Posts

Raging at the ‘Dying’ of Wokeism

,
Labor is using censorship to stop power shifting back to the people …

Labor’s Digital Duty of Care bill forms part of an ongoing tantrum put on – jointly – by the Uniparty and media after they lost control of the political narrative.

The rise of social media represents their loss of power.

As children, we learned ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ and now we see that ‘the keyboard cuts deeper than a surrendered blue-bin machete’ … for there is nothing Albanese fears more than a TikTok meme and the sound of laughter.

It infuriates the Canberra class that Australians are free to criticise policy and tear apart established ‘narratives’ and ‘virtues’ that form the bedrock of their Marxist-inspired regime.

As ‘subjects’ of this regime, Australians are supposed to admire the Uniparty’s efforts to ‘progress’ society toward … well, they’re not really sure. All we know is they want praise even as smoke rises from similar governments across the West.

However, the Uniparty have forgotten that the poorer and angrier the public, thanks to political mismanagement and abusive systems of taxation, the more urgent censorship laws become.

Voters aren’t cheering – they are waving pitchforks. The Uniparty want this opposition edited out of history.

To them, everything is about consensus.

We saw it with Climate Change and Covid. They use the power of ‘consensus’ to overturn science, fact, and reality. Sometimes they call it a ‘social licence’. These aren’t even real consensuses. Not if they have to be curated with censorship, bribed with grants, or threatened with ruin. Now, they are doing it again with mass migration and Wokeism. And they need to shut social media up to achieve their goal.

Remember, if the Uniparty cared about ‘safety’, as they claim in their press releases, they’d be focused on crime waves victimising major cities. They would make parks and playgrounds safe for children. Instead, they obsess over ‘online safety’ – which they do not have to prove – as the perfect vehicle for digital censorship.

Mainstream media is happy to help them do this.

While social media robbed politicians of control, it stripped billions from media empires. The eyeballs that kept advertising money flowing and justified insane salaries for mediocre presenters has dried up and moved online. Advertisers follow customers.

Instead of improving their product and competing in the expanding free market, mainstream media are colluding with the Uniparty to shrink social media and return Australia to a tightly controlled system of curated narratives.

They want a return to an era where misleading editing, selective footage, and outright propaganda can roam around unchallenged, influencing the political future of the country.

Where politicians can offer up seats on the press bus in turn for soft interviews and blind-eyes.

Where the negative aspects of their policies go unreported or re-imagined.

This is not healthy for democracy.

One Nation supports social media because we believe the voice of the people and independent journalists make Australia freer and safer.

We believe Canberra cannot be trusted with censorship powers and that mainstream media deserve to be out-competed on account of their appalling behaviour exhibited over decades.

Both of these entities – mainstream media and the Uniparty – have a credibility crisis.

They know that One Nation is exposing their plan.

It’s no surprise, then, that the media declared war on One Nation and began publishing unhinged hit pieces that served to demonstrate perfectly everything we have been saying.

Allow me to embarrass the media again.

Over the last 20 years, their influence has crashed. Broadcast television fell from 56% of adult TV usage to 20%.

For the next generation of voters aged between 18-35, it’s less than 12% and shrinking rapidly.

TV is predominately reserved for sports – not news. And even then, younger generations are ditching TVs entirely in favour of consuming all digital content via their phones and laptops.

Australians are no longer stuck with a handful of free to air channels offering nauseating drivel. They can switch off. And they do.

TV hosts who were locked into multi-million dollar contracts are furious that they’re being out-competed by people filming high-quality shows in their bedroom.

The social media model is proof that real talent has been locked out of the media industry for decades on account of the incestuous friend-of-a-friend hiring loop.

A normal person would celebrate this rise of independently trained talent growing online.

Isn’t this good for productivity?

Isn’t this better than joining the Centrelink queue?

No. The Prime Minister, his Communications Minister, and their media friends would rather see this grass roots industry strangled in its crib to protect their own power structures. That is the selfish nature of power.

It’s surely a coincidence that the majority of social media news commentary is coming from young conservatives who have been locked out of the ‘fair and balanced’ billion-dollar-per-year public broadcaster.

The losses to Australia’s network giants are substantial and some may argue – deserved.

In 2006, Channel 9 was worth $7.5 billion. Today, it’s worth just $960 million.

Channel 7 fell from $4 billion 20 years ago, to $115 million today.

During the same period, Channel 10 went from $1.5 billion and now sits on the books of its owner, Paramount, at $20 million.

And News Corp fell from a high of $85 billion to $14 billion.

Fairfax Media was valued at $9 billion. It sold to Channel 9 and is included in their value.

All values adjusted for inflation.

Today, these media organisations openly support and offer little pushback when the Uniparty present policies to suppress social media or allow Silicon Valley to be raided for the undeserved and unearned profit of Australian media entities.

Traditionally we’d call this a ‘conflict of interest’ – one that is never stated by those publishing the stories, just as they neglect to disclose how much public money they received from Labor-led media grants that mysteriously overlooked independent conservative news outlets.

There was a time we’d call this ‘fascism’.

Here is my reminder to mainstream media: conservatives make up over 50% of your audience. One Nation supporters are roughly 30% of your potential customers.

To alienate, ridicule, insult, and lie about and to this market probably explains your falling profits and rapidly eroding shareholder value.

The fable of ‘The Scorpion and the Snake’ was written for the Australian media class, who are hopelessly ensconced in their urban bubbles, preaching to an ever-shrinking base of champagne socialists raging at the dying of Wokeism.

They do not see the world as it’s; they see the world as they are.

Conservatives can turn to The Spectator Australia and Epoch Times for accurate news and current affairs – or follow the many independent voices on social media who form a community of conservatives across the Western World.

Anika Wells and the rest of the Uniparty can put forward all the censorial pieces of digital barbed wire they like.

Just know that as soon as One Nation takes power, we’ll be tearing it all down and restoring freedom, dignity, trust, and truth to the people.

/0 Comments/by

The Price Tag on Environmental Zeal

,

While I acknowledge Senator Whish-Wilson’s passion and past efforts against environmental waste, and while I agree that we need to control excessive packaging, this bill is simply not the answer.

This Bill will force Australia’s National Packaging Targets to be compulsory, replacing state rules with a heavy, uniform Commonwealth-led framework.

It introduces producer-funded fees and financial penalties based on packaging weight and materials. Ultimately, everything coming in a package will go up in price, driving more inflation and reducing wealth for everyday Australians.

The bill also contains an extremely complicated formula for calculating the level of recycling which will quite simply drive small and medium business crazy, requiring the additional expense of a dedicated consultant.

The revenue funds a circular economy, which is code for everyday Australians never owning anything new while the wealthy simply pay the penalty.

One Nation opposes this bill – which will impose a very high cost on business and consumers for a very small and unproven reward. It’s another prime example of the excessive green tape that strangles our society.

Transcript

I thank Senator Whish-Wilson for his bill, the Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme for Packaging (No Time to Waste) Bill 2026. I acknowledge Senator Whish-Wilson’s passion for reducing environmental waste and his efforts, which resulted in a ban on Australia exporting recycling waste to Third World countries where it was picked over and then in some cases dumped into rivers which took the rubbish out to sea. Australian waste was partially responsible for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

I do agree there’s a need to control waste from excessive packaging. This bill, though, is not the answer. The purpose of this bill is to provide for the government of the Commonwealth to establish a uniform national Extended Producer Responsibility, an EPR, a scheme for packaging through a legislative instrument. The Extended Producer Responsibility scheme would place a direct and legally binding obligation on producers, importers or distributors of packaging for the end-of-life management of the packaging they place onto the Australian market. This bill would see Australia’s National Packaging Targets made mandatory and legally binding. The bill would cumulatively serve to meet the intent of reducing demand for virgin plastic, preventing plastic waste, supporting the economy, increasing recycling and resource recovery rates, as well as reducing emissions and better protecting the Australian environment. These are represented in the National Packaging Targets, which in this context are as follows. The scheme enforces benchmarks for 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging alongside a 70 per cent plastic recycling rate and 50 per cent recycled content. Currently, this is voluntary. This bill would make it mandatory—compulsory. The law applies a strict nationwide mandate to anyone defined as a ‘responsible person’, which covers commercial manufacturers, importers and distributors of packaging. Businesses can no longer opt out or ignore recycling targets. It replaces fragmented state rules with a single, uniform, Commonwealth-led framework. The core economic driver of the scheme is a producer funded fee structure. Companies pay levies based on the type and total weight of the packaging they introduce into the Australian market. Hard-to-recycle materials, composite plastics and virgin plastics face heavy financial penalties. Levies are heavily discounted—that’s ‘eco-modulated’, to use their term—for businesses using highly recyclable materials or high percentages of local recycled content. Modulated! 

Now the part which is typical of the Greens, sadly, taking the kernel of a good idea and taking it so far it becomes intolerable. I’m talking about their bill’s lifecycle data tracking. The scheme requires transparent continuous data reporting into an independent national tracking system. Companies must log exact material weights, chemical composition and supply volumes. I’ll say that again: companies must log exact material weights, chemical composition and supply volumes. This data is used to calculate their exact financial obligations and verify whether they’re meeting the mandatory 2030 recycling targets. The revenue collected from producer levies forms a dedicated stable funding stream explicitly earmarked to build up Australia’s circular economy. Now, the phrase ‘circular economy’ is code for everyday Australians never owning anything new. The wealthy will be able to pay the price penalty for new products; everyday Australians will not. 

The elitism of the concept of circular economy sits poorly with One Nation’s approach of advancing the lives of everyday Australians. It does seem typical, sadly, of the inner-city Greens, though, marketing themselves as the party of the disenfranchised while bills like this will serve to weigh down the economy, reduce productivity and reduce opportunity for the very people the Greens pretend to represent. This bill will impose a very high cost on business and consumers for a very small and unproven reward for the environment. Everything that comes in a package will go up in price. More inflation, higher prices, less wealth for everyone. This bill, especially its compulsory nature, onerous reporting conditions and cost, is what One Nation means when we talk about excessive green tape. One Nation opposes green tape strangling our society. One Nation opposes this bill. 

/by

Millions Support One Nation

,
Free speech, open debate and the restoration of Australia

The political landscape in Australia is changing. There is no question about that. Some call it the rise of ‘Populism’. Others prefer to frame it as a return to common sense.

Public sentiment is changing because Australians are fed up with years of lies and bad governance.

They are demanding that government do a better job and stop wasting money.

Specific demands to restore Australia – taxes, migration, regulation – have been laid out in the public forum. Public demand is not a mystery to solve. It’s a list titled, ‘Fix these things!’ handed to politicians.

The Labor-Liberal uniparty are simply not listening.

Or if they are listening, they are choosing to ignore the public.

This is why Australians are joining One Nation.

Our growing support has nothing to do with ‘evil social media’, online ‘misinformation’, the ‘spread of hate’, or ‘grievance politics’. No. Our popularity is the Australian public expressing their survival instinct against an increasingly expensive, unreasonable, and incompetent government.

Voters know that One Nation DOES listen.

We do care. We want a better Australia – for everyone.

Unlike the uniparty, which seems happy to govern over the ashes of Australia, we want rich pastures and pristine landscapes – metaphoric and literal.

One Nation are the last true conservatives, the last environmentalists, and the last party the serves both small business and workers.

We do not see Australia as landscape of race, class, and religious conflict. We believe it’s a hub for healthy financial and ideological competition with free speech as the pinnacle of innovation. After all, if we are not able to speak our minds, how could we possibly debate the best possible future?

And yet, instead of conceding that decades of failure can be fixed with a return to basics, the uniparty has locked arms to counteract ‘evil Populism’ which they see as the greatest threat … to themselves. At no point have Labor and the Coalition combined to talk about the restoration of Australia. It took a uniparty popularity crisis for them to act. This, if nothing else, shows you where their priorities sit – with themselves.

One Nation is facing this increasingly intolerant and jealous political force. A uniparty movement whose followers are leaning on sometimes violent speech and disturbing demands.

It’s our view that the Left has become dangerous.

One Nation have always – and will always – defend free speech and open debate.

These are the foundations of our democracy and the wider civilisational idea of the Enlightenment.

However, we are also aware of the legacy of violence and political persecution perpetrated by left-wing regimes throughout history.

Mao’s Great Leap.

Stalin’s Cannibal Island.

The Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge.

On and on it goes. An endless list of murder, slavery, and horror perpetrated in the name of collective power.

It always starts the same – with the radicalisation of young people.

What begins as a few chants about murdering a political leader or imprisoning their followers – shouted from the mouths of people too young to understand what they’re saying – ends in a disaster for every citizen.

Extreme politics does not end with the political figures it targets. It ends with the collapse of democracy, the erasure of history, and the refashioning of objective truth into propaganda.

One Nation believes there’s a clear line between debate and language that normalises hostility or encourages others to treat political opponents as legitimate targets of violence.

It’s my view that Jim Chalmers, Anthony Albanese, and now Michelle Rowland are in danger of encouraging or, at the very least, remaining idle while those who align with their political movement cross that line.

Listen to this speech from the Prime Minister following One Nation’s spectacular victory in Secret Harbour:

Following One Nation raising a complaint, the Attorney-General appeared to victim-blame Pauline Hanson and One Nation, suggesting that Ms Hanson should, quote: ‘reflect on her own behaviour and her party’s ideology’.

In recent weeks we’ve seen children call for violence against Pauline. Threats of violence graffitied on public places. Threats of violence left on our social media accounts. Around the world, conservative figures have been murdered or almost killed at the hands of left-wing radicals. When these uncivilised tragedies occur, educators, commentators, and left-wing political figures have either openly cheered or called for more violence. This is shocking.

When the Prime Minister takes the stage and uses misinformation and disinformation to falsely paint a grassroots political opposition as ‘a threat to democracy’ – he shames himself and his office. He is partaking in the normalisation of extremism on the Left.

Young people on the left take their lead from the Prime Minister.

As Senator Hanson said, quote:

‘What he’s doing is putting me in a position of threats against me now that I have to have federal police protection whenever I’m out here, meeting people. It’s a shame. He’s caused this. I don’t want it. I want to feel safe in my own country.’

So, what’s the truth?

The truth is the Albanese government has abused the trust of Australians. Their tax hikes have made people poorer. Their policies have oppressed and marginalised honest, hard-working people. And businesses are collapsing. Voters want hope. They want change. They want peace.

And again, I say – shame on Albanese for trying to paint his political opposition as a threat to Australia simply because he’s too weak and incompetent to save his government.

One Nation is polling as high as 30%. Millions of Australians support One Nation. These are ordinary citizens who want change. Our supporters are not extremists. Can Labor and the Greens say the same?

Ministers should not use language that encourages the public to treat them as something to fear.

The Attorney-General should never imply that threats against Australians are somehow understandable because of how they vote.

Instead of asking why Australians are walking away from them, Labor is choosing to vilify those Australians and heighten the risk to them from other members of the public. The Coalition aren’t much better. Certainly, they are more jaded.

It’s also worth noting the staggering discrepancy between ‘outrage’ for the safety of high-profile women.

When a campaign against Jacinta Allan used the phrase, ‘ditch the witch’ – Labor ministers and media erupted in outrage. The Prime Minister declared it ‘totally unacceptable’. It became a national lecture on sexism.

What about kids marching in the street, shouting for Pauline Hanson to be killed and her face drawn onto images of a pig?

Not so much as a comment.

This isn’t speculative. A few weeks ago, at the height of this rhetoric, a One nation staffer, a grandmother, was assaulted and hospitalised while wearing a One Nation shirt.

We are constantly told by government officials that more must be done to prevent violence against women. Which is absolutely correct. So why is violent, misogynistic rhetoric excused when it supports the Labor cause?

Why is one woman’s safety treated as less important than another woman’s?

It’s a dangerous moment when Australia’s first legal officer refuses to condemn threats against a fellow female politician and instead blames her for them.

When the Prime Minister was evacuated from his home in February due to security threats, Pauline responded by saying, ‘Violence is not the answer – we have to have free speech, free debate and make our choice felt at the ballot box.’

That is the standard every elected leader should uphold.

/1 Comment/by

Retrospective Fees or Government Cover-Up?

,

A 2011 legislative drafting mistake caused ASIC to apply indexation incorrectly, leading to inaccurate review and late fee charges.

The Corporations (Review Fees) Amendment (Technical Amendments) Bill 2025 seeks retrospective authorisation, deeming previously collected, incorrect fees legally valid after the fact.

Small businesses and employers end up paying the price for a government mistake.

I feel very uneasy about that and dislike retrospective legislation unless it is truly necessary. We do not support this bill.

Small businesses shouldn’t be penalised for government administrative errors, especially during tough economic times.

Transcript

ASIC collects fees from users registering their business entities, such as companies, as part of its regulatory activities. The review fees act provides ASIC with the power to collect fees in relation to review dates for certain entities. Typically, an annual fee falls due on an entity’s anniversary of registration on ASIC’s register. The review fees regulations prescribe the review fees. Regulation 4 sets out how the fees are applied and calculated, including an indexation mechanism, and schedule 1 sets out dollar amounts that apply to particular entities and circumstances. ASIC identified a technical error during a routine review of its regulations—so full credit to ASIC—which affects how indexation was applied to certain fees.

The affected fees are late fees, tenure upfront fees and special purpose company review fees collected under the review fees regulations. The 2011 amending regulations made amendments to the review fees regulations to increase the base rate for certain review fees and continue the annual indexation of those fees using the increased base rate. In addition, these amendments reinserted the same base fee for some review fees, and other review fees were not amended. The indexation provisions applied for all review fees, which did not reflect the intended policy outcome at the time—poor drafting of legislation—nor does it reflect the intent now. As a result, ASIC applied an indexation methodology which resulted in incorrect amounts of certain review fees being charged.

These amendments validate review fees ASIC has already collected and deem the amount of the review fee to be a certain amount. This ensures any review fees charged from 1 July 2011 are valid and that ASIC was authorised to collect the review fees—authorised retrospectively. I feel very uneasy about that and dislike retrospective legislation unless it is truly necessary. This bill, the Corporations (Review Fees) Amendment (Technical Amendments) Bill 2025, is trying to validate a government drafting blunder to make taxpayers liable, even when the government is at fault.

We would not support the payment of late fees as a punitive measure during difficult economic times when the original source of authority is faulty. I think of the small businesses that are impacted. I think of the government agencies that extort fees from many small businesses and other employers. My current view is that we should not support this bill.

/by

Productivity is Prosperity

,
… government greed for other people’s money is our biggest threat.

Productivity and prosperity – these are two concepts intimately linked and yet wrongly separated thanks to the over-taxing demands of Treasury.

Productivity is not about taxation.

Taxation is a reward taken by the Treasury from productivity in the private sector.

This has led some ministers to view tax revenue as the chief goal of productivity instead of a reflection of economic success – a catastrophic error that speaks to the financial illiteracy plaguing the Labor government.

The recent Budget saw Labor propose raising taxes on the few remaining productive sectors of the economy. These represent the small corners of investment occupied with people trying to make ends meet in an increasingly unfair system. The result has been … predictable. A flat, weakening investment sector and stagnating housing markets.

Panic has spread. Money has retreated. Productivity has taken a hit it could not afford.

It was only last week that the Treasurer had to be told that his new Capital Gains Taxes threatened future productivity within the business sector and the investment market.

Think about it. When doubling taxes on risky investment returns, the government misses out on the taxes it could have collected when investors transition into home ownership. Which is what most young people say they intend to do with their capital gains… Because of these new taxes, young people will purchase fewer homes. It is just one example of stifling economic growth in favour of short-term tax grabs. And this is without mentioning the reduced productivity of renters already facing price hikes as a result.

Government greed for other people’s money is the biggest threat to productivity.

This government has strongly disincentivised productive risk-takers.

Business owners are punished and over-taxed workers are conditioned to blame their employers for economic hardship. This creates unproductive economic tension.

Instead, the true culprit is the acute failure of government to contain inflation and tighten its own belt. Labor has acquired substantial debts through mismanagement, hubris, panic, and delusion. What did we see in this budget? The Treasurer is still spending money he doesn’t have on things this country doesn’t need.

Meanwhile, businesses are collapsing are record rates. The public sector is growing. Wealth generation is shrinking. This is not productive.

Australia is becoming an incoherent economic mess that rewards a culture of hand-outs – be they corporate or private – instead of offering a hand-up to those who want to succeed.

Here is the truth. We are almost at a trillion dollars in debt, chasing our tail to keep up with interest repayments worth $28 billion per annum. Dead money. The Treasury is in desperate need of productivity while having no idea – whatsoever – about how to nurture productivity in a complex Western democracy full of free people making independent choices about their economic future.

The economy requires incentive, not the punishment.

What is ‘productivity’?

Productivity is cheap, reliable, Australian-sourced energy. It is good roads connecting regional areas with city centres. High speed rail lines and Australian-controlled ports. Refineries guaranteeing fuel supply when the world is in crisis. A competitive construction industry. It is the cutting of petty and unnecessary red tape. It is cutting UN and foreign agency imposed green and blue tape. It is high-speed, reliable internet – everywhere – including along highways and in regional areas. It is the freedom to take risks and earn a reward. It is a reliable nation of stable economic rules to encourage investment.

Productivity means placing trust and respect in businesses – freeing them of unnecessary cost burdens so they can hire staff, reward the hardest workers, and voluntarily pay above minimum wage.

Labor is spending all of its time focused on the minimum wage, because the economy is dying. Low wages are becoming the standard, rather than the baseline, because businesses are giving too much of their capital to the Treasury.

A Treasury that has run out of money and wants to dip into the pockets of Australians who did nothing wrong.

Productivity is not about working harder – it is about working smarter.

The Woke-Left have taken over the economy and built an economic prison rather than a promise.

One Nation wants to free the Australian people so they can be productive – on their own terms – to build a future they want for their children and their children’s children. Also, a nation worth living in for the people alive now, who deserve to enjoy the sacrifices of their ancestors.

To the Prime Minister, I say this, you don’t make the next generation of Australians productive through saddling them with an education debt larger than a housing deposit, selling their jobs to an imported workforce, and then tempting them into home deposit schemes they can never hope to pay off while depreciating the value of their asset. These Australians will never have the financial security to invest their money or take the risk of starting a business that creates productivity. What they are doing is surviving. Not thriving.

One Nation have been presenting policies for productivity for years. Since rising in the polls, these policies have gained traction. The response? Our political opponents are seeking to tear them down. They complain that any drop in revenue is an affront to the status quo of Treasury.

When we offered income splitting to give families a fairer tax policy and the flexibility to raise their own children, we were told this would ‘hurt income tax returns’ and ‘cause women to leave the workforce’. I’m sorry? What about the savings to childcare, which are currently costing the Budget a fortune? What about the humanity of allowing one parent to stay home, if that is what they wish? What about the benefits to the child? The community benefits? The education benefits? One Nation offers economic freedom – and the economists whinge.

When One Nation offered to end bracket creep – Labor, the Coalition, and Greens united to stop us. Then the government tossed a measly $250 at working Australians in compensation. It is … disgusting. It is … dishonest.

When One Nation offered greater freedom to businesses so they can grow and hire more staff, we are told that we are denting corporate tax. One Nation does not want minimum wage to be the anchor dragging down prosperity – we want the private sector to reward merit, pay better wages, and give proper benefits to the hardest workers and brightest staff because the most skilled should rise to the top. Productive societies are merit-driven. Always.

Merit makes money. Hard work makes money. Businesses make money. Government spends money other people have made.

And it should spend that money in a way that encourages productivity – not fantasy obsessions, like a non-existent climate crisis. The green apocalypse made a lot of corporations very rich at the expense of taxpayers. You think we didn’t notice – we did.

Of course, One Nation will retain the minimum award system and seeks to elevate wages above the minimum level through productivity increases.

One Nation understands that productivity has nothing to do with forcing people to work harder. They already work hard. Instead, Australia requires bold changes in regulation to unchain the economy and release its potential.

A smaller government.

This is our message to the Treasurer. If you have to sit around mulling over productivity at a roundtable it means you don’t understand productivity. You have no clue what to do.

Just as you cannot subsidise your way to becoming an energy super-power, you cannot tax your way to productivity.

A One Nation leadership will force – force – the government to tighten its belt, stop wasting money, and cut off parasitic departments and bureaucracies. We will shrink the government to fit the constitution, saving $90 billion a year of waste and duplication, so that we can offer the Australian people lower taxes, less red tape, and more personal flexibility. One Nation wants tax money put to use to build transit lines and infrastructure required to increase productivity – not into wasteful projects that tick a Net Zero box at the UN.

We cannot keep sending billions ($31 billion a year) of dollars offshore and billions more into the hands of domestic fraudsters and criminals.

Cheap, reliable energy. Proper infrastructure. Real wealth. Lower taxes. Less bureaucracy.

That is the formula for productivity.

I will finish with this. And this will hurt. If the Treasury wants productivity, it will have to take a leaf out of the private sector. It will have to take a risk. Take a hit to its balance sheet. Make an investment. It will have to lower taxes and allow the private sector to keep more of it what it earns so that the men and women of Australia can choose what sections of the economy to grow – to pick the best parts to invest in – to cultivate what actually works, not what the government wants to work.

The Australian people have always been financially responsible and economically intelligent. They will dig the government out of this financial hole – only if the government lets them.

/1 Comment/by

Labor’s Payday Super “Cash Flow Killer”

,

This legislation – The Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 – is a direct assault on small and medium businesses. Forcing employers to pay superannuation within seven days of payday, instead of the current quarterly system, is stripping away the “cash flow buffer” that keeps businesses afloat.

Here is the reality of what these bills do:

  • If a business is even slightly late, they face brutal penalties: 25% for a first offense and 50% for subsequent ones.
  • To cover the immediate cost of bringing these payments forward, businesses (especially in retail, hospitality, and tourism) will be forced to cut staff levels. This means tens of thousands of young Australians will lose work during peak seasons like Christmas and Easter.
  • The government is also scrapping the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House. Instead of one bulk payment, small business owners will now be buried in paperwork, manually paying dozens of individual funds every single week or fortnight.

This isn’t about workers, it’s about funnelling more money faster into union-backed industry super funds. While small businesses collapse, these funds and large corporations get richer.

One Nation believes workers should be able to use their super for a home deposit — investing in their own future rather than being forced to rent from the very super funds getting fat off this legislation.

Ultimately, this is nothing but a revenue-raising exercise disguised as “virtue signalling.” It ignores the reality of record-high bankruptcies and unaffordable energy costs, choosing instead to “shaft” the very people, the workers and small business owners, it claims to protect.

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: The Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 penalise employers who do not pay their employees’ superannuation guarantee contributions at the same time as salary and wages. The payment must reach the employee’s super account within seven business days of the employee’s payday. Currently, payments are due 28 days after the quarter to which they relate. 

This is a major change in cash flow. It brings forward a significant expense for businesses, particularly small businesses, while only adding a small amount to their super across their working life—if they can get a job, of course. So many jobs these days require ABNs, in which case the person must pay their own super. It says in the legislation: 

The reforms intend to ‘strengthen Australia’s superannuation system’ by reducing the SG gap— 

which was estimated at $5 billion in 2022. Treasurer Chalmers wrongly says: 

While most employers do the right thing, some disreputable ones are exploiting their employees. 

Most of the shortfall is in small businesses and microbusinesses and includes solopreneurs not paying themselves super. The quality of data on this is surprisingly poor for something being used to justify this onerous bill. The government doesn’t want the facts to get in the way of their virtue-signalling and pork-barrelling of union backed industry super funds. That’s the target. That’s what the government wants to do here—look after their union bosses’ super industry funds. 

If the employer hasn’t paid the super 28 days after payday, they will receive a notice giving them 28 more days to pay. If they still fail to pay, there is a penalty of 25 per cent of the missing super. That’s for the first offence. There’s a 50 per cent penalty for a second offence and for subsequent offences. This will be a nightmare for small and medium businesses, particularly in retail, hospitality and tourism, and it will be a gift for super funds, the unions and the Australian Taxation Office. 

Treasurer Chalmers has no clue how businesses—especially small businesses and microbusinesses—work. The current quarterly super system increases the ability of small and medium businesses to smooth their cash flow over what is, effectively, a four-month period. Businesses could set their staffing levels to the expected revenue for a three-month period. 

Let me give you an example. Retailers have mostly completed hiring their staff for over the Christmas period, even though Christmas spending doesn’t get going for another few weeks. They know they can afford the wages now but don’t need to pay super until the money comes in next month. What’s going to happen under this ignorant, anti-small-business legislation is that small and medium retailers will cut their staffing. They’ll reduce the number of their workers equal to the amount of the super contribution that they’re bringing forward. They’re taking the cost out of labour because there’s nowhere else to take it from. That’s what you don’t seem to understand. You certainly don’t understand rents or profits. 

Most small and medium businesses in this country are struggling as it is. Business bankruptcies are at a record high under this Labor government, and now more will go under. Large retailers—wait for it—will simply pass this cost on to everyday Australians through higher prices, so the people of Australia, and the workers in particular, are going to get shafted by this bill. Treasurer Chalmers and this Labor government have ensured that tens of thousands of, mostly, young Australians will not have a job this Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Black Friday and other retail highlights. 

It isn’t just retailers, though, who will lose. This bill will, in addition, harm markets, tourism and hospitality—all of which are weather dependent. These businesses will not be able to smooth out the ups and downs coming from good and bad weather—and there are ups and downs. That’s the way the earth operates; weather is variable. They will be forced to set staffing levels lower to ensure that they can cover the wages of staff and their super. I expect we will see a change to employment terms, with weather clauses being written into awards and further reductions in shifts to allow staff to be sent home if businesses are not busy. 

This Labor government has already had a lesson in unintended consequences with its greedy hike in tobacco tariffs leading literally to open warfare, firebombings and killings in the industry, and lower tax revenues. Everyone loses except the criminals. Treasurer Chalmers is in for another such lesson here. It will not be the government that’s harmed. It will be young Australians—and retailers—who will be harmed. Of course, Labor won’t care. They don’t govern for young Australians. If they did, then the Albanese government would not have flooded the country with new arrivals, driving up rental and home prices, lowering wages and reducing living standards. Did anyone mention unaffordable power? 

The winners from this bill will be the government’s mates. The unions’ super funds will get richer. The large corporations who can afford to carry staff for the few weeks will get richer. The big end of town gets richer, and Australians get poorer. I said last week that the Australian Labor Party spell ‘labor’ without a ‘U’, l-a-b-o-r, because the Labor Party do not care about ‘you’. They bypass the ‘you’. Young Australians are about to get another lesson on how little they matter to this government.  

Workers will be sacked, and businesses will close as a direct result of this policy. It’s clear. The revenue-raising figures and estimates in this bill make no allowance for expected employment downturns, which will come—the unintended consequence of this bill. It’s not, as proposed in the legislation, better for employees because they get their super money earlier, because the job market and the private sector will immediately shrink.  

After Treasurer Chalmers had his fantasy tax grab on unrealised capital gains trashed, he has evidently pivoted to recouping the money off the dying and struggling ecosystem of private industry, which has borne all the costs of unaffordable energy increases, foreign competition and Labor’s recent award changes. 

These bills are estimated to increase taxation payments to $589 million over the next three years. This is about a taxation increase, which ignores as usual the decrease in revenue from business collapses and staff sackings. There will be lower employment. 

Why is the government banking on this bill boosting their bottom line so much? Is this about superannuation or is it revenue raising—fining small businesses for laws the government knows they won’t be able to comply with on time? Maybe the government don’t know; that’s how out of touch they are. Despite this, this bill is disguised as being pro worker, when in fact compulsory super contributions are eating away at workers’ take-home pay and preventing them from saving for a home. The $4 trillion—that’s right; $4 trillion—in Australia’s super accounts is employees’ money. It’s the workers’ money. It’s come out of workers’ wages.  

One Nation will counter this Albanese government attack on our young with better policy. We will allow young Australians to use their super balance towards a deposit on a new home. That’s been a standing part of our policy for a year now. The higher the deposit, the lower the repayments. The more the young are advantaged there, the more realistic purchasing a house becomes. The investment from the person’s own super account into their home is secured with a loan, so their super grows as the value of their home grows. You’ll never see that policy coming from the ALP, the Australian Labor Party, because their policy is for the government to own your home, or a share of it, so they can dictate to you how to live and who you should live with. Think about it. This has all been documented.  

This measure adds to payroll complexity for large corporations, especially around employment mobility. Large corporations will not pay for this measure. The Australian public will, though, through higher prices or staff reductions. 

Industry has already asked for a one- to two-year delay to make the necessary software changes. That’s how extreme the measures are. Accounting software giant Xero provides the software that 1.8 million businesses use and has recommended a two-year window for implementation. Instead, this bill is going to be rushed through, with an implementation date of July. Imagine the cash-flow burden on a medium business with a thousand staff across different states, on different awards, all taking leave and changing super funds during this period.  

Treasurer Chalmers can’t imagine that. He has no business experience, and, quite honestly, he hasn’t a clue about the misery his policies are causing small and medium businesses in this country. That’s apparent with the decision in this bill to abolish the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House. Small businesses today can pay a lump sum of all their employees’ superannuation contributions to the clearing house along with their employees’ super details. The clearing house then makes the necessary payments to the employee’s individual super fund. This saves small businesses a truckload of paperwork by letting them make one bulk payment instead of dozens to every employee’s individual fund. That will be gone with this bill. Small businesses will have to take care of dozens of extra super payments, and they will be penalised 60 per cent if they are later than seven days from payday. 

Nonetheless, a lot of the blame for small-business hardship must be directed at the minister for climate change and sending Australia broke, Minister Chris Bowen. Unaffordable energy is driving the country to ruin. This legislation has come into this Senate at the same time as the government announcing it would require super funds to invest almost $2 trillion of Australia’s super money in the United States. That’s how much this Labor government cares about jobs for Australians. They are taking an amount equal to one-half of all the money in super funds in Australia at 30 June this year and sending it to America over a 10-year period. Prime Minister, superannuation is not your money! Yet the government is sending your super overseas to grow the American economy. 

Imagine how many breadwinner jobs could be created in Australia with the $2 trillion being invested right here in projects like the Capricornia project, an integrated rail, steel and concrete project, to provide Australia with security on steel, ceramics, fertiliser, explosives and pharmaceutical precursors—steel, the foundation of modern civilisation. Instead, young people will be competing with millions of new arrivals in a labour market that’s currently in a race to the bottom of wages, conditions and security—Prime Minister, in case you’re not aware of it despite so many people shouting it from the streets, stop mass migration—a trend this bill will make worse. 

The Albanese government is pursuing policies that ensure young Australians don’t have the abundance, wealth and income necessary to buy their own home in a country with more resources than any other country per capita. Instead, young people will have to rent from union super funds and predatory wealth funds like BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and First State. Putting a roof over a young couple’s heads is critical to starting a family. Measures like this, combined with over migration, mass migration and unaffordable energy, will continue to steal opportunity from our young people. Never has a generation been so lied to as the people aged today between 18 and 45. One Nation opposes this bill because One Nation supports employment, workers and small businesses. We support a fair go and fairness for all. 

/by

Stagnant Wages, Skyrocketing Energy Costs and Record Business Failures

,

Real wages have gone backwards, erasing a decade of pay rises since this government took office. This data is up to March, so it doesn’t reflect the current inflation rise.  So, if Australians feel they’re working harder and getting less, it’s because they are. 

Net zero policies are driving up electricity prices, which in turn affect the entire economy. Every sector—whether farming, manufacturing, or retail—uses power, and rising energy costs inevitably get passed on. In the March quarter, business bankruptcies reached record levels, with the construction sector hit particularly hard. Housing construction is declining, yet the government continues to bring in more immigrants. 

This government has clearly failed in its economic management—there is no trust left.

Transcript

The Reserve Bank has just announced the inflation rate for May as four per cent, which is above the expected rate of 3.8 per cent. What’s even worse is that the underlying inflation rate, which had been trending downward, has now increased to 4.4 per cent. Inflation is surging, and it’s entirely the fault of the Albanese Labor government. Today we heard Finance Minister Gallagher again bragging about this government’s track record on protecting wages. The data does not support that statement. 

According to the Australia Institute, real wages of everyday Australians have fallen from $52,900 to $52,080 since this government came to power. That figure has been calculated to March this year, so it doesn’t take into account what is now rising inflation. If everyday Australians feel like they’re working harder and going backwards, it’s because you are. The inflation spike was entirely predictable. Net zero measures continue to force up electricity prices, which cascade throughout our entire economy. Every business, from farming to manufacturing to retailing, uses power. Any increase in power has to be passed on, and this is what we’re now seeing. 

One Nation calls on the government to abandon the insane net zero transition before the economy falls apart entirely, catastrophically. In the March quarter, business bankruptcies were at record levels. Bankruptcies in the building sector were especially high. Housing construction is not rising; it’s falling. Yet this government continues to bring in more new-arrival immigrants, which is inherently inflationary. The economy as a whole is just barely staying out of recession, with GDP growth at 0.2 per cent, a figure that shows the destruction that net zero is causing to our entire economy. I hope the Reserve Bank holds its nerve and doesn’t raise interest rates. If it raises rates, everyday Australians will be doing it even tougher. What a mess. This government is not fit to govern—no trust. 

/by

Politicians Go Woke, Country Goes Broke!

,

As the cost of living increases out of control, the number of businesses going broke (insolvency) is on the rise. Each of these insolvencies is a tragic story of people losing their jobs and facing uncertainty about whether they will have money to put food on the table.

Ditch the net-zero policies that are driving up energy costs, cut red tape and make it easier for family businesses to survive.  That’s One Nation’s plan!

Transcript

I support Senator Hughes’s motion and agree that the Albanese Labor government has failed to grow the economy and, with that lack of growth, failed to restore Australia’s standard of living. A stable economic environment is necessary for a new business to open and to flourish and for existing businesses to weather the many storms this government has engineered. Labor’s interest rate rises are due directly to Labor’s wasteful spending and energy price inflation resulting from pointless net zero policies. The Prime Minister and Energy Minister Bowen have failed to provide electricity at prices people and businesses can afford, directly driving inflation. Every new piece of legislation in this place seems designed to strangle the last breath out of businesses. Live sheep exports are today’s casualty. 

It should come as no surprise that data from ASIC shows there were 1,245 business insolvencies in May 2024. This is a 44 per cent increase on last year and a 122 per cent increase across the life of the Albanese Labor government. To put it simply this government is sending business broke. One thousand two hundred and forty-five insolvent businesses in just one month is not a statistic; it’s a human tragedy. These are everyday Australians who had a go at lifting themselves up, who were employing others in their community and who were paying tax to support the government agenda. Now their businesses are gone along with their ability to provide for their families, free from reliance on the government. Business confidence is down because this government has talked it down with an unending recipe of doom and gloom about global boiling and sustainability requiring reductions in living standards. There’s no hope in this message, just unending misery. It’s a lie. No wonder businesses give up. 

One Nation believes abundance is not a dirty word. It’s natural for people to seek abundance and to share abundance. With One Nation, Australians can and will restore prosperity to this beautiful country of ours. 

/by

Small Businesses Ripped Off by Loan Sharks

,

Reports indicate loan sharks are ripping off small businesses, charging them up to 140% interest on loans through a number of loopholes on our regulations. The contracts are often impossible to understand and leave mum and dad shops struggling to keep their head above water.

I asked the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) about this wave of dodgy activity and to see what he was hearing in complaints from businesses.

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you for appearing. Firstly, I want to thank you for always being a very clear and articulate advocate for the small businesses in this country. Without them, this country dies. I think many people forget that. Is the ombudsman aware of the recent ABC coverage of small businesses who have suffered when entering business loans?  

Mr Billson: Yes.  

Senator ROBERTS: Are you able to elaborate on some of the key protections that are afforded to consumer borrowers under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act?

Mr Billson: I was a bit worried that after your opening sentence there’d be a ‘however’—thankfully, not.  

Senator ROBERTS: No. There’s no ‘however’.  

Mr Billson: A lot of small business borrowings aren’t covered by those consumer protections. There is a set of arrangements about diligence and a capacity to repay. To put it simply, a lot of small businesses borrow with the aim to change their circumstances, whereas the consumer framework looks at capacity to service. Having said that, there are then codes that sit around it—the banking code—and there’s a code subcommittee particularly focused on small and agribusiness lending. AFCA is involved as well, where the lender has agreed to be bound by the AFCA scheme, so where a dispute or a grievance arises they can go to AFCA.  

Senator ROBERTS: This is consumer?  

Mr Billson: No, this is specifically about small business. And then we deal with what I call fringe financiers. There are quite a number of financiers who are outside the AFCA framework that can behave quite appallingly, and we try and seek a resolution to those circumstances, mindful we have no powers to direct a particular outcome. 

Senator ROBERTS: Which of the key protections that are afforded to consumer borrowers are not available to small business borrowers?  

Mr Billson: There’s the responsible lending provision—capital ‘r’, capital ‘l’—where there’s a duty to look at expenditure patterns and the like for consumers. Those things aren’t expressly required of lenders to a small business. Some apply a similar framework. There are certain diligence expectations, and then there are safeguards and protections captured by the banking code.  

Senator ROBERTS: Are you aware of small business borrowers paying effective interest rates up to 140 per cent?  

Mr Billson: We are aware of some examples. We’ve had other examples where punitive penalties have been applied. We’ve even had examples where some borrowers have approached a broker to look at finance options, not proceeded with the arrangement and then the broker’s introduced them to a lender that’s had quite extraordinary terms and conditions, and, even though they haven’t proceeded with that interest in accessing finance, the financier has then said, ‘Here’s a several thousand dollar bill you can pay, and if you don’t pay that, we’ll put a caveat on your home.’ Some of that outrageous conduct, we raised through FRAG, the Federal Regulatory Agency Group—a group that I chair, looking at various regulators and what can be done about these things for those people that sit outside things like the AFCA scheme and aren’t responsive to the banking code and other safeguards. 

Senator ROBERTS: Are you aware of small businesses taking out high-interest business loans because of tax debts? Can you comment on that? 

Mr Billson: I saw reports of that. If I could check with Ms Collins—I don’t believe we’ve had any particular cases of that character, but we are aware of reports of it. We are also aware that a number of small businesses are feeling very distressed about the return to more regular tax debt recovery activities by the ATO. We also work closely with the Small Business Debt Helpline. Interestingly, 30 per cent of the small businesses seeking help from the Small Business Debt Helpline have been in business for more than 10 years, so there’s something happening, and it’s some of the headwinds I pointed to in my opening remarks, which I understand are being circulated. 

Senator ROBERTS: In your experience in assisting small businesses, can you offer a view on what would be the consequences for small-business borrowers if the National Consumer Credit Protection Act were extended to cover small-business loans? 

Mr Billson: My concern would be that it may further limit access to credit at a time when too many small businesses already explain that they have difficulty accessing the finance that they need. Finance is the oxygen of enterprise, and if we make it too hard to get, the consequence is that we constrain that economic activity. A number of other mechanisms provide some safeguards—the Australian Banking Association has lodged a proposal for a revised banking code. We’re very active in trying to make sure that has appropriate safeguards in it for small-business borrowers. The other part of our concern is about lenders who operate outside those more established channels, and that’s more often the type of matter that’s raised with our organisation.  

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you, I appreciate your succinctness. 

/2 Comments/by

Cheaper Electricity Bills Anyone?

,

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) assures me that as Australia has very good sunshine and solar energy is the cheapest form of energy on the planet, we can expect to have cheap electricity. That’s nonsense because they don’t take into account all of the extra costs of firming, storage, extra transmission lines and general unreliability. Any Australian who looks at their electricity bill knows solar isn’t cheaper.

I was even more surprised to learn about the agency’s support of solar in renewable iron and steel manufacturing on a massive scale. The idea of such energy intensive industrial process being powered by cheap solar, which is currently too expensive and unreliable for Australian households, is pipe dream stuff.

This government is driving Australia off the cliff and is in the drivers seat essentially saying – “It’s not my job to think about the cliff, I’m just driving the car.” The idea of a net zero future with wind and solar providing base-load power and creating “green steel” is not real.

The net zero pipe dream is a nation killing fantasy that is already hurting the regions, ruining small business and driving up the cost-of-living all over Australia.

/4 Comments/by