Malcolm’s Official Speeches in Parliament

Medical Cannabis & Hemp export industry given green light

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Transcript

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I’m delighted to say that this bill holds enormous promise. For far too long, cannabis and hemp have been suppressed for reasons that have everything to do with established interests, and nothing to do with the merits of the plant.

That has hurt people for years and is hurting hundreds of thousands of people now. This bill addresses one area that has been holding back the Australian cannabis and hemp industry. Currently, there is no formal system for providing approvals for the export of medical cannabis and hemp.

The approval must apply, the producer, sorry, must apply to the minister for an ad-hoc approval. While approvals have been granted, the volumes are a fraction of the potential that this crop offers. The Export Control Act, 2020 came in this year and it allows the minister to make rules that govern the issue of exports certificates.

If a substance is on the list, rules are issued to regulate the export of that substance. Now cannabis and hemp were not originally included in that bill. This amendment corrects that. Cannabis and hemp growers and manufacturers can now have certainty about the rules for export.

Every grower is on the same footing. All who meet the rules can get an export licence and sell the product into the world market, and what a market that is? The cannabis and hemp market in Australia is expected to grow to a billion dollars in just four years and double that to $2 billion by 2028.

And at that time, our near neighbours in Asia, in the Asian market will exceed $10 billion. This is a wonderful opportunity, the start of a wonderful opportunity. Australia’s reputation as a high quality, safe supplier of food and medicine will help our producers take a significant share of that huge market.

And I must compliment the government’s decision to require all cannabis producers to follow the International Safety and Quality Standard known as the GMP, good manufacturing practise. Quality processing has been instrumental in growing our reputation for trusted product and that means a lot to people overseas and in Australia.

Internationally, the world market for cannabis and hemp is expected to reach $50 billion by 2030. Some of this growth is from the trend to legalise recreational cannabis, which I need to make clear, One Nation does not support.

We do support natural, Australian whole plant medical cannabis by way of doctor’s prescription to any person with a medical need, supplied by a pharmacist, subsidised on the PBS. I note that the government is also looking to reschedule low THC cannabis into schedule three as an over-the-counter, chemist-only medication.

One Nation supports that reschedule. We have long pushed for this. The Liberal government talks about market efficiency but in the cannabis market, we have nothing but over-regulation and disincentives to enter the market. This bill will help but there is much, much more to be done.

I draw the government’s attention to the review of the Narcotic Drugs act conducted by Professor McMillan, which reported almost 12 months ago, July 2019. Professor McMillan made 26 recommendations to improve the commercial efficiency of the cannabis market in Australia.

None, none of those recommendations have currently been implemented. Many of those recommendations dovetail nicely with the intent of the Export Control Legislation Amendment to develop an Australian export industry for cannabis and hemp.

The report calls for a reduction in the onerous conditions being applied to the industry and to people who work in it. These restrictions are an unnecessary and costly barrier to efficient quality production. They’re holding our farmers back, they’re holding everyone in the supply chain back and holding customers back.

Professor McMillan has recommended that a single licence be issued for all or some of cultivation, production, manufacture and research. This is instead of the individual licences currently being required at each step. The report also suggested licences be valid for five years rather than 12 months.

Now most exported cannabis and hemp is value added, allowing one producer to now grow, process, manufacturer and research new products and a five year licence guarantees the security of their investment, which improves the return of their investment.

By encouraging vertical integration, our producers can benefit from multiple profit centres and insulate against fluctuations in one area of this emerging market. Export opportunities will be enhanced by a wider range of products offered for sale. Volume and diversity resulting from export markets will benefit domestic patients as well.

So let me explain. Currently medical cannabis is prohibitively expensive. This is in part due to the high administrative, regulatory and security costs imposed on each stage of the process from cultivating or importing through to selling the product to a patient.

This high cost is spread across low volumes because of restricted access making each prescription too expensive for patients to afford. And that creates an ongoing cycle of high prices and low affordability leading to low volume which leads to high prices. It’s a vicious cycle.

This bill represents a way out of that self-defeating cycle by allowing for the current small domestic demand to be met from high volume, low cost export production. Medical cannabis is best used when the plant has been processed as little as possible. It is a wonderful natural product.

Conversion into vaping solutions, patches, topicals and capsules does not disturb the compound profile of the plant. It is a wonderful product. Since medical cannabis has been legal for many years in well, most nations on the planet, we are seeing an explosion in new hybridised varieties of medical strains of cannabis.

I’ve seen some of them myself. These have been developed to provide an optimum profile for a specific medical condition. This wonderful plant, and it has many varieties can be tailored to specific needs of patients. And there are many patients in desperate need of this.

Hundreds of different varieties are now available to the world market, hundreds. The more of these varieties that can be grown in Australia to support export demand, the greater the variety that will be available to supply domestic patients. People can have this marvelous natural plant tailored to suit their specific medical needs.

With a professional, efficient, and profitable export industry, Australian patients will be able to access the exact cannabis profile for their particular health condition at much reduced prices, much greater value. So as a senator from Queensland, I’m excited that we have a growing centre for cannabis excellence in Southport.

Our beautiful climate is perfectly suited to growing hemp for food, textiles, cosmetics, oil, building products, and so much more. Queensland will be on the forefront of this multi billion dollar export industry for both hemp and cannabis.

One Nation’s policy of restoring property rights for farmers and building more dams will deliver to our farmers the capacity to grow Australia’s agricultural capacity through hemp and cannabis. Before closing, I want to reiterate what our party leader, Senator Hanson said and express my thanks to Senator Coleman from the Liberal Party and Senator Kitching from the Labor Party.

It was them who made it possible because Senator Hansen and some of our staff have been pushing for this for years vigorously and it’s wonderful to see this step. Tiny though it is, it is a wonderful step. So thank you. In closing, may I suggest that the success of this bill will depend upon what the export rules for cannabis are.

To date, rules on medical cannabis and hemp have been so damn onerous. People were left wondering if the government was fair dinkum about a plant that has so many proven applications, and so many successful runs on the board overseas.

We look forward to the government proving through fair and effective regulation, that they are indeed genuine about implementing this bill’s attention, thank you.

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Greens bullying Adani suppliers

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The Greens are still trying to sabotage the Adani coal mine by intimidating and bullying suppliers and service providers.The Carmichael coal mine operators have agreed to the most stringent environmental conditions of any infrastructure project in Australia’s history.

Environmental activists used every dirty trick they had to try and stop the Carmichael coal mine and failed. Adani wore the millions in court cost of vexatious and frivolous lawsuits by far left ideologues who are trying to destroy our mining industry.

(Look at the Greens) These same immoral environmental pests are now trying to interfere in the operations of the mine by intimidating and bullying suppliers and service providers to the mine.One Nation stands 100% behind the Carmichael Coal mine and the Queensland mining industry and will do everything in our power to protect their lawful enterprise.

Queenslanders need the jobs, community infrastructure and services that will come from opening the Galilee Basin.

Transcript

[Roberts]

Thank you, One Nation will oppose this motion. The Carmichael Coalmine Operators agreed to the most stringent environmental conditions of any infrastructure project in Australia’s history. Environmental activists used every dirty trick to try and stop the mine and they failed.

Far-left ideologues, trying to destroy our mining industry, forced Adani to wear millions in court costs. from vexatious and frivolous lawsuits.

[Waters]

I think they’ve got enough money.

[Roberts]

The same dishonest, immoral, anti-human environmental pest are now intimidating and bullying the mine’s suppliers and service providers to interfere in the mine’s operation. One Nation stands 100% behind The Carmichael Mine, and 100% behind Queensland’s mining industry.

And we will do everything in our power to protect their lawful enterprise. Queenslanders need jobs, community infrastructure and services that will come from opening The Galilee Basin, just as Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen approving the Bowen Basin opened up Central Queensland.

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All Lives Matter vs. Black Lives Matter

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By refusing to accept accurate data on deaths in custody from the Australian Institute of Criminology in my Motion, the senate has effectively voted that they are not interested in data, not interested in objectivity and not interested in truth.

I stand by my belief and statement, and that is this: all lives matter. I will continue to support free speech as crucial to democracy and freedom, and that is essential for human progress.

Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?

Transcript

Thank you Madam acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I want to speak on a fundamental for human progress. Freedom and Freedom of Speech. Freedom of speech is enshrined in our country after many high court rulings.

It’s not specifically covered in our constitution, yet it’s implied. And because the high court’s rulings, it is enshrined in our country, and yet today freedom of speech is under threat and it’s under threat in this parliament. In fact, our whole way of life is under threat.

Listen to these wise words of American, African-American economist and philosopher, Thomas Sowell. He says, “We are living in an era “where sanity is controversial. “and insanity is just another viewpoint. “and degeneracy only another lifestyle.”

And this point from Thomas Sowell, “Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity “when some people are held responsible “for things that happened before they were born, “while other people are not held responsible “for what they themselves are doing today?”

Take the case of All Lives Matter. Surely there wouldn’t be anyone in Australia who would disagree that all lives matter. Yet in just four days, we witnessed the following events. Labor Senator Helen Polley tweeted the words “all lives matter” last Tuesday.

And she was eaten alive by her own party. She retracted the tweet. Senator Pauline Hanson stated in her matter of public importance speech that we need, and she wants all people to be equal under the law.

Yet Greens senators, Rice and McKim and labor senators Ayres, labor senator Ayres, implied, or stated that Senator Hanson is racist and that I am racist. Senator McKim said it before I even, even started my speech. “Their statements and implied statements are false.

“They are lies and lies are a form of control. “People lie when they lack a coherent argument “and it cannot counter our position, “cannot counter our argument. “So they resort to personal attacks and lies.” Liberal speakers, during Senator Hanson’s matter of public importance said many times that all lives matter.

And Senator Hanson moved a motion then, tried to move a motion the next day that all lives matter. The government and labor stopped Senator Hanson. All senators in this chamber, except for me and Senator Hanson disagreed it seems that all lives matter.

So the people leading this country don’t think that all lives matter. The next day, the fourth day, I tried to present graph, prior to present data, showing the data on deaths in custody and the government stopped me. Stopped me, presenting their own data.

Notice that I said deaths in custody, not black deaths in custody, not Aboriginal deaths in custody, deaths in custody. And it came in this report. Now I’ll go through that data, from the Australian government’s own Australian Institute of criminology. It’s the latest report.

It’s the 2020 report entitled “Deaths in custody in Australia” written by Laura Dotty and Samantha Bricknell. in 2017-18, the rate of death in custody for prisoner types was indigenous persons, 0.14 per 100 prisoners, non indigenous persons, 0.18 per 100 prisoners.

Now non-indigenous appears to be 25% higher yet I tell the truth and I did not mislead. This would not be a statistically significant difference as the sample numbers are so small. So we can say without any, without any doubt that non-indigenous and indigenous persons died in custody at roughly the same rate.

The 2017, 2018 total deaths in police custody and custody related operations was indigenous people, three, non-indigenous people, 14. In 2017-18, 79% of indigenous deaths in prison custody were due to natural causes. 4/5 of deaths in prison custody were due to natural causes.

Over the decade to 2018, non-indigenous persons were nearly, non-indigenous persons were nearly twice as likely as indigenous persons to hang themselves in prison custody. Motor vehicle pursuits represented 38% of indigenous deaths in police custody and custody related operations.

Almost four in 10, driving the vehicle themselves. From 2006 to 2016, a 41% increase in indigenous imprisonment rates corresponded almost exactly with a 42% increase in people identifying as indigenous. In other words, the rate of indigenous deaths in custody stay the same in proportion and did not increase.

Using the figure of 437 unconvicted indigenous deaths without reference to critical detail and context results in a distorted discussion of indigenous issues. And when real issues remain hidden, they cannot be solved. That leads to proposed solutions being not useful and possibly harmful.

The issue is not unequal treatment before the law, the real issue for Aboriginal people, maybe lifestyle or cultural or poverty or welfare dependency. But let’s have the truth because only then can we identify core problems and only then can we identify core solutions.

Only then can we really care for the disadvantaged and help them solve the challenges they face. But all people must be equal before the law. Another real issue then is dishonesty in parliament and fear of data. Fear of data, that’s what brings objectivity.

And yet the people in this parliament run from it. Their own data. So I wanna make these core points. Number one, these are hard data from the government’s own agency yet the government is jumping from its own shadow, afraid to debate, even though the points are supportive of their case.

That begs the question, is the government is afraid of a split within its own ranks? The wokes versus the real liberals? and several liberals have approached me and discussed the party’s fear of data and reality. Number two, the left or control side of politics hates data.

It undermines their use of opinion, hearsay, smears, emotions, propaganda, and lies to hijack issues. That fabricates victims and that weakens the very people they claim to be helping. Their ideology is based on victim-hood as a means of creating division and separation and that cripples people.

Thirdly, the government’s position in suppressing the data shows a fear of data, a disdain of data, a disrespect for people, highlights how, it highlights how issues are pushed to avoid data. Climate, Senator Ian McDonald stood up there.

The former Senator Ian McDonald stood up there in the last Monday of 2016 and said, looked across at me and said, “I don’t always agree with Senator Roberts, “but I’ve got to admit and respect him for starting “the debate on the climate science that we have never had “in this parliament and still have not had.”

The absence of data allows destructive policies that are hurting and killing people and certainly making life miserable financially, materially and emotionally. With the exception of Senator Hanson and myself, all other senators have effectively voted that all lives do not matter.

All other senators have effectively voted that they are not interested in data, not interested in objectivity, not interested in truth. I stand by my belief and statement, and that is this, all lives matter. I will continue to support free speech as crucial for democracy and freedom.

And essential for freedom that is essential for human progress. Thank you, Mr.President.

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Fast track the hybrid Bradfield scheme

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This afternoon Pauline ask Senator Cash whether the Prime Minister would fast track the hybrid Bradfield scheme, a nation-building project to help improve Queensland’s productive capacity.

While the government has committed to $72 billion in major infrastructure projects across the country, there is still no sign of the Hybrid Bradfield scheme.

Transcript

[Announcer]

Senator Hanson.

[Senator Hanson}

Thank you very much. My question is to the Minister Cash, representing the Minister for Infrastructure. On the 13th of November, 2019, the majority of coalition senators supported a notice of motion that the senate, and I quote, call on the federal government to take the necessary steps to ensure the construction of a Bradfield-type scheme can begin in Queensland as swiftly as possible.

Speaking to this motion, the government stated, and again I quote, there is no reason for the Australian government to oppose this motion. Today the prime minister announced plans to fast-track a number of infrastructure projects, yet despite the government’s plain support, there was no mention of any form of Bradfield scheme.

Why has the government chosen to leave the hybrid or new Bradfield scheme, a crucial, nation-building project they have expressed their support for, off the prime minister’s list of essential projects to be fast-tracked?

[Announcer]

The minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Senator Cash.

[Senator Cash]

Thank you, Mr President and I thank Senator Hanson for her question and in particular for acknowledging the significant announcement that the prime minister made today, as I alluded to in my previous question from Senator Antic, and the bringing forward of infrastructure projects across Australia to create around 66,000 jobs. In relation to the Bradfield scheme, I can provide you with the following information: the national water grid authority, which as you have referred to commenced operation on the 1st of October, 2019, is working with leading science agencies including the CSIRO to determine where and how water resources can be sustainably developed. This forms part of the Australian government’s commitment to invest $100 million into bringing world-best science together to identify opportunities for enhancing water supply and reliability for regional Australia. As part of this work, the authority is considering options for developing large-scale water harvesting and transfer schemes such as elements of the Bradfield scheme or hybrid versions of the Bradfield scheme to capture and transport water to both grow agricultural sector and improve drought resilience. Over the decade since it was first proposed, there have been a number of assessments on the merit of the original Bradfield scheme and more recent variations. It is important that the feasibility of these schemes are now investigated using the best available contemporary science.

[Announcer]

Senator Hanson, a supplementary question.

[Senator Hanson]

Thank you. Minister, there has been a feasibility study done on it by the Snowy Mountain Engineering Corp in 2018. Water security is crucial to all Australians especially given the horrendous drought that more than 60% of Queensland continues to endure. Why can’t the government simply give the people of Australia a firm commitment that the hybrid Bradfield scheme will be added to the prime minister’s list of projects that will be fast-tracked?

[Announcer]

Senator Cash.

[Senator Cash]

Well, thank you, Mr. President, and I would refer Senator Hanson to the answer I just gave to my previous question and my understanding is the prime minister announced certain projects today and said there’d be further announcements to come.

[Announcer]

Senator Hanson, a final supplementary question.

[Senator Hanson]

I appreciate that and I appreciate the water schemes that actually have been put in with the dams but there has been no real commitment to the hybrid Bradfield scheme which will actually bring water from going out to the ocean inland. So therefore I say to the minister, the government has been very critical of Queensland’s Labor’s failure to give a clear date on border openings, is it safe to say that because you won’t commit to a date to start this project, that the Liberal National Party have no plans to build the Bradfield scheme?

[Announcer]

Senator Cash.

[Senator Cash]

Thank you, Mr. President, and Senator Hanson I will have to reject the premise of your question, and as I said in my answer to your primary question, over the decade since it was first proposed, there have been a number of assessments on the merits of the original Bradfield scheme and more recent variations. It is important that the feasibility of these schemes are now investigated using the best available contemporary science.

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Labor/Greens reject mandatory sentencing for Paedophiles

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Labor, Greens, Centre Alliance and Jacqui Lambie last night voted down a Bill for mandatory sentencing for paedophiles. One Nation voted strongly in support of this Bill.

Transcript

Thank you, Mr. Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I don’t serve just voters, I serve everyone who is a resident of Queensland and Australia. And that especially includes those who don’t vote because they’re too young.

I won’t go over the statistics, the gory details because they are horrific. Other speakers have done this from both sides of the chamber but I do serve the young. And why do I serve the young? Because the abuse of children is not only the most heinous crime.

It is also the destruction of our nation’s future. As I see it, the child, especially the young child up to about six is the embodiment of our universe. It is the ultimate expression of our universe. The lovely eyes of a child, and what is going on in the heart of that child from zero to six are the critical years.

According to Maria Montessori, he has done more work than anyone else ever on the development and behaviour of humans. And she says that zero to six are the critical years for the development of intellect and character. And some mongrel comes in and steals that person’s development, that young child’s development.

And I did look at yesterday and the day before, when I was in the Hunter Valley with Stuart Bonds, and we were helping some people who are victims at adult of corporate crimes, group crimes. And Stuart and his wife Sini have a lovely daughter called Penny.

And Penny is an absolute delight. Eye shining, heart pumping, asking questions. She’s only two and a half, but speaks like a four year old, speaks like an adult in many ways, full sentences. And I was just marvelling at that lovely little human, the embodiment of her universe, combined with the human spirit.

As Tom Peters said the renowned management expert, he said many years ago, and I’ll always remember this. “The height of our civilization is the four year old.” There’s developing, but they haven’t been corrupted by our society yet. And yet children need to be protected.

They’re naive, worse than that or more important than that, they’re innocent. And they can be preyed upon. They’re weak and vulnerable in many ways, despite that sparkle and that energy. And when somebody molests a young child, they’re doing enormous damage, lasting damage, terrible damage.

They’re not doing it just to the child because the child’s pain, plays out for the rest of her or his life. That is terrible. But then what happens to that pain? Is it sometimes gets transferred to other people when that child becomes an adult.

And so on the handing down of that pain, a lifetime of pain, a cost in sorting out that person’s problem sometimes later on the costs that are borne by our society, the cost that can be born by other individuals. And that is a huge cost to our society. So every way we look at this, this bill must go forward.

We know that sentences on paedophiles are not tough enough. We know that judges are being weak and society is not dealing with this vital issue anywhere near adequately. We must have much more serious sentencing because judges have shown they have been weak.

Now we’ve had questions about this bill, Senator Hanson and I have listened intensely to the Labour Shadow Minister for the Shadow Attorney General. And he made some good points, provided us with some data.

We then went to the Attorney General and listened to the Attorney General, reassured us on those points, reassured us on the checks and balances in this bill, because these are the worst of criminals, but they still need to be treated fairly and within the law.

This bill, as it is now sends a powerful message to the scum of our society, the absolute scum and dregs of our society. We must be tough on those who hurt the weak, who hurt the vulnerable, who hurt our kids. Our kids are the future. Our kids deserve to be free from this scum.

We are voting in favour of this bill because of our kids and I commend this bill to the Senate.

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Restore our productive environment

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I will say it again. We need our economic productive capacity to be restored, we need our economic resilience to be restored, we need our economic sovereignty and independence to be restored, and we need our economic security to be restored.

Transcript

Thank you madam acting deputy president. As a servant of the people of Queensland and Australia, I support this bill. We need though, to do far more. We need to get manufacturing moving. We need to protect Australia from the risks of sources of imported goods drying up, and we need, as Senator O’Sullivan has said, jobs, jobs, jobs.

Queenslanders and Australians everywhere have heard us speak about the gaps in our productive capacity, the gaps in economic resilience, the gaps in our economic sovereignty and the gaps in our national security. That was before COVID.

Now it’s even more so, especially since COVID revealed that we did not even have enough personal protective equipment to protect our valued healthcare workers and everyday Australians. And now we have to store our own oil, our own oil in the USA because we have nowhere to store it here.

And at first we couldn’t even after COVID, we couldn’t even manufacture ventilators, but thanks to Aussie ingenuity and a personal thank you to all those innovative Australians who did step up to fill this gap. Certainly, we need the skills.

Australia needs the skills and the capability to ensure that we can protect ourselves from future health disasters and economic disasters, especially things like the prolonged border closures of, or international transport closures or blockades cut the sea transport.

And these are possibilities. We see the news of what’s happening in the South China seas. We see the growing confrontation between America and China. We need to think about our security. So this government has presented a bill for the creation of the position of national skills commissioner.

Yet we need to ensure this is not just an advisory role. Just setting up this office for four years is costing taxpayers over $48 million. And I quite often hear Liberal and Labor people and the National saying, “We’ve spend a million here, “we spent tens of millions here, “we spent hundreds of millions here, “we spent a couple of billion here and there.”

It’s not the money that matters, it’s the environment in which that money can be turned into something beneficial for the people of Australia. So we expect a return on that 48 million. A return on investment by giving the commissioner the teeth to ensure that vocational training across Australia is high in quality, consistent and competitively priced.

Training by itself is not the answer. It needs to be good, effective training. So where is the accountability between the federal funding of approximately $1.5 billion a year to the States, to the vocational providers, to ensure that our vocational trainees, get a high quality education and an affordable education that really lands them a job.

If the government is going to invest $1.5 billion per year in vocational education and training, then Australians have a right to ensure that our taxes are well spent. So we need a review of the performance of the national skills commissioner after 12 months, or possibly after three years, we need that review.

We also need to understand that it is not the commissioner who is going to get us effective training. It is not the commissioner who is going to decide what skills are needed. Government, Liberal, Labor, Nationals have shown a very poor track record of anticipating demand for specific skills.

Those decisions must be based upon what the market needs. It’s the men and women in work. It’s the men and women investing, men and women leading corporations that determine the skills we need and actually going beneath that, it’s the market that drives those skills.

And they will tell us what skills are needed to service the market. More importantly, we need to restart manufacturing in our country, and that needs more than training. It needs much more than training. It needs an integrated approach and industry and economic environment, which enables and encourages Australian investment.

How the hell can people afford to invest when energy prices are so high? How the hell can it be that we don’t have reliable, affordable, stable, synchronous electricity? We have the cheapest coal in the world, the highest quality coal in the world.

We export that to China and they produce coal far, far more cheaply at about 40%, they sell it to their manufacturers at 40% of the price we sell it. Why, because our electricity prices have doubled in the last 10 years. Why, because of Liberal, Labor and Nationals policies’ based on rubbish, a climate scam.

That is what’s destroying our manufacturing industry. Labour costs are a smaller component of manufacturing these days than they used to be. Electricity prices are significant. We’ve gone from the lowest price electricity to the world’s highest prices.

And that’s been due to regulations based not on data, but on opinions from the Liberal, Labor and Nationals governments. How can it be that China, takes our coal thousands of kilometres and sells it at 40% of the price that we sell it for?

It’s regulations, it’s government screwing with the market, it’s government screwing with regulations. Listen to some of these factors, all government driven. The renewable energy target, introduced by John Howard’s government.

The national electricity market, introduced before John Howard, if memory serves me correctly, but worsened under John Howard’s government. National energy market is really a racket, not a market. And that’s the people in Australia are paying for the prices that the retail margins are guaranteed in some states at high levels with very little risk.

The networks are gold plated because of regulations. And then we’ve got privatisation. In Queensland, our state, the Labor Party up there, and the state government uses that as a tax, $1.4 to $1.5 billion a year in tax, due to excess charges from the generators.

Privatisation, the sale of assets, is failing around the country. That is an essential asset and it’s crippling our manufacturing. It’s crippling jobs right across. Agriculture, farmers won’t irrigate because the price of water is too high. Price of pumping water is too high.

Second thing, tax, that’s part of the business environment. Multinationals in our country are going without paying tax. Any company tax due to agreements from Robert Menzies’ Liberal Government in 1953, perpetuated with the lack of tax on the North West Shelf Gas that was enabled by Bob Hawke’s Labor Government in the 1980s.

Both sides have done that. Former deputy commissioner of taxation Jim Killaly, said in 1996 and the year 2010, that 90% of Australia’s large companies are foreign owned and since 1953 have paid little or no tax. What that means is that mums and dads, families, small businesses, Australian owned businesses have to pay more tax than they need to.

It also means that the Australian businesses are at a competitive disadvantage of about 30% because they have to pay company tax and large companies have to pay company tax and the foreign companies don’t.

So taxation, we need to set a level playing field by taxing multinationals and reducing the tax burden, simplifying the tax system, having a comprehensive review of tax, because that is one of the most important factors driving the lack of investment from Australians.

We also have an abundance of regulations that are crippling, that is crippling our country. We have red tape from the bureaucracies that state federal and even local level. We have green tape driven by rampant environmentalists. We have blue tape driven by UN, and that is arguably the largest component of tape.

The blue tape, most expensive of all, put in place by Liberal, Labor, Nationals Governments. And then we have economic management. How can companies prepare? How can companies plan for the longer term, which is needed these days when we have governments, making economic management decisions purely based upon electoral electoral payoffs, not just every three years as it used to be, but now it’s an annual cycle.

Budgets are based upon bribing taxpayers to vote for that particular party. Economic management is now 12 month issue, and it’s very short-term and it’s counterproductive to good business environment. We have states now with lower accountability because competitive federalism has been white anted.

The Queensland Labor Government can sit on closing its borders and decimating our tourism, decimating small business in our state. And why, because under the Commonwealth Constitution, we are supposed to have competitive federalism yet in 1943, the income tax was stolen from the States and given to the federal government.

And now essentially more than 50% of state government expenditure is from the federal government, tied to federal government conditions and guidelines, which means effectively that the federal government is running much of what the States do.

The federal government is running much of what the local councils do around Queensland and around Australia. I was in the Balonne Shire council in 19, sorry, in 2017 in February and they told me an answer to a question of mine that 73% of their annual revenue comes from the federal government with strings attached.

Not only does the federal government tell them how to manage their local community, the federal government only has three to five year windows, which means the local councils can’t go beyond that time frame during their planning. How can local councils make a long-term plan?

This is what’s hampering governance in this country. So I plead with the government to make sure that we focus on our economic productive capacity, our economic resilience, our economic sovereignty, our economic security, our economic independence, which has been smashed by the quest for the elitist quest for, interdependence which is really depending upon others, that is a loss of dependence.

Nonetheless, this legislation will help all Queenslanders to improve our state’s economy and to repay the debt hole in which Labor Government in Queensland has buried Queenslanders. We need training, but we need jobs. We need Australian jobs.

We need Queensland jobs, especially in regional Queensland. Training is a minor component, yet an important component. Beyond that, we need to get back to basics to create the economic environment, to drive the Australian investment.

As I said, I’ll say it again, we need economic productive capacity to be restored. We need economic resilience to be restored. We need economic sovereignty and independence to be restored. We need economic security to be restored. Australia has the people, has the resources, has the opportunity, has the potential.

We just need to get back to what we had, get back to the basics. And in the basics, Australia led the world in per capita gross domestic product per capita income in the early years of our Federation. When our constitution was followed and the States behave competitively toward each other.

That’s what we need to get back to a productive environment. Thank you Madam acting deputy president.

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Stop centralising and restore competitive federalism

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Transcript

Thank you, Madam Deputy President, as a servant to the people of Queensland in Australia, I support this bill, with reservations. Firstly, there is a growing belief among our governing class that Australian federalism relies, in many areas, on shared endeavour.

I do acknowledge that coordinated federalism, where each government works with the other, yet retains total determination over and exercise of, its own constitutional powers, needs some honing today. After all, the internet runs as a thread throughout society and connects us all across state borders.

Yet this does not mean, transfer of power, from the states to the Federal Government. This most definitely does not mean that. I’m advocating generally the reverse, that we need to send some powers back from the Federal Government, to the state governments, in accordance with our constitution.

It is fundamental to our constitution, and it is common sense, that the best service delivery, occurs when the person making a decision, is located closest to the people affected by that decision. I mean, that is obvious. That is the reverse of what has happened in our country since 1944.

The greater the distance apart, the worse the decision making. We need to stop centralising and restore competitive federalism. Competitive federalism, with six states working independently, yet together, is highly effective.

Our country was leading the world, in terms of per capita income from 1901, when we formed as a nation, to about the 1920s. And that was because of competitive federalism. I am concerned, secondly, that this bill… So before moving from that, I’ll just reiterate, that it is very important, to actually get back to competitive federalism, with the states working independently yet together.

My second point, is that I am concerned this bill will give the states, the chance to wash their hands of responsibility, for the integrity of the data in this register. I urge the Federal Government, to ensure that when this register is designed, there is suitable, effective grievance reporting, so people with an error in their entry, or who have been mistaken for someone else, can correct the record.

Australians have recently seen firsthand, a total failure of the Federal Government’s ID function, with the chaotic tragic Robodebt scheme. That’s not just a matter of having an apology from the government. It’s not just a matter of, hundreds of millions of dollars, approaching close to a billion being an error.

It’s wrecking people’s lives. And it’s important to understand, that the government never pays for its mistakes, the people do. And what I mean by that, is that the people pay twice. Once for what the government did, through our taxation system, and then through our own hip pockets.

For the consequences of the government’s error. And we can see that with the live cattle, banning that the Gillard government, put in place capriciously. Now we see the federal government, lining up to take over business registrations.

And people know that outsourcing the IT function, did not turn out so well for the government last time. Thirdly, I am concerned this bill, is not a bill about making a better system, for controlling business registrations and keeping track of company directors.

I am concerned, that the government has spotted yet another chance, to sling yet more taxpayers money, at one of their corporate backers. Who will it be? Mr. Acting Deputy President. KPMG, Indue, we can hardly wait to find out. But we will be watching.

All parties to this register, must show that the respect that is required, for the Australians whose livelihoods, whose legal liabilities are bound to this register. Please, Minister, take your time and get it right. Remember our constitution and competitive federalism, care about the people you are serving.

The government must do better this time. Because after all, government is here, by permission of the people, on behalf of the people, to serve the people. In accordance, and that service from government, must be in accordance, with our people’s governing document, our National Constitution.

Thank you, Mr. acting Deputy President.

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Questions to Government: COVID19 Response

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In the Senate, I asked Senator Cormann three questions on the governments COVID19 response.

Transcript

[President]

Senator Roberts

[Roberts]

Thank you, Mr. President. My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Cormann. Southeast Asian nations like Taiwan quickly learned with regard to COVID that they just had to isolate the sick and the vulnerable.

And that allowed healthy and productive people in businesses to keep working and earning money. The result is that their economy in Taiwan and other Southeast Asian nations remained healthy, and they had far fewer deaths than Australia.

Minister, was there any consideration given in April to changing Australia’s COVID strategy when Taiwan and other Southeast Asian nations had already proved that their strategy worked and was far superior to your government’s strategy?

[President]

The Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Cormann.

[Cormann]

Thank you very much, Mister President. When the crisis hit, there’s no question that we considered a whole range of alternative options on how best to respond to it, but in making decisions and in making judgements we were guided by the advice of relevant experts and in relation to how best to deal with the health threat,

We were guided principally by the advice of the Australian Health Principals Protection Committee, the chief medical and chief health officers from around Australia and the Commonwealth, and I think it’s fair to say for a range of reasons,

But the early decision to impose border restrictions in terms of non-residents who had spent any time of the previous 14 days in mainland China, not being able to come to Australia, and imposing quarantine requirements on Australians and permanent residents having spent time of the previous 14 days in mainland China, has demonstrably helped delay the spread of the virus,

Giving us time to prepare both in terms of the hospital capacity to deal with the potential inflow of patients, but also to prepare the risk management processes that would best equip us to save lives by suppressing, slowing down and suppressing the spread of the virus and helping to put, of course, the economic support measures in place.

While every single death is tragic and it’s one more than you would like to see, but again, I mean, comparatively speaking, comparatively speaking, the number of deaths in Australia is very low internationally. The number of infections is very low.

The number of community transmission is extremely low right now, and we believe that by and large, our strategy has worked. Now, I mean, this is not a perfect environment, you were presented with, we were presented with a rapidly evolving crisis situation.

We made the best possible judgments in the circumstances, guided by the expert advice. On balance, I believe

[President]

Order, Senator Cormann

[Cormann]

that we’ve made good decisions as a country.

[President]

Senator Roberts, supplementing question.

[Roberts]

Thank you, Mr. President. I acknowledge Senator Cormann’s statement, but he fails to acknowledge that the economy has been devastated as a result of the government’s strategy when other economies have not been devastated.

Minister, hasn’t your government’s COVID strategy put the Australian economy and many Australian small businesses and jobs at unnecessary risk and left us with a debt we had to have?

[President]

Senator Cormann.

[Cormann]

Thank you very much, Mr. President. It is certainly true that we were forced to impose significant sacrifices on many Australians. The restrictions that we had to put in place as a country on the economy in order to save lives by slowing down and suppressing the spread of the virus has imposed, of course, significant burdens on many businesses and on many working Australians.

That’s why we put in place the economic support package that we have, in order to provide, to keep as many businesses in business through the transition as possible, to keep as many working Australians connected to their employer during this transition as possible and to provide enhanced support to those Australians who, through no fault of their own, lost their job because of the Coronavirus crisis.

Now, you know, you can argue whether one decision or the other decision could have been made differently, but if you look at the outcomes, if you look at the actual outcomes, both on the health front and on an economic front, I think that Australia’s in a very good position, comparatively speaking

[President]

Order, Senator Cormann.

[Cormann]

to other countries around the world.

[President]

Senator Roberts, a final supplemental question.

[Roberts]

Thank you, Mr. President. Minister, everyday Australians want to know how the Prime Minister will ensure that if businesses do close or go into liquidation, that receivers and administrators will ensure that Australian jobs are preserved and that affected businesses can only be sold to Australians first and not be cheaply flogged off to foreigners.

[President]

Senator Cormann.

[Cormann]

Thank you very much, Mr. President. In relation to foreign investments, you’d be aware that the Treasurer’s put in place some temporary measures to ensure that Australian businesses dealing with the consequences and the impact of the Coronavirus crisis are protected as appropriate in the context of any attempt at foreign takeover.

But, you know, in a broader sense, in a broader sense, when we’re of course focused on doing everything we can to maximise the strength of the economic recovery on the other side, and then we also said that on the other side, in order to maximise the strength of the economic recovery we will need to rely on foreign investment into the future, to maximise our economic growth opportunity to the future.

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ABC deserve funding cut for creating #FakeNews

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Transcript

Thank you Mister President. We oppose this.

The ABC has the time and the money to indulge their personal hostility to President Trump by using a video that sticks together two unrelated videos, that made it falsely appear that president was claiming George Floyd would be looking down from heaven, thinking President Trump’s job figures were a great thing to happen, when he was really referring to his improved policing fairness order.

Rather than needing more money, let me say that the cuts to the ABC need to go far further. When the ABC doubles down on their fake news by claiming the broadcast was a direct quote from the president, the cuts need to go far further.

When the ABC reports that U.S. employment fell when in fact employment rose by 2.5 million in a single month, the cuts need to go far further. The ABC are fake news and do not deserve the funding they fraudulently steal under false pretences.

Blatant dishonesty form the ABC
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Lib/Lab refuse to investigate relationship with China

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Lib/Labs refuse to investigate our relationship with China – AGAIN. I would like to congratulate Liberal Concetta Fierravanti-Wells who crossed the floor to support the motion.

Transcript

[President]

Senator Roberts.

[Roberts]

Thank you, Mr. Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I would like to say that One Nation is very supportive of the motion that Australia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China, be referred to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee for inquiry and preparation of a report.

We wish to commend Senator Rex Patrick, for his seventh attempt to have this or a similar motion, sixth, I’m corrected, to have this motion progress. Mr. Acting Deputy President, Senator Patrick, I can only guess must feel like he’s on the set of Groundhog Day.

And on each of those occasions, Liberal and Labour Parties have joined to defeat all five of his previous attempts. I wonder because, if it’s because Liberal Andrew Robb, when he retired received an $880,000 salary after selling a lease to the Port of Darwin or after Sam Dastyari’s bills were paid by the Chinese or after Liberal Gladys Liu’s contradictions of fact about her associations with China that were never resolved or about Labor’s ICAC revelations in New South Wales.

We keep seeing Liberal and Labor come together to defeat even looking at this very vital, important relationship. It is imperative that Australia and China maintain a mutually respectful and beneficial bilateral relationship.

China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner in exports and imports representing 24% of total trade with a value of $183 billion. That alone shows significant influence on Australia. Australia is China’s sixth largest trading partner and fifth biggest supplier of imports.

25% of Australia’s manufactured imports come from China. Thermal coal represents 13% of all Australian exports to China, and recently they tried to blackmail us about that. In more recent times, China has embarked on the One Belt One Road Initiative.

This is the Chinese government economic and strategic agenda where Eurasia, Africa and Oceania are more closely tied along two routes, one land, and one maritime. It is intended to facilitate Chinese economic and strategic domination of smaller countries along the routes, indeed Chinese control.

For Australia, we see the growing Chinese involvement in projects from Northern Australia, right through to Tassie, all providing little benefit to Australia, yet substantial benefits to China. We need to understand this relationship. We don’t just let them have an open door.

Other examples of Chinese involvement have been in the funding and support of local academic conferences and seminars. The negative aspects of the Confucius Institute are only just being realised as some universities remove them from their offerings.

Australia has been a destination of choice for many Chinese students to further their education in an Australian academic institution. It’s important to our economy. In 2018, there were more than 166,000 enrollments of Chinese students in Australia representing 43.3% of the total international student cohort heading for half.

A concern noted in some Australian universities is the potential dependence generated by full-fee paying international students on the overall money pool available to university budgets. Should those numbers suddenly diminish, it may leave some of our universities destitute and many university staff unpaid.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, these concerns have come to fruition and Australian universities are bleeding financially. To make matters worse, the Chinese government has just warned Chinese students not to study or return to study in Australia suggesting they would face discriminatory attacks.

Australia has been a favourite destination for Chinese tourists and this is shown again by recent numbers. More than 1.3 million Chinese tourists visited Australia last year, representing 15% of our total visitors. One seventh, this is a clear positive for Australia.

At the same time, there has been a growing boom of Australian tourists around 700,000 heading for China. This may also change rapidly as the Chinese government has recently warned off Chinese tourists from visiting our country through recent directives to their people.

One of the ongoing issues of concern relates to regional and global security. The growing tensions between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China in terms of imposition of trade tariffs is placing Australia in a challenging position, given the importance of Australia’s relationships with both countries.

More recently, the Chinese government has imposed an 80% tariff on Australian barley without explanation, and refused to accept meat from four of Australia’s major meat abattoirs, again, causing concern to Australian producers.

These actions by the Chinese government appear to be in retaliation for being called on by Australia to allow an independent investigation into the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan China, what I’ve referred to as the Chinese Communist Party and the UN virus.

How dare we want an independent investigation? The Chinese still denying being the source of the outbreak of the worldwide pandemic remain uncooperative in dealing with this just as Liberal and Labour remain uncooperative in dealing with any, any inquisition or any inquiry into our relationship with China.

The Chinese actions and or inactions likely indeed certainly made the pandemic far worse than it could’ve been. And their behaviour in China is responsible for the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of lives.

The views taken of China’s growing military influence in the South China Sea remain of concern to our most important ally, United States of America and therefore, necessarily of concern to our country as an established ally of the US.

Regionally, China is having a growing influence by funding infrastructure projects for some of the Pacific Island countries, and our and very near neighbour, Papua and New Guinea, just over the horizon from Australia. This runs the risk of changing the whole dynamic between Australia and our near neighbours.

Given the potential for military and strategic use of these bases by China and the potential for resource extraction at some future time, there is need to consider this factor when examining our relationship with China.

We already feel this is at home with the outrageous decision to lease the Port of Darwin a strategic Northern gateway to China for 99 years. This is the home of our local naval presence. What on earth was the government thinking?

I point to Dutton, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Hastie, Senator Kitching who have raised valid concerns, both Liberal and Labor MPs and senators just as Senator Patrick mentioned.

Indeed it was reported, Mr. Dutton was reportedly stated as in 12th of October, 2019, one of the Morrison Government’s most senior figures has taken a direct swipe at Beijing accusing the Chinese Communist Party of behaving in ways that are inconsistent with Australian values.

The key points emerged, Mr. Dutton said that federal government would call out state actors if it was in the national interest. Well, let’s see an inquiry, Mr. Dutton said he wanted universities to be free from foreign interference. So let’s see an inquiry into that foreign interference that he acknowledges.

The Home Affairs minister, a very powerful minister, senior minister also criticised China’s Belt and Road Initiative and defended the ban on using Huawei to help build Australia’s 5G network. So it goes on to say in a newspaper article, “Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned Australia “would call out” quote “foreign and interference “in universities, as well as cyber hacks “and theft of intellectual property, “insisting it was the right thing to do.

“It represents,” the newspaper said, “some of the strongest language “yet from a federal government minister “on threat posed to China.” But we need more than language, we need more than inferences, we need an inquiry into the relationship.

The Chinese Communist Party behaves in ways that are inconsistent with Australian values and Western civilization. Recently in Queensland, my home state, a university student was suspended for daring to make pro-democracy statements about the suppression of students and demonstrators in Hong Kong by the Chinese government.

The University of Queensland appears now to be an agent of the Chinese government, which seems to have bought out an Australian university and is enabled by the university to oppress an Australian student for standing up for democracy.

And when I get to the point of quoting Clive Hamilton, then we know things are serious because Clive Hamilton to his credit has written a book calling out the issues that we have with China, raising serious threats and concerns to our country and our country’s security.

My issue, I must make clear is not with the marvellous Chinese people, including the amazing Chinese community we have here in Australia. We have the Chinese influence from North Queensland through the gold rushes in the 19th century, right through to the Southern parts and Western parts of our country.

And they made a marvellous contribution. My issue is with the Chinese Communist Party. The Communist Party of China and the policies that are inconsistent with our own values. And they have undue influence in Australian politics, values communities, and way of life.

Human rights is an area where China and Australia have vastly different views. Australia is the democracy and a signatory to many international agreements that preserve basic human rights. China is a Republic following a communist regime that is very rigid.

It is a controlling machine with little room to question the state and having limited rights for the individual. Watch the demonstrations for freedom happening in Hong Kong to see how that goes down? Many Australians remember the appalling and tragic events at Tiananmen Square where many people’s lives were sacrificed in the name of democracy.

A prime minister cried over that. And understandably so yet we can’t even have an inquiry into that relationship with China. Tiananmen Square was not merely an incident as recently reported in the media. It was one of the earliest signs in the West of this serial breaching of human rights and suppression of their own people in China.

The detention of those whose views differ from the regimes is a continuing disgrace and worthy of further review. The government and Labor have sold out Australia’s inheritance. No wonder they don’t want us to have a review of this catastrophic relationship, potentially catastrophic relationship.

Will the Liberal Party and the Labor Party will a Lib-Lab duopoly look beyond their Chinese donations to their parties and do the right thing by our country? These actions by China would appear to threaten the relationship of mutual respect between the two countries and are worthy of inquiry.

Actions of Lib-Lab MPs in governments handing control of essential services like electricity for goodness sake, our ports, our food producers to the Chinese Communist Party is insane. Why are we doing it? And why aren’t we bothering to look into it?

These deals threaten our honesty, fairness, and humanity, and our national security. One Nation supports the call for such an inquiry into a nation exerting powerful influences over our nation with potentially far more powerful influences on our nation’s future and on our people’s security. Thank you, Mr. Acting Deputy President.

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