There is an internationally agreed standard that countries should have a 90 day stockpile of fuel required to keep the place running in the event of a cut in the supply. The Australian Government has failed to meet this stockpile, dipping as low as 21 days at points. While almost all of our fuel comes from overseas through oceans that are becoming increasingly volatile, this puts Australia in a sickeningly vulnerable position.
Transcript
As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I note that while the government’s bill has some merit it raises far more questions than it answers. Before proceeding, I want to compliment Senator Hanson on her comments. At last, someone’s standing up for Australia. We understand that the government has a dilemma, because the government and the Labor Party have deferred—put off—a decision on fuel security for years. In that deferral, putting it off, they have put our nation into an almost impossible position. And still, through this bill, the government shows that it has not faced up to the issue of fuel security. Let me remind everyone: energy is crucial to human progress.
One hundred and seventy years ago was the start of the industrial revolution. Look how far we’ve come. Look at everything in this room. Look at everything around you—in a city, in a town, while you’re driving in a car. That has come in the last 170 years. Why? Sure, it has been human creativity but, above all, it has been the relentless ever-decreasing real price of energy. Electricity was unheard of 170 years ago. Coal-fired power stations and petroleum powered cars were unheard of, undreamt of, 170 years ago. A king 200 years ago would not have lived as easily, as safely, as comfortably, as well, as long as people on welfare today. That shows remarkable human progress.
Senator Hanson and I raised energy security in 2016. The government avoided the decision. Now the Liberal-National coalition want to push it out to 2027. They want to avoid it again. It has deferred the decision again, and Labor will support them. So much for job security and investment across all industries. The key to driving an economy is low energy prices and energy security. That’s what brings investment for future jobs. Now, in response, what we see is a lack of thought and a lazy, lazy approach.
Why? Why do so many so-called solutions of the Liberal, Labor and National parties end up being, simply, a gift of taxpayer money to multinationals who are not taxed? Why does the government have a fetish for labelling bills with the word ‘security’? I’ll tell you why. It attracts votes, even if the bill does not provide security. Australians love security. All humans love security. We’ve had cybersecurity, border security, energy security, internet safety security and data security, often hiding a lack of security. When it comes to votes, Labor and Liberal know the word ‘security’ buys votes. Yet the word itself—security—is not real security. All three tired old parties repeatedly fail to provide real, meaningful, lasting security. They refuse to get back to basics and the truth.
We know that job security is important. We want it beyond 2027, though, for the jobs of refinery workers, construction workers and, when we get back to cheap, reliable fuel, all workers across all industries, including agriculture, not just manufacturing and services. Two refineries have recently shut. That was half of our refineries. We have to do something, then, to ensure future fuel security. The government’s attempts simply reduce the risk for refineries. We understand why. But taxpayers pay for that, and at the end of the deal in 2027 we have nothing to show for it—nothing, zip. So where’s the government’s energy plan? A plan is not a plan without addressing the five Ws and one H. That’s a simple management tool, management concept: Why? What? When? Where? Who? Then comes: How?
This government, like so many Liberal-National and Labor governments, goes straight to the ‘How?’ missing the specifics, the actions, the time lines, the responsibilities, the justification of cost-benefit analysis and a business plan. Government plans that jump straight to the ‘How?’ are not plans, unless the five Ws are addressed. Look at climate. Look at energy. The same applies everywhere. Look at the NDIS. Look at education. They are fundamentals that are really important for our country.
Why does the government repeatedly avoid facts and data and a disciplined, objective approach to policy and, instead, adopt media lines and pander to Greens ideology and drive policies in accordance with then Senator Mathias Cormann’s often repeated dictum, ‘We will fulfil our global obligations’?
What he means is and what he meant was: our obligations to globalists. We are the world’s largest exporter of energy, largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, second largest exporter of coal. We were the largest and we still have the highest quality coal but we have been overtaken by Indonesia as the largest exporter. Yet we have the world’s highest domestic gas prices and electricity prices, now three times that of countries who use our coal to generate their electricity. Three times our prices using our coal—why? Why can’t we use our own gas domestically? Why can’t we build a transnational pipeline to bring North West Shelf gas to the east and convert it to produce liquid fuels like petrol and diesel? The gas is suitable. Why can’t we use the gas itself to power cars directly? Why can’t we brainstorm and discuss alternatives, many alternatives, in the national interest?
Consider what the government says is a solution. The government will pay up to $2 billion to multinationals to keep them here. Remember the car makers, as Senator Hanson reminded us? We paid them billions to stay here and then they left and, as a final insult, sold their factories and their land to developers and pocketed the cash, after we gifted them so much taxpayer cash. Is this a solution, when in 2027 the oil companies can simply leave, run away, after we give them up to $2 billion along the way? Liberal-Labor put off making a decision and now, when our country has self-inflected deeper problems, make a half-baked solution that really defers it again until 2027, when we will have to face up to it again. Why? Because we haven’t faced up to it now. Why? Because the government lacks the will to listen and to do something novel and appropriate for the people of Australia and their national interest. Just as Senator Hanson recounted, Norway is doing something in its national interest.
In 2027 then what? China and our Asian competitors will, rightly, continue using hydrocarbon fuels like natural gas, coal and oil. For decades, we have had a small volume market. How can we compete with Singapore and China in refining fuels and do so with fair wages for good workers in this country? Here is a hint: energy. Singapore lacks any resources apart from human resources—a well-educated, industrious people—but it has solid stable governance that puts Singapore first. It has a superior tax system, a superior education system, superior governance focused on Singapore’s national interest.
China, it takes a different strategy, one that won’t last but here is what it does: it exploits labour, sacrifices the environment, sacrifices worker safety. We can compete because we have Australian management and leadership; we just need to let it have a go—our energy combined with our people, Australians, Australian workers and our executive leadership in business.
Other facts need consideration. The government repeatedly bet on technology that’s unproven and very expensive. They’re dreaming about hydrogen that currently costs about $6 a kilogram to produce and say they have a vision for $2 a kilogram. Even at $2 a kilogram, the electricity cost is $200 per megawatt hour, four times the price that coal can do it now. So in their dream, they’re going to send us bankrupt. Solar is another one of their dreams—dependence on China, who makes the damn things, cost, reliability, unreliability, instability, the loss of jobs. This is what the government is dreaming about. Wind—same applies—dependence on China, cost, reliability, stability, instability and loss of jobs. China, meanwhile, continues building coal-fired power stations. In its Paris Agreement, it has to do nothing until 2030 and then maybe it will think about it.
We have abundant clean goal and gas; we should be the super power, as we were when international investors flocked to the Hunter Valley, Central Queensland and Victoria to build aluminium refineries near cheap abundant coal. Those jobs are gone and, under current Liberal-Labor-Nationals policies, the few that remain in aluminium are doomed. Instead, the trio put bets on unproven, pixie farts for energy and stake Australia’s energy on rainbow-coloured unicorns in some imaginary Garden of Eden in the future. It abandons workers and the people of Australia. It abandons our country. It is hollow rhetoric keeping people ignorant, hollow rhetoric destroying our economy, hollow rhetoric destroying our national future.
So, let’s consider some possible options. What about this? Create a corporation to run the refineries. Issue government bonds, with bonds investing in the corporation in the same way we do with low-income housing. Buy the damned assets. Use the bond funds to buy oil and build additional fuel storage. Modernise the refineries to produce high-quality fuel to international standards. Fill up the oil tanks at startup to eliminate risks in the market. Once it’s up and running, sell 49 per cent of the ownership in the refinery on the stock market and invest the other 51 per cent with the Future Fund. That’s its job: holding assets on behalf of the Australian people to produce future income for future generations and ensure future fuel security. Government absorbs the initial risk—in the proven refineries, anyway—with proven personal enterprise, with oil industry executives managing the business and with proven executives and proven workers running the show, combined with accountability from the stock market.
The benefits are that Australians own the business, taxes stay here and the overall cost to taxpayers is considerably less, because we’d sell off half the enterprise. And the purchase price for an abandoned asset would be very low. People would buy shares because the risk is in setting up the venture and the asset would be stable. Fuel storage would work exactly as it does now on our overseas storage: buy when prices are low and sell when prices are high, to drive down prices at times of high prices, as with our existing International Energy Agency commitments. Major fuel producers would buy shares to get access to trading in stored oil. We could make extra money storing oil for other nations—Pacific countries, Indonesia.
Alternatively: fuel security is ultimately a matter of defence security. Has anyone in the government considered taking the refineries and getting the defence forces to operate the refineries in 2027? Or the government could, as a minimum, simply take the refineries’ land if refiners close down and leave. If they shut up shop after we gift them billions, why not take their real estate? We need some skin in the game, as Senator Hanson said. We need something for our money. Get the land as partial payment.
Another issue: tax oil companies fairly. Stop giving foreign multinationals a free ride. They exploit our resources, use our assets, use our services, use our trained people, and rely on our defence forces and our laws—for free, damn it! They don’t pay for any of it. Fix the tax system. Start with taxing multinationals. Jim Killaly, the former deputy assistant commissioner for taxation, in charge of large companies and foreign taxation, said, in 1996 and in 2010, that 90 per cent of Australia’s large companies are foreign owned and since 1953 have paid little or no company tax. The government needs to establish honest energy policies across all our energy needs and invest in infrastructure to restore our nation’s productive capacity. It needs to restore national sovereignty, to restore good governance based on data and facts and on putting the national interest first.
All these would be enormous changes from current government approaches—decades of such approaches. They would be a return to our nation’s roots and the time when Australia led the world in per capita income. Instead, the government’s approach is a short-term bandaid at best. And 2027 is not the end. We need to think and prepare for beyond that. Liberal, Nationals and Labor governments, for the past three decades, have thought that ‘long-term’ means just two budget cycles: two years—that’s it. Australians deserve better—far, far better.
This bill is not even a bandaid. It’s a deferral, a putting off. It’s Labor, Liberals and the Nationals playing hide-and-seek, hiding the reality from the public. It confirms this government’s incompetence and laziness and continues decades of poor, dishonest and accountable governance. Now, I’m all for personal enterprise—or, as some may say, private enterprise. I’m all for security. Instead of repeated gutless bandaids and short-term fixes, where’s the long-term solution? Where’s the vision? Where’s the national interest? Let’s secure our nation’s future with a comprehensive solution that addresses the basics for all Australians: job security, industry security and national security.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/goRaYmSXWv0/0.jpg360480Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2021-06-23 13:28:252021-06-23 13:28:33Australia is vulnerable to running out of fuel
I talked to Paul Murray about restoring manufacturing in Australia so we can defend ourselves against China and how the ABC’s bias has become palpable.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/sN_1IhprhnY/0.jpg360480Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2021-06-04 18:00:002021-06-04 09:36:41China and the ABC – Sky News with Paul Murray
The Liberal/National government has handed down a budget that the Labor party would be proud of. The Government is increasing borrowing to respond to a phoney climate emergency. Our ports and much of our power grid are in the hands of malicious foreign owners, and yet there is nothing in the budget to buy back these vital strategic assets.
Defence funding is being spent on wasteful white elephant programs like the attack class submarines instead of caring for our diggers and making sure they have the equipment they need. There is no vision or care for the future in this budget. Only One Nation has the vision to fix the country.
Transcript
As servant to the people of Queensland & Australia I remind the senate and all Australians that 24 years ago Pauline Hanson warned that Australia was heading to a place that we would not recognise as Australia.
The Media devoted much attention to the immigration aspects of her comments, and completely missed the substance.
Today we have arrived at the place Pauline warned us about.
Australians are living with restrictions on association, on speech, on movement, on protest and we even have mandatory face coverings.
Our federation has broken apart, we have seen border checkpoints between States.
The phrase ‘papers please’ which has defined tyrants throughout history, is now life for everyday Australians.
Our police are arresting law-abiding citizens in their own homes for the crime of organising a peaceful protest.
Our police are forcefully arresting a journalist for the crime of reporting that protest.
Dictators have been overthrown for less than this!
In the famous words traced to French, English and American philosophers Montaigne, Bacon and Thoreau, our leaders had “nothing to fear but fear itself”, and they chose fear!
The Premiers and the Prime Minster have surrendered power to ‘unelected bureaucrats with medical degrees’ who have shown themselves incapable of seeing the big picture.
While social media are calling the COVID restrictions on businesses a war on Capitalism, it’s much more sinister.
Corporate Australia have record sales, record profits and have paid themselves higher dividends and bonuses.
The Liberal National Government sent JobKeeper to these same companies who used the money to pay themselves yet more dividends and bonuses.
Now with this budget the Company Tax clawback has been extended to 2023/24. Companies making a loss in 23/24 can claim that loss against tax paid in 2018/18 and the Government will give a refund.
Let me explain the concept of taxation to the Treasurer. The Government is not supposed to take the tax paid by corporate Australia… and give it back to them.
This money was supposed to pay for the things that define Australia as a caring society – Medicare, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, childhood education and social security.
The Treasurer cannot give corporate tax back and then borrow the money to pay for recurring expenditure.
Yet that is exactly what this budget does.
Debt, debt and more debt to pay for profligate spending seemingly with no thought to the next generation that will be left to pay for it.
This is a budget of which Labor would be proud.
When I talk about the Lib Lab duopoly, even their budgets are looking the same.
As a result of coronavirus measures the world’s 400 richest people have increased their wealth by over 1 trillion dollars. We do not need to add to their wealth accumulation.
Much of this wealth is money that was once spent in local communities, in local hardware stores, community supermarkets, gift stores and greengrocers. Now many of those have been forced to close.
Online growth has gone to Amazon whose owner is the world’s richest man.
The real outcome from coronavirus measures has been the largest transference of wealth, from small business to the elites in Australian history.
We expect this sort of thing from the Liberal Party and their sell-out sidekicks the Nationals.
But Labor has embraced the politics of fear and cronyism in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria.
Shame on you.
Only One Nation is committed to restoring a fair go for working Australians.
As our motion today on the National Curriculum and last sitting on de-gendered language shows, One Nation will continue to defend Australia as a faith-based nation committed to family and community.
One Nation continues to champion the natural environment. We continue to fight for clean air, for clean water, for clean food and for clean medicines.
We leave worshipping of the sky god of warming to Labor, the Greens and sadly now, in their final act of surrender, the Liberal-National Party with their policies contradicting science, common sense and nature.
With this budget the Government is borrowing money to increase funding for a fake climate emergency. There’s no climate emergency and a gutless pandering to the bed wetters on the left is not in the best interests of Australians.
This budget has a black armband view of Australia’s future. The projections for the contribution to GDP from agriculture are based on the assumption that lower rainfall will return and agricultural output and exports will decline.
According to the Government’s own research a drought like this last one has happened 10 times in the last 1000 years. It was not climate change 1000 years ago and it is not climate change now.
Cold weather has overtaken the northern hemisphere with widespread crop failures, reduced harvests and higher prices. This will not change over forward estimates.
Natural climate cycles have given our farmers a wonderful opportunity to grow our agricultural sector and exports.
Foreign influence and ownership in Australia has reached crisis levels and this budget has not done anything about it.
Our ports in Darwin, Melbourne and Newcastle and much of our power grid are now in the hands of a hostile foreign power. Those owners have publicly professed their loyalty not to Australia but to the Chinese Communist party.
This budget makes no provision for the cost of buying these contracts back so one can assume the Government does not intend to act to restore Australian sovereignty over our strategic assets.
Our armed forces are incapable of waging war against any serious challengers. Our subs are in pieces, only 1 sub is combat ready at this moment.
One.
The budget continues the new subs project despite the cost rising to an estimated $200 billion and delivery pushing out past 2030.
On the bright side Mr President, Australia is advancing our space capability.
Later this year an Australian designed and manufactured satellite will be launched into orbit from an Australian designed and manufactured rocket, using an Australian launch facility.
How amazing is that?
This is proof that it is time to get the government out of people’s lives and let free enterprise and Aussie ingenuity fix this mess.
Starting with withdrawing from the United Nations and their sovereignty-sapping, wealth-sucking, industry-killing conventions that make Australia less not more.
One Nation’s alternative budget will recover the freedoms, opportunities and living standards that Australians once enjoyed.
One Nation will cancel the submarine contract and purchase nuclear powered submarines off the shelf to expedite delivery and recover our defensive capability.
One Nation will terminate the clean energy fund and the Department of Climate change while honouring agreements already in place.
Every year Liberal-Labor-Nationals climate and energy policies cost Australians an ADDITIONAL $B13. The Liberal Energy Minister admits he is afraid for future electricity prices and terrified of losing reliability and stability.
Rightly so thanks to Liberal-Labor-Nationals policies starting with John Howard in 1996.
One Nation will abolish all energy subsidies for fossil fuel (except the diesel fuel rebate) and renewables so that free enterprise can build reliable, baseload power of whichever type they consider the most efficient.
This will restore our productive capacity by breathing life into our devastated industries.
One Nation will allow doctors to prescribe Australian medical cannabis to anyone with a medical need.
One Nation calls for a national taxation summit to reach agreement on how our taxation system is failing everyday Australians and destroying our country and to arrive at solutions based on proven principles.
This budget increases the number of public servants by 5000 over the next 12 months.
One Nation will freeze employment numbers in the Federal public service and re-allocate staff away from virtue signalling and pork barrelling projects into productive pursuits.
One Nation will reduce immigration such that our net population growth becomes zero. This will allow infrastructure like roads, hospitals, schools and housing to catch up with the avalanche of migrants that Labor/Greens and Liberal/Nationals have let in over the last 20 years.
A net zero population policy will actually allow around 80,000 migrants to still come in each year to replace the 80,000 who leave each year. We would expect 10,000 of those will be refugees.
This contrasts with a peak arrival rate of 275,000 new migrants annually pre COVID – 3 & ½ times our stable number.
The reduction in demand will take the heat out of the housing market and allow everyday Australians some relief from the extreme inflation we are seeing in housing, education, aged care, child care and medical expenses.
One Nation is preparing a plan that will turn Northern Australia into a growth engine for the whole country, offering a new future for Australia based on agriculture, mining, value adding.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/NKEe7zHcN1c/hqdefault.jpg360480Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2021-05-12 14:12:022021-05-12 17:10:23Budget: Government has abandoned the next generation
Governments are destroying our country which is making it harder to stand up to China. I talked to Marcus Paul this morning about that and how I was reminded over the weekend about just how good Australian manufacturing used to be.
Transcript
[Marcus Paul] Hello, Malcolm.
[Malcolm Roberts] Good morning, Marcus, how are you?
[Marcus Paul] All right, thank you how are you?
[Malcolm Roberts] Very well, thanks.
[Marcus Paul] What do you make of it all, the drums of war beating and all this rubbish?
[Malcolm Roberts] Well, I think you summarised it very well, when you said marketing. It’s about pretending that the government is strong. Whereas in fact, I’ve just finished an inquiry report for the Northern Agenda. You know, what’s happening in our country, Marcus, is that the North is being held back along the same issues that the South is destroying. Energy, water, taxation, the basics. And the fundamental point about security is you have to have a strong economy. And the wombats in Canberra are destroying our economy through pandering to overseas bureaucrats, and selling our country out. It’s treasonous. So the fundamentals: we have to have a strong economy, a strong country, and that’s what we need to get back to.
[Marcus Paul] All right, with the fact that the, you know, the whole issue of quarantine during the pandemic, which is a federal responsibility, is being completely ballsed up, and palmed off by Morrison and his mates, with the fact that that’s completely being stuffed up. Be, you know, some of the reasons for the distraction, do you think?
[Malcolm Roberts] Possibly quite possibly, because you know, these politicians in Canberra have a habit of distracting, as you just said. But the whole pandemic has not been managed well. What we’ve got is an absence of data, that’s driving the plans. And we don’t have a plan, actually. We don’t even have a strategy. It just seems to be lurching from one thing to the next. One moment, one message to sell. Every single week, different message. There’s no coherent plan, that’s based on data. And I’ll talk more about that in a few weeks time, at senate estimates. But we need a plan for managing our economy, because that is fundamental to health. What we’re doing is destroying our economy, with some of the responses. I mean, people, you know, the Premiers of the States talk, and the Prime Minister talks about going and spending money in your state, and travelling. How the hell can people make plans when they could fly to Western Australia for example, and get locked down because they’ve got one positive test. They’d have to come back and spend $3,000 in quarantine. It’s just capricious. It’s destructive, it doesn’t consider the people.
[Marcus Paul] Your mates up there in the upper Hunter, might be as unhappy as what labor are at the moment, because I’m sorry, Pork-Barrelarow is out there with his chequebook, story this morning. And they’re promising funding to a number of women’s business organisations. While you know, there are other areas, probably should be prioritised. There’s a bit more pork barreling going on by the Berejiklian Barrilaro government, to sort of like keep your heads up on that, mate.
[Malcolm Roberts] I’m not surprised, are you?
[Marcus Paul] Well, of course not.
[Malcolm Roberts] But you know what these people are going around. What we have in this country is a system of having options every four years at the state level, every three years at the federal government level. And people don’t seem to realise that these promises have to be paid for. And who’s gonna pay for them? The very people who have taken part in the election, the voters. So, it’s a disrespectful way of running government, but it seems, the people seem to fall for it quite often. So we’ve gotta get more people aware of what’s going on in government, so that people realise that these promises are just hollow, and that they’re wasting money, quite often
[Marcus Paul] Aussie ingenuity and initiative, what’s happened to it? We used to make engines and wonderful pieces of technology.
[Malcolm Roberts] Well, you’re absolutely correct, Marcus. A lot of your listeners, the older listeners will remember names like Lister, Southern Cross, Cooper, Sundial, Barzakov. These are just some of the names on old engines, old diesel engines that were purring and puttering along at the Dalby, I went out to the Dalby Show. You know, you would have gone to shows when you were a kid.
[Marcus Paul] Oh yeah, yep.
[Malcolm Roberts] Yeah, Royal Easter, where did you grow up?
[Marcus Paul] Sydney’s West, the Luddenham Show, the Penrith Show. You know, they were wonderful.
[Malcolm Roberts] Yeah, and so what we saw at Dalby, which is west of Toowoomba on the Darling Downs, beautiful Darling Downs, it’s definitely a rural town. And we saw one whole field dedicated to 400, more than 400 engines, old engines. Had to be more than 30 years old. Some of them are a 100 years old that were puttering along, and they set a record for having the most engines running concurrently in a small area. But could you imagine this? Hundred metres long, five lines of engines, all with the enthusiasts with them, tinkering them along. You know and these engines, as I said, had to be more than 30 years old. But they worked across our country. They were essential in farming industry. Many were designed and built in Australia, highly dependable, highly reliable. Some were built under licence from overseas countries. We make none of these engines now, none at all. Yet we have great people like Jack Brabham, for example. He’s the only person ever, to have been an owner of a Formula One team, a designer of a car, and the driver, the only one ever. And he won three world champions. He’ll never be repeated. We’ve got the talent in this country. We’ve just destroyed our capacity to be productive.
[Marcus Paul] Ah, gee. All right, Malcolm. Great to have you on the programme, mate. We’ll catch up again next week. Thank you.
[Malcolm Roberts] Thank you, Marcus. Have a good one, mate. One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts. Marcus Paul in the Morning.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/r_r5zSPt6UA/maxresdefault.jpg7201280Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2021-04-29 13:41:562021-04-29 15:57:06The Drums of War – 2SM with Marcus Paul
Last week I talked to Marcus Paul about ANZAC Day, the decision to tear up Victoria’s Chinese belt and road deal and how our politicians have no vision for this country. Transcript on my website: https://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/anzac-day-lest-we-forget/
Transcript
[Marcus] As we do each and every Thursday, we catch up with One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, G’day Malcolm, how are you?
[Malcolm] I’m well, thanks, Marcus. How are you?
[Marcus] Yeah good mate, good to talk to you. ANZAC day, a very important day on our calendar, probably one of the most important.
[Malcolm] Yes. And it really symbolises the forging of our nation, doesn’t it? Our nation officially began in 1901, but Gallipoli and ANZAC spirit was really the birthplace of Australia on the world stage.
[Marcus] Well, absolutely, and at least this year, there have been restrictions, or relaxation of COVID restrictions, which means that more and more people can take part, which is good news, but I didn’t mind the way we commemorated last year at the end of the driveway and stuff, I thought that was a really good way of personalising it for people in suburban Australia.
[Malcolm] Well, it was a way of participating, that’s for sure, but it wasn’t as good as ANZAC day. You know I’ve noticed in the last 30 years in particular, so many young kids now coming out and really celebrating and taking part. It means something to be part of that and belong to that community, that’s Australia now. So last year was a bit underplayed for me. I love ANZAC day.
[Marcus] Yeah. And you’ll be commemorating how this coming Sunday?
[Malcolm] We’ll be out at Dalby, which is a couple hundred kilometres west of Brisbane, we’ll do the dawn service there, and then we’ll go to another service in Toowoomba which you know, is a much larger town. And then we’ll go to the service there as well. And then I’ll be going to stay with my brother and sister-in-law for a little while with my wife, I’ll have the afternoon with them.
[Marcus] Lovely. Look, the Morrison government has torn up Victoria’s controversial Belt and Road agreement with the Chinese government, saying it falls foul of our national interest. It’s a move that will further inflame tensions between Canberra and Beijing. And while they’re at it, while Ms. Payne is flexing her newly-found muscle, can we perhaps ask for the Port of Darwin back?
[Malcolm] Oh, Marcus, you read my mind. Well, what about this, too? So it’s a good first step from the federal government to reclaim Victoria, but what about the restoration of our property rights? It was stolen from farmers by the Howard-Turnbull government in 1996, sorry, Turnbull wasn’t involved then, but 1996.
And the John Howard government went around the constitution and went directly to the states to steal these property rights, so the farmers wouldn’t get compensation, and the purpose? To comply with the UN’s Kyoto protocol. I am sick and tired of the federal government, Labour, and liberal, and nationals, all pushing the UN agenda, the Kyoto protocol, the Lima declaration, which savage manufacturing, the Paris agreement, on and on. We need to get our country back from the UN, and please let’s have our country back.
[Marcus] All right, tell me about this Western Australian pipeline.
[Malcolm] What an achievement that was. So Anzac day was the start of our nation on the world stage, but prior to that, even before our nation was formed in 1901, in 1896, the Western Australian premier was looking for permanent solutions to water supply in Eastern Goldfields. He commissioned Charles O’Connor, who was a competent and innovative engineer, to build a pipeline.
Now get this, this is what? 124 years ago 125 years ago one and a quarter centuries ago. It was to cover 566 kilometres from the coast, inland into Kalgoorlie, carry 23 million litres of water per day, over a lift, upward vertically at the dam site on the west coast, of 400 metres, 1400 feet. Amazing. It was the longest water supply pipeline in the world, and that’s still the case today. It was the first major pipeline in the world constructed of steel. It used more steel than any other structure in the world at the time, 70,000 tonnes.
And this O’Connor was a proven engineer, but small minded politicians ridiculed him and tried to kill it for political purposes, and they said it was too complex, would never work. Well mate, listen to some of these figures. The benefits of the pipeline were immediately apparent, and it costs two and a half million pounds, which in today’s money is 300-and-something million dollars. But in its first few years, it generated 25 million pounds worth of wealth, and today, it opens up 8 million acres of wheat cropping, that’s almost half of the nation’s wheat.
It has fine wool sheep, and mining, which was in decline before this pipeline was built in Kalgoorlie, it restarted again, and away it went, and in 2017, these are the only figures I’ve got, $11.1 billion of gold was produced in Western Australia, and much of that would have come from Kalgoorlie.
[Marcus] See why don’t we have this sort of vision today? Why are all the naysayers and objectors around, stopping this sort of vision for us to build? I mean, if we could build it back in 1896, this wonderful solution to water supply, why on earth can’t we do it in 2021?
[Malcolm] Well, vision Marcus, as you just pointed out. Vision is not about talking, and not about backstabbing, and not about putting petty agendas and personal egos and fears ahead. Vision is about a dream for something that could happen, and then having the guts to confront those fears, the political fears.
We don’t have politicians today, with very few exceptions, we don’t have politicians who will confront their fears, confront the naysayers, and stand up, and really do what’s needed for Australia. And in 100 years time or 200 years time. That’s what’s needed is politicians with courage to say what is needed.
[Marcus] Yep. Mate you don’t happen to know where this Indonesian submarine is, that’s gone missing off Bali, do you? For goodness sake?
[Malcolm] No, I don’t, but perhaps we could ask the CSIRO, because the CSIRO was in a joint venture with the Chinese government, to explore North, the coast between Australia and Papua New Guinea, can you imagine that? I’m serious!
[Marcus] I know. Talk about in our national interest! No, it’s not. Alright, mate. Good to have you on, we’ll chat next week.
[Malcolm] Same here, thanks Marcus. Enjoy the weekend, mate.
[Marcus] You too, all the best. Oh, there he is. One Nations’ Malcolm Roberts. Marcus Paul in the morning. 13 12 69, the open line number to have your say.
Despite the tough talk about foreign ownership, the government continues to allow foreign entities to buy up too much Australian land and critical infrastructure. While there is a lot of spotlight on larger deals, the government isn’t that concerned about the amount of small residential properties that are being lost to foreign ownership.
This pushes up the price of local house prices while other countries won’t even let us own property in their country. There is a difference between foreign investment and foreign ownership. Foreign investment, fine. But foreign ownership, absolutely not.
Transcript
And you have the call Senator Roberts.
[Senator Malcolm Roberts]
Thank you, Chair. Thank you all for being here today. Since the Foreign Investment Review Board lowered the dollar threshold for projects to be considered to zero, how many projects have been rejected because of unsuitability by the treasurer?
[Tom Hamilton First Assistant Secretary, Foreign Investment Division]
Senator, excuse me, Tom Hamilton First Assistant Secretary, Foreign Investment Division. I don’t have a specific response to a question in relation to the timeframe that you’ve asked. As you know, a very small number of rejections over the period of operation of the FADA itself. We work every carefully to facilitate investment into the country and we, you know, we’ve been very careful through the whole period of the $0 threshold to ensure that we are allowing investment works in the national interest.
[Malcolm Roberts]
So I understand it’s only investigated if the project is raised by someone, is that right?
[Tom Hamilton]
No, that’s not right Senator. So if- every investment that comes through under the foreign investment framework is assessed carefully by Treasury and its consult partners on a case by case basis, you referred to the $0 threshold, which is a temporary measure during the course of 2020. During that period, we looked at every proposal that came forward before the treasury in accordance with the operation of that threshold.
[Malcolm Roberts]
So can you get me the numbers?
[Tom Hamilton]
I can give you the numbers for, for the numbers that were considered. Let me start my numbers here. All right, so for the period of, in total in 2020, there were 2,943 proposals. Of those, 1,732 were not $0 threshold. So the balance were that the cases that came forward as a result of the operation of that new threshold.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And none were rejected?
[Tom Hamilton]
I don’t have that number Senator.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Could you get me that number please?
[Tom Hamilton]
We’ll take that notice Senator.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Thank you. When will the Commonwealth Government act to stop foreign purchases or leases of significant local real estate gems, including Keswick Island in the Whitsundays in Queensland, as foreign purchases continue to buy up local real estate, rural mining, and tourist properties?
[Minister Simon Birmingham]
Senator, a number of different waves in relation to foreign investment reform over the time, our time in government, to seek to make sure that the perspective that has long been Australia’s policy in relation to foreign investment, which is that it ought to occur, where it’s in national interest is one that is effectively applied under our foreign investment laws. You know, foreign investment is important to a country like Australia. It has continued to support economic growth, jobs growth and ultimately achieving wages and living standards above a level, certainly well above global averages and global standards commensurate with a small country in population terms able to achieve large economic outcomes, thanks to domestic growth and foreign investment activity. And so it remains important but it has to be in the national interest. And that’s why we have taken successive steps, particularly in areas of national security to make sure that we have the right safeguards there to make those decisions. Just make an observation in terms of your first question about numbers rejected as well that it’s not unusual through the screening process for applications to be withdrawn at different junctures depending upon the types of question scrutiny or otherwise perhaps that applicants find themselves facing. So numbers rejected should not be seen as the only measure of effectiveness in relation to the FIRB, the mere fact that we have the regime in place would stop some from even bothering to make an application quite clearly. And then even the process itself will occasionally deter some as they get a sense of the type of conditions or the type of rejections that or the potential for rejection that may ensue.
[Malcolm Roberts]
That’s a fair comment. I’m also interested then in the number of rejections, sorry the number that have withdrawn their applications.
[Tom Hamilton]
I mean, Senator I’ll take that on notice. I mean, one thing that we bear in mind is being very careful not to release information that might relate to the business dealings of the applicants. But we’ll take that question on notice.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Minister, I don’t think there’d be too many Australians who would argue with you that we need investment. However, there would be a lot of Australians who are upset about the control in foreign hands, and we’ve got Keswick Island, a beautiful gem in the Whitsundays, and it’s now been leased by the Queensland Government to a Chinese firm. And that is now acting like tin pot dictators over that island and trashing the barrier reef and the state government’s doing nothing. Now that’s not your responsibility to the state government as the lessee but lessor, rather, but these are the kinds of incidents that leave a bad taste in people’s mouth when we’ve got Chinese coming in here or anyone foreign and restricting what Australians can do and can’t do. And in fact, hurting our own environment. They are the things that annoy people.
[Simon Birmingham]
Look, I without personally knowing the circumstances around Keswick Island, so I’d be reluctant to comment directly on that, but as a general observation Senator Roberts you’re right, there’s a social licence aspect that goes to areas like foreign investment. It’s why making sure the Third Regime operates in the national interest has been so important to our government to seek to maintain that support for our own investment. And particularly as we face changed security risks and environments across our region to respond to that in the way in which we have structured those arrangements but indeed other things beyond our control, such as the way in which properties are operated, obviously can also undermine areas of confidence. And so all governments in that sense, have a responsibility to make sure that not only do we have effective screening but also that the laws and standards that we expect in this country, be they in relation to payment of wages and industrial conditions, be they in relation to payment of taxes, be they in relation to protection of the environment, apply equally to whoever you are. Absolutely.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And compliance with our laws. Is there any opportunity for us to contact someone in FIRB to discuss this particular issue? Do you have a review process?
[Witness]
Senator we are always happy for people to contact and give information. And I would just add to what the Minister has said that character of investors is part of the national interest tests that we look at as well. So we’re very happy for people to contact and provide information.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Okay, thank you. We will do that. Are there any more rule changes being considered to take into account the widespread purchases of Australian properties by overseas interests pushing up prices and making it harder for younger Australians to purchase a home?
[Witness]
So certainly in relation to foreign investment, as you know, the most recent and significant set of reforms came to effect from the 1st of January. The government has commenced a review of the legislation as set out in the legislation itself. That review is due for completion at the end of this year. We have made it clear in talking to stakeholders that we’re willing to, you know, hear from interested parties around the operation of the act.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Okay so then you’re just doing a review at the moment.
[Witness]
Yeah, that’s right.
[Malcolm Roberts]
No formal consideration of further changes yet.
[Witness]
Well, Senator the changes just took effect from 1 January. And so we’re actually quickly commencing our review process, which was part of what was passed in the legislation. And we’ve got until the end of this year to complete the review of the changes that were just made. So that’s why we’re sort of saying we’re very happy to hear from people because there are quite extensive legislative changes that were implemented as of 1 January.
[Malcolm Roberts]
That’s right. And we’re happy with some of them, but we’ll see how they’re implemented because it comes down to not just the legislation, but how it’s implemented. And that seems to be an area that’s wanting, especially when we see water and land and properties and essential services like electricity in foreign hands.
[Chair]
Senator Roberts, we want move rather soon.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Can I have the last question?
[Chair]
Yes.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Is it not time to consider stopping sales of Australian assets to overseas interests? Many countries do not allow foreign ownership of their land. Investment in Australia is fine and may include long-term leases but we need to sell stop selling off our country. Is there any consideration being given to at least stopping sales of land to those, citizens of those countries that don’t allow Australians to own land in their countries.
[Witness]
I think Senator, as the minister has said the positive impact of foreign investment is very, very obvious.
[Malcolm Roberts]
I don’t dispute that. I agree with that.
[Simon Birmingham]
But I think Senator Roberts, it’s particularly important given the way you frame the question there to understand the extensive restrictions that exist in relation to foreign investment in residential property. The tightened screening restrictions were put in place in relation to foreign investment in agricultural lands as well. And in terms of your question about how other countries treat us, I guess we have under our foreign investment arrangements an overall approach that sets the threshold for any country in the world and their eligibility to purchase, which usually entails more frequent screening and lower thresholds for screening. And then we have the thresholds and arrangements that are put in place under reciprocal arrangements, essentially as negotiated through our free trade agreements that do seek to provide a, usually then a slightly higher threshold for screening to apply because of the level of reciprocity that’s usually been negotiated.
[Witness]
And if I can add to what the minister said, which is all correct, the thresholds do vary. For foreign government investors, $0 threshold continues to apply. And there are some, much stricter thresholds in relation to agricultural land as well. And not withstanding the threshold, every time an investor comes to us, we look at that case very carefully.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Well perhaps, I said, I wouldn’t ask any more questions. So that was my last but perhaps I could just give you one area to consider in the future. Many foreign companies do not have to pay tax in this country, company tax. We know that, that gives them a hell of an unfair advantage over Australian companies. Maybe we should be generating more Australian investment by making sure we track tax foreigners properly. So thank you.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/Agz0DzzefFQ/mqdefault.jpg180320Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2021-03-25 07:58:322021-03-25 08:04:47How many foreign deals have we actually rejected? Questioning the Foreign Investment Review Board
Drone footage supplied courtesy of Full of BS Fishing
I travelled to Keswick Island off the coast of Mackay for Australia Day this year. While I was there I had the chance to talk to a group of local residents who are having major issues with the new owner of the head lease on the island, China Bloom. Locals allege that the developer has restricted access to the island’s airstrip and are not following the terms of use for the boat ramp.
Tourism has been decimated and it looks like the developers just want an island to use exclusively for Chinese tourism. It’s unbelievable that a foreign interest might be getting away with this right on our doorstep. China Bloom gets away with it only because the state government is not doing it’s damn job.
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript has been generated automatically, may contain Errors and Omissions, and is made available on the basis that the reader accepts this.
Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts. And I’m back in Mackay, after an enthralling day at Keswick Island listening to people over there. The residents have some shocking stories. It really is a microcosm of the whole of our country. Now we made a video with a group of them together and they really tell us some startling facts about what’s going on under Chinese ownership of Keswick Island. This is Australia and today’s Australia day. It’s hard to believe that this is happening, but this as I said, is a summary of what’s happening around Australia, under state and federal governments. Now the video starts a bit slowly because people are a little bit nervous but you should listen and please do, to what they start discussing. It’s amazing, what’s happening in our country, right here in Australia. Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts and I’m in Keswick Island with some of the residents of Keswick Island. And we’ve come over here to learn and to listen. And who better to hear it from, than the people themselves? Who’s going to tell us the background to what’s going on? James, Craig?
Well
Give us a bit of a history please, James.
Okay. The… I’ve owned a property here since 2003, 2004. I actually have a second property here. We built a house here with my brother, so we share it. And we’ve been here for the last 17 years, living on the island. Look, every head lessee has had their difficulties. But we have found that since China Bloom has taken over, everything’s really gone to pot. They’re really trying to force us off the island. The, the, the attitude towards all the residents has been very quiet at best. We’ve been told that we have to fill in forms to even come to our own residence on the island.
Forms?
You had to fill in a form and give them 24 hours notice to come to the island. And you have to tell every person, you have to fill out a form and tell everybody who is coming with you. You have to fill in the form to come to your own house.
Do they not know this is Australia?
Well, that’s what… I actually wrote to them And after telling them that I wouldn’t be doing it I will say, I informed them that it was extremely un-Australian to be asking something like this. They persisted with it, even two weeks ago we received another letter saying you guys are not doing what we’ve instructed you to do. And you’ve got to fill in forms. I just am ignoring all…
Is there any condition in the lease under which you signed in the first place? So you’re all lessees, right?
That’s correct.
Okay. And then what happened? When did China Bloom take over?
China Bloom took over in, around about 2019.
May?
May, June. I actually was overseas at the time, travelling and I got an email informing me that we weren’t allowed to Airbnb anymore.
So you had been running an Airbnb?
We’d been running an Airbnb, we had the reviews, as you can see this place is outstanding. I’d been, from all over the world, just saying what a beautiful place it was. You know, beautiful, we still got the reviews, you know from America, obviously a lot from Australia just saying how wonderful it was.
It is wonderful.
We had, we had, a whole lot of bookings going forward and they’ve said… they gave us seven days to block everybody coming to the island on our Airbnb. I wrote them a very polite letter saying, “Look, I’m overseas, I’m not going to argue with you about whether you’re right or wrong not allowing us to run an Airbnb. However, I have these, all of these bookings going through December, may I please use them?” And they came back and said no. At that point, I did write them a fairly terse letter saying again, I didn’t think this was very Australian and I didn’t think they actually had very much moral or sentimental value for people that have arranged and booked their holidays to come here and ask, I had to give them seven days notice to cancel.
Well, just down on the beach and driving up here with Tim I heard some pretty shocking stories. You wouldn’t believe we’re in Australia. So what are some of the restrictions they’ve put on, on people here? Capriciously?
Well, restrictions of having to fill in a form to come here. Not allowed to use the, the boat ramp anymore which we’ve been using for the last 12 years.
So that’s the way you get supplies in?
Correct. Not allowed to fly in anymore. Again, they put out a statement to say that the aerodrome’s open. Well, you would have maybe seen it today. There’s a big cross on the aerodrome and there’s an excavator on it. So I’m not too sure how they expect a plane to land on an open aerodrome with an excavator parked on the runway.
Yeah, it would be difficult.
If it is…
Unless you had a helicopter, which they have.
So they had been coming in by helicopter, and it costs $1,300, one way flight. So a round trip’s, $2,600. But again, that hasn’t happened for the last month or so. Their helicopter’s not even coming in.
And you’ve got a pilot on this, on this island?
We’ve got three, right?
Yes, we’ve got three pilots.
Craig, Reno, me.
How many times have you landed here?
Uh, 1,305 times.
1,305 times he’s landed on here.
Without incident, and the day they took over I was given 12 hours to get my plane off the island.
So there’s nothing unsafe about the airfield?
Not at all. It’s not an easy airstrip. But I maintain, if you can’t land on that airstrip you shouldn’t be flying.
How many accidents on the airstrip?
There’s been one accident, by commercial, young commercial pilot back in…
2007.
2007.
And there was an incident about fuel or something I read from a media release?
Yes. They gave me this 12 hours, no reason given at the time of why I couldn’t fly here And we, we, we come in from Mackay, we had businesses back then. And so yes… So the incident was my plane was parked right down next to the residence, the manager’s residence, and my fuel tanks were drained.
Drained?
Drained. Totally dry.
And from what I read in the media release, you got the guns or drains, checked and…
I obviously couldn’t fly, so I jumped in the boat, with some jerry cans, went to Mackay got some av gas, came back put it in the plane, flew to Mackay, flew straight to the engineers and asked them to remove my valves and put new ones in, and check them to see if there was anything wrong with them. And they said, “Nah. There’s nothing wrong with the old ones.”
So they were drained?
They were drained. Yep.
And right next to the manager’s house, for China Bloom?
Yeah, interestingly enough, yeah.
What about the, this then I’ve grilled some academics about the reef regulations that the government of the state has put in. And there’s nothing to base those reef regulations on. And those reef regulations are destroying farming and communities on the mainland. But over here, you have instances of environmental vandalism, environmental breaches of the law, and you reported them to the state government and nothing’s happened. And you have the submission for how many, how many breaches?
I’m not sure how many branches are in there, but there’s a lot.
Probably…20?
Yep
20 breaches, so to be clear here the government, the Queensland government, keeps saying it’s not a dispute with them. So let’s be very clear here. You have the Queensland government, and a lease agreement between them and the head lease. That’s an agreement, like any agreement, when you go and buy a company or buy a car there’s an agreement with a whole lot of clauses in there. These are all the clauses that they are not adhering to. And that’s why we’re approaching the government, to say, you’re not adhering to these clauses. However the government keeps saying, “No, this is a dispute between the head lessee and the sub-lessee.” We don’t have a dispute there. There’s a dispute between, what the government should be governing. And-
So the key issue is one of governance between the lease holder, who is breaking the law and breaking their lease conditions, and nothing happening about it?
Correct.
Is that right?
Yes.
And the big question, Malcolm, is why? Why? Why are they not doing anything?
Why is the government not doing anything?
If that was done on the mainland, in Australia, there would be major, major consequences. But why are they not addressing it? That’s what we wanna know.
Just to cut it down into very simple language, The very first, the very, very first condition of that head lease says this island must be used for aerodrome, marine, tourism and residential purposes. The second sentence of that head lease says, if it is not used for those purposes, the head lease must be rescinded.
Wow.
And nothing’s happening.
Let’s just see. Are they using your aerodrome? No, they’re not. Are they using marine purposes? No, they’re not. Are they using for tourism purposes? No, definitely not.
They’re stifling them.
Stopping the Airbnb. Yeah.
And are they using for residential? Well, they’re doing their best to try us all.
And business too.
Do you want to say something either?
And business was in the…
You can’t run a business..
What do you mean Brian?
Because they say you’re in breach of the lease. You cannot have a business on this island. I had a business for 12 years. I started, we started from scratch. I had partners-
What was the business?
Clearing blocks of land, which they’re now doing through their own means. They have like four guys who used to come here and clear blocks of land.
I used to do that by myself. For a number of years.
So-
When China Bloom took over, I already had previous head lessees, two of them, Vince Alexander and KDPL, who gave me permission to run my business. China Bloom didn’t give me permission to run my business, they just forced me to stop it.
Without consultation?
And now all that work is generated through and his wi- his girlfriend, Sandy through training, who now provide the labour through her company. So he’s making the money I used to get.
So there’s a conflict of interest, I think there.
So they’re telling you who you can use or can’t use for tidying your yard and maintenance?
We can’t hire Brian to clear our…
Brian probably did my block for 10 years.
Yeah.
And it’s not easy to get contractors from the mainland.
No.
$1,300 a flight.
We used to fly contractors, for example pest control in our houses. They’d fly in the morning, do a couple of houses and fly back in the afternoon and it was affordable, you shared the cost. Now you can’t fly them in, so what options do you have?
So it’s very hard, just to even maintain your land?
Correct.
And there are some stunning locations here, fabulous views.
[Tim] Could I just jump in about the helicopters and getting over to the island?
Come and speak into the microphone please, Tim.
[Tim] Well, I’m just gonna prompt you and then you can ask, just getting the number to book the helicopter, you can’t find it anywhere. I was just, I was talking about that…
So, the sole means-
[Tim] I was gonna ask you guys for the number, cause I couldn’t find it anywhere.
So the sole means of aviation access now is helicopter, and Tim was telling me, he couldn’t get the number to get the helicopter booked.
I’ve contacted this twice by email from the website, never answered me. Not once.
You see, and what’s happened with this, this, this manager that’s running the island now, he’s ended up because he thinks he’s king of the castle, he has friendships, so people that are nice to him, He will, he will allow them to come through on a helicopter but anyone he doesn’t like, he just won’t return the call.
So it costs you a lot more to get the same services done.
Or, if
If you, if you can get them.
Yeah.
It’s unaffordable for, you know, flights every time, it’s unaffordable to pay $1,300 to go, do your shopping and another $1,300 to come back.
People even ask for back flights, you know when the helicopter’s been here, they say can we get a flight back over, for a medical emergency, not emergency, but medical. No.
Yeah, we were told that there were some seats available on the helicopters for about a hundred dollars
But only for friends.
Only for friends.
But not for residents.
So they’re trying to throw you off the island, by the look of it. They’re trying to restrict what you can do. They’re also interfering with you socially. Tim was telling me about the Christmas tree, that’s been decorated by the kids here for the last 12 years. I think, Tim was it? 12 years?
Decorated by…
Kids at heart!
Kids at heart, okay. And who chopped the tree down?
Well, the workers that were here. They were instructed to do that, they said they didn’t want to
They told you they didn’t want to cut it down but they were told to.
It was, look, it was a small tree, but a huge principle. So that was just to get, to get to us. That’s the only reason they did it.
And then they cut that huge Mackay cedar down.
Yeah and they cut that…
You know the reason.
They did say it was because it was spraying out of the bank but-
There’s one on the end of the island doing the same thing.
But don’t they understand that, if you’ve got a tree that holds it together, I mean, halfway down the hill you can see where there are no trees, you’ve got a huge landslide.
Well, speaking of trees and the environment, this, I saw something, in your media release about the turtles as well. What’s going on there?
It’s been bloody ridiculous.
Yeah. It’s interesting that-
Cole?
Yeah
It’s interesting that the Christmas tree was chopped down, so, you know they’ve basically shown us their environmental credentials, or their lack of, We’ve got a thousand year old cycad here on the island, so that was planted or that grew, when the Leaning Tower of Pisa was being built, built and that can- a thousand years ago. So, you know, if they don’t look after the local environment whether it’s on land or in, on the reef how are they going to be trusted to look after a thousand year old cycad?
Right. And you’ve made, in your submission to the state government, you’ve made comments about their environmental vandalism or environmental destruction. Can you tell us about some of them? Because that’s, what Cole’s touching on.
Yeah. Well the main one that sort of kicked it all off was the grounding of the beach. So, you know, we, we witnessed a big tele handler on the beach.
A tele handler is a…
It’s a big, grabber type-
Like a grave digger
Like an earth moving..
Earth moving, okay.
Earth moving equipment. And, yeah they basically took all the dune structure and they flattened it. So from the tree line all the way down to the beach was just a nice, gentle slope.
They pushed all the sand up to the bank
I have no idea what the purpose is.
What the motivation was.
I think maybe it’s to get hours up on the tele handler But in doing that, you know, up near the beach hut there there’s information about, you know these precious dune creatures that live there and don’t destroy their habitat, and you know, look after the turtles, it’s a turtle nesting habitat,
So there’s signs saying-
Yes, there’s signs all over… There’s three different signs advising people about all this, you know, all the stuff that happens in the dune. And they go and they spread it all out evenly, just before turtle mating season. So a couple of years ago, we would have, we’ve witnessed turtle tracks coming up the beach, where turtle have tried to lay a nest, but of course there was no dunes, So of course the next high tide just washed straight over the top of it. Yeah. This has been going on for some years now.
And there’s been sightings of turtles, too.
Oh, lots.
And one, one was obviously, big, heavy and tired and had obviously laid some eggs.
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so that was so we were, we reported that. I think Karen reported it.
Well, I put a submission together, with three affidavits of people who saw the tele handler, and saw the turtle nest and the inundation. And photos. And I say these are location, time and date stamped photos. And I submitted it to the, Ian Hutchinson.
Who’s he?
He was the chief whip, Ian Hutchins, he’s the chief whip for Annastacia Palaszczuk,
So he’s a Labour party MP?
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
I submitted it to the Department of Environmental Science and I submitted it to GBRMPA.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Yeah.
And can I just add there, it was Ian Hutchins requested James to do that.
He did request me to do it.
So they know about it, requested details, given them details, nothing’s happened.
And then he came back and said “I can’t deal with”, something quite strange happened, and he just said, “I can’t deal with this, you gotta deal with the problem”…
I think he’s, he’s, Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Chief of Staff.
He was. But he’s not an MP.
He’s not an MP, so he’s not at liberty…
He was the Chief of Staff.
He’s a bureaucrat.
He’s a bureaucrat.
But, after six months, they, the Department of Environment Science came up, walked up along the beach, and said they can’t see any evidence of turtles or turtle nesting, so therefore it never happened.
Well, it’s basically, six months is in June, in June turtles don’t nest in June. They actually nest in December, I can’t imagine, at a government institution, whose task is to look after our Great Barrier Reef, and they do that.
So this was at GBRMPA, they did this?
This was the Department of Environmental Science.
And what about what was, the GBRMPA’s? The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s?
They’ve just kept very quiet.
Did they respond to you?
No.
Apparently their jurisdiction is below the low water mark, and Mackay regional council is above the high water mark. And who knows who’s in between?
Well, how has the council been on this issue?
Extremely poor, I think-
They think that it shouldn’t be them, it should be somebody else.
So everyone’s going, them
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We’ve had, actually had, six meetings with the council over the last few years-
And nothing?
Well, they did come out here a couple months ago because there was a lot of things that were being built without permits, without engineering and that, which is their department. They did address that, to what degree we’re not really sure. But we are disappointed with their…
So the GBRMPA, is a federal agency I think, so they’ve not done anything that you’re aware of?
No.
They certainly haven’t got back to you. The state Premier’s department, the state Environmental department, the State agencies have not done anything about it, and the local council hasn’t done anything about it.
Correct.
So you’re stuck on your own facing these people.
Yeah.
We’ve written to the new Resources Minister, Scott Stewart through the member for Mackay-
How long ago?
Julieanne Gilbert. Um, just after Christmas requesting a meeting with the new minister, to try and clarify some of these issues. Now, you know, a new minister coming into a portfolio, Sure, he’s going to be a little bit in the dark. So wouldn’t you think it would be wise for him to say, “Okay, I’ve heard China Bloom’s version of this, Surely I should go and hear what residents have to say.” Now, there has been no response whatsoever from the minister’s office or from Julianne Gilbert’s office, to our request for a meeting. And I sent that letter away, Not only as a member of the Keswick Island Progress Association, but as an island resident. So that’s where it’s disappointing.
And so, Julianne, Gilbert, the member for Mackay, she’s responsible for this area?
No she’s not.
She’s actually not.
Who is your rep?
It’s, it’s actually a weird situation, because Mackay regional council are responsible for the building, environmental things on the island, but the actual rep is Whitsundays.
So that’s, uh,
What’s her name?
Amanda Camm.
Amanda Camm, yeah.
Has she done anything about it?
Unfortunately not.
She did-
She stood up in Parliament I think in December, and read out a letter but we haven’t heard anything.
She was very active in helping us initially but we haven’t-
That was before the election?
Yeah.
Yeah, before the election.
I haven’t heard much from her at all
Since the election, no?
Nothing.
No.
Realistically, all we need is maybe 3 or 4 key groups to get together around the table. We need China Bloom, we need the residents, we need the government and possibly our local member or council to sit around a table and say, ” These are our five or six main issues. How can we resolve them?” But there’s been no appetite for that whatsoever.
Okay. Tell me something more about the boat ramp that was built down there. The previous boat ramp that was denied access to and I read somewhere, I think, in your media release that this new boat ramp, which is pretty small was built, you think without approval?
That we know.
You know that?
There was no engineering, there was no permits, no environmental study,
No environmental study.
And this is actually all in the head lease, this is what they say they should be doing,
That the Queensland government should be enforcing?
Yes.
Yep.
So none of that was done. They built the first road basically on the high water mark or just below, I can take you down and show you, they threw tyres in there, they threw top soil from another illegal road in there, and it’s all just washed into the sea, you can see the tyres sitting half-
And now, on the-
Can you imagine if I even just left a single tyre on the beach in Mackay.
And you can’t use single use plastic bags anymore.
Correct.
We’re paying for them.
Yeah.
But yet they’re letting-
I can take you down there and show you-
off the road and get into the ocean.
There was a spring tide two days after they did that. And within two days it was half gone into the reef. And James has done a fantastic video, underwater showing the silk on the coral and how the cull around that area.
It’s absolutely devastated.
It’s devastated.
I think the other important thing to note is that the Department of Resources through one of their key bureaucrats, they’ve actually identified that the so-called new boat ramp is not fit for purpose.
Exactly right.
Can I just… Can I just backtrack a bit, when, a couple of head lessees ago, probably around 2008 or so, one of the head lessees approached the Queensland state government, and said he couldn’t afford to build the marina, and
So was the lease, part of the condition was building a marina?
Was you have to build a marina.
Where’s the marina?
Precisely. So he couldn’t do that. So they came to an agreement with him that he would provide a public boat ramp and a public jetty, both free of charge for the public to use. And the barge ramp, the so-called barge ramp, was the public boat ramp that was built. And it was properly engineered, and everything was done correctly through the council. And that was the ramp that was given to us to use. And at the same time, they built, they did build a jetty at that point, it wasn’t properly maintained.
And that’s the one with the two black…
Yeah.
This is the, the actual walkway has been taken back, hasn’t it?
Correct.
So it’s unusable?
Yeah, there’s-
We’re not allowed to go there.
Yeah. They’ve cut that off for us.
So then, then, when China Bloom came along, they made the airstrip an exclusion zone and they said your free, your free public boat ramp, you may not access that anymore. And now suddenly it’s become only a barge ramp, and not designed as a boat ramp. And we’ll just build you another one, but it literally took them two months to build that other one. And it just-
Totally illegal. Everything’s illegal.
Yeah, a backdoor job.
So, tell me about the national park. How much of the Island is, is leased by China Bloom? How much is national park? How much is freehold?
It’s 15%, is…
20%…
85% national park, and I’ve read that their access to the national park has been restricted, and that’s illegal, isn’t it?
That’s what I keep saying to the DNR, it is illegal. Actually it says so in the lease again, it says in the lease it refers to Clause 373, et cetera,
Th, three-
3.3?
3. 43, it says refer to this deed of agreement. And in that deed of agreement, it clearly states access to certain areas of national park. And we brought this up with the DNR and they said, “Oh it’s not part of our head lease agreement.” And we said, show us the head lease agreement. And they said, “Oh, but it doesn’t clearly state that we have to adhere to that.”
What?!
Yeah, I mean-
When you sign an agreement, there has to be a clause in there that says you must agree to it, before you-
Why put the clause in?
I know, it’s ridiculous.
Yeah.
So China Bloom also claim, and this is in your media release, the majority of them, being you guys, are in breach of their leases. And you’ve said that that is not the case. Do you want to expand on that so that people can hear?
Well, I think what that’s referring to is the people that haven’t built their houses just yet.
And one of them being Glenn Leigh-Smith.
One being Glenn Leigh-Smith, who just, yeah, he just put out a recent, pro media for China Bloom.
But he is in their pocket.
Never built on his house. But he works for them, so.
Okay.
Sorry for that.
What about, what about the, no, if it’s fact you don’t have to apologise. What about the, the people who’ve been trying to sell their houses? Well, first of all, what’s happened to the value of the properties here now, since China Bloom’s taken over and done these behaviours, and second, secondly, what is happening to the properties that you’re trying to sell? Some, some people are trying to sell?
Well our property values have gone down, this house here has gone down about probably, 75%.
Yeah, 75, 80%, I heard.
Decrease?
About 20% of what it was worth.
So just to give you an example, properties, I picked up a real, dead bargain on the property at 137,000. So they ranged between about 130,000 and 450,000 for the property, blank property.
Yep.
Some of the lessees are handing them back, at this stage.
And there’s someone trying to sell, I think and someone trying to buy his property, but they can’t settle?
Well, Lee is in that position. He’s-
Will you tell us about that?
Well, well, we went to contract-
Speak up a bit, there’s a microphone.
We went to contract on a property about six months ago and it has to go to the minister’s office, to be signed off on, which went through no problem. Went to China Bloom to be signed off, nothing. Then next thing you know, our solicitor gets a big list saying that we want this done, and we want a hundred thousand dollar security bond to make sure that you fix the solar power, a couple of minor things which would be nowhere near a hundred thousand anyway, but they don’t want to sign off. And we’re the second people, there’s more people that are trying to do the same thing. And China Bloom just will not sign the contracts, yet in the lease agreement it states that they will not impede, they are not to impede on the sale of a property.
Right. There’s a break in the lease agreement again.
Yeah.
Also, in your media release it says China Bloom claims that, it describes the residents and sub-leasers as anti-development. You’ve put up a counter to that, what is the reality? Are you anti-development?
No. I can see that.
We don’t want to lose money.
Not in the least. You know, many of their statements, if not all of them were absolutely, at best, I would say factually incorrect. I don’t want to use the L-word, but that’s how I would say that.
How can they say there’s no turtles on the island?
Well, it strikes-
I can say there’s no aerodromes, even though the aerodromes been up for four years.
It strikes me, James, as either they’re extremely incompetent or they’re lying.
Well, that’s the way I would say it.
That’s my interpretation.
It might strike me in the same way.
That’s my conclusion.
What we are anti, is anti-development that hasn’t been approved, and properly engineered and designed, because that just ends up as a disaster.
Well, I don’t think we want development at any cost. We want a sustainable island that people can live in harmony. And it’s not just residents. It’s for, it’s for all Queenslanders.
How many of you people-
It’s for all Australians.
How many of you people are here to make a quick buck? Or how many people are here to stay and enjoy yourself for a long time? That’s what comes through very, very clearly.
And in turn Malcolm, when we first all bought our land here, the future development at that stage was fantastic, wasn’t it? Peter Marshall, the original head lessee, had a fantastic… it was an eco type development. And, and that’s what we bought into. And it’s never arrived. Unfortunately, Peter couldn’t hold on to the head lease, he had other issues that need… and it was taken off him by the bank, but he, he had a fantastic vision and it’s just, it’s a shame that the next three head lessees, which the government, state government chose, have not worked out.
But the only development on this island, all the houses, were built during Vince Alexander’s time, there was nothing proposed while KDPL were here, and there’s been nothing since China Bloom took over.
Okay.
I think, you know, you as a Senator in the Australian government, I think this is an opportunity for you too, to have a look at the original sale to China Bloom. Now, who is China Bloom? Is China… What entity does China Bloom have? What resources, what, what equity do they have in China Bloom? Is it just a shelf company? Is it a $2 company in Hong Kong? You know, we’ve asked, we’ve tried to find this information but you know you as senator, and George Christensen as our local member, I would say that you would had the better chance than us to determine…
That’s actually, a property title and so on, That’s actually a state government responsibility, but I’ll see what my office can do anyway.
I think that there should be an overview of just what’s happening all around us here. And, it’s cause it’s affecting Australia.
Right.
You look at all the islands that have been sold to Chinese around here. I think there’s 6, no…
5, I think, yeah.
5.
What are they?
St. Bees, Tengolan, Lindeman, South Molle, Daydream Island.
And another big one that people don’t think of is Laguna Quays, on the mainland. It’s a big property, there’s a big resort, marina, and there’s a, it’s an unfinished three kilometre airstrip on there.
That’s the key is that, Laguna Quays, think of it this way, is Laguna Quays is very key, it’s a three kilometre. We measured it the other day, three kilometre landing strip which can land international jets. They have a huge harbour there, that’s beautifully developed. And coming from overseas, you just land there. You don’t even have to visit anywhere in Australia. You go straight from the Laguna Quays to, to the harbour of, to all these different islands.
So let’s… it’s getting close to wrap up time. So, China Bloom accuses some of the residents of building non-compliant illegal structures but in response, you said the only non-compliant and illegal structures have been built by the island manager themselves. And you’ve pointed at two specific examples, the temporary illegal boat ramp and the manager’s new double story residence.
Built without approval, structure.
Yeah.
I mean, if you did that in Mackay, the council would make you pull it down.
And we don’t know about those toilets they’ve put in at the shop either.
So we go back to that original question, why is the government not doing something about it? Why? We’d like to know why this has just been pushed under the rug.
This has got atrocious governance and loss of sovereignty stamped all over it.
Governance, the government and this state has got so many things to address. You’re saying, I’ll just quote it here: “It is our position, that number one, the head lessee must use the leased land for commercial business purposes, being tourism, residential, marine facility marine works, and aerodome purposes. And then number two, this lease may be forfeited if not used for the purpose stated above.” Let’s finish by saying, what do you want?
Them to forfeit the lease.
Yeah.
Yep.
They’re not doing their job. And it’s as simple as that.
And get a head lessee who has some interest in actually doing something…
And that’s actually touching on another point, we have three Australian investors who were shut out of this latest purchase.
Shut out.
Shut out, and they were told, two of those people have told me personally.
So Australian investors were shut out in favour of a Chinese investor
Yes.
Who is not fulfilling the, these conditions.
Correct.
Yes.
And nothing’s being done about it.
Nothing.
And that raises huge questions. That’s exactly what we’re asking. What assets do these people have, to develop this island? If it’s a, it’s a shelf company sitting in Hong Kong, where are they getting their money from? Are they getting it from within China? Are they getting it from the Chinese government? Are they getting it from the communist party?
We need some serious investigative reporting done on this. We need some digging to find out what’s behind it all.
What we wanna know, Annastacia Palaszczuk, what is she hiding from us? You know?
Okay.
Just briefly, that’s true, why doesn’t the state government meet with us, face to face?
Tell the camera. So we’ve met with them… Why doesn’t the state government why doesn’t the minister meet with us and, and go through the issues that we’ve raised? What are they scared of?
And I’ll just finish up by saying that, no one’s raised this with me, but I want to make it very clear. None of these people are endorsing me or One Nation. They’re just independent citizens. Correct? I wanna make that very clear, we’re not here to do this politically, but I am in the sense that I’m very disappointed in the state government because it’s clearly dropped the ball. Can I just say one other thing is that, so what is the motive behind all this? I would suggest that the motive behind it is to force us off the island buy our properties that are up at a basement price, and then we’ll take, whatever, or then bring in Chinese people. In China, there’s 372 billionaires. There’s 4.4 millionaires.
Yeah.
Unbelievable. You know, like this is, you know, we don’t have that wealth.
But that, that reminds me, some of you people are here as a result of your superannuation investments, right? Is that correct?
Yep. Correct.
So that’s been destroyed.
Yeah Absolutely. And this…
This is just basic human living.
This is, as James said, and Craig said earlier, at the start of this video, this is happening right around the country. This is not just a Keswick Island issue, this is a Queensland issue and an Australian issue.
It’s probably a global issue.
Maybe if you look around you, look what’s happening in China at the moment with Vietnam. They’re building walls between China and Vietnam. So, are they building walls to keep people in or to keep people out.
I don’t know, but we need to make sure we have a political system that maintains our sovereignty and our government. And I want to thank you very much. Thank you for the host for your wonderful residence.
Yeah. Thank you for coming.
Yeah, I thank you for standing up and fighting. As I said, this is not political. It’s about sovereignty and Australia. And some people say, you know, I’m from the Southern tip of Africa and I shouldn’t be here, I’m more Australian than a lot of people, like these people down there at the runway.
We welcome anyone, any colour, any religion so long as they comply with our values, uphold our laws and fit in with our philosophy.
Absolutely.
I would just hope that your visit today led to you actually writing to the Queensland government on our behalf, asking the questions to Perth and the questions we’ve put. We’re not getting a response anywhere else.
George has helped us. George Christensen has helped us.
If it’s any reassurance, we’ve asked the Premier for, data behind some of their policies. She’s pointed us to two areas, no data. So these guys are just winging it, in my experience, the, we, we will, we have come here to listen, to try and understand, one of our staff who, who is a lawyer will be getting in touch with you.
We hope you can help us with our basic human rights.
[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.
http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/zivEECI4_IU/maxresdefault.jpg7201280Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-12-18 11:49:422020-12-18 11:49:50North Australia Gutted by Government Mess
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?
http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/xaLhe8X76ec/maxresdefault.jpg7201280Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-12-14 15:01:572020-12-14 15:40:25Cashless Debit Card – 2SM with Marcus Paul
That the Senate notes that the current dispute between China and Australia is more deep-seated than a trade spat involving wine, coal and timber.
The motion I moved is the opening paragraph in Robert Gottliebsen’s newspaper article in The Australian yesterday, and I’ll quote it again:
When China declared that Australia had been “evil” it suddenly became clear that the dispute between the two nations is more deep-seated than a trade spat involving wine coal, timber etc.
As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia who is involved in the governance of Australia, I want to focus on Gottliebsen’s meaty fourth paragraph:
From President Xi down, there has been little respect for Australia for a long time and many in China believe we are a foolish country that makes mistakes at almost every turn, led by defence.
He then details serious flaws in the governance of three Defence projects, the submarine ‘shemozzle’, as he calls it, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and the Hunter frigates. We obviously are ‘a foolish country’ based on this, and the obvious point of his article is our shoddy governments over many decades, both Liberal-National and Labor.
People in this country are feeling concerned about the seriously deteriorating state of our country. We have lost our economic sovereignty. We’re losing our national sovereignty. We’re plunging towards catastrophe economically, and dependence with a complete loss of security. People are fed up and, across many communities and industries—and I mean right around the country—people are feeling dispirited, hopeless, confused, aimless, wary, concerned and even fearful, because most can sense our country’s destruction. Yet, 100 years ago Australia was No. 1 in the world in income per person and had the highest GDP—gross domestic product—per person.
There’s a worse aspect beyond economic demise though. Bullies like China prey on those perceived as being weak. Gottliebsen rightly says that, due to poor, and even stupid, decisions, we’re rightly perceived as being weak in defence. Yet he barely scratches the full extent of the deterioration of our security, because our productive capacity has been dismantled, and our economic security has been smashed, destroyed. We are vulnerable. Now, as a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, that is what I will discuss, because, like bullies in a schoolyard or in a workplace, China preys on those it perceives as weak or foolish. By the way, when I raise China, I refer to the Chinese Communist Party and not the millions of Australians of Chinese descent now in our country, descendants of those who came during the gold rushes almost two centuries ago, and those who immigrated more recently.
Not only does the Chinese Communist Party assess other nations against China’s values and standards; the Chinese Communist Party assesses our country against our own values, and from that it finds out: Does our government have courage? Does our government have integrity? Do the politicians in this country and this parliament have the strength of character needed to lead a country? I’ve been thinking about this for some years now and I’ve made a list of Australian values: mateship; a fair go; support; loyalty; being fair dinkum; telling the truth; honesty; fairness; freedom to live; freedom of speech; freedom of thought; freedom of belief; freedom of religion; freedom of faith; freedom of interaction; freedom of exchange; democracy; our flag; our nation; family; care; respect for people; respect for community; respect for the law; respect for the environment; making sure government fulfils its three primary roles, which are protecting life, protecting property and protecting freedom, and stays out of everything else; and our Constitution. We value our Constitution, especially competitive federalism, and we value human progress. Australia has led that improvement in progress in the past 150 years. It has been amazing progress, right across the world.
So let’s assess governments against these values and their impact on our productive capacity. Productive capacity depends on many things, but particularly energy costs—the primacy of energy. An ever-decreasing cost of energy has led to 150 years of human progress. Australia has gone from having the world’s lowest electricity prices to having the world’s highest, yet we’re now the world’s largest exporter of energy—gas and coal. China imports a lot of our coal, but the production of coal in their own country is eight times our total production—not just our exports but our total production. They make us look like small producers of coal. They have the largest coal reserves in the world, along with the United States. They use our coal. They’re building steel power plants out of our coal, and they’re building hundreds of coal-fired power stations.
We legislate to use their wind turbines and their solar panels. We subsidise them. It drives up the cost of our electricity, and we pay them for unreliables—their solar and wind generators. We pay them for components of electric vehicles, which we also subsidise. And then we have Chinese companies, affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, owning electricity networks in our major cities. Then we have the Queensland Labor government stealing $1½ billion a year through the generators. All of this destroys jobs and destroys competitiveness.
Then taxpayers pay people, quite often foreigners, to come in and squat on the land, just to get carbon dioxide credits. It’s called carbon dioxide farming. It takes good farmland and destroys it with noxious weeds and feral animals—pests—and then that has to be reclaimed at some later date; who knows when. Then we have Angus Taylor, the Minister for Energy and Emissions, a farmer. He knows that the EPBC Act is hurting him—I’ve had conversations with him—but he just smiles, rolls his eyes and puts up with it. He is a sceptic on climate change—sceptical that we are affecting the climate. He’s been slammed, and he’s now coming back into parliament and driving up electricity prices. Matt Canavan, Barnaby Joyce: strong sceptics in their beliefs. Barnaby Joyce was the Deputy Prime Minister. The Chinese know that. They watch him. They saw him come into cabinet and they saw him run for election in New England, when he moved out of the Senate and into the lower house. And Malcolm Turnbull, to get Mr Joyce elected, showered $400 million of taxpayer funds on unreliable wind power. Then Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce were both in the cabinet, and they suddenly became alarmists, spouting alarm about carbon dioxide.
So I asked Matt Canavan in the Senate one day where his evidence was, and he just slid away from me. Now that he’s out of cabinet and Mr Joyce is out of cabinet, all of a sudden they’re becoming a little bit sceptical again in their words. But the Chinese Communist Party see this and that tells them a lot about the lack of leadership in this country.
The Chinese have their own agreement within the Paris Agreement. It says, ‘We will continue doing whatever we want, continue growing our economy, continue constructing our country, developing our country and putting in place infrastructure, and then in 2030 we may consider something.’ Meanwhile, this parliament in this building has legislated to destroy our economy to comply with Kyoto. That’s not an agreement; that is stupidity and economic suicide. The Chinese Communist Party watches us pay academics to tell lies about climate and to misrepresent the climate science. We even put some of them in charge of or in senior places in the CSIRO and pay them $800,000 a year to destroy our country. Dr Andrew Johnson went from head of the climate research agency department in the CSIRO to become head of the Bureau of Meteorology. Under him and his predecessors, the Bureau of Meteorology has been shown to be concocting the data and misrepresenting temperatures.
We pay people like Ove Hoegh-Gulberg and Ian Chubb, former chief scientists, to destroy the science, to misrepresent the science. In 1975, Whitlam signed an agreement saying we’ll comply with the Lima Declaration to shut down our manufacturing and export it. The following year, Liberal Prime Minister Fraser ratified the deal. In 1992, Paul Keating’s Labor government signed the Rio Declaration, which is about 21st century global governance. Then we had the Kyoto protocol destroying our country, stealing our farmers’ property rights. And now we have the Paris Agreement exporting jobs and shutting manufacturing.
Then the current Prime Minister has the temerity to say, ‘We will fiddle with the industrial relations system to bring back manufacturing.’ How the hell can you bring back manufacturing when you have the highest electricity costs in the world and a big component of manufacturing—the largest component, usually—is the cost of electricity? How the hell can you do it with a tax system that favours multinational companies and lets them off scot-free? How the hell can you do it with overregulation? How the hell can you do it with a lack of water? How the hell can you do it with a lack of infrastructure? The Chinese are watching this and they’re helping us destroy our electricity sector and export even more jobs, because our prices for electricity are going up, businesses are shutting and then the jobs start up in China.
We are now reversing the last 170 years of human progress, because the key to human progress is decreasing the price of energy, which raises productivity, raises wealth, raises the standard of living. That ended in this country 24 years ago. We have ceded governance to the UN: Lima, Kyoto, Rio, Paris and many other agreements. How does this comply with Aussie values? How does it comply with being fair dinkum? Worse, the granddaddy who concocted this climate change rubbish was Maurice Strong. He concocted it when he created and then took over as head of the United Nations Environment Program. He pushed that program, starting from the 1970s, and in the 1980s he ramped it up. In 1988 he formed the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a fraudulent organisation. And the Liberals, Labor, the Nationals and the Greens have fallen for it all. Maurice Strong was a crook. He was wanted by the police in America and died in exile in China. Who’s the beneficiary of all this destruction of Western civilisation? The Chinese government.
That’s what the people in this chamber and the chamber across the hall there have done to this country by blindly following the UN diktats. How does that comply with our values? It doesn’t. It breaks our values. What about water ownership? Destroyed by separating water ownership from property ownership. What about the Murray-Darling Basin and the corruption that is rife? What about the family farms shutting down? What about water projects? What water projects? That’s it; there aren’t any. And yet look at what amazing water projects the Chinese Communist Party has put together to develop its country.
What about infrastructure? Hardly anything built and no plan. The north is exposed without the Bradfield scheme and we see floods destroying Townsville. There is destruction and a waste of water flowing out to sea. We see the state governments joining in. The Labor Party in Queensland has reef regulations which are shutting down agriculture. Vegetation protection legislation is destroying agriculture. Firebreaks aren’t allowed and are being destroyed when farms are under fire. We put animals and fungus ahead of humans.
The Queensland Labor government put a Chinese company in charge of the electoral roll and then there is Queensland local council corruption linked to the Labor state government. This extends well beyond Ipswich and Paul Pisasale; it is systemic and it is widespread. We have foreign banks that were deregulated under John Howard and we saw the result of that through the Hayne royal commission. We see Adani frustrated by both the Liberal-National and Labor governments in Queensland and by the federal government, which was weak. That’s one man from India, which has a booming, growing economy, who wanted to spend $17 billion in our country. He was thwarted for eight years. That’s a blight on us that not even the Chinese can miss—that no-one in the world can miss. We go on and on and on.
I give Senator Rex Patrick credit for moving a motion to get an inquiry into the relationship between China and Australia six times—and I supported him every time. Both the Labor Party and the Liberal-Nationals squashed it. This is what the Chinese are seeing, yet Australians are wanting far more. Australians want leadership. Australians want security, reassurance, confidence, leadership, trust, pride and freedom—a restoration so that we can be No. 1 in the world again. What does Australia need? It needs principled leadership based on values. It needs disciplined leadership based on data and facts instead of ideology paying off donors. It needs honest leadership and strength of character. It’s the simple ability to say: ‘I’m wrong, I’m sorry—can you help me? Please explain.’ We need visionary policies, and that is what will take us back to being No. 1.
http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/Z8Ww0BSlAEk/hqdefault.jpg360480Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-12-07 14:02:442020-12-07 14:11:50China take advantage of weak Australian governments
