Join us for a discussion on Cost of Living, Crime … and more!
Wayne Ziebarth, your One Nation Candidate for the upcoming Queensland State Election, will be joining me to hear your concerns on this and other issues affecting you and your community!
Dining in? Book your meals direct with the Boonah Tavern by calling (07) 5463 1007
Sunday, 14 July 2024
12 noon to 2:30 pm
Please RSVP here: https://senroberts.com/4eTh1Xw
It was a pleasure to have a long chat with two fantastic veterans – Dylan Conway from the charity, Brothers and Books and Michael Lorrigan of Two 14 Coffee Company – to talk all things Defence and Veterans.
Brothers and Books does fantastic work supporting reading therapy for first responders, with companies like Two 14 Coffee backing them up.
You won’t want to miss the incredible story of what these gentlemen are doing for the Australian community.
Community TV provides a vital service to small business, to communities, and to developing future workers in the broader TV & Radio sector. It provides a training ground for emerging talent and provides programmes with heart. If it didn’t exist, we wouldn’t have this ‘free’ hands-on training ground for students.
Across refreshingly propaganda-free community television and radio, 17,000 volunteers and almost 1,000 employees generate $250 million in value each year. The federal government contributes $43 million each year towards the cost, or rather, the taxpayers do. I wish more recipients of government (taxpayer) funding demonstrated such a positive return on investment.
The bipartisan approach of the Lib-Lab Uniparty is jeopardising the future of Community TV. Why? Because mainstream TV desires the viewership, and telecommunication companies covet the bandwidth.
Welcome to Australia, where the power lies in the hands of foreign shareholders of television and telecommunication companies. If the government genuinely intended to counter the powerful financial sway of telecommunication and broadcast companies, it would have supported my amendment, which sought a guarantee that Community TV would always have free-to-air bandwidth.
The impending digital restack will involve moving broadcast television channels closer together to free up a sizable, contiguous band section of bandwidth, which will then be sold to telecommunication companies. Taxpayers stand to make over a billion dollars from the sale, while telecommunication companies will profit significantly more.
Community TV is likely to disappear permanently due to the interests of telecommunication companies and mainstream mouthpiece media.
One Nation supports the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Community Television) Bill 2024. Across community television and radio, 17,000 volunteers and almost 1,000 employees generate $250 million in value each year, every year. The federal government contributes $43 million towards the cost—or, I should say, the taxpayers do. I wish there were more recipients of government funding—taxpayer funding—with that good a return on investment.
In 2017, the national network of community TV stations was attracting more than one million unique viewers a week. Top programs were attracting 400,000 viewers, including off-peak repeats in the week of release. In 2024, those ratings would rank in the top 20 of free-to-air and cable shows. That’s why Malcolm Turnbull destroyed community TV, moving channels off free to air to an online model where a commercial business plan was impossible, thus returning a million viewers a week to commercial television, which was suffering from falling ratings and advertising revenue. Channel 31 and C44 in Adelaide resisted and were saved as a result of work by One Nation and the Greens. Ratings on free-to-air television have fallen since 2017 in terms of the percentage of available screens because mainstream television is mostly absolute rubbish, completely lacking in the creativity and anarchy that attracted such a large and loyal following to stations like C31. Community TV is at times weird and wonderful. Programs with heart and soul have been replaced with commercial programs devoid of those very qualities.
The small cost of community TV must be considered in the wider context. Community TV provides a training ground for talent, scriptwriters, make-up artists, producers, directors, sound and lighting. The former TVS in Sydney was based out of the University of Western Sydney school of media in Kingswood, offering students both theoretical and practical tuition. C31 is based out of RMIT in Melbourne. The now closed C31 in Brisbane included programming using students from the Queensland University of Technology. Mainstream television look for graduates of community television when hiring staff. If community TV did not exist then the taxpayers would be on the hook for vocational education training places to teach those skills.
As a result of the closure of all states except Melbourne and Adelaide, small businesses across the country have been deprived of the opportunity to access advertising on broadcast television. Many brands have grown their business and community TV and now find advertising on commercial TV is unaffordable. Often small business can’t even get a TV advertising salesman to return their calls.
This legislation, which extends C31 and C44 licences into the future is welcome. Yet it’s half a solution. Community TV deserves to get their broadcast rights back in the upcoming digital television restack promise for 2024 and now apparently some years away, so it’ll survive for a while. The restack will involve moving our broadcast and television channels closer together to free up a large contiguous section of bandwidth that would then be sold off to telcos. The taxpayers will make north of $1 billion out of the sale; telcos will make much much more.
There we have it. Community TV is likely to disappear permanently because the interests of mainstream mouthpiece media and telcos have aligned against it. Mainstream TV want the viewers; telcos want the bandwidth. Welcome to Australia where the power is in the hands of foreign shareholders of television and telecommunication companies, and everyday Australians just don’t matter. Our kids are getting free hands-on tuition in television production does not seem to matter. Having a channel that doesn’t offer propaganda and prurient rubbish doesn’t seem to matter.
It’s disappointing that Minister Rowland declined to support my second reading amendment, which I had intended to foreshadow to guarantee bandwidth for community TV in the upcoming digital restack. I understand the argument the government is using. There’s an inquiry into the future of free-to-air broadcasting—also called over-the-top broadcasting. Committing to community TV now though does get ahead of the inquiry findings. But, so what? If there was any real intention on the part of the government to go against the powerful financial influence of telcos and broadcast stations, the government would have supported my amendment.
The government, sadly, is not prepared to guarantee one tiny little bit of bandwidth for community TV. One Nation is prepared to make that guarantee because we are not beholden to the foreign predatory billionaires and their wealth funds. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I urge community TV and radio to continue broadcasting. As the people’s media, you perform a vital service. Thank you.
Every Australian child deserves to be protected from inappropriate reading material in taxpayer funded, public libraries. You have every right to have a say about what books are appropriate for your children, grandchildren, and students.
Sign and share the petition below – closing date is 17 April – and help to make libraries safer places for our children.
A thorough audit of libraries for “Submittable Publications” is recommended by the petitioners. Any explicit material meeting the criteria should be sent for classification review. The petition calls for a proactive approach and consistency of classification to protect children from explicit content.
It has become a growing trend in public libraries, including their online catalogues, to display books that are quite frankly designed to groom children about sex. We have the right to say this is not acceptable!
The ‘woke brigade’ are calling it book-burning. It’s not about erasing knowledge — it’s about decency and protecting children’s innocence by letting them have their childhood.
Leave our kids alone!
In light of the crime wave sweeping our nation, I asked the Department of Home Affairs what they’re doing to ensure Australian’s security and to make sure we are not continuing to import violence and terror into Australia.
As it turns out, those illegal immigrants released included murderers, rapists and child sex offenders and the government chose not to say where in the community these persons were living. Of the 149 detainees released, 24 have already re-offended.
The Department did not provide any information that would diminish concerns about safety in the community, other than to say they were being monitored (not very well).
Senator ROBERTS: Thank you, Chair, and thank you for appearing today. I’m going to ask questions in Outcome 3 about the High Court decision that resulted in terrorists being released.
CHAIR: We’re in Outcome 2.
Senator ROBERTS: That’s correct. We’re in Outcome 2. The Queensland government’s casual, relaxed approach to crime has people worried. Last week we had a series of violent crimes by African immigrants, including the horrendous stabbing and killing of a grandmother in a car theft near Brisbane in broad daylight last week while she was out shopping with her six-year-old granddaughter. These incidents are spreading further fear in the community of activities of violent immigrants who have not been assimilated into the Australian notions and culture of nonviolence. Given the current record immigration levels, what actions are being taken by Home Affairs to ensure the security of Australians from imported risks of violence and terror?
Mr Willard: I might make a few comments in response. Anyone who applies for a visa from outside Australia is subject to the same criteria for the granting of that visa, regardless of their nationality. It involves assessments of their character, security, health and a range of other items. So that’s the first threshold in terms of visa consideration. I am aware of the tragic incident, which received a lot of media reporting. I don’t want to go into the details of the incident, but in the normal course of events, if someone were a visa holder, there might be consideration given to cancelling a visa if someone was subsequently convicted of an offence. In respect of this particular matter, it remains a criminal matter for the courts. I would make the point, though, that it doesn’t necessarily follow that the people involved were immigrants. From our initial considerations, the people involved were not visa holders.
Senator ROBERTS: I have two questions from that. The first is that you and I are both public servants, and what I’m doing is relaying some of my constituents’ fears. I’m serving my constituents, and many constituents in Queensland are afraid of the crime wave that’s taking over our state. How many people have had their visas revoked and been deported in the last 10 years?
Mr Willard: That actually sits in outcome 3. I can try to provide some information on visa cancellations at that time.
Senator ROBERTS: Visa cancellations due to criminal activities?
Mr Willard: That’s an item in Outcome 3, when we look at visa compliance.
Senator ROBERTS: Okay. I’ll be back.
At Senate Estimates, I asked the National Energy Management Institute about reports that have come out regarding the massive backlog of controlled burns still to be carried out. Only 20% of annual burn offs have been completed across Australia. This puts the country at greater risk of more severe bush fires. It’s hoped that the states and territories will put additional efforts into the work that still needs to be done.
I spoke about my visit to the Far North of Queensland in the wake of Cyclone Jasper and how the local residents did amazing work, pitching in to help each other with cleaning up and getting roads open again. The community efforts are an inspiration despite the delays in help arriving and lack of leadership.
Senator ROBERTS: Who monitors the progress of controlled burning in relation to bushfires?
Mr Buffone : The states and territories specifically monitor the fuel reduction programs in each state. It’s different across each state. In some areas it’s rural fire services or country fire services. In other areas it’s a land management agency. But it very clearly sits with the states and territories in terms of managing, monitoring and delivering on their targets.
Senator ROBERTS: What have the various states and territories said in terms of goals for controlled burning?
Mr Buffone : Last year they had challenges meeting their targets. That was because the window to undertake burning programs was reduced quite significantly—first of all because of the wet periods, then also because of some of the extreme heat. So the window was significantly smaller. What they did do though, as things eased in relation to La Nina, was to start to bring on additional personnel to start to focus on the higher risk areas. They also looked at other options in relation to mechanical clearing and that sort of activity, and also worked with communities so that communities could undertake their own fuel reduction and fuel management across the country. But, without a doubt, the period in which to achieve that burning has reduced.
Senator ROBERTS: So you’re aware that they haven’t achieved much. In fact, reporting in December by Jonathan Lea of Sky News indicated New South Wales had only achieved 20 per cent of its hazard reduction burns halfway through the year. Have you had any up-to-date figures on that?
Mr Buffone : I don’t have up-to-date figures with me. As I said, we met with the commissioners and chief officers from around the country. It was basically a collaborative discussion around this particular issue, and they advised that they were putting significant effort into trying to increase the work done to reduce the risk. The other key thing is that they are having more of a focus on higher risk areas and different techniques, around townships in particular. That’s pretty much around the country.
Senator ROBERTS: It seems to be. Sky News Australia said it:
… can exclusively reveal the RFS has “hazard reduced” around 60,000 hectares—roughly 20 percent—of its 300,000-hectare target at almost the half-way point of the … year.
The same article went on to discuss how far behind various states were. Can you please take on notice to provide anything further that you have in terms of detail around controlled burn goals being set and how much is being fulfilled across the country.
Mr Buffone : We can take that on notice. As I said, we don’t specifically monitor it, so we will ask the states and territories to provide that information.
Senator ROBERTS: If we aren’t doing controlled burns then governments are basically setting the country up to burn in worse bushfires. Why aren’t controlled burns a huge priority for you as a national emergency management agency?
Mr Buffone : It’s not that they’re not a huge priority for us. It’s actually that we don’t have any jurisdiction at all over controlled burning, nor do we have the legislation or even the human resources. It is a state and territory responsibility with all of the legislation and management arrangements that sit within those jurisdictions.
Senator ROBERTS: That answers my questions. Minister, I just thought I’d make a comment. I went up to the Bloomfield area earlier this year, mid-January. Some of the residents were saying that they had very high praise for the quality of the individual workers in various agencies—state and federal. There was a lack of leadership and coordination overall through the project. I know that’s not the liaison officer’s function so I’m not having a go at you. In Bloomfield there was a three- to four-week delay of people just getting in there and doing anything at all—even to start. And I agree with you; the locals did a marvellous job in reopening roads and sharing each other’s workloads. It was amazing.
Senator Watt: Thanks, Senator Roberts. I’m certainly aware of that. After every disaster, unfortunately, we see—you know, people go through a lot in those experiences. Sometimes people don’t get exactly the level of support that they would like to see, whether it be from local, state or federal governments. What I can say is that I know that in the relatively early stages there were Queensland government SES personnel in the communities in and around Bloomfield. I’d have to check whether, specifically, they were in Bloomfield and on what date. We also deployed people from Disaster Relief Australia to work in some of those communities as well. That’s a veteran led volunteer organisation that we are funding so it can expand its reach. There did end up being ADF personnel in some of those communities as well. Again, I’d have to work out exactly who was in Bloomfield, as opposed to [inaudible] Degarra and some of the other communities. I know that SES personnel were in Degarra, for example—
CHAIR: In the first week of January.
Senator Watt: So relatively soon. Equally, I recognise that community members did an enormous amount themselves. We do see that after disasters as well. But governments do work together as much as we can to try to get other resources in as quickly as we can. In those areas there was an additional complication around access—to simply get people in. One of the things that we ended up getting the ADF to do was to actually provide, effectively, barge services to get personnel and equipment in to help with the recovery. But we couldn’t get people in until access was available. So sometimes these things do take a little longer than what people would like to see, but I can assure you there was a lot of effort that went in across all levels of government to get people support.
Senator ROBERTS: Thank you, Chair.
Listen to this brave young woman who has come forward to talk about her firsthand experience of one of the biggest medical scandals in human history.
Ideological gender affirming “care” is not caring. It’s not compassionate.
This barbaric pseudoscience doesn’t answer the mental health needs of young people today. In fact, it does the opposite.
Although we know statistics show that suicide in teens confused about gender is elevated, it is far higher in those who’ve transitioned.
The “fix” makes it worse.
Puberty is a rite of passage to adulthood, not a disease to be mitigated. It’s hard enough without wealthy doctors preying on the insecurities of pre-teens.
In her own words: Stop telling 12 year olds they were born in the wrong body.
At a recent NAIDOC flag-raising celebration in Mackay, I learned that as a result of a successful community policing initiative involving Aboriginal and Islander community liaison officers working with at-risk children, the Mackay region does not have the same crime issues that other Queensland regions are seeing.
This is community taking care of itself in action.
Our nation was not built around Canberra, it was built around communities.
As a servant to the many different people making up our one Queensland community, in the past six weeks, I drove across Queensland listening to my constituents. At North Mackay Police Station I attended the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, NAIDOC, flag raising with local council and state representatives. The turn-out was excellent, despite rain and unusual cold, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the Tchundal Malar Dance Group’s excellent performance.
I chatted with Superintendent Graeme Paine of the Mackay police district about community policing, an exciting Queensland state policy dating from the 1990s. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison officers worked in and with the community to identify children who may be heading in the wrong direction, giving them a hand to ground youth and community. This might mean staying at school, playing a sport, or learning Aboriginal culture, language and dance. As a result, the Mackay region doesn’t haven’t the same crime problem evident in other Queensland regions. Funding has recently been extended.
One Nation supports the community policing initiative and supports adopting this program across our state. Community taking care of itself reminds us that our beautiful nation was not built around Canberra; it was built around communities. We are a nation of Mackays, of Collinsvilles, of Moranbahs, with everyday Australians coming together as one community first and then as one nation. This is what Canberra should be encouraging—community, not conflict.
There will always be an issue like COVID or Ukraine or a Voice to divide us. Before these, there were Vietnam and the ‘reds under the bed’. Australians to whom I have listened have had enough division, Prime Minister, enough shaming, enough abuse, enough lies. Division does not come from communities; it comes from Canberra.
One Nation is a party of everyday Australians who understand we have one flag, we are one community and we are one nation.
Numbers are crucial, so please RSVP here at: https://www.onenation.org.au/rocky-hero
Queensland is experiencing a surge in violent youth crime, causing tensions to escalate among concerned households. Frustrated with the lack of action, community members have taken it upon themselves to address this issue, with former One Nation candidate, Torin O’Brien, leading the charge in working with police to bring local criminals to justice.
When: Saturday | 27 May 2023 | 12:00pm – 1:30pm
Where:
Rocky Sports Club
1 Lion St
Wandal , QLD 4700
Australia
Google map and directions
Contact: Office of Senator Malcolm Roberts | senator.roberts@aph.gov.au | (07) 3221 9099
See you there!
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