still want to see the end of mining. Albanese’s on the television today, which I reckon might have been the thing that tipped Fitzgibbon over the edge, was when the scenes of the Biden results come in in America, and he won it, first thing Biden did, 2050, zero net emissions. And Albanese’s seen a crack, and he’s straight in there.

[Malcolm Roberts]

They’ve already got that policy, 2050 net zero.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yep.

[Malcolm Roberts]

So that’s the end of the coal industry.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yeah, I mean, and nobody to this day has come out and told us what a 2050 economy looks like. To this day there is no meat behind the policy.

[Malcolm Roberts]

I can tell you. It’s going back 150 years to without electricity. That’s what it is. Because you won’t have reliable electricity. But in the meantime, we wanna make sure that if there is a by-election, and you’re saying bring it on–

[Stuart Bonds]

We should do it.

[Malcolm Roberts]

That you’re there.

[Stuart Bonds]

We should do it, right now. He should call it now-

[Malcolm Roberts]

I’ll be there. I’ll be there to support you, mate.

[Stuart Bonds]

Excellent.

[Malcolm Roberts]

All the way.

[Stuart Bonds]

Thank you, Malcolm.

Today I honour those men and women who willingly answering the call to duty.

Lest We Forget.

Transcript

The men and women of our Australian Defence Force have a history of willingly answering the call for duty to protect our freedoms and our sovereignty. They do so sometimes at huge personal sacrifice, whether that be leaving their families and loved ones, or putting themselves in harm’s way to ensure the safety of others.

It’s all in a day’s work for our men and women of the armed forces. Our Defence Force personnel and our Aussie veterans are important and respected people who have committed to the defence of Australia in so many ways, in many ways, whether they have been deployed to active conflict, on peacekeeping operations, or have actually served without being deployed.

For some of our defence force personnel and our veterans, the battle, though, goes on long after they have returned from operational deployment. We must remember this at all times. The veteran death toll by suicide since 2001, by the most conservative of measures, is 10 times greater than our losses in Afghanistan.

Today, and every day, we need to remember these Aussies, and we must join to stop these preventable deaths of our servicemen and servicewomen. So, I hope you join with us in cherishing our armed forces and cherishing days like today, and that on days like today, help our younger generations to remember why our soldiers are being honoured and appreciated.

Transcript

Senator Roberts.

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. I thank Senator Polly for this opportunity to discuss job creation. In Australia, we accept that the government should provide the infrastructure and then get out of the way and let the employers create jobs. The less red tape, green tape and blue tape, nobbling free enterprise, the more real breadwinner jobs will be created. The labor Party, has brought us Queensland’s notorious reef regulations, which are in the progress, or the process of strangling the life out of agriculture across thousands of kilometres of Queensland coastline. The loss of jobs in agriculture and agricultural communities along our coastline is a disaster, that Labor’s green tape has caused. Australia’s Water Act though was the product of an unholy alliance between the Nationals, liberals and labor. It has driven family farmers off their land and decimated rural communities. Green tape is killing agriculture and killing jobs. United Nations blue tape, is having the same effect on industry. This insane idea that power generation should not produce carbon dioxide, a harmless trace gas that does not cause climate change, has destroyed heavy industry and manufacturing in Australia. China is now producing what Australia would not. labor, the Greens and the Liberal-National parties, have all championed this transfer of jobs from Australia to China. China and India are now building, 500 new coal-fired power stations to keep up with the demand for Chinese and Indian steel and manufactured goods. Renewable energy or as I call them, unreliable energy, does not create jobs. For every one new job, in so called renewables, 2.2 jobs are lost in the productive economy. Yet labor, the Greens, the Liberals and Nationals are out there everyday touting a renewable led economic boom. The only boom here is in the cost of taxpayers. Every new wind turbine costs Australian taxpayers, $536,000 in subsidies every year. That’s $13 billion dollars a year in subsidies, and that costs every household $1300 a year. Blue tape, is not about environmentalism, it’s about wealth redistribution. Large foreign companies win and small Australian businesses lose. One nation will withdraw from international agreements that harm Australia’s interests, and we will bring these jobs home. Senator Polly blames the Morrison government for poor job creation, I blame the labor, Nationals, Liberals and the Greens.

Senator Roberts your time has expired, we will now—

Transcript

Roberts.

Thank you Mr. Acting, deputy president. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I speak to the JobMaker Hiring Credit Amendment bill. JobMaker was announced in the budget with much fanfare. The treasurer announced his headline. JobMaker will support 450,000 jobs. Why didn’t the media think to ask the treasurer to define the word support? His own treasury doesn’t agree with the word support, means what the treasurer thinks it does. Treasury indicated in Senate estimates hearings, that JobMaker will create not 450,000 jobs, but a meager 45,000. 1/10th. This inconsequential measure will not make a noticeable difference to the prospects of everyday Australians. And yet the government is treating JobMaker as a headline grabber. Here’s a brochure from the government, the centrepiece of their quote “Economic recovery plan for Australia, JobMaker. Creating jobs and rebuilding our economy.” It’s right here on the cover, must be true. It’s glossy. Once again, this liberal national government is misrepresenting announcements as achievements. A well-worn ploy that many marketers use and coupled with a glossy brochure. And with diagrams and with high vis vests and headlines and lots of colour. JobMaker is budgeted to cost $4 billion. Yet with only 45,000 jobs likely to be created the cost is actually only $400 million. To put that into perspective the government will spend $400 million on job keeper, in one day, $400 million is one day’s job keeper and then turn to the number of jobs and training places created in this budget. When they’re added up, they exceed the number of people unemployed. The budget,this budget is a hoax. According to the treasurer’s own numbers, this budget will put everyone back into a training place or a job before the next election. Zero unemployment. Didn’t the treasurer add up all these wild claims in the budget and realise that these numbers just don’t add up? The government has led hyperbole run a muck. Then again, working a calculator has never been treasurer Frydenberg’s strong suit. Job keeper itself was out by just $60 billion. The coalition’s restart programme was announced in 2014, as a $10,000 subsidy to help 30,000 older Australians back into the workforce every year. Six years later, And this scheme has helped only 9,000 older Australians a year. less than a third of the 30,000 a year the government announced. Even worse,almost half of those workers terminated, once the minimum employment period ended. That leaves just 4,500 per year. On top of that, many of the businesses that claimed restart we’re not serious about putting on a new employee. Instead those businesses were serious about free money from the government. And that’s the problem with corporate welfare. It turns businesses into subsidy farms, reliant on the government. It creates phoney jobs not sustainable jobs, not breadwinner jobs. It creates weaker accompanies, not stronger companies. It replaces the profit motive with a handout mentality. One nation opposes corporate welfare a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to large corporations. This government’s economic recovery plan for Australia is more corporate welfare more printing money to give to the banks more pumping up the housing bubble. That’s it. That’s the whole plan. If the government was fair dinkum about creating jobs, it would create the right business environment for growth. It would invest in restoring our country’s productive capacity. The productive capacity that’s been destroyed, by a lack of infrastructure by decimation of our electricity sector which is driving manufacturers overseas. We’ve gone from the lowest electricity prices in the world to the highest and manufacturers are leaving in their droves and taking with them their jobs to China, India, and Asia. So restoring our productive capacity includes building dams, new power stations, roads, bridges, and transmission lines. And it involves cutting red tape, cutting blue tape and cutting green tape. And it would involve if the government had courage, comprehensive tax reform. So that we have a proper honest, effective, and efficient taxation system a transparent taxation system. And then let the economy get on with the business of creating jobs and wealth for all Australians. Instead ,this government chooses to promote a casualized workforce. JobMaker is not about creating full-time work. It is the reverse. It motivates indeed drives businesses to replace one full-time employee with two casual employees. Replacing one real breadwinner job, with two junk jobs. The JobMaker protections around higher payroll and head counts allow for this casualization process. This is an attack on breadwinner jobs, jobs that can support families, jobs that can put kids through school and universities. So kids have another option for a better life than did their parents. Remember that Australia. Remember when kids faired better than their parents? under successive Liberal National and Labour Greens Governments. That’s a thing of the past. Our generation is the first generation to pass on less to our kids, not more. Less wealth, less opportunity, less freedom. And the Liberal National Party have form on this. Prime Minister Howard’s Government spent 11 years breaking up full-time breadwinner jobs into junk jobs, casual and part-time work. Jobs that have no bargaining power low wages, less entitlements and less security. And I’ve talked about that many times in the Senate. I’ve got so much data and evidence on that. There is no wealth creation in these low paid casual subsistence jobs. As a result Australia’s median wage has gone backwards over the last 30 years. And why some union bosses have gone along with this is beyond me. But we can talk about that another day. Today we’re talking about the liberal party declaring war on families, war on holidays, war on workers home ownership and war on everyday Australians. trying desperately to accumulate wealth, just to stash a bit away for the future. JobMaker is another nail in the coffin of Australian families. Courtesy of the corporate greed, hubris and arrogance that has overtaken the liberal national party. One nation opposes this legislation, this marketing ploy instead of trying to look good, governments should do good. We need to get our country back to basics. Invest in restoring our country’s productive capacity. That’s what decides our country’s future.

Transcript

Senator Roberts

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Is leave granted? Leave is granted for one minute, Senator Roberts.

Thank you. I support this motion concerning the need to create a credible and effective integrity commission. The integrity commission once established must offer the features as identified by the Centre for Public Integrity, which I firmly support. I’ve also had the opportunity to see the government’s recently released draft Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill and note that in its present state it requires considerable amendment prior to receiving full support. A sound Integrity Commission would maintain a broad jurisdiction to investigate corrupt conduct within the public sector with strong investigative powers. It should be empowered to hold public hearings whenever this was in the public interest to do so. This is fundamental to the operations of an effective integrity commission. The commission should be able to investigate corruption independently on its own initiative, even if based on tip-offs from the public and their referral process should be broad. There should be no limitations on the possible findings of corrupt conduct of parliamentarians or public servants. The bill must be able to operate retrospectively so as to deal with recent alleged anomalies in the conduct of persons managing the Great Barrier Reef fund and Murray-Darling water buybacks

Transcript

I serve the people of Queensland in Australia. Yet, I’ve lived, worked and studied for five years in the USA and travelled through all 50 states. And I know that under the United States Constitution, the declaration of the polls in a presidential election is not made by the media nor by political parties and certainly not the commentariat. The Declaration of the poll is made by each state legislature. Pennsylvania has ordered a recount. Other states will follow because state legislatures are committed to counting every legal vote. As of today, not one legislature has declared a result and several states have now been precluded from declaring due to legal challenges to voting irregularities. This election won’t be resolved for weeks, so congratulating former Vice President Biden is premature. Now I understand the greens are getting excited that a Biden or Harris presidency will advance the socialist green agenda. What will this socialist green agenda do to the United States? It’ll raise power prices as unreliable solar and wind energy expands and destroys baseload power generation wiping out small and medium businesses and heavy industry. Under President Trump, heavy industry returned to the United States and brought high paying breadwinner jobs back for American workers. The Democrats green new deal will destroy those jobs forever. Americans thrown out of work by green policies will be forced onto a subsistence allowance from the government for the rest of their lives. This the greens have euphemistically named a universal basic income and basic it will be. According to Stanford University, these policies will destroy 4.9 million jobs and reduce America’s GDP by 2.9 trillion US dollars every year of a Biden or Harris presidency. This is news to most people that I talked to which is a damning indictment of the news media. The presentation of news is worse than just fake news. Mainstream media has devolved to being propaganda. President Trump’s greatest achievements, have been ignored by fake news. So let me remind every one of these the lowest black unemployment rate in history the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate in history, the lowest female unemployment rates since World War II, the highest number of black led business startups in history, the highest number of female led business startups in history, the first president in 30 years to not start a new war, five Nobel Peace Prize nominations for peace deals. The socialist takeover of America will destroy these gains
And end in misery.

Member for the seat of Hunter, Mr Joel Fitzgibbon MP, ought to resign and offer the voters a real choice for representation at a by-election.

Senator Roberts said, “Mr Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the ALP cabinet over climate policy is damming confirmation that Labor no longer represents blue-collar workers.

“He cannot be effective sitting on the back-bench sulking over how Labor have lost their way. Hunter Valley constituents deserve better and he needs to resign.”

In the 2019 election, with a massive 14% swing against Labor, the seat of Hunter became a truly marginal seat for the first time in its 109-year history.

“Mr Fitzgibbon only started caring about blue-collar workers in his electorate when they deserted him at the last election in favour of One Nation’s Stuart Bonds.

“Labor can no longer hide from the fact that traditional working-class voters no longer support their climate and energy policies,” Senator Roberts added.

Mr Stuart Bonds, One Nation candidate in Hunter stated, “It’s over Joel. If you cannot fight for your constituents as the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources from the front bench, then you will never do it from the back bench.” Mr Bonds with nearly 22% of the vote in the 2019 election said, “The Hunter deserves a strong voice and I intend to be that voice …. so game on!”