The federal government showed its lack of commitment to addressing the misuse of federal funds today in voting down Senator Roberts’ motion to call for an inquiry into Queensland’s misuse of Commonwealth money.
Senator Roberts’ motion called for an inquiry into the gross misuse of Commonwealth disaster funds at a council level.
Senator Roberts said, “A Senate inquiry is essential to ensure an independent investigation, void of political interference, into these widely recognised corrupt practices.
“If we ever needed to validate the need for this inquiry, then the last week has done that given the number of council representatives who have lobbied in opposition to the inquiry going ahead.
“Their scrambling to shut this down confirms there is much to hide.”
Queensland councils received $5.339 billion in funding through the National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) from 2011-2019, of which 75% is Commonwealth funding.
Evidence shows that around 50% of the funded disaster money is siphoned into areas that currently avoid detection and is not used for the community’s benefit.
Senator Roberts stated, “Queensland communities need disaster funds to support infrastructure recovery.
“What they don’t need is their money going into the pockets of a few through massive profit taking, because of illegal and cost saving activities such as unlawful dredging of creeks for substandard road materials.”
The Federal government claims corruption is on their radar with their Commonwealth Integrity Commission, so it is disappointing to see them shy from an independent scrutiny of these funds.
Senator Roberts added, “Their actions today question the genuineness of their intentions to address federal corruption with their proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission.” “The deliberate mis-use of public monies is never acceptable and be assured that this motion will be back on the agenda until these practices are independently investigated.”
[Marcus] Malcolm Roberts, good morning to you, Malcolm?
[Malcolm] Good morning, Marcus, how are you doing?
[Marcus] I’m okay. First thing first. I wanna play you something back from a couple of weeks ago when you and I had a discussion on this radio programme, are you ready?
[Malcolm] Yes, I am.
[Marcus] Okay.
[Malcolm] Trump is in the box seat, he knows what he’s doing.
[Marcus] All right, you wanna bet me a bottle of wine on this? Australian wine.
[Malcolm] I definitely do but not yet, I’m very happy to send you a bottle of Stanthorpe wine if you win, but Trump is still in the box seat, mate.
[Marcus] Oh, Malcolm.
[Malcolm] Trump is coming home.
[Marcus] Hang on, Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm. No he’s not in the box seat.
[Malcolm] Yes, I haven’t seen the other, any headlines tonight, but he has got a process in play that’s been done before in the United States, it’s been upholding the constitution, it’s all proven and that’s underway and it will be unfolding in the next few weeks.
[Malcolm] I’m serious, Marcus.
[Marcus] I know you are, that’s the worry.
[Malcolm] I love the bet but I’m serious.
[Marcus] All right, let’s get on to some other issues. The Northern Australian agenda, the Torres Straits, Horn Island, Thursday Islands, Senate Select Committees on the Government’s agenda for Northern Australia in a nutshell, not going anywhere and deeply disappointing. What are the issues preventing development in Northern Australia, Malcolm?
[Malcolm] Have a listen to these, energy prices, property rights and land tenures, infrastructure, water, transport, telecommunications, a hopeless jumble of government services, all three layers of the government that’s state, federal, and local are not working together, there’s massive duplication, massive waste, huge gaps in service delivery. Now those things are occurring right throughout Australia.
And so how can we expect a development of productive capacity here in the North where there’s low population and lack of infrastructure, when the Southern areas of New South Wales, the rest of our country are being gutted by the same things, the destruction of productive capacity. And so what we’re really seeing up here, I mean, you, you’ve got problems in New South Wales I understand with ferries and trains that are built overseas and we have the same.
In Brisbane Queensland, we’ve had trains built overseas by both the liberal and labour governments in the past, they’ve come here with faults in them that had to be fixed. We have the ability, we just have lost the productive capacity because our governments, state and federal have destroyed that productive capacity.
[Marcus] I heard something, yeah, sorry, Malcolm, I heard something really interesting yesterday. In Victoria, and I know that Dan Andrews has copped a fair bit this year, trying to keep his constituents safe, but in Victoria to their credit, they have public transports, whether it’s buses, various trams, whatever, running around saying, “Proudly manufactured in Victoria.” Why is it that in Victoria, they can make their trams and their trains and their public transport infrastructure there but in New South Wales, in Queensland, we cannot.
[Malcolm] Well, I wonder how old those trams are because you know, our productive capacity is being destroyed over the last few decades, Marcus and I just wonder how long, how old those trams are. They still got the ability to make those trams? I don’t know. And you know, Victoria lost the Ford production facilities for cars, they’ve lost the Toyota production facility for cars, had lost various General Motors facilities, we haven’t got that productive capacity anymore. And so Victoria has done a very bad job.
Victoria has shut down it’s large power stations, which now make it vulnerable and dependent on New South Wales. I mean, this is a mess, our whole country and it’s a security issue, and it is a dead set security issue.
[Marcus] JobSeeker, my understanding from some stories floating around this morning, again, JobSeeker is blown out. In relation to costs, it’s gonna cost our economy billions of dollars more. I don’t know who’s doing the maths or the accounting treasury, but again, we see that job seekers, JobSeeker, the federal government’s plans through COVID 19 will end up costing more in the longer term.
[Malcolm] One of the things we have to start facing is the reality that state and federal governments have made a mess of the coronavirus, real mess of the way they’ve handled it. And I’ll give you some examples about JobSeeker in a minute up here in Queensland and especially in the North. But you know, Taiwan, Marcus have done by far the best job in the world, they’ve had no decrease in their economy, they’re bubbling along at the same rate as normal.
Our economy has been smashed and same with most economies. Taiwan, what they’ve done is they’ve tested people rigorously, they’ve traced people and they’ve quarantined people. They have isolated the sick and the vulnerable. We have shut down everyone. I mean, that is not the way you handle a pandemic. Now, initially, because it looks so bad because remember the people dying in Italy, we had to do something like that.
So we said to the government, “There is your open cheque, “just go for it, “do whatever you want.” That’s what we need to do when under such a crisis. When we realised, and we, but we said to them, “We’ll come looking for you “and holding you accountable,” when we realised that it wasn’t as bad as thought and then the total number of deaths in many countries around the world has not increased, the age deaths in Australia is lower than in the past years, so the total deaths have not increased, it’s not been what we’ve, what we were afraid of and that’s welcome news, the government hasn’t changed the tact.
And we’re still locked where we were until very recently locking down people. And we’re now, the coronavirus is still out there, we haven’t got a plan for managing the damn thing, and we’re still being managed by the Coronavirus. Victoria is still doing that. So what we have to do is actually look at what’s going on and come up with the plan. Never has the state or any federal government come up with the plan, never.
[Marcus] All right, the UK Climate Ambition Summit, we know that Scott Morrison was refused, well, basically, our nation is in the cold and all of these summits, you and I will disagree on the reasons why we’ve been cheating our way through our Kyoto agreements now for all- God, probably the best part of the last decade. But you and I differ on this, but just your thoughts on it.
[Malcolm] Well, it’s just another gabfest. The fortunate thing is that unlike all the other gabfests, there isn’t a huge transport demand pushing all these leaders together and producing carbon dioxide, which I know is got no problem, but they’re producing a hell of a lot of carbon dioxide to get to where they’re going and nothing comes out of it of any good.
And what we see is the United Nations pressuring nations to increase their carbon dioxide cast, which is insane, there’s no data to drive that, and Scott Morrison is now being pushed, and I think he’s relented and he is no longer going to use the Kyoto credits, that John Howard, stole, John Howard’s government, stole these credits, stole farmers’ property rights to get those credits, now we’re not even gonna use them. So we’ve got farmers owed somewhere between a hundred and $200 billion worth of compensation, or we need a restoration of their property rights right around the country.
[Marcus] Yeah.
[Malcolm] And so what we’re seeing is that the UN drove that stupidity from John Howard’s government, drove the state government in New South Wales and Queensland in particular to decimate their farmers, no compensation paid, and now we can’t even use them?
I mean, this is insane. And China’s commitment under these UN agreements is zero. They will continue in not only at their current levels of carbon dioxide output, they will continue increasing them. And so what they’ve got is their productive capacity continuing to grow by using our coals for their steel in the construction
[Marcus] Well I don’t know whether they’re gonna use, they’re going to use our coal considering what we’ve heard in the last week, Malcolm?
[Malcolm] Well, I think they will have to get back to it because they use coal for power generation, which is thermal coal exports. They’re about half of Japan’s intake of coal from Australia. Japan buys about almost $10 billion worth of coal from Australia, thermal coal for power stations, and China only buys 4 billion, but the key is in the metallurgical coal exports from Australia.
India has, buys $10 billion worth of coal, China just a fraction under that 9.7, Japan $7.4 billion worth. China needs our coal because our metallurgical coal for steel-making markets is the best in the world.
[Marcus] All right, I just want to move on to trade with China. It’s not getting any better, you know, we know that we’ve got a number of tariffs and a number of blockades if you like placed or put in place by Beijing, we’ve got Barley exports, we’ve got tariffs on other major exports including now, as I mentioned just before, the possibility that our coal will sit idle off the coast of China and not be allowed into the country. When is it gonna stop and what can we do about it, it’s not getting any better?
The reason China is picking on us I believe is that we have been very, very weak to ourselves. I’m not talking about standing up to China anyway, I’m talking about the Chinese are a totalitarian dictatorship, they are bullies. They’re being very subtle in the way they’re bringing people into the fold around the countries, through their belts and roads initiative, which Victoria has signed up to.
But what they can’t see, a bully always picks on the weakest first and the most vulnerable. Now China sees Australia as being allied with the United States. But China also sees Australia wrecking our own productive capacity. They see Australia kowtowing to UN agreements, ceding our sovereignty, giving up the control of our resources, the control of our productive capacity in this country.
China has said to the UN, “To hell with you lot, “we are going to continue our industrialization, we are ceding our jobs. we’re actually sending our jobs to China as we destroy our productive capacity. The Chinese also see us exporting coal and burning coal at very high cost in this country because of artificially inflated regulations that have destroyed the price of coal in this country, coal fired power.
And so what China is saying is we’re destroying ourselves. We’re subsidising the Chinese to build expensive renewable energy, solar, and wind in this country, which is destroying our electricity network even more, and then we’re seeing, they’re seeing us see that and they’re saying, “These people are contradicting “their own sovereignty, “they’re destroying their own values. “These people don’t know “what the hell they’re doing. “They have weakened their right.” And that’s what they’re doing. They’re sending us a very strong signal, “Get your house in order.”
[Marcus] And the human face of this, of course, 66 ships, 500 million to a billion dollars worth of coal currently sitting idle. We’ve got a thousand seafarers stuck out there. I mean, they’ve got families but hopefully, there’ll be some sort of a breakthrough. We need cool heads to prevail and I mean, I see, I tend to agree with you Malcolm, I can see, I can’t see China holding out for much longer.
[Malcolm] You know, it’s a very good point you’ve raised though the human face of it, but it’s true, but they’re not players in the trade dispute, the victims. Many haven’t been allowed to disembark apparently for about 20 months due to COVID, Marcus I think and the maximum time legally for seamen to be at sea is 11 months. The situation is deteriorating apparently for physically and mentally for these people.
There’s a limited supply of food and medicines and so, yeah, good on you for bringing up the human aspect. These people are caught in the middle and they’ve done nothing wrong.
[Marcus] All right, just wanna finish with lobster seafood. I mean, that’s how I plan on, well, look, to be honest, I plan on washing down a bit of lobster and a couple of prawns and some crab over Christmas with the wine you’re going to send me, but tell me, how can we help out our rock lobster industry?
[Malcolm] Marcus, the election date will be settled when the vice president, Mike Pence selects the candidate, selects the votes in
[Marcus] All right, so
[Malcolm] On January 6th
[Marcus] I’ll be having
[Malcolm] That will be A new year celebration
[Marcus] A new year one I like it, fair enough. All right, but let’s talk lobsters, mate.
[Malcolm] Yes, it was predicted that customers would eat more than 35 tonnes of lobster this year compared to just six and a half tonnes in the previous year. But now apparently, you need to get in early, there’s a limit of four per person I’ve been told. They’re now a bargain at $20 each because the Chinese are not taking our lobsters, so what we’re saying is get into the lobsters and go for it. Now I’m not a lobster fan, I prefer the Queensland mud crab, best seafood you can get,
[Marcus] Fair enough.
[Malcolm] But that’s my deal, but yeah, grab, go for the lobsters and wash it down with some Hunter Valley wine or some Stanthorpe wine from Queensland and enjoy your Christmas.
[Marcus] And shop Australian over Christmas too. And that’s something that Pauline and I talked about on the programme on Tuesday, we need to ensure that we buy up as much Australian wine as much Australian seafood and beef and support Australian industries during this time.
[Malcolm] So right, thank you very much for, for reminding us of that, Marcus. And I’d like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and happy new year
[Marcus] Thank you.
[Malcolm] And the same to all your team, Justin and everyone, and all your listeners, a very happy new year and a very Merry Christmas.
[Marcus] You too, mate. We’ll talk again in 2021, we’ll finally settle the issue of Trump V Biden and I look forward to, I dunno a case or a bottle of something from you Malcolm.
[Malcolm] If Mike Pence goes away, I think he will and the constitutional precedence then I think you’ll be sending me a bottle of the wine, mate but if I’m wrong, I’ll be very happy to send it to you.
[Marcus] All right, mate, great to chat to you. Thank you so much for your time this year, we’ll catch up again in 2021.
[Malcolm] Look forward to it, thanks very much, Marcus and Merry Christmas.
[Marcus] All right, you too, mate. There he is, Malcolm Roberts, One Nation Senator, and look obviously, you know, me and a number of my listeners don’t always agree with everything Malcolm comes up with. But he does talk sense on, I think when it comes to things like industrial relations, reform, our trade issue with China and all these sort of stuff. I think he’s a little more moderate on that than say Scomo and his mob are, and I just enjoy Malcolm, my chats with him. We, we’re not always gonna agree. But gee that wine, will taste nice.
http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/zivEECI4_IU/maxresdefault.jpg7201280Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-12-18 11:49:422020-12-18 11:49:50North Australia Gutted by Government Mess
Pepe Iovannella is one of the largest tour operators in Cairns. Cairns have suffered more than any other city in Australia because of COVID restrictions which has decimated the tourism industry.
Pepe tells us that even though the Labor government promised to dredge Trinity Inlet to allow large boats to increase opportunities, they have reneged on the deal.
Transcript
[Malcolm Roberts]
Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts and I’m in Trinity Inlet in Cairns. You see a Cruise Ship here, Trawler behind us and recreational boats and Trawlers on the other side of Trinity Inlet. Now I’m with Pepe Iovannella. How’s that?
[Pepe Iovannella]
Correct.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Thank you.
[Pepe Iovannella]
Perfect.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Pepe’s family is the owner of the largest tour operator Australian family owned tour operator in Cairns. They did tours to the Reef and he’s got many other businesses.
[Pepe Iovannella]
Yap.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Cairns depends on tourism, right Pepe?
[Pepe Iovannella]
We’re a key element of Cairns. We’re probably in the top five if not the first. It’s crucial for our business and obviously in a COVID year we’ve been struggling and if it wasn’t for JobKeeper, we’d be definitely, most of operators be closed by now.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Right. So the government’s restrictions around COVID state and federal have gutted Cairns. Cairns has suffered more than any other community in the country. It’s income gross domestic product has gone down 16%. It’s economy is folding.
[Pepe Iovannella]
Yes.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And it needs to come out of that. And what Pepe is doing, is he can see that the trend is toward larger Cruise vessels to get higher turnover. And yet the Port Authority is being restricted by the state government. So we kinda, you won’t get those larger boats.
[Pepe Iovannella]
So back in 2016, when they announced to dredge to allow larger Cruise ships, which are crucial to Cairns they bring millions of dollars of money and passengers and tourist numbers. They promised us four million cubic metres of dredging. After they got elected.
[Malcolm Roberts]
So just before the election.
[Pepe Iovannella]
Before the election.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And before the election they promised 120 million dollars.
[Pepe Iovannella]
All parties agreed and Labor were last to come on board. They finally agreed to dredge and give us the money for four million cubic metres. If they won, and whoever won that election and Labor won the election. So they had to commit to honour their commitment and promised us four million cubic metres. Two years later we got 700,000 which essentially is our maintenance dredging for the year.
[Malcolm Roberts]
That’s about 16% of what they promised.
[Pepe Iovannella]
Correct.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And so it’s very important to understand that Trinity Inlet is fed by creeks and just like every other inlet fed by creeks and rivers silt comes in. Silt builds up when it hits the stagnant water or the steady water of the ocean and silt fills up the Harbour. And so you have maintenance dredging to keep the Harbour at the right level.
And then you have capital dredging, which expands, deepens, widens the Harbour. And so Cairns is gonna miss out. It would missed out on the maintenance dredging and it is gonna miss out on the capital dredging to get these bigger cruise vessels.
[Pepe Iovannella]
Yeah. You know obviously as time goes on the Cruise ships get bigger. We need to cater as, even as the commercials our commercial vessels have got bigger over time. Cruise ships get bigger. We need to cater for Cruise ships. And that’s why it’s imperative that we get back and do the four million cubic metres of dredging that was promised by the Labor Party.
[Malcolm Roberts]
But Cairns, I didn’t realise this. Cairns has the largest, has the largest number of vessel movements of any regional port in Australia. Correct?
[Pepe Iovannella]
Correct. Yeah we got the largest number of class one vessels, class three vessels. We have the highest number- the Trawler industry is huge in Cairns. We have Reef boats that go out. The Coral Princess goes out taking passengers over board. So we got all those apart from our day passengers.
So we’ve got a whole plethora of combination of boats that run out of Port and and which makes us the number one port in Australia.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And what happened to this port was that somebody in their wisdom, and without any scientific evidence the state government moved the port limit, sorry moved the National Park limit to within the port. So that stopped any dredging within the port. I mean, this is dumb. It goes completely against the science.
So that then led to a large fight but you’ve also got not only the state government but the globalists and the federal government people like Greg Hunt at the time who all bowed to the almighty people in the WWF and the other UN led organisations which are now choking Cairns. That’s basically it.
[Pepe Iovannella]
Correct, yeah. So we’ve got the largest fleet in Australia running out of port, and yet we’re not a priority port. You know other ports, there’s four other ports in Queensland that are priority ports.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Townsville, Gladstone, Mackay and Hay Point.
[Pepe Iovannella]
And yet we’re the number one port for movements. Number one port for maintenance. People relying on boats that earn their income, Trawler industry, and yet we’re still stifled by the Labor government, by not allowing us to have priority. So if we had priority port status, that would fix a lot of our issues.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And this is so stupid. We’ve got cruise liners anchored off the coast here and passengers being ferried in and out. We’d have far more people, if they could put their feet on the ground. If they tied up here at a decent wharf and could get out and spend their money at service stations, motels, entertainment, restaurants and that’s what Cairns is missing out on.
Cairns is being belted by international tourism shutdown because of the airline traffic, being belted by the Cruise industry being shut down. But when you finally get out again you wanna thrive and you can’t do that with these dopey buggers in government
[Pepe Iovannella]
We’re the ideal port to be a turnaround port for Cruise ship industry. There’s the Brisbane port has been increased and they’ve spent a billion dollars on Brisbane port yet they don’t wanna spend a cent here in Cairns. So they’re stifling Cairns growth.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And get this, they see tankers taking oil from Northern countries down to Brisbane, putting it on road tankers and transporting it up by truck to Cairns. How stupid is that when these tankers should be unloading here? I mean, they’re just holding the North back holding the state back.
[Pepe Iovannella]
The stupidest thing is that sugar industry can’t even pick up from the sugar terminals anymore. ‘Cause obviously the ships are bigger, so they can’t fill the capacity. So we’re only half filling the sugar ships out of Cairns.
[Malcolm Roberts]
We blame the United Nations for the blue and the green tape but we especially blame the people who just bow to the UN. State and federal globalists, and that’s it. They’re the ones destroying the city.
One Nation supports this motion. Cheap reliable hydrocarbon fuels have led to the greatest improvement in human progress in the past 150 years.
One Nation supports Senator Rennick’s proposal to extend the Kogan Creek coal power plant.
Climate policies and renewable subsidies have led to Australia having one of the most expensive power prices in the world and becoming more unstable. Senator Rennick’s proposal is good for Queensland and good for Australia.
Many of you have expressed disappointment and confusion about One Nations Queensland election result. What can we take from the result? Labor have been given another 4 years to wreak havoc on Queensland. What can we do?
Transcript
Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts, and I’m talking to you from Canberra. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I congratulate One Nation’s Steve Andrew, the member of Parliament for Mirani, who increased his vote four percent in the recent Queensland election.
That reflects Steve’s hard work and courage speaking for the people of Mirani. In just three years, he has earned amazing support and respect from the people he serves, and from other MPS, other members of the Queensland State Parliament. Let’s check the data.
The recent Queensland election was an election for incumbents with 86 of the 93 members of Parliament retaining their seats. Labor gained three, possibly five seats from the LNP and lost one to the Greens. The North Queensland First party lost its only seat. Now let’s discuss human behaviour and fear because it’s very important as you’ll see later on.
The people of Queensland and of Australia we know are overwhelmingly good, honest, and fair. Nonetheless, Queenslanders and Australians are human, and we can all be vulnerable at times when filled with fear. Now fear, whether it’s justified or fabricated, is a powerful driver of behaviour.
As political and religious leaders have shown for hundreds of years, fear can be ingrained. The actual vote for our party fell. Why? Well, it’s because fear dominates. You know, months ago, one of my staff predicted that based on history during the COVID turmoil and unrest, voters will continue to stay with what they think they know.
The establishment. Even though the evidence shows that the political establishment is wrecking our state and the political elites are destroying the people’s future and sacrificing our state, our country for the globalist’s nightmare. A prominent Brisbane radio announcer and former state member of Parliament, Scott Emerson, pretty sensible fellow, he’s summed it up so well on his radio programme a couple of weeks ago.
Firstly, quoting Winston Churchill’s maxim, “Never waste a crisis.” Stimulate a crisis into working for you. Secondly, fear wins over optimism. Thirdly, when afraid, people run to the incumbent and major parties. The Queensland government’s fear mongering around COVID won.
Yet the disappointing reality is that the Labor machine has exposed Queenslanders to real danger now and in the future. Especially making the elderly, the poor, the vulnerable hostage to a withering economy. They’re the people who will pay the most. The Labor machine handed management of Queensland to the Chief Health Officer, even though the Chief Health Officer admitted herself, she’s only responsible for physical health.
That’s her only responsibility. The cowardly Premier, absent as a Premier, dishonestly abandoned and continues to neglect our state’s economic health and people’s mental health. That’s important for the future. Now this election comes at a high cost. The Queensland economy is in tatters as a result of these policies.
Over many years, state debt spirals out of control. It’s by far the highest in Australia. Queensland’s unemployment rate is by far Australia’s highest. Business failures, the highest of all states. In the recent Queensland election, One Nation ran a campaign on getting back to basics, to restore our state’s future productive capacity, combined with a strong focus on local issues.
We showed so many positives with outstanding candidates and proven policies. For example, we had exceptionally fine quality candidates who are real people and not like Labor and Liberal where they’re party hacks who have risen up through the ranks, clawed their way through the ranks, made deals to get through the ranks.
We get everyday people, everyday Australians and Queenslanders. Second one is local businesses reached out to One Nation candidates around the state for help and actually endorsed us and helped us. They know the mess this state is in. A large number of volunteers were on One Nation booths.
In some booths, we even outnumbered the Labor machine, which sometimes buses them in from interstate. In the election, fear won, Queensland lost. Senator Pauline Hanson and I will not use fear to fool people for short-term gain. We won’t use fear. We will though continue to work for the national and state interests.
For the people. And once the real pain from voting a Labor government back for another four years starts to show itself, with debt and unemployment and businesses collapsing, One Nation will be there ready to offer basic solutions to bring back Queensland and Australia. For now, our fabulous candidates continue to devote themselves on the ground locally with constituents.
They’re listening. We’re listening. We’ll be ready.
Labor preference destructive Greens Today, Labor’s Murray Watt put forward a Motion claiming that the Greens and One Nation’s Queensland State policies would do great economic damage to Queensland. Why then did the Labor party preference the Greens? Queensland’s economy is a basket case, certainly nothing to be proud of.
One Nation want to remove unnecessary and costly red and green tape from Queensland businesses which will drive jobs and wealth for all Queenslanders.
Transcript
[President]
Senator Roberts.
[Senator Roberts]
I seek leave to make a short statement.
[President]
Leave is granted for one minute.
[Senator Roberts]
Thank you, One nation does not support this motion. We first of all do congratulate Steve Andrew for his enhanced majority in the seat of Mirani. After three years of solid work. However, gloating over the Queensland election result, that was based on Labor scaremongering.
[President]
Senator Watt.
[Senator Roberts]
Inflicted upon the people of Queensland is unworthy. The economic damage from Labor over the last six years has been further entrenched during COVID because Labor couldn’t work out that responding to a virus is not a simplistic choice between our health or the economy. Queensland boasts the highest unemployment.
[President]
Order Senator Roberts stop the clock. Senator Watt, please, numerous times today. Senator Roberts.
[Senator Roberts]
Queensland boasts the highest unemployment, the highest rate of business closures, the lowest business confidence and the largest state debt at $110 billion. And that was before COVID. Queensland is now an economic basket case and still the premier and our government offer no coherent plan for recovery.
If the Labor party are so worried that the greens would, “Do great economic damage to Queensland at a time when every job is vital.” And by the way I agree, “Then it beggars belief that Labor continues to preference the greens.” Let’s also remember that Labor relies on greens preferences. In summary, the outcome of the Queensland election was fear won and Queensland lost.
Great chat with Marcus Paul today. We discussed the Queensland and US elections and the proposed federal crimes commission.
Transcript
Marcus Paul
Yeah, it’s a good thing that Malcolm loves to talk, because I’m losing my voice. Good morning, mate, how are you?
Malcolm Roberts
I’m very well, thanks, Marcus, how are you?
Marcus Paul
Yeah, good. I spoke to Pauline earlier in the week, we were surprised to hear from her, because, you know, given what happened last week, but she was very clear that she believed the recent election in Queensland was an incumbent election. And that’s your first point you want to talk about this morning.
Malcolm Roberts
Well actually the first thing I’d like to talk about is the State of Origin. Do you know the score last night, mate?
Marcus Paul
Oh, was there a game of football on last night? I thought the footy season was over. There was a Grand Final a couple of weeks ago, yes, I know. 18-14, New South– to Queen, whoa, I nearly, a Freudian slip, I nearly said New South Wales, but no, well done.
Malcolm Roberts
Habits break. Yeah. Yes, the, it was a disappointment last Saturday at the Queensland election for us, but we did retain our seat of Mirani, Marcus, and with an increased majority. So where we had a candidate, and not just a candidate, a sitting MP, he’s actually done a fabulous job, Steve Andrew. But Pauline’s correct. It was an incumbent election. But I think more to the point, in times of fear, and that’s what the Queensland Labour machine did, they created a lot of fear about COVID. Especially amongst the elderly. And in times of fear and something major, people tend to go not only with the incumbent, but with the, with the larger parties, the parties they supposedly know. So, I think it was all about fear. So basically, my summary of the election is, fear won and Queensland lost, because there are a lot of things being neglected and, fear of COVID was no match for the long-term vision and sensible local policies we had going. So, that’s just a summary, but we’ve got to learn from that.
Marcus Paul
Well absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, it was quite an amazing victory, to the incumbent, Annastacia Palaszczuk. I mean, Pauline was very adamant that, you know, again, as always, as she’s always done, she’ll get back up, dust herself off, and continue, you know, with her thoughts and policies on, you know, as to what is in the best interests, of voters not only in Queensland, but around the country.
Malcolm Roberts
Yeah exactly. And she and I are very similar in that. It doesn’t matter what happens. We always do what’s in the national interest, in Australia’s interest, and in Queensland’s interests. So, in Queensland, and New South Wales’s interest, Mark Latham’s doing a fabulous job, holding the government accountable in New South Wales. Same with WA. Our MPs over there in the upper house in WA have a very, very good record of holding the government accountable and stopping some major problems that should have, that would have otherwise gone through, Marcus. So we won’t stop, Pauline and I. We’ll be right onto it. We have got some things to learn, and some things for the future but, you know, as a prominent Brisbane radio announcer, and a former State MP said, never waste a crisis. That’s an established political maxim, and that’s what the Labour machine did. And he also said, fear wins over optimism. And when afraid, people run to the incumbent and to major parties. And that’s just the way it was.
Marcus Paul
All right now, just on this, I noticed that there was some comments made by James Ashby. And I noticed in the notes here, the demise of regional media does make it challenging to get other views out to voters, other than from the major parties. Now, there’ve been some suggestions, obviously it’s been a little difficult with a lack of media diversity in Queensland, in particular in the regions that that’s been a big part of the problem for One Nation, there was criticism of Pauline perhaps not being out and about enough, and I don’t know whether I buy into any of that. And of course, the other issue surrounding all of this is the fact that you just weren’t able to get your message to enough people, Malcolm.
Malcolm Roberts
That’s correct. The demise of media in Queensland is a big factor, because we are very well-known on the ground. Pauline, I want to make it very clear to everyone. News Corp misreported, misrepresented Pauline. She didn’t stop working. She is an amazing person, not just an amazing woman, an amazing person. And she was from, tip of Cape York, Thursday Island, all the way through to the Gold Coast, Coolangatta. Cape York to Coolangatta. She was all over the place, on the ground. And she did a phenomenal job. And everywhere she went, she raised interest. But no one reported it. And News Corp had the temerity to say that they, that she wasn’t around. That was a complete fabrication on News Corp’s part, and because of the local media, regional media being decimated, the messages just didn’t get out. So we’re going to have to think about that, Marcus, very, very seriously. It’s a great point you raised.
Marcus Paul
All right. The other issue of course, in relation to what you’ve just mentioned, and something that I brought up on the programme this morning in relation to the former prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd. His petition calling for a federal, well, some sort of inquiry, whether it’s a royal commission or otherwise, into News Corp. And obviously the ownership of so much media in places like Queensland, he got more than a half a million signatories, signatures, before it closed at midnight last night. I see the Greens were tweeting up a storm, saying that they will table it in Parliament if they get the support of Labour. So it’s over to Anthony Albanese, who so far has baulked at the idea. What’s, what’s, I guess, the One Nation stance on this?
Malcolm Roberts
Well I think these days, Marcus, there is so much going on in the media space. The fact is that there’s so many options for people. We have got a huge option, choice of options coming on. We can go to the internet, we can listen to radio, we can watch the, we can take the local newspaper, even if it’s online. But you know what’s happening? In response to News Corp–
Marcus Paul
I can tell you what’s happening, you’re not answering my question, that’s what’s happening.
Malcolm Roberts
No no, I am, your question is what’s happening. I won’t be supporting the News Corp, petition against News Corp, because there’s so much happening on the ground. There are local newspapers popping up in Queensland, in Queensland and giving us the news. There are local community radio stations. There’s your radio station network, which is, which will grow, Marcus, because people know that just like in America, they can’t trust the mainstream media. They can’t trust the ABC here. And they’re losing trust in News Corp. So they will go either into the community channels, the radios, the TVs. And that’s the real issue where we’ve got, we’ve got a fabulous opportunity there.
Marcus Paul
All right, okay. All right. I’ll delve into that a little bit more, but I suppose it’s more a question for Anthony Albanese and hopefully we’ll get him on to nut out the ideas there. Now, the US election. Boy, oh boy. Donald Trump. You say he’s doing amazingly. I say he’s off the bloody, he’s off the, I dunno.
Malcolm Roberts
No, he’s–
Marcus Paul
What’s going on with him, hey?
Malcolm Roberts
He’s done a remarkable job. You look at, look at Michigan. Michigan is a rust belt state, it was full of manufacturing. Manufacturing was sold out by Obama, by Clinton. And by George Bush junior. And, and Trump came along and said, Ford Motor Company, if you keep making cars in Mexico, then you’ll pay a tariff. And Ford Motor Company then reopened the factory in Michigan. The people in Michigan love him, the people in Pennsylvania love him. And that is a testament to this man. He said some things before the previous election. Then he damn well did it. He put, he followed up on his promises. The man is on track, I believe, to win again. The only thing that’s going to stop him from winning, I think, is corruption in the voting system. Which is what he’s been saying–
Marcus Paul
Hang on, all right–
Malcolm Roberts
Trump’s done an enormous job.
Marcus Paul
All right, well, have a listen to this. And I wanna get your thoughts on it. Here we go.
Malcolm Roberts
This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.
Marcus Paul
Ah, come on. Surely he went a bit early there.
Malcolm Roberts
No, he actually was slower than Biden, Marcus, because I listened to Biden’s comments, and Biden’s comments were similar. And he was claiming victory for the Democrats, far, far too early.
Marcus Paul
Righto.
Malcolm Roberts
Trump had to come out, and what they’re doing is they’re both posturing to get their lawyers a good position. That’s the way I see it anyway, but I’m no expert. But there are serious questions being asked about the numbers, in some of the states, the crucial battleground states.
Marcus Paul
All right, the RBA this week cut the interest rate down to you know, virtually nothing. 0.1% interest rates. I mean, it’ll help people buy or stay in their homes, but there is a cost of course, self-funded retirees, as we’ve talked about on the programme, who rely on investment income, and seeing their returns fall to basically nothing.
Malcolm Roberts
That’s right. And then so, these people providing for their so-called own retirement is just hot air because, the legs have been cut out from under them now. We’re now at the point where retirees are having to spend their capital, because the return on their nest egg is almost non-existent and heading negative. And what’s disturbing is that, you know, this is going to create a lot of pressure for people at a time when people don’t need it. And by printing another a hundred billion, and giving it to the banks, they’re going to prop up the banks to do more mortgage lending. This government, the state and federal are completely ignoring the need to invest in productive capacity. We need to invest in power stations, dams, roads, ports, bridges. The Iron Boomerang Scheme, the Bradfield Scheme. These and many other prime investments, opportunities in our country are being neglected. And we need to get into building the productive capacity of our country.
Marcus Paul
I spoke to Andrew Leigh from labour, earlier in the week, on this Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill. He basically says, it’s not a, it’s an anti, well, it’s basically a toothless tiger. That’s the best way that I can describe it. His description of it. Retired Victorian Supreme Court judge, Stephen Charles, said this is not a corruption commission, it’s designed to protect parliamentarians and senior public servants from investigation. After two years of waiting, this is a tremendous disappointment. An annual budget of $42 million when fully operational. And of course it, it will fail. In its current form of how it’s, you know, being sold. It will fail to hold people to account. It won’t be anything like a New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Malcolm Roberts
Yeah. I always make comment after doing my work on this, and I haven’t done my work on this, but some of my staff have, Marcus, and the early indications from what we can see is there will be no public hearings for public sector and members of parliament corruption. None.
Marcus Paul
Well, that’s right. And we won’t have–
Malcolm Roberts
And that’s the, that’s the place where you need it. That’s gotta be out in front and transparent. The prime minister, the attorney general, have dragged their feet on this, for a couple of years now. And they now produce something that falls short of the mark. And, you know, so how can, how can we do public hearings for law enforcement and police, but not for members of parliament? And for public sector employees.
Marcus Paul
Well that’s right.
Malcolm Roberts
This is wrong.
Marcus Paul
Yeah.
Malcolm Roberts
And then we’ve got to have the names out in the open. People are entitled to make sure that the government that they elect are working for the people. And that’s what we need to get, we need to make sure that there is pressure on politicians to be clean at all times.
Marcus Paul
Absolutely. And, you know, under its current proposed format, you won’t see people like, you know. I mean, look what’s happened in New South Wales, in the last couple of months. We’ve had a Premier dragged before the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and grilled to within an inch of her personal life. That won’t happen under this proposed Federal CIC, and that’s an issue for me.
Malcolm Roberts
Yes, and the attorney general has the power to limit information that can be considered by the Commonwealth Integrity Commission. There are also, the bars for referral are way too high. Someone approaches the institution with reasonable suspicions of corruption breaches, but no actual evidence. It can be ignored. And then with, there’s no retrospectivity, which means the sport rorts, the sports rorts and the Murray-Darling basin water buybacks, they won’t be investigated, because they were in the past. This is just way, way too short of where we need to be.
Marcus Paul
All right Malcolm, great to have you on, we’ll chat soon, mate. Thank you again, as always.
Last night I appeared on the Alan Jones show to discuss juvenile crime in Townsville. During a recent visit I learnt about a great program called ‘One Community One Standard’.
It was created by Indigenous Elders and proactive members of the Townsville Community who want to put a line in the sand and want to contribute to the Community Action Plan.
Senator Malcolm Roberts is an outstanding, highly intelligent and very well credentialed one nation Senator from Queensland. He wrote to me recently about his visit to Townsville, interestingly, and I think this is a universal problem, he had met with a group of locals and the most significant topic discussed was the heartbreak around juvenile crime.
It’s a massive issue across Australia this. What leads to it? How do you address it? Senator Malcolm Roberts joins us from Queensland. Malcolm thank you for your time. So you met with locals, were they men and women or only men?
[Malcolm Roberts]
Men and women. Most of the committee is men, but they’ve got a woman who’s looking after them in terms of making sure their governance is correct and she’s an integral part of it.
[Alan Jones]
So this is…
[Malcolm Roberts]
But it’s also a black and white.
[Alan Jones]
Yeah, indigenous and non-indigenous. And you say they were passionately committed to finding a way for Townsville to take ownership of, and responsibility for their next generation of up and coming adults. So they understand the urgency of the situation for Townsville youth.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Yes, they certainly do. And you said it exactly correctly, Alan, because these people have seen failures in governance, they’re are tired of the governance.
The government itself up here the labor machine is suppressing people’s voices. I’m talking about public servants, prison officers, police, detention centre officers, and what they’ve suddenly realised that the people, on the ground in Townsville, the citizens of Townsville, that they have to do it themselves.
They cannot rely upon this labor machine ’cause labor and the machine up here wants to look good, not do good. And they’re just fluffing around the edges.
[Alan Jones]
Yeah, a hundred percent curriculum. What are the causes do they think of juvenile crime? I mean, I think of this. I think well have, we undermined the family. Many of these young people, products of parents who are basically unqualified to deal with the wellbeing of children.
There’s no training for parenthood and it’s surely a mistake to believe anyway that government can solve the problem but the government helps create it. So what do they say is the cause of this?
[Malcolm Roberts]
It’s multifaceted, Alan, you’re exactly correct. The Russ Butler, who is a very impressive Aboriginal in Townsville and an elder. He says that one of the key issues is the lack of parental guidance from a very young age.
They’re basically missing. The second thing is there’s a lot of unemployment up there because of, for example, electricity prices in Queensland are ridiculously high, and they’re driving manufacturing jobs, and even agricultural jobs, shutting things down.
[Alan Jones]
There are jobs in agriculture, Senator Malcolm, there are jobs. This is Senator Malcolm Roberts. There are jobs in agriculture do these people genuinely want to work or do they actually live by the culture of today, which is put my hand out and government will give me someone else’s money.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Well, it is patently that Alan, but it’s also the fact that there are safe houses and bail houses here in Townsville. And they’re supposed to be under a curfew, but the curfews are just completely disregarded. And the kids, the young men get on their mobile phones and organise from their bail houses and safe houses where they’re going to raid that night and the next day.
So what we need is discipline, but we also need them. And this is the beauty of this programme. It’s called one community, one standard, Jeff Adams and Russ Butler, and four other men. And as I said, that female in the staff, what the beauty of it is, they can look at this in a comprehensive way. They don’t just want to punish kids. Some will need that, but they want to bring them back…
[Alan Jones]
But you mentioned, you mentioned discipline. I mean, discipline, we’ve taken discipline out of the classroom. Do these people understand that there are community standards and that they’ve got to really live by those standards? That’s the first step. I mean, if education fails them, is employment training adequate?
[Malcolm Roberts]
You’re right on the track Alan. One of the things they’re talking about is one community, one standard. That’s the name of the entity that group they’ve formed.
And what they want to do is to get the elders involved, also the victims of the crimes and make sure there’s responsibility put on the actual perpetrators of the crimes, the criminals themselves, because then there’ll be greater, greater responsibility.
Maria Montessori showed these over many, many years. You know, the famed educator, I’m sure, she showed these basic principles work successfully, regardless of the culture, regardless of the society. They work worldwide with all humans. And these people are wanting to put this into practise.
They know it works because Russ Butler who’s an Aboriginal elder in the group has done it himself, taken people back country, on country. They call it, and they’ve sorted these kids out and they’ve been rehabilitated and they want to get previous people who’ve rehabilitated back to do the work with them, but they can’t get the funding.
They can’t get the proper governance because this Paluszczuk machine, the labour machine up here is just only interested in looking good, not doing good. They won’t address the hard issues, Alan, they’re just tired.
[Alan Jones]
Good on you. I mean, basically it’s called going back to the future. We’ve got to reinstate some of the values of the past that we’ve overturned. I think. Good to talk to you, Malcolm. There he is the one nation Senator. That’s a universal problem. Isn’t it? The one nation Senator from Queensland, Malcolm Roberts.
Through the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) Ltd the deep corruption that had been culturally entrenched in Ipswich and Logan Councils, is ingeniously and systemically infecting many other Queensland councils.
Senator Malcolm Roberts lodged a Senate motion this week calling for a Select Committee on Corruption in Queensland Local Government to be established to address the gross misuse of Commonwealth and State Disaster Funds, under the procurement practices of LGAQ Ltd and Queensland councils.
Senator Roberts said, “Evidence shows that around 50% of the funded disaster money is siphoned into areas that currently avoid detection and is not used for the benefit of the community.”
“Listening to many contractors and staff state-wide has uncovered a depth of dishonesty with public money that law-abiding citizens will find it hard to believe, but it is true.”
The National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) is the agency through which councils receive disaster recovery funding. From 2011 – 2019 all Queensland councils received a blockbuster $5.339 billion, 75% from the federal government and 25% from the state.
The LGAQ’s unfettered existence benefits from two statutory provisions. Firstly rule 234 of the Local Government Regulations 2012 exempts a Council from calling for quotes or contractors to tender if the contract is entered using the LGAQ as an intermediary.
This practice, considered unlawful collusion in all states except Queensland, allows LGAQ’s procurement entity Local Buy, to award disaster recovery projects to “anointed contractors” that can be encouraged to inflate prices, use substandard materials and deliver inferior workmanship to maximise profit.
The other problem is s591 of the Industrial Relations Act 1999, that exempts LGAQ Ltd from appointing an independent auditor to inspect financial records.
Senator Roberts stated, “Access to large sums of disaster money, rule 234 and exemption from financial auditing, allows immunity from scrutiny and transparency creating a hot bed of systemic corruption.
A 2019 audit of Queensland Councils by the QLD Audit Office identified $793 million worth of assets – including roads – missing from public registers of 44 councils during 2017-2019. The report stated that overspending, incomplete asset registers and systemic poor internal controls were widespread across Queensland Councils making fraud easy to do.
Queensland’s state government and the Crime and Corruption Commission are aware of these alleged corrupt practices and have inexplicably declined to investigate.
Senator Roberts added, “A Senate Committee will ensure an independent investigation, void of political interference, into these corrupt practices. “Every Queensland council should welcome the scrutiny to give rate payers reassurance their council’s governance and fiscal management are both moral and legal.”
One Nation is the sole political defender of our coal industry and the lone voice for our state’s largest export income earner.
Labor and the LNP have signalled a strong exit from coal as part of Australia’s energy mix, yet coal earns the Queensland Government $4 billion in royalties annually.
Labor has committed to 50% renewables and a 2050 zero net carbon dioxide, and last week, the Liberal’s new energy roadmap marginalises coal in favour of unknown and unproven renewable technologies and doubling renewables to a crippling 30%.
Senator Roberts stated, “What this means is there will be no more coal-fired power stations built under a Labor or LNP government.
“One Nation however will not abandon coal and I want to assure the coal mining industry, coal communities, and coal miners and their families that we support coal mining jobs.”
“Only One Nation has the courage and integrity to question the claimed science underpinning the destructive climate policies and doing our due diligence shows we need to stay with coal.”
During Senator Roberts’ discussions with CSIRO, their climate science team admitted that CSIRO has never said carbon dioxide from human activity is a danger and admitted that today’s temperatures are not unprecedented.
Despite these revelations Labor and LNP climate policies continue to burden our country’s economy and cripple our recovery with the diversion of billions of dollars into renewables.
“Australia has shut down 12 coal-fired power stations over the last six years, while India and China are building hundreds of coal-fired plants.
“Labor and the LNP are kidding themselves that carbon dioxide is a problem and persist with ridiculous climate policies, while Asia strides ahead economically and industrially pumping out gargantuan amounts of this natural trace gas for decades to come.
“It is both ironic and preposterous that countries like India and China use our high grade coal to sell electricity at 8c/kWh, compared to 25c/kWh in Australia from the same coal, due to costly, unreliable and parasitic renewables,” added Senator Roberts.
Senator Roberts commissioned economist Dr Alan Moran to analyse the economic impact of state and federal climate policies and found that Australian households pay an extra $1,300 per household every year in higher electricity charges; a staggering $13 billion each year.
Senator Roberts is travelling through the Bowen Basin this week and wants to reassure the whole industry that One Nation stands in solidarity with coal mining.
One Nation will work tirelessly to reverse these unjust and ideologically-driven climate policies that erode our economic competitiveness and impose a hefty burden on our cost of living.
“There are too many lame and lazy politicians who lack the mettle and intellectual rigour to question the so-called climate science. “There are many more politicians who know the science is flawed yet spend their days hiding in the shadows of party lines, rather than having the courage to call it out,” stated Senator Roberts.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mining.png?fit=2300%2C1294&ssl=112942300Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-10-02 15:43:422020-10-02 15:43:56One Nation: The lone voice for coal miners and coal industry
