North Australia Gutted by Government Mess

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Transcript

[Marcus] Malcolm Roberts, good morning to you, Malcolm?

[Malcolm] Good morning, Marcus, how are you doing?

[Marcus] I’m okay. First thing first. I wanna play you something back from a couple of weeks ago when you and I had a discussion on this radio programme, are you ready?

[Malcolm] Yes, I am.

[Marcus] Okay.

[Malcolm] Trump is in the box seat, he knows what he’s doing.

[Marcus] All right, you wanna bet me a bottle of wine on this? Australian wine.

[Malcolm] I definitely do but not yet, I’m very happy to send you a bottle of Stanthorpe wine if you win, but Trump is still in the box seat, mate.

[Marcus] Oh, Malcolm.

[Malcolm] Trump is coming home.

[Marcus] Hang on, Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm. No he’s not in the box seat.

[Malcolm] Yes, I haven’t seen the other, any headlines tonight, but he has got a process in play that’s been done before in the United States, it’s been upholding the constitution, it’s all proven and that’s underway and it will be unfolding in the next few weeks.

[Malcolm] I’m serious, Marcus.

[Marcus] I know you are, that’s the worry.

[Malcolm] I love the bet but I’m serious.

[Marcus] All right, let’s get on to some other issues. The Northern Australian agenda, the Torres Straits, Horn Island, Thursday Islands, Senate Select Committees on the Government’s agenda for Northern Australia in a nutshell, not going anywhere and deeply disappointing. What are the issues preventing development in Northern Australia, Malcolm?

[Malcolm] Have a listen to these, energy prices, property rights and land tenures, infrastructure, water, transport, telecommunications, a hopeless jumble of government services, all three layers of the government that’s state, federal, and local are not working together, there’s massive duplication, massive waste, huge gaps in service delivery. Now those things are occurring right throughout Australia.

And so how can we expect a development of productive capacity here in the North where there’s low population and lack of infrastructure, when the Southern areas of New South Wales, the rest of our country are being gutted by the same things, the destruction of productive capacity. And so what we’re really seeing up here, I mean, you, you’ve got problems in New South Wales I understand with ferries and trains that are built overseas and we have the same.

In Brisbane Queensland, we’ve had trains built overseas by both the liberal and labour governments in the past, they’ve come here with faults in them that had to be fixed. We have the ability, we just have lost the productive capacity because our governments, state and federal have destroyed that productive capacity.

[Marcus] I heard something, yeah, sorry, Malcolm, I heard something really interesting yesterday. In Victoria, and I know that Dan Andrews has copped a fair bit this year, trying to keep his constituents safe, but in Victoria to their credit, they have public transports, whether it’s buses, various trams, whatever, running around saying, “Proudly manufactured in Victoria.” Why is it that in Victoria, they can make their trams and their trains and their public transport infrastructure there but in New South Wales, in Queensland, we cannot.

[Malcolm] Well, I wonder how old those trams are because you know, our productive capacity is being destroyed over the last few decades, Marcus and I just wonder how long, how old those trams are. They still got the ability to make those trams? I don’t know. And you know, Victoria lost the Ford production facilities for cars, they’ve lost the Toyota production facility for cars, had lost various General Motors facilities, we haven’t got that productive capacity anymore. And so Victoria has done a very bad job.

Victoria has shut down it’s large power stations, which now make it vulnerable and dependent on New South Wales. I mean, this is a mess, our whole country and it’s a security issue, and it is a dead set security issue.

[Marcus] JobSeeker, my understanding from some stories floating around this morning, again, JobSeeker is blown out. In relation to costs, it’s gonna cost our economy billions of dollars more. I don’t know who’s doing the maths or the accounting treasury, but again, we see that job seekers, JobSeeker, the federal government’s plans through COVID 19 will end up costing more in the longer term.

[Malcolm] One of the things we have to start facing is the reality that state and federal governments have made a mess of the coronavirus, real mess of the way they’ve handled it. And I’ll give you some examples about JobSeeker in a minute up here in Queensland and especially in the North. But you know, Taiwan, Marcus have done by far the best job in the world, they’ve had no decrease in their economy, they’re bubbling along at the same rate as normal.

Our economy has been smashed and same with most economies. Taiwan, what they’ve done is they’ve tested people rigorously, they’ve traced people and they’ve quarantined people. They have isolated the sick and the vulnerable. We have shut down everyone. I mean, that is not the way you handle a pandemic. Now, initially, because it looks so bad because remember the people dying in Italy, we had to do something like that.

So we said to the government, “There is your open cheque, “just go for it, “do whatever you want.” That’s what we need to do when under such a crisis. When we realised, and we, but we said to them, “We’ll come looking for you “and holding you accountable,” when we realised that it wasn’t as bad as thought and then the total number of deaths in many countries around the world has not increased, the age deaths in Australia is lower than in the past years, so the total deaths have not increased, it’s not been what we’ve, what we were afraid of and that’s welcome news, the government hasn’t changed the tact.

And we’re still locked where we were until very recently locking down people. And we’re now, the coronavirus is still out there, we haven’t got a plan for managing the damn thing, and we’re still being managed by the Coronavirus. Victoria is still doing that. So what we have to do is actually look at what’s going on and come up with the plan. Never has the state or any federal government come up with the plan, never.

[Marcus] All right, the UK Climate Ambition Summit, we know that Scott Morrison was refused, well, basically, our nation is in the cold and all of these summits, you and I will disagree on the reasons why we’ve been cheating our way through our Kyoto agreements now for all- God, probably the best part of the last decade. But you and I differ on this, but just your thoughts on it.

[Malcolm] Well, it’s just another gabfest. The fortunate thing is that unlike all the other gabfests, there isn’t a huge transport demand pushing all these leaders together and producing carbon dioxide, which I know is got no problem, but they’re producing a hell of a lot of carbon dioxide to get to where they’re going and nothing comes out of it of any good.

And what we see is the United Nations pressuring nations to increase their carbon dioxide cast, which is insane, there’s no data to drive that, and Scott Morrison is now being pushed, and I think he’s relented and he is no longer going to use the Kyoto credits, that John Howard, stole, John Howard’s government, stole these credits, stole farmers’ property rights to get those credits, now we’re not even gonna use them. So we’ve got farmers owed somewhere between a hundred and $200 billion worth of compensation, or we need a restoration of their property rights right around the country.

[Marcus] Yeah.

[Malcolm] And so what we’re seeing is that the UN drove that stupidity from John Howard’s government, drove the state government in New South Wales and Queensland in particular to decimate their farmers, no compensation paid, and now we can’t even use them?

I mean, this is insane. And China’s commitment under these UN agreements is zero. They will continue in not only at their current levels of carbon dioxide output, they will continue increasing them. And so what they’ve got is their productive capacity continuing to grow by using our coals for their steel in the construction

[Marcus] Well I don’t know whether they’re gonna use, they’re going to use our coal considering what we’ve heard in the last week, Malcolm?

[Malcolm] Well, I think they will have to get back to it because they use coal for power generation, which is thermal coal exports. They’re about half of Japan’s intake of coal from Australia. Japan buys about almost $10 billion worth of coal from Australia, thermal coal for power stations, and China only buys 4 billion, but the key is in the metallurgical coal exports from Australia.

India has, buys $10 billion worth of coal, China just a fraction under that 9.7, Japan $7.4 billion worth. China needs our coal because our metallurgical coal for steel-making markets is the best in the world.

[Marcus] All right, I just want to move on to trade with China. It’s not getting any better, you know, we know that we’ve got a number of tariffs and a number of blockades if you like placed or put in place by Beijing, we’ve got Barley exports, we’ve got tariffs on other major exports including now, as I mentioned just before, the possibility that our coal will sit idle off the coast of China and not be allowed into the country. When is it gonna stop and what can we do about it, it’s not getting any better?

The reason China is picking on us I believe is that we have been very, very weak to ourselves. I’m not talking about standing up to China anyway, I’m talking about the Chinese are a totalitarian dictatorship, they are bullies. They’re being very subtle in the way they’re bringing people into the fold around the countries, through their belts and roads initiative, which Victoria has signed up to.

But what they can’t see, a bully always picks on the weakest first and the most vulnerable. Now China sees Australia as being allied with the United States. But China also sees Australia wrecking our own productive capacity. They see Australia kowtowing to UN agreements, ceding our sovereignty, giving up the control of our resources, the control of our productive capacity in this country.

China has said to the UN, “To hell with you lot, “we are going to continue our industrialization, we are ceding our jobs. we’re actually sending our jobs to China as we destroy our productive capacity. The Chinese also see us exporting coal and burning coal at very high cost in this country because of artificially inflated regulations that have destroyed the price of coal in this country, coal fired power.

And so what China is saying is we’re destroying ourselves. We’re subsidising the Chinese to build expensive renewable energy, solar, and wind in this country, which is destroying our electricity network even more, and then we’re seeing, they’re seeing us see that and they’re saying, “These people are contradicting “their own sovereignty, “they’re destroying their own values. “These people don’t know “what the hell they’re doing. “They have weakened their right.” And that’s what they’re doing. They’re sending us a very strong signal, “Get your house in order.”

[Marcus] And the human face of this, of course, 66 ships, 500 million to a billion dollars worth of coal currently sitting idle. We’ve got a thousand seafarers stuck out there. I mean, they’ve got families but hopefully, there’ll be some sort of a breakthrough. We need cool heads to prevail and I mean, I see, I tend to agree with you Malcolm, I can see, I can’t see China holding out for much longer.

[Malcolm] You know, it’s a very good point you’ve raised though the human face of it, but it’s true, but they’re not players in the trade dispute, the victims. Many haven’t been allowed to disembark apparently for about 20 months due to COVID, Marcus I think and the maximum time legally for seamen to be at sea is 11 months. The situation is deteriorating apparently for physically and mentally for these people.

There’s a limited supply of food and medicines and so, yeah, good on you for bringing up the human aspect. These people are caught in the middle and they’ve done nothing wrong.

[Marcus] All right, just wanna finish with lobster seafood. I mean, that’s how I plan on, well, look, to be honest, I plan on washing down a bit of lobster and a couple of prawns and some crab over Christmas with the wine you’re going to send me, but tell me, how can we help out our rock lobster industry?

[Malcolm] Marcus, the election date will be settled when the vice president, Mike Pence selects the candidate, selects the votes in

[Marcus] All right, so

[Malcolm] On January 6th

[Marcus] I’ll be having

[Malcolm] That will be A new year celebration

[Marcus] A new year one I like it, fair enough. All right, but let’s talk lobsters, mate.

[Malcolm] Yes, it was predicted that customers would eat more than 35 tonnes of lobster this year compared to just six and a half tonnes in the previous year. But now apparently, you need to get in early, there’s a limit of four per person I’ve been told. They’re now a bargain at $20 each because the Chinese are not taking our lobsters, so what we’re saying is get into the lobsters and go for it. Now I’m not a lobster fan, I prefer the Queensland mud crab, best seafood you can get,

[Marcus] Fair enough.

[Malcolm] But that’s my deal, but yeah, grab, go for the lobsters and wash it down with some Hunter Valley wine or some Stanthorpe wine from Queensland and enjoy your Christmas.

[Marcus] And shop Australian over Christmas too. And that’s something that Pauline and I talked about on the programme on Tuesday, we need to ensure that we buy up as much Australian wine as much Australian seafood and beef and support Australian industries during this time.

[Malcolm] So right, thank you very much for, for reminding us of that, Marcus. And I’d like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and happy new year

[Marcus] Thank you.

[Malcolm] And the same to all your team, Justin and everyone, and all your listeners, a very happy new year and a very Merry Christmas.

[Marcus] You too, mate. We’ll talk again in 2021, we’ll finally settle the issue of Trump V Biden and I look forward to, I dunno a case or a bottle of something from you Malcolm.

[Malcolm] If Mike Pence goes away, I think he will and the constitutional precedence then I think you’ll be sending me a bottle of the wine, mate but if I’m wrong, I’ll be very happy to send it to you.

[Marcus] All right, mate, great to chat to you. Thank you so much for your time this year, we’ll catch up again in 2021.

[Malcolm] Look forward to it, thanks very much, Marcus and Merry Christmas.

[Marcus] All right, you too, mate. There he is, Malcolm Roberts, One Nation Senator, and look obviously, you know, me and a number of my listeners don’t always agree with everything Malcolm comes up with. But he does talk sense on, I think when it comes to things like industrial relations, reform, our trade issue with China and all these sort of stuff. I think he’s a little more moderate on that than say Scomo and his mob are, and I just enjoy Malcolm, my chats with him. We, we’re not always gonna agree. But gee that wine, will taste nice.

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Overseas defence personnel in Australia

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There has been many comments recently about a bill that people were concerned about which they claimed would allow foreign troops and police to enter Australia and act against our interests.

This is untrue.

The bill simply gives foreign troops and police who are invited into our country to help in emergencies an exemption of liability if they are acting in good faith while performing their duties. It’s the same exemption that our defence force and police are given in emergencies.

One Nation would clearly not have anything to do with allowing foreign troops or police into Australia to act against the interest of its people.

The bill was the “Defence Legislation Amendment (Enhancement of Defence Force response to Emergencies) Bill 2020”.

As a way of explanation, Clause 123AA:

A protected person (see subsection (3)) is not subject to any liability (whether civil or criminal) in respect of anything the protected person does or omits to do, in good faith, in the performance or purported performance of the protected person’s duties,…. A protected person is defined under 123AA :

  1. Each of the following is a protected person:

(a) a member of the Defence Force;

(b) an APS employee in the Department;

(c) a person authorised under subsection (4) to perform duties in respect of the provision of assistance mentioned in subsection (1).

Transcript

Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts, and I’m in Thursday Island just above the tip of Cape York. And we’re here for a Senate inquiry, but I also want to respond now to people who’ve contacted our office about something that concerns them. It’s another internet rumour that’s not true.

They’re asking questions about us, or the parliament or the government authorising foreign defence forces to come onto this country and be armed and to control the people, that’s nonsense.

The bill that was passed recently is merely to ensure that overseas volunteers who come here to help us in times of natural disaster have the same rights and protections as Australian soldiers and Australian volunteers, because they’re covered by insurance, foreigners are not, until now.

So it means that providing foreigners, whether they be armed, whether they be, they won’t be armed forces, but whether they be defence forces or police forces or volunteers, will be covered. People like the three pilots who died in the plane crash last year fighting the fires with a water bomber.

Volunteers, defence, police, and so on. They must be acting in good faith. If they’re not acting in good faith, or they do something deliberately harmful to people, then they lose that protection, and they’re vulnerable.

So all that’s happened is that the government is protecting the foreign volunteers to make sure that we keep getting foreign volunteers to come here and help us with their particular skills in terms of natural disasters.

That’s all it is. We checked it thoroughly, and it’s here for our protection.

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Labor betray Cairns tourism operators

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Pepe Iovannella is one of the largest tour operators in Cairns. Cairns have suffered more than any other city in Australia because of COVID restrictions which has decimated the tourism industry.

Pepe tells us that even though the Labor government promised to dredge Trinity Inlet to allow large boats to increase opportunities, they have reneged on the deal.

Transcript

[Malcolm Roberts]

Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts and I’m in Trinity Inlet in Cairns. You see a Cruise Ship here, Trawler behind us and recreational boats and Trawlers on the other side of Trinity Inlet. Now I’m with Pepe Iovannella. How’s that?

[Pepe Iovannella]

Correct.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Thank you.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Perfect.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Pepe’s family is the owner of the largest tour operator Australian family owned tour operator in Cairns. They did tours to the Reef and he’s got many other businesses.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Yap.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Cairns depends on tourism, right Pepe?

[Pepe Iovannella]

We’re a key element of Cairns. We’re probably in the top five if not the first. It’s crucial for our business and obviously in a COVID year we’ve been struggling and if it wasn’t for JobKeeper, we’d be definitely, most of operators be closed by now.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Right. So the government’s restrictions around COVID state and federal have gutted Cairns. Cairns has suffered more than any other community in the country. It’s income gross domestic product has gone down 16%. It’s economy is folding.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Yes.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And it needs to come out of that. And what Pepe is doing, is he can see that the trend is toward larger Cruise vessels to get higher turnover. And yet the Port Authority is being restricted by the state government. So we kinda, you won’t get those larger boats.

[Pepe Iovannella]

So back in 2016, when they announced to dredge to allow larger Cruise ships, which are crucial to Cairns they bring millions of dollars of money and passengers and tourist numbers. They promised us four million cubic metres of dredging. After they got elected.

[Malcolm Roberts]

So just before the election.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Before the election.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And before the election they promised 120 million dollars.

[Pepe Iovannella]

All parties agreed and Labor were last to come on board. They finally agreed to dredge and give us the money for four million cubic metres. If they won, and whoever won that election and Labor won the election. So they had to commit to honour their commitment and promised us four million cubic metres. Two years later we got 700,000 which essentially is our maintenance dredging for the year.

[Malcolm Roberts]

That’s about 16% of what they promised.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Correct.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And so it’s very important to understand that Trinity Inlet is fed by creeks and just like every other inlet fed by creeks and rivers silt comes in. Silt builds up when it hits the stagnant water or the steady water of the ocean and silt fills up the Harbour. And so you have maintenance dredging to keep the Harbour at the right level.

And then you have capital dredging, which expands, deepens, widens the Harbour. And so Cairns is gonna miss out. It would missed out on the maintenance dredging and it is gonna miss out on the capital dredging to get these bigger cruise vessels.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Yeah. You know obviously as time goes on the Cruise ships get bigger. We need to cater as, even as the commercials our commercial vessels have got bigger over time. Cruise ships get bigger. We need to cater for Cruise ships. And that’s why it’s imperative that we get back and do the four million cubic metres of dredging that was promised by the Labor Party.

[Malcolm Roberts]

But Cairns, I didn’t realise this. Cairns has the largest, has the largest number of vessel movements of any regional port in Australia. Correct?

[Pepe Iovannella]

Correct. Yeah we got the largest number of class one vessels, class three vessels. We have the highest number- the Trawler industry is huge in Cairns. We have Reef boats that go out. The Coral Princess goes out taking passengers over board. So we got all those apart from our day passengers.

So we’ve got a whole plethora of combination of boats that run out of Port and and which makes us the number one port in Australia.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And what happened to this port was that somebody in their wisdom, and without any scientific evidence the state government moved the port limit, sorry moved the National Park limit to within the port. So that stopped any dredging within the port. I mean, this is dumb. It goes completely against the science.

So that then led to a large fight but you’ve also got not only the state government but the globalists and the federal government people like Greg Hunt at the time who all bowed to the almighty people in the WWF and the other UN led organisations which are now choking Cairns. That’s basically it.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Correct, yeah. So we’ve got the largest fleet in Australia running out of port, and yet we’re not a priority port. You know other ports, there’s four other ports in Queensland that are priority ports.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Townsville, Gladstone, Mackay and Hay Point.

[Pepe Iovannella]

And yet we’re the number one port for movements. Number one port for maintenance. People relying on boats that earn their income, Trawler industry, and yet we’re still stifled by the Labor government, by not allowing us to have priority. So if we had priority port status, that would fix a lot of our issues.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And this is so stupid. We’ve got cruise liners anchored off the coast here and passengers being ferried in and out. We’d have far more people, if they could put their feet on the ground. If they tied up here at a decent wharf and could get out and spend their money at service stations, motels, entertainment, restaurants and that’s what Cairns is missing out on.

Cairns is being belted by international tourism shutdown because of the airline traffic, being belted by the Cruise industry being shut down. But when you finally get out again you wanna thrive and you can’t do that with these dopey buggers in government

[Pepe Iovannella]

We’re the ideal port to be a turnaround port for Cruise ship industry. There’s the Brisbane port has been increased and they’ve spent a billion dollars on Brisbane port yet they don’t wanna spend a cent here in Cairns. So they’re stifling Cairns growth.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And get this, they see tankers taking oil from Northern countries down to Brisbane, putting it on road tankers and transporting it up by truck to Cairns. How stupid is that when these tankers should be unloading here? I mean, they’re just holding the North back holding the state back.

[Pepe Iovannella]

The stupidest thing is that sugar industry can’t even pick up from the sugar terminals anymore. ‘Cause obviously the ships are bigger, so they can’t fill the capacity. So we’re only half filling the sugar ships out of Cairns.

[Malcolm Roberts]

We blame the United Nations for the blue and the green tape but we especially blame the people who just bow to the UN. State and federal globalists, and that’s it. They’re the ones destroying the city.

[Pepe Iovannella]

Absolutely, 100% agreement.

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Cashless Debit Card Explanation

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The Cashless Debit Card is controversial. Last week One Nation voted to extend the trial of the system. Controversial because activists, Labor and the Greens are ignoring the facts and confusing the public with mistruths.

Firstly, it’s not a cashless program. Recipients still have between 20% and 50% in cash. Secondly, this is a program that was requested from communities to help protect children and families. This system stops people from using their entire taxpayer funded welfare payments on alcohol, gambling, drugs and cigarettes.

Reports from those on the system and their communities are already claiming that there are less hungry children and less violence and crime. This program protects children and families and taxpayer welfare payments. There are no plans to extend this program to the pension. This is a scare campaign by the left. And we wouldn’t support it anyway.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts, and I’m in Parliament House, Canberra. And I want to discuss the cashless debit card or it’s actually the less-cash debit card because it still comes with cash. Why are we doing it? And why do we support the government’s trial? Because it’s all about kids and families, protecting kids and families.

Making sure that kids get a belly full of food and it’s not just consumed, the money is not just wasted on alcohol and booze from their parents. So it’s about the future of our country because kids learn better at school. They develop better physically when they’ve got full bellies and not starving. It’s about kids and families.

Making sure that the money from taxpayers goes to people who deserve the welfare. So that leads me to my second point. And that, that as a Senator, I have responsibility not just to the people who need welfare and support, but to the people who pay for the welfare and the support, the taxpayer. So we have to make sure that the taxpayer’s money provides value for the taxpayer.

‘Cause it’s a lot of money for taxpayers, who have worked hard to get that money and to see it wasted on booze and drugs and gambling and cigarettes, is just not on. The third thing is that, I hinted to it earlier. It’s a less-cash card, it’s not a cash-less card. There’s cash still involved, the proportion of cash varies from 20% through to 50%, depending upon the community.

This is a trial and they’re trialling many different parameters. And that means that as people learn from the trial, and the trial has now been going for a few years. As people learn, they tweak the trial because they learn from their mistakes and let’s remove the mistakes, and they see other opportunities. And so they wanna make sure that people benefit from that.

And remember, the less-cash card came out of requests from communities where there was massive abuse of kids and families. Waste of money, tearing up the communities. Those communities approached government and wanted help. Liberal National Party Government, and the Labour Party Government under Gillard.

So this is about protecting our future, and protecting taxpayers, and above all, protecting kids. So it is a difficult issue, an emotional issue. It’s been distorted by various people using lots of lies and slang, but it is about protecting kids, protecting families, and protecting taxpayers, and making sure that Australia gets value for its money.

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Cashless Debit Card – 2SM with Marcus Paul

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Transcript

And now on Marcus Paul in the Morning, Senator Malcolm Roberts.

[Marcus Paul]

All right, welcome back. At 19 to eight, 19 to seven in Queensland. Malcolm, good morning!

[Malcolm Roberts]

Good morning, Marcus. How are you?

[Marcus Paul]

No bad at all, not bad. How are things in Canberra?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Foggy.

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Because we didn’t get much sleep last night, we debated the cash ban, the cashless debit card until gee, I don’t know, I guess 12:30, something like that.

[Marcus Paul]

And you still didn’t come up with the right result?

[Malcolm Roberts]

No, we did, mate, we did. We’ve gotta protect taxpayers as well as welfare recipients-

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah?

[Malcolm Roberts]

And vulnerable kids in in some of these communities.

[Marcus Paul]

True, true.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And then that’s, so I’ve got dual responsibility, and that’s what we did. We looked after the taxpayer-

[Marcus Paul]

I understand.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And people who are receiving welfare.

[Marcus Paul]

Are you not concerned like I am, Malcolm, that this will give a green light to the government in the future to privatise our welfare system?

[Malcolm Roberts]

No, I’m not concerned about privatising welfare. I don’t think that’ll happen. It’s just too-

[Marcus Paul]

Well, this is exactly, what is this?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Too great a responsibility.

[Marcus Paul]

But hang on, Malcolm. This is exactly what is happening. In the guard-

[Malcolm Roberts]

No, it’s not.

[Marcus Paul]

Well, of course it is, Indue, who do you think Indue was operated by?

[Malcolm Roberts]

That’s the people operating the actual transfer of the cash, but the welfare system is still under the federal government.

[Marcus Paul]

Yes, but we’ve outsourced it to, oh, I dunno, to a mob that apparently is linked to the Liberal Party and donate to the Liberal Party. And we’ve got, what, when does it, since when does the federal government take advice from a mining magnate?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Now, now you’re onto something. That’s, there are questions we’re going to be asking because I’m not at all happy about that arrangement. We haven’t seen that, that hasn’t been transparent, mate, and I think you’ve got a very good question there. But this is a trial and as trials go, we learn things and then it becomes more and more flexible, so we’ve gotta change the trial in certain ways as we learn and that’s been done, and I think it’s been done in a very responsible way. But yeah, the question’s about who runs it, that is it.

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah, all right, but don’t you think, Malcolm, that it’s, you know it’s painting a lot of people with the same brush. I mean, we’ve been very critical of the government in relation to the Brereton Report and essentially just saying that, oh, well, you know, and we’ve got the minister doubling down now over the last 24, 48 hours on alleged atrocities in Afghanistan.

And you know, they’re talking about pulling meritorious citations from the 3,000 people who served, even though only a fraction of them, not even at a tiny minute percentage, have been alleged of these atrocities. And again, they’re all being branded with the same brush. Not everybody who’s on welfare, even in these regions where it’s being trialled, Sudener and otherwise, not everybody on these welfare cards drinks, takes drugs, or spends money on gambling.

What happens if they wanna go to the local markets? What happens if they need to get cash out to, I dunno, buy something at the corner store because they won’t take the Indue card?

[Malcolm Roberts]

These are good questions, and that’s what the purpose of the trial is, to understand how to resolve that. But you know, there are various proportions of cash in some of the trials, it’s 50:50 cash and credit and card. In others, it’s 80:20, 20% cash. But we have to remember that the future of Australia is literally at stake here because we’re having kids grow up with no food. How can they be educated? How can they survive? How can they grow into in the future leaders of our country, future leaders of our communities-

[Marcus Paul]

Fair enough.

[Malcolm Roberts]

With that experience? This is really about a very humanitarian approach, anyway.

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah, I get that and look, I’m not, I don’t, I don’t have an issue or a problem with the thought behind it. Of course, we need to try and protect children. We need to ensure they’re receiving everything they need to get the best start in life and to live up to their potential. I worry that it’s just a one size fits all approach and that some people who genuinely, and I’ve received correspondence from many people who are on this card, saying that, you know, it’s unfair.

I feel like a criminal and, you know, people look at me when I produce this card at the local shopping centre, and I can’t, you know, anyway. But I guess that’s discussions for another time because it’s now been extended for two years and the trials will continue. Am I right in saying that perhaps they’re looking at doing it in the Hunter in the Newcastle region?

[Malcolm Roberts]

I don’t know where they’re looking at doing it. It was extended into Cape York and other parts of the territory there. They’re making changes to some of the ways of operating, the ways and distributing it.

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah, true.

[Malcolm Roberts]

So, you know, it comes out in the trial markets. Now, I’ll give the government, remember that some of this was implemented by the Rudd, Gillard government, some of it was foreshadowed by the Howard government. But the most important thing I think of all to remember is that these were done as a request to help income management, to protect kids, to protect families, especially in the territory and in parts of Queensland.

So, you know, and we all have a responsibility to make sure that the taxpayer’s money is used wisely and not used for, you know, booze and gambling and drugs.

[Marcus Paul]

Well, I think we all agree on that. All right, speaking of cash money, $10,000 cash ban is dead, dead, dead. That’s a big win.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes, very big win. We moved that motion to remove that cash ban bill, the government’s cash ban bill, from the Senate legislation list. And you may remember that when that was introduced quietly, it was my office in particular that raised the hell about that.

And we got an alliance from right across the coal, the crossbench senators, and then we attacked the Labor Party on it, we went to Stephen Jones, the shadow minister for finance in the Labor Party, and still, the Labor Party passed it in the lower house along with the Liberals, a lot of things happened in parliament with Labor and Liberal working together.

And these things that are hurting, hurting people, everyday Australians, especially rural people who can’t get access to cash, mate, and especially all the people.

[Marcus Paul]

All right.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And so what happened was we actually got it sent to a committee in the upper, in the Senate, and then it came out of the committee, there were a whole list of serious problems about it, but the committee still, because it was dominated by Labor and Liberals, still recommended passing the bill. But we created such a fuss that it actually became an embarrassment and the government, I think, was relieved to have us push it off.

[Marcus Paul]

Well, good because cash is legal tender and it should never be refused by merchants. But Woolworths have announced some stores will no longer accept cash. I mean, this war on cash being used in our country needs to stop, Malcolm.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes, you’re absolutely right. And that’s what we’ve been pointing out. We’ve got a fabulous response to the petition we started on our Facebook page, Marcus. And it’s very important to understand that the cash ban bill was binned as a result of a very, very strong wave of of public support for getting rid of that cash ban.

[Marcus Paul]

Yes, all right, the tensions with China. Is it just a trade spat? Or is there more to this, do you think?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Much more to it, and it really points to our governance in this country under both Labor and Liberal and the Nationals. Because China is a totalitarian communist party that’s leading that country and they’re just bullies. And bullies go for the weak link. And so, we must stand up to it, but why are we considered weak?

When if you look at China, we export our iron ore and coal to China so that they can make wind turbines and solar panels. They come back to Australia, they export wind turbines and solar panels to our country. We then subsidise the construction of solar generators and wind turbines, and we subsidise that and that drives up our electricity prices.

So we end up exporting jobs to the Chinese, because a lot of the construction companies on the unreliables, on the alternatives to coal-fired power stations, that was the solar and the wind, they’re Chinese-owned. So the Chinese are making profits out of our raw materials and they’re destroying, they’re not destroying, but our government, state and federal, are destroying our electricity sector.

And Marcus, the fundamental thing with electric, with manufacturing these days, and we want a recovery from COVID, and go beyond that is electricity prices. Electricity prices are greater in the bigger cost in most manufacturing than Labor. So what we’re doing is we’re destroying our manufacturing sector and some of our agricultural sector and we’re subsidising the Chinese to do it. I mean, but that’s, the Chinese are not doing anything wrong there, we’re the bunnies-

[Marcus Paul]

Well, we’re the ones who have allowed it, yes.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Well, that’s right, and what the Chinese can see is that they have signed a Paris agreement commitment that says they will do nothing, and they can see us. They can see us signing over our sovereignty to the UN in so many areas now since 1975, that’s 45 years, half a century. And they’re thinking these people, the Australians, contradict their own values. They destroy their own sovereignty. What is the matter with these people?

They’re vulnerable, they’re weak. And our governments under Labor, Liberal, and Nationals have been absolutely pathetic now for around 45 years. Ever since we signed that stupid Lima Declaration that by Whitlam’s Labor government in 1975 and it was ratified the following year by Fraser’s Liberal-National government. I mean, they’re selling out our country and the Chinese can see that, and they can see we’re weak and gutless, and they just running over the top of us. They think that they can bend us.

[Marcus Paul]

All right, well, speaking of maybe the Chinese running over the top of us, as you’ve put it, Keswick Island, just off the coast of-

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes.

[Marcus Paul]

We’ve got the Queensland government signing a lease with China Bloom until 2096 for 117 hectares. They wanna build a tourist resort to accommodate some 3,000 people. And it would appear that locals are not involved in this process. They’re not allowed to access their beach, their jetty has gone. People who were renting there have been turfed off the island with just given 48 hours to leave. Is this Australia or where are we?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Exactly, this should be Australia, but it’s not under the Queensland Labor government and under the federal Liberal-National government. And the important thing here to remember is that some of these places on Keswick Island are public places, public spaces, and what the Chinese are doing, the Chinese owners are denying Australians access to those public spaces, that is wrong. And we’re gonna raise hell about this.

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah, well, I’ve seen the stories and there’ve been some good reports on this. I can’t believe that we allow ownership by overseas interests to be able to, isn’t a lot of this land national park?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes, that’s correct. And they denying people access to that. You know that, Pauline and I raised an amendment in a bill that improves foreign investment review board control.

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah.

[Malcolm Roberts]

We raised the need to put tighter controls on things in a national interest, the national interest test.

[Marcus Paul]

That’s right.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Being one of the tests for giving others, giving foreigners control over some of our assets. And that was turned down, pulling over the only ones, Labor, Liberal, Centre Alliance, Greens, National Party all voted against putting that national interest as a test for firms. The other thing, Marcus, is that they even rejected our amendment to have a register of foreign ownership of water.

[Marcus Paul]

Oh, well, yes, we’ve gone through that in New South Wales with the shooters and fishers, I mean, poor Helen Dalton, our warrior, water warrior, who’s a frequent caller on this program’s been trying to get a fully transparent water register up in New South Wales for God knows how long, but the, you know the Nationals, who are supposed to be looking after people in the bush, don’t want a bar of it, including Melinda Pavey, the water minister.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Well, it seems to me the Nationals are looking after farmers in the northern parts of New South Wales. And there’s unlimited floodplain harvesting. And you know, that needs to be regulated.

In Queensland, it is regulated, and Cubbie Station, even though it’s been vilified, has done an absolutely marvellous job, highly, highly responsible, the way it does it. But northern New South Wales, they’re just tearing the guts out of the water. And that’s, you know, what happens, Marcus, is that the northern basin, the Murray-Darling Basin, is quite different from the southern.

[Marcus Paul]

Yeah, of course.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And the southerners pay when the north can’t deliver water because the northern areas are intermittent water providers. And so, the southerners always end up paying. But the other thing that’s happening is the South Australians are basically telling lies about what’s happened to water in their state.

They have destroyed their environment in the Coorong through their own stupid policies, and they’re expecting people in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria to pay the price. And then when the water doesn’t come down from the floodplain harvesting in northern New South Wales, the southerners in southern New South Wales and northern Victoria, they’re paying, they’re paying dearly. Very, very serious issue.

[Marcus Paul]

All right, Malcolm, always good to chat back. We’ll catch up again next week.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Have a good weekend. Thanks Marcus.

[Marcus Paul]

Thank you and all of this, One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts on the programme. Okay, four and a half minutes away from eight o’clock news on the way. Marie, are you there?

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Industrial Relations Reform Speech

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Last week in Canberra I was unable to give this speech in the Senate so I recorded so you could hear. The government is proposing changes to the the Industrial Relations system and I wanted to put my views on the record and say to the government that the IR system is broken and needs fixing. And simplifying.

Transcript

I serve the people of Queensland & Australia and want to discuss our shared need for:

  • Improving industrial relations to protect honest workers and employers
  • the bigger picture and a vision for a secure future.

And I will shine a light on the Industrial Relations Club, known as the IR Club. The root cause of most IR conflict.

We have listened to workers – casual and permanent – across Queensland and Australia. From Thursday Island to the Hunter to Tasmania, from Brisbane to Perth. We have listened to union bosses and union bodies. We have listened to small and medium sized businesses. We have listened to employer and industry groups.

We have listened to the government and to the opposition. I’ve worked underground at the coalface in five regions across our country, managed mines and negotiated and introduced IR changes improving safety, productivity and security. As a mining executive I introduced the Australian coal industry’s first radically new enterprise award, one proudly based on matching employees needs and employers’ needs.

Our people set records that stood for decades with extremely high worker retention and Australia’s best safety performance for large underground coal mines. Listening reveals that across our country, people are hurting, feeling vulnerable. Afraid for their jobs, afraid of the future.

Add to that Australians are hurting from the economic fallout from COVID with restrictions and lock-downs keeping us away from our jobs, businesses and loved ones. People feel confused, often despairing, even hopeless. Many feel powerless to improve their situation or their business, frustrated that this government didn’t listen and just listens to the IR Club.

And people like HV miner Simon Turner crippled, exploited and discarded due to abuses proving the complete failure of current Industrial Relations laws. People are angry. The “Industrial Relations Club, the IR Club” is alive and well. It keeps its members fat, well paid and secure – lawyers, courts, employer peak bodies like the BCA, major UB’s.

Driven to perpetuate conflict so they have something to “fix,” a reason for staying in existence. Using complexity to conjure issues that need lawyers and UB’s to sort. The primary workplace relationship between employee and employer has been shoved aside. The IR system is broken. And that’s destroying Australian industry and exporting jobs to China.

The IR Club perpetuates artificial restrictions that needlessly destroy productivity and job security and suppress wages. Restrictions hurting workers and employers. The Building & Construction General On-Site Award is almost 150 pages long with 80 separate allowances on top of the prescribed wage schedule.

Australia’s cabotage is another IR Club casualty – and guts national security, sovereignty and tax revenue. The IR Club’s other victims are small and medium sized business. Our economy’s engine room. The IR Club insists on a one size fits all from large multinationals with huge teams of lawyers through to small businesses. Queensland’s 445,000 small businesses are now under even greater pressure as a result of the govt’s COVID response.

And, as a result of the IR Club, small businesses are left with complex, unworkable IR rules that are not fit for purpose. The IR Club is one reason why small businesses and honest big businesses are angry. We need honest, competent leadership making decisions based on solid data and facts with strength of character and a willingness to serve our country’s people, Australians. A Prime Minister who tries to do good, not just look good.

One Nation protects workers’ rights and knows that only employers, entrepreneurs, small businesses and workers create jobs. The govt’s COVID restrictions have done enormous damage. Yet the govt-induced collapse is not an excuse to cut pay or job security. Instead, let’s reform IR together properly.

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PFAS Contamination Update

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Transcript

Thank you madam acting deputy president. I was told in meetings with defence last year that the PFAS task force was working on the problem with PFAS contamination by applying a whole of government response. So I asked for the minutes of their meetings to see what a whole whole of government response looked like. I was refused. I did a document discovery. Still no minutes arrived.

This third attempt has succeeded. It should not have been this hard to get hold of a simple set of minutes. Having read them, I do understand why they had to be prized away from the task force. The Morrison government’s PFAS response is all talk. It is a process that has no destination and as a result is achieving nothing. It seems to be aiming to stall and to avert. The last concrete action by this government was in 2018 to award $55 million for a drinking water programme for affected areas and $73 million for research into PFAS.

There are now over 900 PFAS sites around Australia. The government is remediating four defence sites. Bases at Williamtown, Oakey, Edinburgh and Katherine. Four down, 896 to go. While the PFAS task force is sitting around holding meetings and reissuing old guidances, the residents of the red zones continue to live with the nightmare every day.

Residents are trapped in homes that are unsaleable. One resident that I’ve spoke with many times and visited his house on a number of occasions, David Jefferis and his wife Diane Priddle from Oakey in Queensland purchased their property in 2004 for a combined $2.4 million investment. At that time, the defence department knew his land was affected by PFAS and yet they kept quiet.

Once the contamination was made public the property became unsaleable. Dave and Diane’s successful cattle breeding and grazing business had to close because nobody wants to buy contaminated cattle or genetics. They have a stud property. A very clean, tidy operation. David and Diane’s property and business was recently valued by a registered valuer at just $400,000.

A $2 million loss through no fault of their own. It’s an outrage that the Morrison government is allowing these residents to remain trapped in red zones while the PFAS taskforce drifts around from meeting room to meeting room in search of direction. While a recent class action lawsuit was settled, Dave and Diane received just $120,000 compensation and he hasn’t got the money yet.

The government’s own PFAS subcommittee has made the same recommendation in the last two update reports which called for remediation, compensation and like for like relocation. That’s fair. I hope the third head of that subcommittee in just two years, Senator McCarthy, has more success in getting their recommendations implemented.

The way forward now must be to remove residents out of the contaminated red zones, install remediation units and treat the groundwater before these toxic plumes spread further and ruin yet more lives.

Now last year, I asked the then Minister for Agriculture Senator McKenzie if it was safe for producers like David and Diane to send their cattle to auction and Senator McKenzie replied, quote,

“There is no reason why farmers cannot send their produce to market.”

End of quote. Well, let’s examine that statement. Food standards Australia specify a safe level for PFAS exposure of 20 nanograms for PFAS and 160 nanograms for PFOA. These can be present together for a total PFAS level of 190 nanograms per kilo of body weight. On the 19th of September 2020, The European Food Safety Authority set a new safety threshold for PFAS contamination.

The limit which now applies across the EU, is just 4.4 nanograms per kilogram of body weight per week. A fraction of what Australia allows. The European body considered the decreased response of the immune system to vaccination to be the most critical human health effect of PFAS exposure.

So I ask. Has the PFAS task force considered that the Morrison government is about to introduce a vaccine for COVID that might be put at risk through our tolerating PFAS levels that are 40 times higher than the new European Safety Standard. Cattle in the red zone from RAAF Base Richmond have been tested at over 1000 nanograms per kilo.

Newborn calves are testing at over 300 nanograms. This is the product that former Minister McKenzie says is safe to sell and consume. It is not safe to sell. By sending contaminated products to the EU, we’re risking food and livestock exports of $2 billion a year. This is not just affecting Oakey, this is affecting the whole beef industry.

The Morrison government can find billions to give to its big business mates for corporate welfare in the name of COVID but can’t find a lesser amount a much much lesser amount to find a like for like relocation and compensation scheme for everyday Australians caught up in the nightmare of the government’s making despite the committee recommending it do so. It’s time for the prime minister to fix this problem. And I seek leave to continue my remarks.

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Racism – The Cashless Debit Card

Transcript

[Malcolm Roberts]

Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts and I’m in Parliament House in Canberra. I’d like you to watch a few clips coming up from a debate last night in the Senate. They’re clips of Senator Hanson and I addressing the word Racism and the word Racist. We’ve noticed that, over the last few years, people use those terms when they don’t have facts, don’t have data, and don’t have a logical argument to counter us.

So what some of the Greens were doing, some of the weaker greens and some of the weaker people in the Labor Party, they were diverting attention from the merits of the Cashless Debit Card and calling its supporters racists or invoking racism so Pauline and I decided to launch into that. Have a look at these clips and see what you think.

[Malcolm Roberts]

To the minister. It’s very sad to see and disappointing to see the term racist and racism used as an excuse because whenever I’ve seen it, it’s been an excuse covering the lack of facts and solid logical argument. And it seems to be meant to intimidate and silence and divert. It won’t silence people who have the facts. Has there ever been any targeting of groups, either under Labour or the Liberal National Party governments, or is this initiative broadly based upon people’s needs and protecting children?

[Deputy President]

Minister.

[Minster]

Thank you, thank you very much Senator Roberts. The measure is targeted at the people that are on income working age, income support within geographical areas.

[Deputy President]

Senator Roberts.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Thank you. Minister, just seems to be continuing on this racist theme. My understanding of racist and racism is where one group, a particular race, is classified or thought of as inferior or superior. Is there any discussion at all, or labelling of any group within the department as inferior or superior or is this based on needs?

[Deputy President]

Order, order. Order. Minister.

[Minster]

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy President. As I have stated on a number of occasions, the cashless debit card is in places where the community have sought for the support and help of the government through the implementation of this card and other associated measures. And there were quite a number of them including, many of the wraparound services and support services that exist as well. But the card is in places on the basis of the request of the leaders within a geographical community area.

[Pauline Hanson]

Thank you very much. Well, I’ve listened to the debate and I’ve listened to some of the questions that have been asked to you tonight and really disturbs me. The question being asked is this about racism? Is it racist and the policies of where you pick theories, this- I asked the minister directly, how did it come about and the areas that were picked.

The areas were picked just because of community whether it be the mayors, the councillors, the community themselves, the business leaders, or even community leaders have asked for this trial. Whether – and the whole fact is yes, the same because the population and Senator Wong asked the question about the percentages and we got and high 40% of one area are indigenous and yet another area got 80% indigenous so where you have the majority are non-indigenous.

We as a parliament need to look at and leaders of this nation we need to actually look at what is the best interest of the people. This was a trial that was put out. These are communities that asked for this trial, it’s a card that is actually going to restrict the spending of the money to 80% has to be spent on central services, meaning paying the rent, buying food, clothes for the kids, and it’s actually ensures there’s food on the table.

Isn’t the basis of what we’re all should be concerned about is the wellbeing of the children. Adults can take care of themselves, children can’t, children rely on the parents. If we have a problem in our society where the parents are tied up in alcohol or drug abuse or gambling, that the money doesn’t get to where it should get, isn’t that the basis of why we are looking at this card. And it doesn’t matter what race or colour of your skin is we have problems right across our whole society we have this problem and especially in regional and rural areas there’s a huge drug problem. I hear it constantly all the time.

The thing is that you talk about is it racist? I can go into many areas that I can say we have racist policies in Australia.

[Deputy President]

Order.

[Pauline Hanson]

That is purely based on the fact that because if you’re indigenous you get extra funding, you get care taken for you. So I’m not gonna head down that path as many Australians know that. I don’t think that’s the basis of what we should be looking out here. I’ve travelled these indigenous communities I’ve been there and I’ve seen the problems that we have there, but it’s not only in the indigenous communities we got in other areas in Australia that needs to be addressed. But we as the leaders of this nation we must look at what are we trying to achieve here? It’s the benefit of the future generations. Kids in these communities are not getting schooled, they are not getting the care that they need, they’re not getting fed. So the fact is that that’s what we need to address. We actually have to also look at the fact that the communities have asked for this, I’ve listened to the indigenous leaders that have begged for the card.

[Deputy President]

Order.

[Pauline Hanson]

That they wanted this card. We have people opting in for this card. We have people in communities are saying we can’t control our money because our family and friends come to us and they force us to hand over the money to them. Now they have control of their money. What are you actually worried about? They’ve got 20% of their money they can still spend as they wish, 80% is going to the needs that they need for their household, for the children to look after children. If you look at the stats and reports and I haven’t got the figures in front of me.

[Deputy President]

Order.

[Pauline Hanson]

But a lot of the figures were 40% plus were actually saying there’s less drug use, there is less gambling, there is less domestic violence. The replace report that came in said there’s less domestic violence and promise to having more kids are going to school, they’re actually being fed before they go to school. These are the actual facts just sit here and argue over the fact is it racist policy is not what this is about. And I’m sick of people, some people in this chamber calling themselves as if they’re the victims. Our job is to make sure good policy for all people, all Australians, that they actually have the benefit of our wise decisions.

[Deputy President]

Order.

[Pauline Hanson]

Because they are relying on us to make the right decisions in this parliament,

[Deputy President]

Senator Wong, oh, sorry I thought you finished.

[Pauline Hanson]

I hadn’t.

[Deputy President]

Continue, Senator Hanson

[Pauline Hanson]

Thank you very much. Also, the fact is that on websites we are seeing and the scaremongering that is going on on the opposition side parliament telling it is the elderly who are going to be affected by this people ringing up my office and saying, “Well, it is the age pensioners “that are going to be losing this due to the card.” There is no talk about that whatsoever, that question has been asked by the government it is not going to include the aged.

So I’m sick of the scaremongering that’s going on with people because I’m getting that and it is up on the website but you clearly say it is the elderly. And so people think and the veterans that you’re gonna tie them up in this and it’s got nothing to do with them. This has been completely blown out of proportion by people telling lies and not telling the truth to the Australian public to know the benefits of this card, minister then I asked you the question clarify here in this chamber to the people of Australia are aged pensions going to be involved on this card?

Are the people who are on disability pension going to be included on this card? Who is it actually going to affect? Do you intend, and I think the Australian people need to know have a direct answer, is this going to be rolled out in this term of parliament till the next election to all Australians? Because that is what is been said to all the Australians in lies to the putting out by the opposition and lies have been put out by the Greens Party.

I want the people have to have an honest answer that is recorded here in the parliament is this going to include the elderly, is this going to include those in disability pensions, is it going to be rolled out to all Australians before the next election? And what do you intend to do with your policies after next election minister?

[Deputy President]

Minister.

[Minister]

Thank you very much.

[Deputy President]

Order

[Minister]

Madam deputy present, I’ll try and answer all the components of the Senator Hanson’s questions and contribution. And I apologise if I miss some of them but I’m more than happy to come back to them.

Firstly, I acknowledge the second reading amendment of Senator Patrick which did give us the opportunity to put on the record that the government has provided a commitment through that second reading, supporting of that second reading amendment that no recipient of the age pension or a veteran or services pension will be placed on the cashless debit card. There are however, a couple of exceptions to that and I wanna put that on the record very, very clearly, very, very clearly.

[Deputy President]

Order.

[Minister]

With the exception, and there are two main categories of exemption, people on the age pension are able to voluntarily seek to go on to the card whether it be the Basics Card or the CDC. And we know in the Northern Territory around two and a half thousand people that are on the Basics Card in the Northern Territory are actually, have gone on so voluntarily. And of those two and a half thousand people that are on voluntarily are over 800 of them are actually aged pensioners.

The second category of people who could be on income management who are of pension age or also on a pension, are those that have been either referred by the Family Responsibilities Commission and for those who are listening and don’t know what the Family Responsibilities Commission is, it is the group of commissioners in the Cape York that make the decisions in relation to the people of that community, and it’s also contained in this bill.

Where child protection workers, social workers, or Alcohol Mandatory Treatment Tribunal in the Northern Territory has requested on the basis of safety, either safety of the individual or safety of those in their care that they go on to the card. There are only a very few people who are on the card for that reason. However, I just wanna be very, very clear they are the only two categories of people on the age pension that are on a subject to income management.

In relation to your comments around, the information and the data around what we’re seeing is improvements as a result of the cashless debit card and income management. As I said, in and of itself they are not the single silver bullet. You sort of remedy all for some of the problems that they are, the cashless debit card and the Basics Card we’re seeking to reduce.

They are but one component of a suite of measures that needs to be put together to bring about the kind of change that the communities who have sought access to the cashless debit card have requested. And in reading the letter of support that I received from the community leaders in Ceduna there were many things that these communities that observed over the time that the cashless debit card has been in place in that community and I’ll just read just a little bit of the letter that I received, Senator Hanson.

And I quote, this is actually a quote, “Since the introduction of the cashless debit card, “we have observed positive changes in our communities. “Fewer vulnerable people have been harassed or humbled” These are their words, “To hand over cash to others. “More children are attending school, “families have money to spend on groceries “and alcohol fueled violence has decreased. “Our communities are safer, “people are saying they have the money they need “to provide for the basics of life “such as buying clothes and food and paying rent and bills.”

And this does not flow there’s more in between it, but the final statement that these community leaders across the whole of Australia and we have community leaders that have signed this letter to me today Senator Hanson from all of the 12 sites around Australia, the final sentence.

And I think is, “In order to create stronger, safer, “and healthy communities now and for generations to come “we call upon a parliamentary representatives “to pass the Social Security “Amendment Bill 2020.” So they are in the words of the people who are at the coalface, these are the people whose communities this card serves.

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Ban PM from attending the Climate Ambition Summit

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Scott Morrison is due to attend another climate jamboree where he will no doubt promise to implement more of the United Nations agenda destroying more of our economy.

Well I have an idea. I can go in his place.

Transcript

One Nation opposes this motion. I for one, would be happy for our Prime Minister not to speak at the Climate Ambition Summit. Our prime minister has demonstrated that he will not put the interest of Australia first.

On the international stage under pressure, the prime minister turns to jelly and adopts the agenda of the United Nations without regard for the damage it does to our Australian economy or the lives of Australians.

If Australians want someone to represent and fight for Australia, may I suggest Senator Hanson or I would be happy to take the prime minister’s place. The greens won’t debate me, so maybe some of their globalist masters will.

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Extend Kogan Creek power plant

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Transcript

One Nation supports this motion. Cheap reliable hydrocarbon fuels have led to the greatest improvement in human progress in the past 150 years.

One Nation supports Senator Rennick’s proposal to extend the Kogan Creek coal power plant.

Climate policies and renewable subsidies have led to Australia having one of the most expensive power prices in the world and becoming more unstable. Senator Rennick’s proposal is good for Queensland and good for Australia.

Who could possibly vote against it?

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