PFAS meetings kept secret

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One Nation Senator Roberts’ requests for documents relating to the Government’s PFAS Taskforce have been denied.

Minister Ley’s department, through the PFAS Taskforce, is responsible for solving the PFAS contamination disaster zones across Australia.

“PFAS contamination on air force bases in Australia has destroyed the lives of those bordering the bases, yet the supposed plan to help these residents is being kept secret,” Senator Roberts stated.

Senator Roberts added, “On behalf of the residents, I want to know what meetings are happening, who is attending and what actions are being agreed upon to help these people.”

One Nation is committed to achieving like-for-like relocation of residents in the red zones across Australia, and fair compensation for affected businesses.

“Instead of fair compensation for residents the Government is forcing red zone residents into court where their settlements are feeding lawyers instead of families.”

“PFAS has been a known problem for over 15 years and the ongoing refusal to release documents that give residents confidence of a resolution, suggests the Minister is hiding something,” Senator Roberts said.

The Hunter Valley wetlands, which the government is responsible for maintaining, has PFAS contamination that requires remediation.

The plume from RAAF Base Williamtown is heading south-east and only 50m from the Hunter River at Fern Bay and heading to Worimi surf beach.

“An effective strategy would be to pipe the groundwater back to the RAAF base and use the PFAS treatment plant they have built there to clean that water,” suggested Senator Roberts. The Government must stop the delays, take responsibility and provide like-for-like remediation and fair compensation for affected residents immediately.

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Ban ANTIFA terror

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Senator Malcolm Roberts calls on the Prime Minister to demonstrate the same political leadership as President Trump and declare ANTIFA a terrorist organisation.

“We need to stop these far-left anarchists who use violence and fear to push their radical socialist agenda before they recruit and organise further in Australia,” Senator Roberts said.

“Australia is a peaceful democratic nation where people resolve our differences through mutual respect and debate, culminating at the ballot box.”

ANTIFA are already attacking police and intimidating innocent people attending public events in Australia.

Senator Roberts added, “All responsible politicians should be defenders of our cultural, social and democratic values and it is the Prime Minister’s job to act urgently and decisively to protect the social fabric of our peaceful society.”

Australia’s political leaders need to swiftly and ruthlessly safeguard Australia from this same fate.  

ANTIFA protesters are self-proclaimed anti-capitalists, oppose freedom and democracy, and are destroying major cities in the USA.  

Modelling themselves on previous ANTIFA movements going back as far as the 1930’s, their agenda has always been aligned with communist political parties aimed at bringing about the downfall of capitalism.

The irony of this movement is that ANTIFA (formed from the term anti-fascists) are themselves behaving as fascists to suppress opposition and call for strict obedience to their self-determined culture of control over others.

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Senator Roberts calls to suspend University of Queensland funding

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Senator Roberts has called on the Government to suspend funding to the University of Queensland if it continues to be an agent for the Chinese Communist Party.

Senator Roberts stated, “The recent expulsion of a fourth-year philosophy student, based on his outspoken views against China, has exposed the influence of a communist dictatorship on an Australian university.” 

“This is another example of the recent worrying trend at Australian universities that is curtailing free speech and promoting left-wing ideology,” Senator Roberts said.

The University of Queensland is estimated to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and hired top tier legal and consulting firms in pursuit against the outspoken student.  The vast majority of the 186-page dossier of allegations by the University against the student has been labelled absurdly trivial and borderline hysterical.

“This is a classical David versus Goliath scenario and the University of Queensland, hiding behind the purse strings of the Chinese Communist Party, has smashed our Australian value of free speech.”

The University of Queensland received $989 million in government funding in 2018 and today receives between 20-30% of its income from Chinese students. 

Senator Roberts added, “UQ needs to remember where the bulk of their funding comes from and they need to assure the Australian taxpayer that they are an Australian university, and not an overseas agent of the Communist Party.”

“This is Australia; we are a free and democratic nation, and we will not be bullied in our own country nor in our universities by the Chinese Communist Party.”

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Increase Queensland’s fishing quotas for economic stimulus

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Senator Roberts calls on the government to lift the onerous restrictions on the fishing industry and increase fishing quotas within our waters as part of an economic stimulus package.

“Successive governments have destroyed our once profitable fishing industry with self-imposed fishing limits well below international sustainability levels and introduced vast net-free zones,” stated Senator Roberts.

The World Resource Institute’s research shows that a well-managed sustainable harvest from a coral reef is 15,000kg per square kilometre annually. The Great Barrier Reef harvest is set at an outrageously low 9kg per square kilometre, which is 0.06% of the recommended sustainable harvest.

Our fishing industry hamstrung with bureaucratic and unscientific green tape, means Australians have to import approximately 80% of our seafood.

“It is unbelievable that Australia, which has the world’s largest continental shelf fishing zone, imports so much of our seafood from Thailand and China.”
The COVID19 crisis highlighted the unnecessary green tape that hobbles so many Australian industries. Rebuilding our fishing industry requires scientific-based quotas, revisiting current and future restrictions and reducing the net-free zones.

“Australia should have one of the world’s most profitable fishing industries and supply Australians with the majority of their seafood. Instead they are drowning in green tape and the industry is facing ruin.”

He added, “The Lib-Lab duopoly through unfair trade agreements and needlessly signing United Nations’ agreements has decimated our fishing industry.”

“The COVID19 crisis has sent us a stark reminder that unfettered globalisation has left Australia vulnerable and our sovereignty diluted”.

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Senator Roberts Concerned about Australia’s reliance on Professor Ferguson’s exaggerated COVID-19 modelling

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Senator Roberts has expressed deep concern that our national and state management of COVID-19 maybe responding to the exaggerated modelling predictions of Professor Ferguson.

Senator Roberts said, “Professor Ferguson’s assumptions that form the basis of his modelling have produced sensationally inaccurate predictions and this is not the first time Ferguson’s predictions have been wildly overstated.”

Professor Ferguson’s track record includes, but is not limited to, predicting 50,000 deaths from mad cow disease, reality was 177 deaths; 65,000 would die of swine flu, reality was 457 deaths and 200 million people may die from bird flu, reality was 282.

The Department of Health website cites the use of the Peter Doherty Institute Report, which references reliance on assumptions from the Imperial College COVID19 NPI Modelling Report, of which Professor Neil Ferguson is the first author.

“It is irrefutable that Professor Ferguson’s modelling predictions are exaggerated and his work has had far-reaching devastating impacts on national economies.”

Foot and mouth disease, which cost the British government £10 billion, was an extraordinary overreaction to an exaggerated claim made by Professor Ferguson.

The Australian Government has enacted a record $320 billion package, the economy is dismantling, the employment rate is rising and the nation’s mental health issues are starting to show themselves. 

Senator Roberts has written to the Prime Minister and Queensland’s Premier asking whether these significant health and economic responses, which will affect future generations, are based on the Doherty Institute Report and by default, the assumptions in Ferguson’s Imperial College Report.

“No business, economy nor community can hibernate and then just return to normal.  There will be devastating consequences from these decisions for some time to come,” Senator Roberts said.

“The people of Queensland and Australia deserve to have confidence that the Government’s serious and far-reaching decisions during this health crisis are based on credible and robust data and modelling,” Senator Roberts added.

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Murray Darling Basin investigation a whitewash

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One Nation Senator Roberts expressed sheer disbelief and disappointment with the Keelty report into the Murray Darling Basin’s water allocations to farmers who need water to grow food.

Senator Roberts said, “As the nation reels from COVID-19 and faces food shortages this report is woefully inadequate and a tragic waste of taxpayers’ money. “

“An investigation should demonstrate rigour and analysis and instead Mr Keelty’s report is full of inadequacies.”

The report fails to include in its datasets this year’s substantial rainfall event and does not acknowledge rainfall within the MDB has increased over the past 100 years. Instead the Keelty analysis deceitfully uses ‘declining inflows’ as a way of arguing why farmers should be denied a fair allocation of water.

When 4000 disenchanted farmers descended on Canberra to protest the unfair allocation of water between the environment and farmers, they were promised that their zero allocations would be the subject of this review.

“It is deeply disappointing, particularly now when our agricultural productive capacity is under-utilised, that this issue was not rigorously examined by Mr Keelty.  Astonishingly the report fails to even mention those zero allocations,” added Senator Roberts.

As predicted by many farmers, the former Water Minister David Littleproud used the promise of an investigation into the MDB to quieten the crowd of protestors and conveniently shift blame to the States and irrigators.

Irrigators are suspicious of MDBA figures that show declining inflows when the Murray River has been running so high that environmental damage has resulted along the upper Murray and Barmah/Millewa forest from excessive water.

Disturbingly the report claims that environmental water is not being wasted, ignoring the unnecessary flooding of forests, excess water flushed out to sea in South Australia and keeping the lower lakes filled above their natural levels with Murray River water.

“The report may as well have been written by the MDBA itself, as it addresses none of the concerns from farmers, some of which have gone without a water allocation for 3 years.”

COVID-19 has highlighted the critical importance of Australia restoring our productive capacity across many strategic industries, including our agricultural sector.

“The Keelty report’s lack of due diligence in this investigation is akin to the last nail in the coffin of one of Australia’s most substantial food bowls. No water, no food,” Senator Roberts added.

Unsurprisingly, the report found that a lack of trust and leadership worsened the problems. One Nation calls for a Royal Commission into misconduct in the implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

“Trust cannot be restored until rorting has been exposed and fixed.  Australia needs management of the MDB Plan that reflects a genuine triple benefit – for irrigators, communities and the environment,” Senator Roberts stated.

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One Nation calls for Australians to buy Australian-Made

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One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts urges Australians to unite under our flag and buy Australian-made and Australian-owned.

“While the COVID 19 crisis reminds us of the importance of supporting Australian-made, it also shows we no longer make many essential goods here on our shores, which become a major security threat,” stated Senator Roberts.

Successive Australian governments have allowed, encouraged and at times driven our manufacturing industry to move off-shore leaving us dependent on overseas countries like China for basic goods.

In his senate speech on 8 April, Senator Roberts stated that Australia’s productive capacity has been smashed under Liberal-National and Labor-Green governments blindly adopting the globalist strategy of “interdependence” that has made us too heavily dependent on foreign sources.

One Nation calls on the Australian Government to immediately prioritise creating an environment where Australian businesses grow and thrive and are not hamstrung by a globalist agenda.

When Australia was in need of urgent medical supplies to treat people with COVID19 we were reliant on suppliers in China rather than having our own thriving manufacturing industry.

Australia’s manufacturing sector has deteriorated over the years with only 6% of GDP coming from manufacturing, down from 30% fifty years ago. 

Senator Roberts implores the Federal Government to remove government-imposed regulations like the self-imposed Paris Agreement, pointless climate regulations, unnecessary over-regulation and other government hurdles and instead encourage our manufacturing industries.

Senator Roberts added, “Our manufacturers have endured a new high in 2019 for electricity input prices, which now averages over 90% higher, almost double, than the prices in 2010. Gas prices have increased nearly 50% over the same ten-year period.”

“Australian energy prices have gone from the cheapest to the most expensive in the world due to climate policies and that is making manufacturing unviable in Australia.”

When the COVID19 virus has passed and we are left to repair a broken economy, we will need to reassess the importance of previous spending commitments, such as billions of dollars wasted in subsidising intermittent wind and solar power to virtue signal to the United Nations.

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COVID-19 Stimulus Package must include water

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The Federal Government’s COVID-19 stimulus packages must address how Australia can be more self-reliant in food production, and calls for a guarantee of water for farmers to plant essential crops this month.

Senator Roberts said, “COVID-19 has changed our world forever as nations like Vietnam ban exporting their home-grown rice to us, and now more than ever, we need government to prioritise food production in Australia because our basic food security is threatened.”

“Nations are now prudently keeping their own food for themselves while stupid government policies mean we are dependent on the importation of food staples that we can grow here in Australia.”

While recent rains across the Murray Darling Basin have been welcomed, farmers need the certainty of a water allocation during the season to have the confidence to plant crops.

“When harvested, not only would this winter crop create a regional monetary stimulus but would also protect us from new food shortages caused by countries’ COVID-19 export restrictions,” stated Senator Roberts.

Absurdly, Australia already relies on importing cereals like wheat and rice and now COVID-19 trade restrictions means even durum wheat used for pasta has become impossible to source.

“It is in Australia’s national interest to prioritise water to farmers to improve our farming productive capacity, that has been damaged by successive Liberal and Labor governments who have given our competitive advantage away to overseas,” added Senator Roberts.

Queensland, New South Wales and Victorian farmers have received zero general security water allocations for irrigation in the last 3 years. The Murray Darling Basin Authority has chosen instead to water forests unnecessarily and send irrigation water out to sea in South Australia.

“I call on our Governments to guarantee the release of 1000gl of water for irrigation, to give our farmers confidence to plant a full winter cereal crop.” “The COVID-19 crisis has given yet another reason to reset the Murray Darling Basin plan, with a focus on sensible environmental practices and on growing and protecting the productive capacity of regional Australia,” declared Senator Roberts.

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Senator Roberts demands people see modelling for 6-month hibernation

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One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts calls on the Prime Minister to immediately release COVID-19 modelling upon which the government bases its planned six-month hibernation of Australia.

“We can’t let this debilitating economic slow-down go on one day longer than it needs to, yet right now the government refuses to share vital information with the Australian people,” said Senator Roberts.

He added, “The data continues to show that we are passing peak COVID-19 infections, yet rather than offering people and businesses an economic recovery plan, the Prime Minister simply repeats his chorus line saying Australia could be closed for six months.”

Strong leadership making the tough and unpopular decisions does not need to remove hope from people for when lives can return to some normality.

Senator Roberts urges the Prime Minister to ensure rigorous wide testing, with strict isolation of the sick and vulnerable, allowing the healthy to return to work as soon as possible.

The Government has instead chosen to isolate the huge majority of healthy people, when data strongly suggests that with effective testing, all we need do is isolate the sick and protect the vulnerable.

“We can’t have massive swathes of the economy hibernating without any idea of the indicators that will trigger a re-start. 

Business owners and families need to make decisions around how long they can hold out and not be left in limbo.”

The Prime Minister has a duty of care to show the evidence to justify business closure for up to six months, and the indicators he will use to trigger a change in strategy.  

“No other country is promising to close its economy down for six months and healthy Australians would rather go back to work than to receive partial wage subsidies.”

Taiwan’s approach to COVID-19 should be used as a template, to primarily focus on and avoid a health crisis, and in that way avoid an economic crisis. 

Taiwan managed the virus with a clear priority on people’s health using rigorous temperature testing and hand hygiene practices, isolating those in danger and allowing the economy to keep running.

Senator Roberts added, “Taiwan with less than 260 people infected and only 5 deaths is a stunning example of how to manage the virus – putting people’s health as first priority – so that healthy people continued working and the economy barely blinked.”

Considering that about seventy-five percent of all COVID-19 cases in Australia are from people who travelled overseas or had direct contact with those travellers, the current arrangement of forced quarantine for overseas travellers should see a decline in cases within weeks. 

Once we are assured of people’s health we can end this debilitating economic slow-down and give people what they need: real hope through a plan for the next step, economic recovery.

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MEDIA RELEASE: Senator Roberts calls for PFAS Compensation now

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How many more investigations and committees is it going to take for property owners living in PFAS toxic contamination zones around Australia to be compensated so they can move on with their lives?

It has been years since the shocking disclosure to residents that PFAS contaminations had made their homes worthless and there was a real danger that it may cause serious illnesses like cancer.

“Families have lost their homes and in many cases their incomes, leaving people with no place to live and no income to survive. They have been forced out of their homes through no fault of their own”, stated Senator Roberts.

At today’s Senate Estimates Senator Roberts was clearly frustrated that all the focus from the Defence Department and the government was about remediation of sites, rather than compensation and buy-backs for the victims whose properties fall within the toxic “red” zones.

“While the investigation into how to remediate the hundreds of sites around Australia is vital, what is a matter of extreme urgency is giving families back their lives. No more delays”, the Senator added.

The second PFAS Senate report tabled in December 2018 included a recommendation for property buy-back.  This is just one of the nine recommendations the government are yet to respond to.

“One Nation calls on the government to provide immediate compensation for affected residents.”

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