This afternoon I opposed a motion from the Greens asking for more money for climate research for the Antarctic.
Transcript
[President]
Senator Roberts.
[Roberts]
Seek leave Mr president, to make a short statement.
[President]
Leave is granted for one minute.
[Roberts]
Thank you Mr.President. One Nation will not be supporting this motion. The antarctic is a largely untouched and entirely spectacular natural wonder which needs and deserves proper scientific investigation and research.
Every dollar wasted on research in claimed human caused climate change in the antarctic, steals research grants from genuine geologists, paleoclimatologists, biologists, glaciologists and other scientists doing real scientific investigations. This chamber is the house of review.
When will the Senate demand a review of the science into claims of human induced climate change that has tax payers funding billions of dollars a year with no environmental or economic benefits?
Today, Mr. President, is day 278, since I first challenged The Greens and Senators Di Natale and Waters to provide the empirical data and framework proving carbon dioxide from human activity affects climate and needs to be cut and to debate me on climate science and on the corruption of climate science. Thank you Mr. President.
This afternoon Pauline and I spoke on her ‘Matter of Public Importance’.
“Allowing activists to breach COVID19 restrictions without punishment, even as the same restrictions are devastating jobs, businesses and lives, is a grave insult to law-abiding Australians.”
In addition to discussing the border closure in Queensland, Pauline used facts and logic to discuss the Black Live Matter Movement and Indigenous deaths in custody but was labelled by Labor and the Greens as a racist.
This tells me that they have no evidence to dispute her so they resort to lazy name calling.
My speech starts at the 5 minute mark.
Transcript
[President]
Senator Hanson.
[Hanson]
Thank you very much, Mr. President. The matter of public importance I’ve raised today, is based on our state government’s, in particular, the weak leadership of Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, for allowing activists to breach COVID-19 restrictions without punishment.
Even as the same restrictions are devastating jobs, businesses and lives. It’s a grave insult to all law abiding Australians. Last weekend, we saw tens of thousands of Australians pack city centres across the nation in protest of Black Lives Matter.
This protest started in the United States with the unnecessary death of a Black American, at the hands of police officers. No one could possibly condone the way in which George Floyd died. But what upsets me, is the attitude of many people black and white, that his death matters more because he is black.
And yet when a white 40 year old Australian American woman by the name of Justine Damond was shot, there was no protest. No one really cared, because she was white. George Floyd had been made out to be a martyr. This man has been in and out of prison numerous times.
He was a criminal, and a dangerous thug. George Floyd had a criminal history of breaking into a pregnant woman’s home, looking for drugs and money, and threatening her by holding the gun to her stomach. It sickened me to see people holding up signs saying, Black Lives Matter, in memory of this American criminal.
I’m sorry, but all lives matter. And if I saw signs being paraded on the day, that said that very thing, we wouldn’t be having this debate. More whites die in Australia and America in relation to deaths in custody than blacks, that’s a fact. But where’s the outrage for white people?
For the majority people in custody, it’s because they’ve broken the law. In other words, they’ve committed crimes against innocent people. To hear brainless comments from people saying that our indigenous Australians should not be locked up, as was the case put forward in 1995, is absolutely ridiculous.
Black and white Australians must face punishment, if they commit an offence or break the law. We cannot allow bleeding hearts, and those on the left to destroy the fabric of our society, and our freedom. The public sentiment calls for those who do the wrong thing to be held to account for their actions.
I’m used to seeing gutless behaviour from political parties. But what I have seen transpire over the last few days, the word gutless doesn’t even begin to describe it. When the severity of the Coronavirus pandemic became apparent, we asked Australians to make some sacrifices.
We asked them to stay at home, to shut down their businesses, we asked people to put their livelihoods on the line, for the well being of every Australian. And they’ve done that, much to their own demise. So after what I saw over the weekend, I don’t blame the 445,000, small mom and dad businesses in my home state for saying they feel betrayed.
And although there were just two new cases of Coronavirus across Australia, the Queensland Labour Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, has kept our state border in lockdown, like a scene out of Germany in the 1960s, when they established Checkpoint Charlie.
And while Checkpoint Palaszczuk claims to be saving Queenslanders from the COVID-19. She authorises a mass gathering of 30,000 Black Lives Matter protesters in Brisbane, which flew in the face of all social distancing laws. Not one person was reported to be fined, or held to account.
Even when someone was filmed jumping on a police car, what an insult to law abiding Australians. We saw the scene played out across Australia, and every politician who turned a blind eye, should hang their heads in shame. People are furious and I don’t blame them.
They want to know how can this happen when our pubs, clubs, gyms, restaurants and businesses are still crippled by the full force of COVID-19 restrictions. They can barely have 20 people in a room. Doesn’t Queensland’s economy matter? Doesn’t Australia’s economy matter?
These activists should never have been allowed to march, and call Australians racist, especially when we can’t even hold a proper funeral for our loved ones. I say shame on the politicians who were too gutless, too scared of losing votes to stand up to the mob.
[Roberts]
Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, of all colours. I reinforce the right of people to protest, and speak lawfully. We are in favour, in one nation, of freedom over control.
I wanna address straight away though, and make the comment that Senator Hanson condemned the killing of George Floyd in her speech. It stuns me that Senator Ayres, can so blatantly reverse Senator Hanson’s clear position. That is dishonest.
I wanna refer to Senator Rice who said quote, “Racism exhibited by Senator Hanson.” That too from Senator Rice is a lie. It is false, it is dishonest, it is cowardly. Stating accurate data as Senator Hanson did, in a coherent, logical argument.
Calling for all people, regardless of skin colour, or race to be treated the same under our laws, is the reverse of racism. It is fairness, it is honesty, it is care. Yet out of touch and ignorant policies, such as those of the Greens, artificially raising energy prices, and tossing workers out on the scrapheap.
That is what exposes the Greens fault lines, across our society. These policies of the Greens are hurting all people, and most savagely our most vulnerable and poorest people, black and white. Resorting falsely to labels, shows that Senator Rice, cannot count a senator Hanson’s data, and logical argument.
And I remind the Labor Party, that Senator Polly tweeted, their Senator Polly tweeted, “All lives matter.” And she was slaughtered by her own Labor politicians, she withdrew the tweet. So accordingly, I can conclude that in the Labor Party, all lives do not matter. Now let’s turn to the protest.
I draw people’s attention the protest of activists last week, in breach of the COVID-19 restrictions. They blatantly ignored the stated health concerns, and willfully broke the law. That is the issue.
The protesters have not been punished, yet our law abiding businesses continue to be punished, and livelihoods are being crushed, complying with these restrictions. Tourism and hospitality are key sectors in Queensland, shouldering the burden.
A burden that the Queensland Labor government placed, and continues to place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community. Well beyond these border restrictions use by dates. The Palaszczuk Labor government, implicitly gave permission for 30,000 demonstrators to turn out for the Black Lives Matter protest.
Meanwhile, Queensland businesses stay closed, restaurants stay closed, and stadiums stay empty. And Premier Palaszczuk remains obstinate, and defers critical distance decisions to Queensland’s Chief Medical Officer.
To add insult to injury, emotional and financial injury, the Queensland Labor government has now callously stated, our border closures and restrictions, have not created financial hardship for our border closures, what? Meanwhile, these economies continue to unravel.
That is Labor’s arrogance, insensitivity, callous disregard for people, dishonesty, weakness, gutlessness, and fear. This cold hearted indifference to the people and businesses of Queensland, undermines any remaining confidence that business may have had in Premier Palaszczuk’s Labor Government, to respond to COVID-19 pandemic based not on data, but on hidden agendas.
This simply does not make sense, and it is not fair to allow businesses to continue to collapse due to government hypocrisy, and cowardice. We all know the reality is quite different, because while some people can congregate and demonstrate, people on the border continue to suffer.
Over the next three months, which is when Queensland’s Chief Health Officer believes it is realistic to open the Queensland border, the Gold Coast will lose a further $1 billion in revenue, on top of the existing losses.
Southern visitors spend three times more than intrastate travellers, so it is not enough to expect that Queensland travellers alone, will save the Glitter Strip economy. The Gold Coast Airport, traffic has fallen 99% this April and May, versus the same time last year.
This is financial hardship, and the Queensland Labor Government, still has not provided the data they relied upon to close the borders in first place. Lifeline is taking calls of distress from people. State and federal politicians who attended the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, broke the law.
The Palaszczuk Labor Government in Queensland has a duty of care to all Queenslanders, and Labor’s blatant hypocrisy needs to stop.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/MPIBordersProtestors.png?fit=548%2C307&ssl=1307548Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-06-11 11:45:002020-07-09 12:23:51Matter of Public Importance: Different rules for protestors
Government votes to give the United Nations a blank check to fund 5 international bureaucratic organisations.
Transcript
Thank you, Mr. Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland in Australia, I oppose this bill, One Nation opposes this bill. And we do so because we support and love our country, we support Australia. One Nation opposes any remuneration bill, that does not specify how much money is being spent. So do the taxpayers know right now, that this bill has no spending limit?
It’s an open check to the UN. Now I understand that the agreements we signed specify how total budgets are to be broken up amongst members, but not how much the total budget should be. How can we do this? There are five different UN organisations that are subject of this bill. The Global Environmental Facility, to take an example, has grown from $1 billion in the original agreement that we signed to $4 billion today.
The World Bank’s international Development Association, has gone from $24 billion to $35 billion in just the last two years, our money. This bill gives the United Nations a blank check, to waste taxpayers money and just hold their hand out for more. That is the UN hold its hand out for more. Mr. Acting Deputy President, I do not believe these organisations are good value for money.
In fact many are corrupt to the core. The World Bank’s International Development Association, spends 24% almost a quarter of its public funds, of its funds on public administration. A quarter blown out the door through administration, and 19% almost one fifth on subsidising renewable energy. That does not lift people out of poverty, because it’s too unreliable, it consigns people to poverty, that’s what it’s doing to this country.
What does the World Bank’s International Development Association spend on health, Mr. Acting Deputy President? Any idea? Just 8%, and on education? The one thing that does lift people out of poverty, also a measly 8%. Perhaps the International Development Association, could spend more lifting people out of poverty, if they were not spending $3.3 billion every year on administrative expenses, $3.3 million, including our cash.
The Asian Development banks, Asian Development Fund, has been providing low interest loans to lift people out of poverty since 1974, 1974. So in 46 years, their low interest loans, have not lifted the people of Asia out of poverty, but maybe the millions more we are about to give these Asian Development Fund will do the trick. Maybe the past 46 years, nothing much, but let’s see what happens.
Actually, Mr. Acting Deputy President, I’m not sure why we’re even funding the Asian Development Fund. They currently have $457 billion in outstanding loans, 457 billion. Now, I’m not suggesting that the scheme has been unsuccessful, the two largest recipients have done extremely well. India has $68 billion of those loans, and then now the world’s fifth largest economy.
Not because of the Asian Development Fund I might add. China has 62 billion of those loans, and is now the world’s second largest economy. I really wonder if they’re using that to buy up islands and make islands sorry, in the South China Sea. Perhaps if Australia can get some of these loans, we can stop Australia sliding out of the top 10 of world’s largest economies.
And I’ll remind everybody Australia, that early last century, in the early days of our federated nationhood, Australia led the world in per capita income. We were number one in the world. We now sliding out of the 10 heading to slide out of the 20. Oh, sorry, we’ve already slid out of the 10. The top 10 largest economies.
Australia should be grateful, that at least the Asian Development Bank is careful with its administrative expenses, only spending $1 billion last year on administration. I did note this though, the Asian Development Bank, Asian Development Fund, spent $25 million last year on salaries and expenses for the board of directors.
Their 12 member board of directors, $2 million per director seems a little high for unelected internationalist bureaucrats. Or as the prime minister said, unaccountable internationalist bureaucrats. When the Asian Development Fund, talk about lifting people out of poverty, I don’t think the Australian taxpayers would take that to mean, the Asian Development Funds Board of Directors being lifted out of poverty.
The Multilateral Fund for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol is another soak for taxpayer cash. Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, yeah, that’s another title. Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, was ratified in 1987. It requires countries to reduce levels of production and consumption of ozone depleting substances, according to an agreed schedule.
Now, I expect Australian taxpayers thought that the ban on CFCs in the 80s, was the end of the CFC crisis. I won’t even mention well I will mention, that the hole in the ozone layer stopped growing, before the CFC ban came in, and is better explained by natural variability, caused by variations in solar energy, than by world killer spray cans.
The UN though, has spent half a billion dollars a year, half a billion dollars a year, including our money on the Multilateral Fund for the last 25 years for nothing. In true Yes Minister style the Multilateral Fund has kept itself in line for taxpayer handouts by moving on to other substances that also have nothing to do with the ozone layer, and they’re in general use in situations where they’re very hard to replace.
And that includes refrigeration. At this rate, refrigeration will be relegated to the footnote of history. This won’t be a problem Mr. Acting Deputy President, because with renewable power, everyday Australians won’t be able to afford to run our refrigerators. Except perhaps for those UN Development officials with the $2 million a year price tag.
They should be kept, they should be keeping them more way nice and cold. Now let’s turn to the Global Environment Facility Trust. Mr. Acting Deputy President, the Global Environment Facility Trust, I saved the best to last. The Global Environment Facility Trust, was founded at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, to fund developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the objectives of the International Environmental Conventions and Agreements.
The $1.5 billion a year to keep the global climate warming con going, to enable the UN parasites to continue sucking our blood through deceit and lies. I noticed that a generous federal government, as increased their contribution, to the Global Environment Fund, Global Environment Facility from $23.5 million, just two years ago to $38 million last year.
That’s an increase of about 60% in one year. So in the World Wildlife Fund, is used as a source for global warming proof, remember, they funded by the Global Environment Fund. Funded, Mr. Acting Deputy President to keep the greatest scientific swindle in history alive. I’m going to discuss the bigger picture for a minute.
And don’t take my word for it. Mr. Richard Court, the Premier at the time of Western Australia, a Liberal premier Rebuilding the Federation. In this book on page eight, he details the process that the international is used to usurp our sovereignty, take over our governance and put in place UN regulations. And he deals with the UN or other unelected international body.
Our Constitution has been pushed aside, bypassed, by these criminals in the UN and other slick gangsters. And Mr. Richard Court, remember was the Liberal premier, he details that and he did so 26 years ago. I’ll now read from UN Agenda 21 booklet, the opening page of the introduction. This came about at the UN Rio Declaration, UN Rio Convention in 1992, which Paul Keating’s Labour Government signed on our behalf.
Quote, Agenda 21 stands as a comprehensive blueprint for action to be taken globally, from now into the 21st century, Agenda 21, by governments United Nations organisation, development agencies, nongovernmental organisations, and independent sector groups, in every area in which human activity impacts on the environment.
In every area in which human activity impacts on the environment. That is every area of our civilization. Continuing the quote, the agenda should be studied in conjunction with both the Rio Declaration, which provides a context for its specific proposals. Specific proposals, that’s where the nitty gritty is, and the statement of first principles.
It is hoped, it is hoped that the first principles will form the basis for a future international level agreement. And that is how they put in place global governance, and that is how according to Richard Court who was absolutely correct, that governance then takes over ours. We have the UN’s Lima Declaration signed In 1975 by the Whitlam Labour Government ratified the following year in 1976 by the Fraser Liberal National Party Government.
Destroyed our industry deliberately made it clear that they were transferring it. By the way, the United States didn’t sign it. Several major European countries didn’t sign it, and I don’t think Japan did. China did it was a beneficiary. The UN’s Rio Declaration in 1992, brought about the Agenda 21, which I’ve just discussed, which is now killing land use for all of our farmers, it’s killing employment, due to its so called sustainability.
And it’s killing governance, through the climate change commitments. Which are not commitments until it legislated through here or bypassed through here. The UN’s Kyoto Protocol in 1996, the UN’s Paris Agreement which is now decimating our industry and exporting jobs in 2015. Red type strangling our country, green type strangling a country, blue type strangling our country.
Blue type is UN type, oh, where does UN blue type work? Fishing industry, we now have 36% of the world’s marine parks in this country alone 36% more than one third. Where do we where do we import, we import now three quarters of our seafood from China. Sorry, three quarters of our seafood is imported, the greatest biggest exporter is China, which has a tiny coastline and 53 times the population.
So the UN doesn’t touch China, but strangles our industry, and we happily pushing jobs off overseas closing down industry, fishing included. Oh, and we can’t get permission to lift the damn level at war again but damn, because the UN doesn’t like it. Oh, and World Heritage Sites, there’s another way the UN controls us. And then we have the globalist mantra of interdependency.
And that’s what these bills push. Interdependency means we are dependent on another country, it means we are dependent not independent anymore. Australia used to be number one in the world, in terms of per capita income.
And then we started shoving all of our jobs offshore, and now we are dependent on other nations. To speak nothing of the corruption, that the UN has nothing of the accountability that it doesn’t have. As I said in my first speech in the Senate, in 2016, we need exit, Australia exit the UN. The best thing we can do for people in poor countries, is to kill the UN.
Get back to accountability and create the business environment not an environment for parasites. The best thing we can do for our country, is to restore our sovereignty, restore our governance and restore our independence. We need to not fund entities like the UN.
Instead look after ourselves, make yourself strong again, so that we can help neighbours as they need. Thank you Mr. Deputy President.
This morning I asked a number of questions of the Foreign Minister about the COVIDSafe App, its performance so far and necessary improvements.
Disturbingly, she claimed not to know how many times a COVIDSafe App user had tested positive with COVID19 and their tracing data uploaded. “We do not have access to that information nor should we.”
This afternoon I spoke on the governments COVIDSafe App and why I won’t be downloading it. I understand this Government feels the need to get this app in wide use and is prepared to write good data protection rules to achieve that.
I would ask the Government to show it really cares about the privacy of everyday Australians by revisiting the wider issue of Government use of private data.
Transcript
Senator Roberts.
Thank you Madam Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia I have pleasure in saying that One Nation will be supporting this bill. That doesn’t mean that I will be downloading the app as I’ll explain.
But firstly, I would like to compliment the attorney general for the work that went into this bill. When Minister Hunt’s regulations came out to accompany that app launch, my office had a number of reservations about the level of security provided on the data.
This bill is needed to clear up those issues and it has done so. I will mention these in passing for the benefit of our constituents. Then I’ll move on to the security risk that the app itself still represents. I did have a concern that the government was giving bad players an opportunity to access data on the server without detection.
So there are two aspects to this Madam Acting Deputy President, there’s the app itself and then there’s the uploading of data to the server and the storing of that data and the use of that data. So I did have a concern that the government was giving bad players an opportunity to access data on the server without detection.
The decision to ask the Office of the National Data Commissioner, the commissioner, to overview data storage and access is a wise choice that addresses this concern. We are pleased with that. I was also worried about Amazon having access to both the client file, which is needed, to identify app users and the data file for COVID positive users.
This in effect gave Amazon access to significant personal information of app users. So let me explain a bit more. The separation now of the key file and the data access, the data file itself, under the supervision of the commissioner is the best way of making sure Amazon and the government keep each other honest, well done.
So in other words, we’ve got the government storing the data, we’ve got Amazon storing the data and the government having the keys. Both are needed. It can’t be separate. There is one reason not one party can have control. There is one issue here to do with the cryptography on the unique user IDs.
The open-source app that the COVID-safe app took as a starting point only requires 32 bit encryption. I would have hoped the app developers have taken that up to 128 bit and we’d ask the commissioner to consider that. Now let me turn to a number of security issues in the app itself that need to be addressed.
My office has put out a detailed sheet on this, so let me quickly mention them here and move on. The user ID can stick in the phone case causing a phone to broadcast multiple different user IDs over extended periods of time, which increases the chances of a phone being tracked.
Secondly, the COVID-safe app overrides phone security settings to use the same handshake address for a phone over the life of the app instead of changing every few minutes. This is a major security issue in the app. Thirdly, the COVID-safe app stores the make and model of the other phones it has matched within plain text where it can be easily read.
This approach is not necessary since this data could easily be trapped when the app is registered instead of storing it in the phone. Fourthly, if someone has named their phone such as, in my case Malcolm’s iPhone under some circumstances, this real name is what the other phone stores, app users who have named their phone with their real name may be exposing themselves to danger.
This results from the app using different ways of broadcasting data to maximise the chance of a match. This tells us that the developers have taken a deliberate decision to compromise safety to achieve the most number of matches. Fifth, data stored to the cloud is not deleted.
If a cloud service is used to backup or sync a phone, the COVID-safe app contact blog gets backed up to the cloud. This can be viewed by anyone with a sign in without the phone user’s knowledge. So I acknowledge that this bill makes the behaviour illegal, but not storing some of the data in plain English would have been a far better choice.
Sixth, an app running in the background will not match with another app running in the background on an iPhone. The app does not meet the government’s, number seven the app does not meet the government’s own standard for app accessibility.
WCAG 2.0 A. It fails accessibility tests on font size and field width and people with a disability the first people that need to get this app. So that was sloppy. Eight errors that were detected early in the release of the app have still not been fixed. Registration fails over WiFi, which is used in poor reception areas.
Bluetooth conflicts with external devices. Power management on an iPhone interferes with the app. 3% of older phones cannot use the app an alert message advising users that they have tested positive for COVID was being accidentally triggered. This was fixed by deleting the message.
So currently the app can’t be used to alert users when they actually do test positive. I must however compliment the government for the sudden concern about security. Where was the concern about people’s privacy in this government’s capture and use of the metadata of every Australian?
This government is storing texts, telephone call details, social media posts, websites visited and website comments for every Australian. At Senate estimates, we discovered that in 2019 there were 297,000 accesses of the metadata records of everyday Australians by 22 different government agencies.
How many of these accesses were accompanied by a warrant? Madam Acting Deputy President? None. Not one warrant. Now I understand this government feels the need to get this app in wide use and is prepared to write good data protection rules to achieve that.
So I’d ask the government to show it really cares about the privacy of everyday Australians by revisiting the wider issue of government use of private private data. Because the government’s track record on security is poor.
So as I’ve explained Madam Acting Deputy President, the shortfalls initially in our assessment of the app were to do with the data storage and access of that. That has now been resolved or will be resolved once this bill, Privacy Bill passes. However, the reverse is the case for the app.
We were originally happy with the app. We now see a number of flaws in it. So that leaves security issues in regard to people being able to track the phone owner, the phone user and that is not acceptable. I also wanna make a comment about the blackmail that’s being used by the government to push this app.
Minister Hunt said, “you wanna go to the 40?” “Download the app.” We’ve just heard here Senator Bragg saying, “this is that ticket to freedom.” No it’s not. There are far more effective tickets to freedom.
The Australian people have already shown a highly responsible approach to managing this COVID virus and we need to extend that. We need to stop the blackmail stop the control that is pushed over us. We need to get back to the freedoms that are inherent and being everyday Australians.
That is part of our birthright, part of our citizenry that we have, are entitled to rights and freedom. When we have permission from something to do something from a government that is not a freedom, that is the reverse because there is being withheld until the permission is granted.
So we need to rely upon the trustworthiness and the competence and a sense of responsibility of everyday Australians right around the country. So Madam Acting Deputy President, let me summarise by saying that this bill is necessary, and that is why One Nation will be supporting it. It is welcome.
Secondly, the app is not up to scratch and that’s why I won’t be downloading it. And thirdly, we need to get back to freedom properly.
Pauline and I spoke on our ‘Matter of Public Importance’ in the Senate: “When Australia restarts our migration program, we do not want migrants to return to Australia in the same number and in the same composition as before the crisis.”
Thank you, Mr. President. As a servant to the people of Queensland in Australia, I recognise that for 230 years, migrants of many races and religions, amazing people from all over the world, have joined us to build our beautiful country into something greater than when they arrived.
Now, though, we may be ending 2020 with 1.2 million Australians out of work, and 1.2 million temporary visas. For 20 years, Senator Hanson has warned that this day would come. In 2016, the Productivity Commission issued its 700 page warning on the imbalance in our immigration policy. Their report questioned our high immigration intakes strain on infrastructure, the environment, and quality of life in our capital cities.
The government ignored the Productivity Commission, why? To keep the flood of cut price workers coming in and to hide the data showing a per capita recession. That led to a long-term pain on infrastructure, housing, wages, state budgets.
The inevitable result of that is high unemployment, and more underemployment. Many of these unemployed Australians are migrants who came to contribute their labour, yet now languish on job seeker benefits they don’t want instead of going to the job they do want.
I congratulate one of my Labour colleagues, on finally seeing the light and joining us in speaking up on the issue of excessive migration and foreign workers. People might not be aware that on the 3rd of May in a Sydney Morning Herald opinion piece, Senator Keneally asked, “Do we want migrants to return to Australia “in the same numbers and in the same composition “as before the crisis?”
Senator Keneally’s answer was, no. The question now is, will Senator Keneally stand by her words, and will the Labour Party stand by their Shadow Immigration Minister?
[Sen. Hanson]
Very much Mr. Acting Deputy President. Well, One Nation submitted today a matter of public importance. And that wording was, “When Australia restarts our immigration programme, “we do not want migrants to return to Australia “in the same numbers and in the same composition “as before the crisis.”
Well, I have to admit they are not my words that was Senator Keneally’s words that she actually said in her statement. So it’s quite interesting that I’ve always said, there should be a debate on this. And I’m pleased to see that we actually got the call on this debate.
Now, forcing the debate on immigration and foreign workers is often a thankless task. No one knows this more than me. When you bring up facts, like more than half the nation’s population growth since 2005 has come from overseas migration, you get called a racist.
When you explain that, instead of flooding Australia with migrants to drive economic growth, we should be increasing productivity or investing in skills and training, people call you xenophobic. When you make common sense statements like Australian should get a fair go and a first go at jobs, people call you a white supremacist.
When you argue like Senator Keneally did the other day through you chair, that once Australia starts its immigration programme, migrants must not return to Australia in the same numbers and in the same composition as before the coronavirus crisis.
People even might accuse you of stealing One Nation policy. This is why today I want to say thank you to Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, Kristina Keneally, because I know she will not be getting much support from her Labour colleagues.
Reading through some of the recent comments made by Senator Keneally, I can only assume she has spent much of her time in quarantine, reading through my speeches from 1996, and taking copious notes. And because so much of what she said could have been taken from comments and arguments I’ve made over the past 24 years, perhaps Senator Keneally might want to make an admission here today that she’s a closet One Nation supporter.
I know it took Mark Latham a couple of decades to come out of the One Nation closet, but look how great he’s doing. He’s a new man, and loving it, so are these Australian people. Today I want to reassure the Senate that if Senator Keneally wants to cross the floor in support of her own comments, and finds herself thrown out of the Labour Party for breaking ranks, I will always have a position in my office for talented immigration speech writers such as herself.
I know I don’t often get a chance to congratulate my Labour Senate colleagues, but I always give credit where credit is due. And credit is due because by revealing herself as a covert to One Nation position on immigration, Senator Keneally has proven what I have long said is true.
So powerful are my arguments on immigration that even a staunch opponent of One Nation like Senator Keneally, will eventually be dragged to kicking and screaming to supporting cuts to immigration, cuts to foreign workers.
And I know there are many in the Labour Party and even more among Labour’s allies in the unions, who will agree with my position on immigration and foreign workers behind closed doors, but refused to speak the truth publicly out of fear of being called racist, or some other meaningless insult.
Right now due to the coronavirus, there are millions of Australians unemployed or underemployed. These are the people we need to look after, not foreign workers. This is the debate we need to have. We can’t go back to our old immigration programme.
Australians have a right to a job and a way of life that is not tied to welfare handouts. For decades, the coalition Labour Parties have used mass migration and foreign workers to artificially pump up economic growth. For decades, they have cynically used insults and slurs to try and shut down this debate.
For decades, they have refused to admit that this is creating problems with increased demand on our limited services, housing affordability, unemployment, and underemployment, wage stagnation, and congestion in our cities.
Senator Keneally and I have now warned each and every one of you that if we continue down the same path of the mass immigration and foreign workers, our economy will come crashing down. I moved a notice of motion today in floor of parliament.
And I’ll just read out some of the comments in this notice of motion. And it’s relying on high levels of immigration to boost population to fuel economic growth is arguably a lazy approach. Letting lots of migrants come to Australia to drive economic growth rather than increasing productivity or investing in skills and training is a lazy approach.
Instead of letting lots of migrants come to Australia to drive economic growth, we should be increasing productivity, or investing in skills and training. As at June 2019, there were 2.1 million temporary visa holders in Australia.
Australia hosts the second largest migrant workforce in the OECD, second in total number only to the US. One in five chefs, one in four cooks, one in six hospitality workers, and one in 10 nursing support and personal care workers in Australia hold a temporary visa.
Another one, when Australia restarts its migration programme, we must understand that migration is a key economic policy lever that can help or harm Australian workers during the economic recovery and beyond. And when Senator David talks about regional areas, it says here, we must also ensure that regional areas don’t only get transient people but community members who will settle down, buy houses, start businesses, and send the kids to the local school.
The whole fact is that the Labour said I was pulling a stunt no, all those words were from Senator Keneally, her article, that was Labour’s Shadow Minister for Immigration. And yet they said I was pulling a political stunt. No, I wasn’t pulling a political stunt.
The fact is that I called Labour out for what they are, nothing but pulled political stunt themselves, and Keneally was the one that actually made those comments. But Labour clearly does not stand by them, because they did not support them notice of motion today.
So who’s really pulled the political stunt? They use it when it suits them. As I said, high immigration props up our economy, has been used by both major political parties. And I will have my comment about Senator Faruqi today, and her comments said that One Nation stands by white supremacy.
At no point have we ever. And I’m sick of the lies put across in this chamber with regards to One Nation, and I’m going to call it out for what it is. And I encourage people to go to One Nation’s website, look at our immigration policy, which is non-discriminatory.
So that is purely lies. And to talk about immigration policy, we need the debate, Australians want the debate.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-14-at-9.32.57-am.jpeg?fit=1998%2C1124&ssl=111241998Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-05-14 09:32:002020-05-14 09:52:45Matter of Public Importance: Immigration Program
Today I supported a Motion to keep the Collins Class submarine extensive maintenance and upgrade refit program in South Australia rather than have it moved to Western Australia. I also took time to condemn the new contract signed to build 12 new submarines.
This order will cost $200 billions. These submarines will be obsolete before they even get delivered. This money would be better spent supporting our economy as we recover from the COVID19 economic crisis.
Transcript
– Mr. President thank you, I’ll seek leave to make a short statement one minute.
– Leave is granted for one minute.
– Thank you, we supported the original motion, the current sustainment model that supports the Collins class submarines works well in South Australia and it is not warranted to move this to Western Australia.
Of greater significance is the absurdly expensive contract, that the government signed to purchase 12 new submarines over the next 20 years. The current cost of building them with all peripherals is now around $200,000,000,000, $200,000,000,000, has this government gone mad?
In the middle of this pandemic we cannot afford to proceed with this contract. This money will be far better spent to support the Australian recovery from the economic pit, that is caused by this pandemic. By the time these submarines are delivered, they will be obsolete.
A complete waste of money that would be far better spent elsewhere. The cost of $400,000,000 to cancel this contract is a pittance compared with proceeding.
Australian universities have their hands out for COVID19 stimulus monies.
When you pay your Vice Chancellors over $1 million and spend taxpayers money on non-core building activity, I say NO.
Transcript
Mr. President, I move the motion as amended.
Senator Ruston.
[Ruston] I seek leave to make a short statement.
[President] Leave is granted for one minute.
[Ruston] The Morrison Government Community Group to support those in need, including international students, universities, together with states and territories of established hardship funds, and other supports. Australia’s universities are autonomous institutions governed by university councils. Reporting of liquidity across the sector as of the 31st of December 2018 showed total cash and investments of $20.3 billion. Universities are eligible for job keeping if they meet the relevant criteria.
Senator Roberts.
[Roberts] I seek leave to make a short statement.
[President] Leave is granted for one minute.
[Roberts] Thank you. One Nation opposes this motion. We are concerned that everyday Australians who are doing it tough right now may have to bail out the universities that have become dependent on foreign students. These universities expose us to significant financial risk when they’ve spent vast amounts of our money on overseas students to create more revenue for them.
So where was their detailed business case in their risk analysis? If government did a utilisation study on these campuses before approving more building, they would find that their existing buildings are underused. And universities should not be in the accommodation business.
James Cook University has just tendered to develop student accommodation at a time when I found 216 vacant rental properties in Town’s Hall today. James Cooke University should give us our money back. We value their research and teaching, but they must act professionally.
If the universities were serious, then they would lead by example and cut the million dollar plus vice chancellor’s salaries. Why won’t they? Because they lack accountability.
Once again the Greens are using naturally occurring weather events to push their anti-environmental agenda.
My reply to another motion on the Great Barrier Reef and calls for increased cuts to human CO2.
Transcript
[Malcom] – I seek leave to make a short statement.
[President] – Leave is granted for one minute.
[Malcolm] – Thank you Mr. President, One Nation opposes this motion. The Great Barrier Reef is the larges single structure made by living organisms. The current reef is between 6000 to 8000 years of age, it stretches over an area of approximately 344,000 square kilometres.
Our understanding of its history and its ebbs and flows over thousands of years is in its infancy. Claims that the reef is dead due to a natural atmospheric trace gas are a lie. Coral bleaching events are natural and reoccurring events that are the result of a temporary increase or decrease in ocean temperature and a lack of wind to mix the ocean waters.
Sometimes compounded with low sea levels. As with things natural, after bleaching the reef immediately starts to repair itself. The greatest threat to our Great Barrier Reef is activists and ignorant uncaring politicians falsely using it as a poster child because that leads to underfunding of real environmental programmes like eradicating crown of thorn starfish.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-13-at-11.47.30-am.png?fit=1110%2C604&ssl=16041110Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-05-13 11:48:342020-05-13 11:49:21Great Barrier Reef is not Dead or Dying
This evening I spoke about how the Liberal and Labor parties have worked hand in hand to destroy our country.
Transcript
-Senator Roberts.
-Thank you Madame Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I remind the government of a word whose meaning they have forgotten: democracy, essential for accountability. Yesterday, a group of 10 former judges, leading lawyers, and integrity experts sent an open letter to Prime Minister Morrison voicing their concern at the gutting of the parliament.
These leading Australians include former Justice of the High Court, Mary Gaudron, who described the Prime Minister’s actions as “unprecedented and undemocratic.” One Nation represents the interests of people who raise issues directly with us. We can’t do our jobs if the Senate sits a day or two every now and then. This is the house of review.
It may suit the government to never have their work reviewed, but that’s not how our democracy works. The Morrison government is not entitled to the Senate’s support on every matter. My remarks are not just criticism of the government, but of the opposition as well.
The Senate could have stopped, or amended, the gutting of our role if we were given the opportunity. We were not given the opportunity because the ALP rolled over and went along with the government. What kind of opposition are they? Since my return to this place, I have watched the opposition crowd in together with the government on benches that were never designed for the government and the opposition to be cosy.
The crossbench are now the opposition. Sadly, we’re rendered ineffective while the opposition and the government form this unholy alliance. What should we call it, Madam Acting Deputy President? The Uni Party? The Lib-Lab Duopoly? Lib-Labs.
The Lib-Labs combined to vote down a One Nation initiative to provide water to our farmers. The Lib-Labs combined to suppress action on our motion providing remediation, like-for-like relocation and compensation for the government’s PFAS disaster across the country. After each in turn, when in opposition promised to take up the PFAS cause.
The Lib-Labs combined to vote down the One Nation motion to provide banking customers with a code of banking practise that actually gave banking customers some basic rights. It’s no wonder that the opposition has decided it’s just easier to have no parliament than to have to keep cozying up with the government to vote down great work from One Nation and the crossbench.
This is not a recent event. The decision to sign away Australian sovereignty to the United Nations was a joint venture, accelerated under Labour Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who appeared to be bitter enemies, yet implemented UN policies.
All these years later the partnership continues. No baseload power stations built in Queensland since Kogan Creek in 2007 is on both of you. No dams in 30 years is on both of you. An unemployment rate that has gone from 1.5% in 1972 to 5.5% before COVID hit is on both of you.
The highest electricity prices in the world are on both of you. Well may Labour make fun of the phrase “snapping back,” as you have done today. The economy cannot snap back. Economic resilience is provided by middle class enterprise. Yet small business was belted hard well before the virus.
Water, electricity, government charges, commercial rental, red, green and blue UN tape have gone up while the incomes of their customers, everyday Australians, have gone down faster than opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s approval numbers.
Australia does lead the world in one thing, we have the largest decline in the number of small business startups in the western world. Down 40% over 20 years, despite our population growing 50% in that period. 50%, yet business startups down.
Oh, and that 50% increase in population has caused Australia to have the highest real estate prices in the world. And that is on both of you as well. What person in their right mind would start a business in such a hostile environment?
The Liberals and Nationals seem perfectly happy transferring wealth from small business to global corporations, whose interest they represent so well. It is a fundamental of Labor’s brand of socialism that a population reliant on big government is a population incapable of resisting big government oppression.
The same oppression premiers Andrews and Palaszczuk are now trialling in Victoria and Queensland. The LNP and the ALP seek different outcomes from the same actions. They are joined at the hip in the pursuit of the elimination of middle class enterprise.
This does not serve the interests of the Australian people. We must bring back democracy.
We must bring back democracy and accountability. Thank you.
