Thank you Mr. Acting, deputy president. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I speak to the JobMaker Hiring Credit Amendment bill. JobMaker was announced in the budget with much fanfare. The treasurer announced his headline. JobMaker will support 450,000 jobs. Why didn’t the media think to ask the treasurer to define the word support? His own treasury doesn’t agree with the word support, means what the treasurer thinks it does. Treasury indicated in Senate estimates hearings, that JobMaker will create not 450,000 jobs, but a meager 45,000. 1/10th. This inconsequential measure will not make a noticeable difference to the prospects of everyday Australians. And yet the government is treating JobMaker as a headline grabber. Here’s a brochure from the government, the centrepiece of their quote “Economic recovery plan for Australia, JobMaker. Creating jobs and rebuilding our economy.” It’s right here on the cover, must be true. It’s glossy. Once again, this liberal national government is misrepresenting announcements as achievements. A well-worn ploy that many marketers use and coupled with a glossy brochure. And with diagrams and with high vis vests and headlines and lots of colour. JobMaker is budgeted to cost $4 billion. Yet with only 45,000 jobs likely to be created the cost is actually only $400 million. To put that into perspective the government will spend $400 million on job keeper, in one day, $400 million is one day’s job keeper and then turn to the number of jobs and training places created in this budget. When they’re added up, they exceed the number of people unemployed. The budget,this budget is a hoax. According to the treasurer’s own numbers, this budget will put everyone back into a training place or a job before the next election. Zero unemployment. Didn’t the treasurer add up all these wild claims in the budget and realise that these numbers just don’t add up? The government has led hyperbole run a muck. Then again, working a calculator has never been treasurer Frydenberg’s strong suit. Job keeper itself was out by just $60 billion. The coalition’s restart programme was announced in 2014, as a $10,000 subsidy to help 30,000 older Australians back into the workforce every year. Six years later, And this scheme has helped only 9,000 older Australians a year. less than a third of the 30,000 a year the government announced. Even worse,almost half of those workers terminated, once the minimum employment period ended. That leaves just 4,500 per year. On top of that, many of the businesses that claimed restart we’re not serious about putting on a new employee. Instead those businesses were serious about free money from the government. And that’s the problem with corporate welfare. It turns businesses into subsidy farms, reliant on the government. It creates phoney jobs not sustainable jobs, not breadwinner jobs. It creates weaker accompanies, not stronger companies. It replaces the profit motive with a handout mentality. One nation opposes corporate welfare a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to large corporations. This government’s economic recovery plan for Australia is more corporate welfare more printing money to give to the banks more pumping up the housing bubble. That’s it. That’s the whole plan. If the government was fair dinkum about creating jobs, it would create the right business environment for growth. It would invest in restoring our country’s productive capacity. The productive capacity that’s been destroyed, by a lack of infrastructure by decimation of our electricity sector which is driving manufacturers overseas. We’ve gone from the lowest electricity prices in the world to the highest and manufacturers are leaving in their droves and taking with them their jobs to China, India, and Asia. So restoring our productive capacity includes building dams, new power stations, roads, bridges, and transmission lines. And it involves cutting red tape, cutting blue tape and cutting green tape. And it would involve if the government had courage, comprehensive tax reform. So that we have a proper honest, effective, and efficient taxation system a transparent taxation system. And then let the economy get on with the business of creating jobs and wealth for all Australians. Instead ,this government chooses to promote a casualized workforce. JobMaker is not about creating full-time work. It is the reverse. It motivates indeed drives businesses to replace one full-time employee with two casual employees. Replacing one real breadwinner job, with two junk jobs. The JobMaker protections around higher payroll and head counts allow for this casualization process. This is an attack on breadwinner jobs, jobs that can support families, jobs that can put kids through school and universities. So kids have another option for a better life than did their parents. Remember that Australia. Remember when kids faired better than their parents? under successive Liberal National and Labour Greens Governments. That’s a thing of the past. Our generation is the first generation to pass on less to our kids, not more. Less wealth, less opportunity, less freedom. And the Liberal National Party have form on this. Prime Minister Howard’s Government spent 11 years breaking up full-time breadwinner jobs into junk jobs, casual and part-time work. Jobs that have no bargaining power low wages, less entitlements and less security. And I’ve talked about that many times in the Senate. I’ve got so much data and evidence on that. There is no wealth creation in these low paid casual subsistence jobs. As a result Australia’s median wage has gone backwards over the last 30 years. And why some union bosses have gone along with this is beyond me. But we can talk about that another day. Today we’re talking about the liberal party declaring war on families, war on holidays, war on workers home ownership and war on everyday Australians. trying desperately to accumulate wealth, just to stash a bit away for the future. JobMaker is another nail in the coffin of Australian families. Courtesy of the corporate greed, hubris and arrogance that has overtaken the liberal national party. One nation opposes this legislation, this marketing ploy instead of trying to look good, governments should do good. We need to get our country back to basics. Invest in restoring our country’s productive capacity. That’s what decides our country’s future.
Is leave granted? Leave is granted for one minute, Senator Roberts.
Thank you. I support this motion concerning the need to create a credible and effective integrity commission. The integrity commission once established must offer the features as identified by the Centre for Public Integrity, which I firmly support. I’ve also had the opportunity to see the government’s recently released draft Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill and note that in its present state it requires considerable amendment prior to receiving full support. A sound Integrity Commission would maintain a broad jurisdiction to investigate corrupt conduct within the public sector with strong investigative powers. It should be empowered to hold public hearings whenever this was in the public interest to do so. This is fundamental to the operations of an effective integrity commission. The commission should be able to investigate corruption independently on its own initiative, even if based on tip-offs from the public and their referral process should be broad. There should be no limitations on the possible findings of corrupt conduct of parliamentarians or public servants. The bill must be able to operate retrospectively so as to deal with recent alleged anomalies in the conduct of persons managing the Great Barrier Reef fund and Murray-Darling water buybacks
I serve the people of Queensland in Australia. Yet, I’ve lived, worked and studied for five years in the USA and travelled through all 50 states. And I know that under the United States Constitution, the declaration of the polls in a presidential election is not made by the media nor by political parties and certainly not the commentariat. The Declaration of the poll is made by each state legislature. Pennsylvania has ordered a recount. Other states will follow because state legislatures are committed to counting every legal vote. As of today, not one legislature has declared a result and several states have now been precluded from declaring due to legal challenges to voting irregularities. This election won’t be resolved for weeks, so congratulating former Vice President Biden is premature. Now I understand the greens are getting excited that a Biden or Harris presidency will advance the socialist green agenda. What will this socialist green agenda do to the United States? It’ll raise power prices as unreliable solar and wind energy expands and destroys baseload power generation wiping out small and medium businesses and heavy industry. Under President Trump, heavy industry returned to the United States and brought high paying breadwinner jobs back for American workers. The Democrats green new deal will destroy those jobs forever. Americans thrown out of work by green policies will be forced onto a subsistence allowance from the government for the rest of their lives. This the greens have euphemistically named a universal basic income and basic it will be. According to Stanford University, these policies will destroy 4.9 million jobs and reduce America’s GDP by 2.9 trillion US dollars every year of a Biden or Harris presidency. This is news to most people that I talked to which is a damning indictment of the news media. The presentation of news is worse than just fake news. Mainstream media has devolved to being propaganda. President Trump’s greatest achievements, have been ignored by fake news. So let me remind every one of these the lowest black unemployment rate in history the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate in history, the lowest female unemployment rates since World War II, the highest number of black led business startups in history, the highest number of female led business startups in history, the first president in 30 years to not start a new war, five Nobel Peace Prize nominations for peace deals. The socialist takeover of America will destroy these gains And end in misery.
http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/y4ptGUgkT28/maxresdefault.jpg7201280Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-11-11 10:23:162020-11-23 14:49:36Media has no authority to call US election
Member for the seat of Hunter, Mr Joel Fitzgibbon MP, ought to resign and offer the voters a real choice for representation at a by-election.
Senator Roberts said, “Mr Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the ALP cabinet over climate policy is damming confirmation that Labor no longer represents blue-collar workers.
“He cannot be effective sitting on the back-bench sulking over how Labor have lost their way. Hunter Valley constituents deserve better and he needs to resign.”
In the 2019 election, with a massive 14% swing against Labor, the seat of Hunter became a truly marginal seat for the first time in its 109-year history.
“Mr Fitzgibbon only started caring about blue-collar workers in his electorate when they deserted him at the last election in favour of One Nation’s Stuart Bonds.
“Labor can no longer hide from the fact that traditional working-class voters no longer support their climate and energy policies,” Senator Roberts added.
Mr Stuart Bonds, One Nation candidate in Hunter stated, “It’s over Joel. If you cannot fight for your constituents as the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources from the front bench, then you will never do it from the back bench.” Mr Bonds with nearly 22% of the vote in the 2019 election said, “The Hunter deserves a strong voice and I intend to be that voice …. so game on!”
https://www.abc.net.au/cm/rimage/12867130-16x9-xlarge.jpg?v=2485862Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-11-10 15:29:232020-11-10 15:29:31Senator Roberts calls for Fitzgibbon to resign from Parliament
The Reserve Bank of Australia has just given $100 billion to prop up the banks but why is the government ignoring spending that would increase our productive capacity like road, coal power stations and dams?
Transcript
[Marcus Paul] All right, the RBA this week cut the interest rate down to you know, virtually nothing. 0.1% interest rates. So I mean, it’ll help people buy or stay in their homes, but there is a cost of course, self-funded retirees as we’ve talked about on the programme, who rely on investment income, and seeing their returns fall to basically nothing.
[Malcolm Roberts] That’s right. And then so, these people providing for their so-called own retirement is just hot air, because the legs had been cut out from under them now. We’re now at the point where retirees are having to spend their capital, because the return on their nest egg is almost non-existent and heading negative. And what’s disturbing is that, you know, this is going to create a lot of pressure for people at a time when people don’t need it. And by printing another a hundred billion, and giving it to the banks, they’re going to prop up the banks to do more mortgage lending. This government, the state and federal are completely ignoring the need to invest in productive capacity. We need to invest in power stations, dams, roads, ports bridges. The Iron Boomerang Scheme, the Bradfield Scheme. These and many other prime investments, opportunities in our country
[Marcus Paul] Yeah.
[Malcolm Roberts] Are being neglected. And we need to get into building the productive capacity of our country.
Marcus Paul and I discussed the proposed Commonwealth Corruption Commission which is long overdue and designed to be a toothless tiger.
Transcript
[Marcus] Retired Victorian Supreme Court Judge, Stephen Charles said, “This is not a corruption commission. It’s designed to protect parliamentarians and senior public servants from investigation. After two years of waiting, this is a tremendous disappointment. An annual budget of $42 million when fully operational. And of course it will file in its current form of how it’s you know being sold. It will fail to hold people to account. It won’t be anything like a new South Wales, independent commission against corruption.
[Malcolm] The early indications, from what we can see is there will be no public hearings for public sector and, and members of parliament corruption.
[Marcus] Well, that’s right. And we won’t have yeah.
[Malcolm] That’s the place where you need it. That’s gotta be out in front and transparent. The prime minister, the attorney general have dragged their feet on this for a couple of years now. And they now produce something that falls short of the mark. And, you know, so how can we do public hearings for law enforcement and police, but not for members of parliament, and for public sector employees, this is wrong.
[Marcus] Yeah
[Malcolm] And then we’ve gotta have the names out there, and yet people are entitled to make sure that the government that they elect are working for the people. And that’s what we need to get. We need to make sure that there is pressure on politicians to be clean at all times.
[Marcus] Absolutely. You know, under its current proposed format, you won’t see people like, you know, I mean, look, what’s happened in new South Wales in the last couple of months, we’ve had a premiere drag before the independent commission of corruption and grill to within a nature of a personal life. And that won’t happen under this proposed federal CIC. And that’s an issue for me.
[Malcolm] Yes. And the attorney general has the power to limit information that can be considered by the Commonwealth integrity commission. There are also the bars for referral are way too high. Someone approaches the institution with reasonable suspicions of corruption breaches, but no actual evidence. It can be ignored. And then with retrospectivity, which means a sport rots and the Murray-Darling basin quarterbacks, they won’t be investigated because they were in the past. This is, this is just way way too short of where we need to be.
[Marcus] All right now . I’m glad to have you on we’ll chat soon, mate. Thank you again as always.
Great chat with Marcus Paul today. We discussed the Queensland and US elections and the proposed federal crimes commission.
Transcript
Marcus Paul
Yeah, it’s a good thing that Malcolm loves to talk, because I’m losing my voice. Good morning, mate, how are you?
Malcolm Roberts
I’m very well, thanks, Marcus, how are you?
Marcus Paul
Yeah, good. I spoke to Pauline earlier in the week, we were surprised to hear from her, because, you know, given what happened last week, but she was very clear that she believed the recent election in Queensland was an incumbent election. And that’s your first point you want to talk about this morning.
Malcolm Roberts
Well actually the first thing I’d like to talk about is the State of Origin. Do you know the score last night, mate?
Marcus Paul
Oh, was there a game of football on last night? I thought the footy season was over. There was a Grand Final a couple of weeks ago, yes, I know. 18-14, New South– to Queen, whoa, I nearly, a Freudian slip, I nearly said New South Wales, but no, well done.
Malcolm Roberts
Habits break. Yeah. Yes, the, it was a disappointment last Saturday at the Queensland election for us, but we did retain our seat of Mirani, Marcus, and with an increased majority. So where we had a candidate, and not just a candidate, a sitting MP, he’s actually done a fabulous job, Steve Andrew. But Pauline’s correct. It was an incumbent election. But I think more to the point, in times of fear, and that’s what the Queensland Labour machine did, they created a lot of fear about COVID. Especially amongst the elderly. And in times of fear and something major, people tend to go not only with the incumbent, but with the, with the larger parties, the parties they supposedly know. So, I think it was all about fear. So basically, my summary of the election is, fear won and Queensland lost, because there are a lot of things being neglected and, fear of COVID was no match for the long-term vision and sensible local policies we had going. So, that’s just a summary, but we’ve got to learn from that.
Marcus Paul
Well absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, it was quite an amazing victory, to the incumbent, Annastacia Palaszczuk. I mean, Pauline was very adamant that, you know, again, as always, as she’s always done, she’ll get back up, dust herself off, and continue, you know, with her thoughts and policies on, you know, as to what is in the best interests, of voters not only in Queensland, but around the country.
Malcolm Roberts
Yeah exactly. And she and I are very similar in that. It doesn’t matter what happens. We always do what’s in the national interest, in Australia’s interest, and in Queensland’s interests. So, in Queensland, and New South Wales’s interest, Mark Latham’s doing a fabulous job, holding the government accountable in New South Wales. Same with WA. Our MPs over there in the upper house in WA have a very, very good record of holding the government accountable and stopping some major problems that should have, that would have otherwise gone through, Marcus. So we won’t stop, Pauline and I. We’ll be right onto it. We have got some things to learn, and some things for the future but, you know, as a prominent Brisbane radio announcer, and a former State MP said, never waste a crisis. That’s an established political maxim, and that’s what the Labour machine did. And he also said, fear wins over optimism. And when afraid, people run to the incumbent and to major parties. And that’s just the way it was.
Marcus Paul
All right now, just on this, I noticed that there was some comments made by James Ashby. And I noticed in the notes here, the demise of regional media does make it challenging to get other views out to voters, other than from the major parties. Now, there’ve been some suggestions, obviously it’s been a little difficult with a lack of media diversity in Queensland, in particular in the regions that that’s been a big part of the problem for One Nation, there was criticism of Pauline perhaps not being out and about enough, and I don’t know whether I buy into any of that. And of course, the other issue surrounding all of this is the fact that you just weren’t able to get your message to enough people, Malcolm.
Malcolm Roberts
That’s correct. The demise of media in Queensland is a big factor, because we are very well-known on the ground. Pauline, I want to make it very clear to everyone. News Corp misreported, misrepresented Pauline. She didn’t stop working. She is an amazing person, not just an amazing woman, an amazing person. And she was from, tip of Cape York, Thursday Island, all the way through to the Gold Coast, Coolangatta. Cape York to Coolangatta. She was all over the place, on the ground. And she did a phenomenal job. And everywhere she went, she raised interest. But no one reported it. And News Corp had the temerity to say that they, that she wasn’t around. That was a complete fabrication on News Corp’s part, and because of the local media, regional media being decimated, the messages just didn’t get out. So we’re going to have to think about that, Marcus, very, very seriously. It’s a great point you raised.
Marcus Paul
All right. The other issue of course, in relation to what you’ve just mentioned, and something that I brought up on the programme this morning in relation to the former prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd. His petition calling for a federal, well, some sort of inquiry, whether it’s a royal commission or otherwise, into News Corp. And obviously the ownership of so much media in places like Queensland, he got more than a half a million signatories, signatures, before it closed at midnight last night. I see the Greens were tweeting up a storm, saying that they will table it in Parliament if they get the support of Labour. So it’s over to Anthony Albanese, who so far has baulked at the idea. What’s, what’s, I guess, the One Nation stance on this?
Malcolm Roberts
Well I think these days, Marcus, there is so much going on in the media space. The fact is that there’s so many options for people. We have got a huge option, choice of options coming on. We can go to the internet, we can listen to radio, we can watch the, we can take the local newspaper, even if it’s online. But you know what’s happening? In response to News Corp–
Marcus Paul
I can tell you what’s happening, you’re not answering my question, that’s what’s happening.
Malcolm Roberts
No no, I am, your question is what’s happening. I won’t be supporting the News Corp, petition against News Corp, because there’s so much happening on the ground. There are local newspapers popping up in Queensland, in Queensland and giving us the news. There are local community radio stations. There’s your radio station network, which is, which will grow, Marcus, because people know that just like in America, they can’t trust the mainstream media. They can’t trust the ABC here. And they’re losing trust in News Corp. So they will go either into the community channels, the radios, the TVs. And that’s the real issue where we’ve got, we’ve got a fabulous opportunity there.
Marcus Paul
All right, okay. All right. I’ll delve into that a little bit more, but I suppose it’s more a question for Anthony Albanese and hopefully we’ll get him on to nut out the ideas there. Now, the US election. Boy, oh boy. Donald Trump. You say he’s doing amazingly. I say he’s off the bloody, he’s off the, I dunno.
Malcolm Roberts
No, he’s–
Marcus Paul
What’s going on with him, hey?
Malcolm Roberts
He’s done a remarkable job. You look at, look at Michigan. Michigan is a rust belt state, it was full of manufacturing. Manufacturing was sold out by Obama, by Clinton. And by George Bush junior. And, and Trump came along and said, Ford Motor Company, if you keep making cars in Mexico, then you’ll pay a tariff. And Ford Motor Company then reopened the factory in Michigan. The people in Michigan love him, the people in Pennsylvania love him. And that is a testament to this man. He said some things before the previous election. Then he damn well did it. He put, he followed up on his promises. The man is on track, I believe, to win again. The only thing that’s going to stop him from winning, I think, is corruption in the voting system. Which is what he’s been saying–
Marcus Paul
Hang on, all right–
Malcolm Roberts
Trump’s done an enormous job.
Marcus Paul
All right, well, have a listen to this. And I wanna get your thoughts on it. Here we go.
Malcolm Roberts
This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.
Marcus Paul
Ah, come on. Surely he went a bit early there.
Malcolm Roberts
No, he actually was slower than Biden, Marcus, because I listened to Biden’s comments, and Biden’s comments were similar. And he was claiming victory for the Democrats, far, far too early.
Marcus Paul
Righto.
Malcolm Roberts
Trump had to come out, and what they’re doing is they’re both posturing to get their lawyers a good position. That’s the way I see it anyway, but I’m no expert. But there are serious questions being asked about the numbers, in some of the states, the crucial battleground states.
Marcus Paul
All right, the RBA this week cut the interest rate down to you know, virtually nothing. 0.1% interest rates. I mean, it’ll help people buy or stay in their homes, but there is a cost of course, self-funded retirees, as we’ve talked about on the programme, who rely on investment income, and seeing their returns fall to basically nothing.
Malcolm Roberts
That’s right. And then so, these people providing for their so-called own retirement is just hot air because, the legs have been cut out from under them now. We’re now at the point where retirees are having to spend their capital, because the return on their nest egg is almost non-existent and heading negative. And what’s disturbing is that, you know, this is going to create a lot of pressure for people at a time when people don’t need it. And by printing another a hundred billion, and giving it to the banks, they’re going to prop up the banks to do more mortgage lending. This government, the state and federal are completely ignoring the need to invest in productive capacity. We need to invest in power stations, dams, roads, ports, bridges. The Iron Boomerang Scheme, the Bradfield Scheme. These and many other prime investments, opportunities in our country are being neglected. And we need to get into building the productive capacity of our country.
Marcus Paul
I spoke to Andrew Leigh from labour, earlier in the week, on this Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill. He basically says, it’s not a, it’s an anti, well, it’s basically a toothless tiger. That’s the best way that I can describe it. His description of it. Retired Victorian Supreme Court judge, Stephen Charles, said this is not a corruption commission, it’s designed to protect parliamentarians and senior public servants from investigation. After two years of waiting, this is a tremendous disappointment. An annual budget of $42 million when fully operational. And of course it, it will fail. In its current form of how it’s, you know, being sold. It will fail to hold people to account. It won’t be anything like a New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Malcolm Roberts
Yeah. I always make comment after doing my work on this, and I haven’t done my work on this, but some of my staff have, Marcus, and the early indications from what we can see is there will be no public hearings for public sector and members of parliament corruption. None.
Marcus Paul
Well, that’s right. And we won’t have–
Malcolm Roberts
And that’s the, that’s the place where you need it. That’s gotta be out in front and transparent. The prime minister, the attorney general, have dragged their feet on this, for a couple of years now. And they now produce something that falls short of the mark. And, you know, so how can, how can we do public hearings for law enforcement and police, but not for members of parliament? And for public sector employees.
Marcus Paul
Well that’s right.
Malcolm Roberts
This is wrong.
Marcus Paul
Yeah.
Malcolm Roberts
And then we’ve got to have the names out in the open. People are entitled to make sure that the government that they elect are working for the people. And that’s what we need to get, we need to make sure that there is pressure on politicians to be clean at all times.
Marcus Paul
Absolutely. And, you know, under its current proposed format, you won’t see people like, you know. I mean, look what’s happened in New South Wales, in the last couple of months. We’ve had a Premier dragged before the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and grilled to within an inch of her personal life. That won’t happen under this proposed Federal CIC, and that’s an issue for me.
Malcolm Roberts
Yes, and the attorney general has the power to limit information that can be considered by the Commonwealth Integrity Commission. There are also, the bars for referral are way too high. Someone approaches the institution with reasonable suspicions of corruption breaches, but no actual evidence. It can be ignored. And then with, there’s no retrospectivity, which means the sport rorts, the sports rorts and the Murray-Darling basin water buybacks, they won’t be investigated, because they were in the past. This is just way, way too short of where we need to be.
Marcus Paul
All right Malcolm, great to have you on, we’ll chat soon, mate. Thank you again, as always.
[Marcus] Yes look I mentioned that story about Australia Post just a moment or two ago. I mean those ridiculous costings being discussed in Senate estimates and Malcolm Roberts is also involved in all of this. He joins us on the programme, hello Malcolm.
[Malcolm] Good morning Marcus, how are you mate?
[Marcus] I’m okay, busy time in Canberra at the moment, with these estimates going on.
[Malcolm] Yes it is we’re doing a combination of written submissions, written questions on notice, as well as personal appearances. So there’s a lot on–
[Marcus] Good.
[Malcolm] In Senate estimates. It’s a matter of making the best use of the time.
[Marcus] All right good work, because we need questions to be asked about really important issues, like why the government paid $30 million for the land that was later valued at just under $3 million. The previous owner now leasing back the land at a value of $1 million.
The land was owned by the Liberal Party donors, Tony and Ron Perich’s Leppington Pastoral company. What can you tell me, about this so-called Golden Leppington Triangle? Well there must be There must be gold in them there hills, there has to be. I mean I’d love to have my, any asset that I have. I’d love somebody to pay me 10 times what it’s worth.
[Malcolm] It’s more than 10 times, in overall I guess, yeah 10 times, but yeah, it’s just staggering. The land was valued without even entering the site. It just displays typical poor governance from government and federally. You know, the federal government is far too big.
It needs to get back to handing back most of its responsibilities back to the States, because they stolen from the state. And you’re not going to get accountability in government like this. And you know what’s happening Marcus, is that we’ve seen a disregard of taxpayer’s money and a bypassing of data, making decisions based upon what looks to be like mate’s needs. And we know we need an ICAC, Federal Government ICAC. The attorney general has promised one two years ago, draft bill–
[Marcus] Yup, yup.
[Malcolm] Since December, 2019, but it’s just a weak, toothless proposal. We need real governance, we need real accountability. And we need above all, a restoration of government’s primary responsibility which is to serve the people not steal from the people.
[Marcus] Yeah I mean Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, you support a federal independent commission against corruption, we absolutely 100% need one. I mean how? Look at this for poor governance. I mean, it’s typical, a disregard for taxpayers money and bypassing data.
I know you love using data, but I mean how on earth can this land be valued without anybody even entering the site for goodness sake?
[Malcolm] Well you’re absolutely correct. And you know this is big as it is. It’s tiny compared to what is going on, say in the rorting of our energy, which is destroying jobs, exporting jobs overseas. That’s why we want to chase the CSIRO, yet again in Senate estimates and I’ll be holding them accountable.
I’ve written a letter ahead of time to make the best use my time saying I want certain questions answered. This will be the fifth opportunity for the CSIRO to produce evidence that climate policies are needed. And without that, we need to scrap these policies. Why hasn’t the government done it’s due diligence at the site where the land transaction–
[Marcus] Yup.
[Malcolm] Took place, why hasn’t the government done its due diligence on the CSIRO? We’ve given the CSIRO four opportunities, this will be the fifth, they have not come up with the goods we’re destroying not $30 million worth of wealth. We’re destroying trillions of dollars worth of wealth–
[Marcus] Yup.
[Malcolm] In this state, in this country because of these climate policies that have got no basis in science. So we’re giving the CSIRO yet another attempt, a fifth opportunity to provide the evidence.
[Marcus] All right, well, as I’ve discussed with you before, I mean, in order for our economy to continue for all, in order for investment to take place whether it’s in renewables, whether it’s in nuclear, whether it’s you know in coal or anything. There needs to be something on the table from the government.
There needs to be direction right now it’s a rudderless ship and we need, you know, if you want to attract investment into any energy source, renewable or otherwise, you need to let those who may be willing to invest in our energy needs. You need to let them know a roadmap, what’s happening. There’s nothing going on at the moment.
[Malcolm] Exactly and you know the reason why Marcus? Is because there’s no basis in fact, or science or data for their climate policies, there is none at all. The CSIRO has never proven that four times to us, because they’ve failed four times. And that’s the reason why there’s so many rudderless moves, so many rudderless direction’s going on or lack of direction going on in this state–
[Marcus] Yup.
[Malcolm] In this country, because there is lack of data underpinning the policies. And therefore people just get pulled from one side to the other in parliament. They don’t know where they’re going. They’re lost, they’re in a fog. Canberra is the most destructive city in the country. And I mean that sincerely.
[Marcus] Okay.
[Malcolm] Because they’re paid enormously and they add no value. The fastest growing income in the country is in Canberra. The fastest growing population of a city is in Canberra.
[Marcus] Yes.
[Malcolm] And the lack of accountability is there. And when government, federal government is the source of your growth, then you’re on a really downward slide slope into oblivion as far as this country is concerned. It’s just ridiculous because there’s nothing there that drives this, and this state, as in the state government, the government.
[Marcus] Yup.
[Malcolm] Is out of control.
[Marcus] All right, let’s just move on to youth crime, if we can now, now there’s been some suggestions that if the opposition in Queensland get in, they’ll put a curfew on youth up there in Townsville, and also in Cairns. I mean, what has led an increase in youth crime?
And that’s your neck of the woods up there in Queensland, I mean, what’s going on here? Is it poor parenting, high unemployment, lack of maybe consequences, you know, revolving door through courts, what is it? All of that?
[Malcolm] There’s a really positive story here Marcus, a wonderful story. There are community groups now in Townsville who are so concerned about the crime, that’s gone out of control in Townsville. It’s similar in Ipswich, in Caboolture and in Logan. These areas that have been traditional Labor Party Strongholds, Labor Party’s taken for granted and neglected them.
But the really positive sign is that there’s a group of, they’re actually a couple of groups in Townsville. They’re coming together now, both indigenous people and European descent. One for example is called One Community One Standard. And they’re saying, ‘We’ve had enough.
You people in government are not doing your job in the state government under the Labor Party machine. And we want to make sure that we put in place active community responses to the crime.’ And they’re not just saying let’s punish kids, because a lot of this is crime from juveniles.
They’re saying, let’s look at the root causes of this. Let’s get parents to stand up and say, we’ve got to look after the kids, learn and teach them responsibility which means parents have to take responsibility.
Let’s get energy policies correct, So that we get a return to cheap energy, which means more jobs instead of exporting jobs to China and having our kids on drugs and out of control on the streets, let’s give them work something meaningful.
And there are also some wonderful people up there who are Jeff Adams for example and Ross Butler, who has, coming up with juvenile boot camps that have been proven over many many years. And the government is just sitting on his hands. You know what the first initiative these people want Marcus?
They want a simple, confidential survey of all the people involved with these kids because the state government won’t let them speak. They can’t get the facts out. So government is now not only actively condoning this violence and this crime, they’re encouraging it by suppressing any doubt on it, again government just wanting to abandon people for the sake of political correctness and looking good rather than doing good.
This is a really positive story coming up in Townsville
[Marcus] All right.
[Malcolm] Because, One Community, One Standard.
[Marcus] But look Jacinta Pryce will be speaking more and Mundine. Yes tell me about this CPAC, that’s the U-S election day. Tell me about yeah okay, tell me about CPAC.
[Malcolm] CPAC stands, the philosophy is basically conservatism is the political philosophy which States that sovereignty resides in the person. It’s about restoring freedom in our country.
[Marcus] Yup.
[Malcolm] I spoke there last year.
[Marcus] Okay.
[Malcolm] It’s a wonderful gathering. I spoke there last year, I shared the stage with Jim Molan.
And it’s on this year, just one day this year, for Wednesday, the 4th of November, hopefully to celebrate Trump’s re-election, but they’ll also be handing out the CPAC Keneally Cup, which will be presented by Craig Kelly, because Christina Keneally won it last year for trying to stop this going ahead because Christina Keneally is one of the controls of politics and she wanted to stop free debate, stop free speech.
And she got so much publicity for CPAC, that CPAC was sold out. So I really strongly recommend anyone in Sydney to go there. But I can’t go this year because of the border closures
[Marcus] Sure.
[Malcolm] But it’s a wonderful display, wonderful forum.
[Marcus] So just on this, I, this is going to be cheeky. So the 2020 picks for this so-called Christina Keneally Cup will be what, Kevin Rudd, why? I mean, all he wants is for Murdoch not to control all of the newspapers up there in Queensland. Come on you’ve got to agree with that surely Malcolm
[Malcolm] Look and that’s Kevin Rudd just wanting to intimidate free press–
[Marcus] No he’s not.
[Malcolm] By promoting Royal commission to . We don’t need that, we just better a marketplace. If people don’t need Murdoch papers, they just don’t have to buy it.
[Marcus] Yeah but hang on, that note, Malcolm we’re going to have our first disagreement and you know how much I respect and admire you, but come on if Murdoch owns all of the papers in Queensland, what other choice do they have? There’s no other choice.
[Malcolm] Well, there are plenty of choices because we’ve never, it’s like the ABC up in the Pilbara Marcus.
[Marcus] No don’t try the ABC in Pilbara at me. I’m talking about Queensland, stop distracting. I thought you were better than that Malcolm.
[Malcolm] No what I’m saying is in the eighties, they only had the ABC and the–
[Marcus] Now he’s going back to the eighties, here we go.
[Malcolm] But hang on, hang on, give me a go.
[Marcus] All right.
[Malcolm] What’s What’s happening is that we’ve now got media from all over the world. You can get it on the internet. You don’t have to watch Murdoch. You don’t have to watch the ABC.
[Marcus] Yeah but now I know that. And people yeah that’s true, and hopefully they do, but people, you know, a lot of people aren’t as savvy as you they are stuck in their ways, older people and they buy newspapers. That’s what they’ve done all their lives. And a lot of them aren’t on the internet, funnily enough Malcolm.
And what they’re getting is the one source of news in the sunshine state. And I just, Malcolm I like you, but I can’t agree with you on this.
[Malcolm] We’ll agree to disagree.
[Marcus] All right then.
[Malcolm] I don’t see that we have to buy anything from Murdoch it’s up to people to choose whatever they want. Most of Murdoch’s stuff is on the net now. He publishes hardly any regional papers because they’re just not viable. So, you know, if you can get him on the internet, you can get anyone else on the internet too. So, you know, if you don’t like Murdoch, go elsewhere.
[Marcus] It’s not about not liking Murdoch. It’s about having a variety of sources in which to get your news and information all right mate. But anyway, we’ll talk more about this. We’ll have another disagreement but I do appreciate you coming on the programme mate. Thank you so much.
[Malcolm] You’re welcome, pleasure to be here, Marcus.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GovernmentWaste.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-10-22 14:13:532020-10-22 14:14:01Government wastes $27 million on one piece of land
Thank you, Madam Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I support the government’s changes to university funding. Firstly, though we agree with the government’s general thrust. Secondly, we want to go further to ensure responsibility among students and to reduce taxpayer load. Thirdly, we want to restore accountability and academic freedom in universities to make our universities better so that our future students will emerge better.
So let’s get to the government’s thrust. It reduces fees for courses that meet needs for future jobs and more practical courses like engineering, nursing, and teaching. We support that. It will make these courses more affordable. It raises fees through humanities courses, and I’ll explain later why that is so effective, because humanities people, well, graduates, are not getting jobs right now.
The government’s thrust focuses taxpayer funds on needed skills, and that is good for our country. So the second point I wanted to discuss was that we need to go further to ensure responsibility among students and to reduce taxpayer load. The current HECS debt is $65 billion and growing rapidly. That’s the outstanding HECS debt. With Australia’s national debt now pushing one trillion dollars, the repaid HECS money could be used productively.
We believe that we need to reinstate the 10% discount for fees paid up front. Now, people who pay their fees up front, people who, sorry, people who can afford university do not need the concessional interest rate. And as things start, do not need to repay debt, do not start repaying debt until earning an annual income of $46,620.
Financially, it is better value for the government and for taxpayers, and we do represent taxpayers, to have a loan paid up front at a discount than paid out over 10-plus years. It takes on average about 10 years for a student to repay a HECS debt. And we need to reduce the threshold for repaying HECS debt based on data and fairness to students and fairness to taxpayers. Remember them?
The people who are paying our salaries? The people who run this country? We need to limit and student entitlement to seven years full time equivalent and stop people on fee free university education with little or no chance of a job. Students cannot continue to live off the taxpayer forever.
We’ve got to get job ready graduates. We have a duty to protect taxpayers and to protect our nation, our community, as well as to protect students. The third area, restoring accountability and academic freedom in universities. Universities monitor student academic progress and students who repeatedly fail, for example, if they do not pass more than half of their subjects, should stop getting FEE-HELP.
This removes a fee free career for university students who keep failing. We also need students to be aware of what they’re getting from taxpayers’ money, and we need job ready graduates. I can give you some examples of universities suppressing free speech. Dr. Peter Ridd was sacked from his position at James Cook University for being critical of poor quality reef science.
He was fulfilling his duties as a scientist to challenge his colleagues and he was sacked. And the recent Senate inquiry, Vit in Queensland, vindicated him when academics admitted facts and data that revealed the Queensland state Labour government does not have the facts to support its recent reef regulations.
Peter Ridd was correct. Professor Bob Carter, the late professor Bob Carter, well known globally as a fine scientist, paleoclimatologist. He was prevented and hindered from speaking by James Cook University. And now just here recently at the ANU, Dr. Howard Brady, a noted geologist and who understands climate extremely well was invited by the staff at the University of Queensland at University ANU to make a presentation on the impacts of the study of climate science and why it’s gone wrong.
ANU prohibited him after the notice was sent out, ANU prohibited him from delivering that seminar. But here’s a welcome sign from ANU, professors and staff at ANU were so disgusted with the ANU’s response that they joined together and Dr. Brady will now be conducting his seminar later this month. And they’ve given him immense publicity internationally.
He’s received support from the University of Sydney’s staff, from the ANU stuff, from other universities within Australia and from overseas universities including Princeton.
The former high court Chief Justice, Robert French, recommended in his government commissioned review of free speech at Australian universities that academic freedoms would be protected so data and research can be put forward. That’s a scientist’s responsibility.
Justice French recommended that as part of academic freedom, academics should be allowed to, quote, to make lawful public comment on any issue in their personal capacities. Universities allow, indeed encourage, far left Marxists, anarchists, socialists, and communists to speak freely on university campuses.
Yet do nothing to stop these same fascists shutting down lecturers with whom these fascists disagree. In not protecting free speech of all voices, universities are complicit in the suppression of speech. Now, I went to the University of Queensland, where I got a master’s in business administration.
And I’m very proud to say that the Dean of that university just recently a few years ago welcomed students with a note saying, there are no free spaces, no free, no safe spaces at the University of Chicago. Basically he was saying, suck it up, discuss and debate freely. That’s what universities were about.
That’s what they need to get back to being about. And recently I was listening with a university vice chancellor, a regional university vice chancellor, who subtly admitted to me that the Capitol City unis have fouled their nests because of their craving for political correctness and their fear of upsetting people.
The media reported Professor Ridd as saying he supported, quote, any moves to improve the disastrous situation at the moment where academic freedom of speech effectively does not exist. At present, universities are applying their vague codes of conduct on top of academic freedom of speech.
And this means academics have to be respectful and collegiate. Any robust debate, as he points out, is likely to seem disrespectful to somebody. So that is a way of shutting down debate. That’s how universities that fear academic freedom or are too gutless to ensure freedom suppress academic freedom and free speech.
And we need practical graduates. And my three years underground as a coalface miner after graduate was priceless for me. So I left university and then I realised I’d better go and learn something. So I worked underground as at the coalface for three to four years. We also only need to remember that In addition to practical experience, universities are not for everyone and should not be for everyone.
We need to rekindle trades, rekindle the TAFE, rekindle apprenticeships, and Sen. Hanson has been leading the way in Australia in rekindling apprenticeships and the government has taken her policy two years ago and implemented it. We need to also stop political correctness at TAFE and get it back on track.
So we’re very pleased then to see that the government is undertaking a major shakeup of university fees in a bid to steer students towards fields where there are skill shortages and jobs for the future. And it’s better for students after graduation. University graduates have been slamming universities for meaningless degrees that have left students with dismal career prospects and crippling debt.
While a university degree leads some students to a bright future, for others, it currently leaves them with nothing but debt and disappointment. Now, I wanna take a break here because I wanna answer some comments from Sen. Murray Watt. His comments disrespect the university students and universities.
And his fabrications require me to respond. He said that since they have entered parliament centre the Hanson and one and Sen. Roberts line up with the LNP to pass legislation. Well, let’s see who lines up with the LNP. Let’s indeed have a good look at this. On climate policies, Liberal and Labour are similar.
They believe the nonsense. On energy policies, Liberal and Labour both believe in our renewable energy target. Both believe in stealing farmers’ property rights, as they have both done. Liberal and Labor both believe in gold plating the networks. Liberal and Labor both believe in a national electricity market that has turned into a national electricity racket.
One Nation opposes all of those. On water, the Turnbull-Howard 2007 Water Act is supported by Labour. Now some Liberals are waking up and some Nats are waking up. One Nation opposes the 2007 water act. And the destruction it’s caused across the Murray-Darling basin.
Electricity price, as I’ve just said, Labour and Liberal support the renewable energy target, they support subsidies to the intermittent unreliable energy sources of wind and solar, they support privatisation, They support the national electricity market which has been, which is a national electricity racket.
Both are anti-coal in their actions. The only difference between the Liberal and Labour is that liberals are positive in their talk, but not their actions. Labour and Liberal have been killing our fishing industry. Foreign ownership, Liberal and Labour have sold out Port of Darwin and other companies and water rights in our country.
Record debt, state and federal, Labour and Liberal join. Infrastructure, a lack of infrastructure and neglect. Taxes, foreign multinationals, tax-free, Labour and Liberal have enabled that over the last six decades. I could go on, but you can get the point that Liberal and Labour are actually closer than One Nation and Labour One Nation and the LNP.
The second point Sen. Watt talked about was One Nation candidates out there, masquerading, these are his words, as the people who are standing up for battlers in our community. Well let’s go through some of our candidates. Michael Blaxland at Gimpy. Sharon Lohse at Maryborough.
Sharon Bell, now here’s a good example, Sharon Bell, a real fighter, she’s out working class girl who’s come up and is now working in the construction industry. She is fighting the member for Bundamba who was parachuted in from a job from a union position in Melbourne, parachuted into Queensland outside the Bundamba electorate.
And then two months before the recent election, served by election, he moved into Bundamba, and he’s doing nothing. And what did the Labour Party do? They got rid of Joanne Miller, a first class true Labour member of parliament, and replaced her with this blow-in parachuted in from Melbourne.
Then I could talk about Deb Lawson, Christine Keys, who wants to restore solid education, Wade Rothery, a coal miner in Keppel, Torin O’Brien, Steve Andrew, an electrician who has got such a good rapport with the people of Mirani in his electorate, because he is a member of parliament.
These are the types of people that One Nation is very, very proud to say stand with us. And they are fed up with the tired old parties, both Liberal and Labour. And so as an increasing number of voters. And that’s why these candidates are standing up, because they’re sick and tired of Liberal Nationals and sick and tired of Labour.
They have been abandoned by both the tired old parties. Labour and the LNP actually make battlers. Sen. White talked about us as standing up for the battlers, that’s correct. And the reason we have to do that is because the Labour Party is creating battlers. It’s taking the middle class and making them poor.
It’s taking the poor and making life tougher for the poor. Look at your energy policies, look at your agriculture policies. They are coming to One Nation because people need someone in this parliament who stands up for them and someone in state parliament who stands up for them.
And Sen. Hanson, and this is something Murray Watt, Sen. Watt has said, ‘Sen. Hanson and her party come down to Canberra. they vote with the Liberal and National parties.’ It’s not us that have the policies that are the same. It’s not us, it’s you guys. Let’s then have a look at, let’s then have a look at what Sen. Watt said.
We’ve seen it, he raised pensions. Sen. Hanson and I have advocated for an increase in pensions. We’re advocated and advocating and got solid policies for decreasing cost of living. That’s more important because to a pensioner, the cost of energy is a highly regressive tax and burden.
Then Sen. Watt raised apprenticeships. Sen. Hanson introduced the apprenticeship scheme into this parliament and the government has taken it.
[Deputy President]
Sen. Roberts?
[Malcolm Roberts]
Yes?
[Deputy President]
I have been listening carefully and you certainly started off talking about the higher ed bill. And I think I’ve given you enough time to respond to other senators in this place. But I do remind you the bill before us is the higher education bill.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Thank you, Madam Deputy President, I’m simply responding clearly to everything that Sen. Watt has said-
[Deputy President]
Sen. Roberts?
[Malcolm Roberts]
Because his comments misrepresented the facts.
[Deputy President]
Sen. Roberts, the bill before us is the higher education bill. That’s the bill you need to be responding to. There are other opportunities to respond to other senators. Thank you.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Certainly, well, in response, Madam Deputy President, I wanna comment that this bill, with One Nation’s amendments that the government has agreed to, protects students, protects taxpayers, protects universities, protects Australians, and protects Australia. Because education is vital to the future of our country.
Education is vital as a source of foreign income. And while Labour is off with the rainbow coloured unicorns on this and many other topics, we are very, very proud to speak for the battlers and to support the battlers.
[Deputy President]
Order, order.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Students must be equipped educationally for a career in and beyond the COVID-19 economy with its focus on digital technologies, robotics, automation, science, and health services, real jobs.
All right, it’s now 16 minutes away from 8:00. Malcom’s with us on the programme. Hello, mate, how are you?
[Malcolm Roberts]
I’m very well.
[Marcus Paul]
Excellent.
[Malcolm Roberts]
I’m very, very well, Marcus. And, by the way, I understand this is the first time I’ll be speaking to you while you’re in the Grant Goldman Studios. So well done.
[Marcus Paul]
Wonderful. Yeah. Brand new studio. We’re loving it. Everything seems to be working a-okay. Where are you at the moment? Still up north?
[Malcolm Roberts]
Back up north again. Yeah, up in Townsville. And we went through Airlie Beach yesterday, but Grant, with Grant, I enjoyed meeting Grant and working with him. He was a fabulous man.
He really looked after the people because he connected with what was really going on. He had the guts to tackle big issues, and he was just a wonderful character. I know you’ve got a caller called John Mcreigh who told me about the way Grant’s supported Lawrence Heinz and at his own costs. It’s just amazing, the courage of the man.
[Marcus Paul]
Yeah, wonderful, and I know you had that relationship before, and we’re very grateful that we continue to talk to you on this network and certainly on this programme, mate. So thank you very much. Now, let’s talk about changes to the university system. You support the government’s changes. Why?
[Malcolm Roberts]
They’re reducing the fees for courses that will meet the needs for the future of our country, and jobs, practical courses that will, like engineering, like nursing, like teaching. And they’ll be making courses like humanities, which have little direct relevance, sometimes, immediate relevance, and that’s what they’re doing there to make universities more affordable and also to more practical.
And what they’re doing is also making sure that taxpayer funds are based on the skills that the country needs, so that’s why we’re supporting general. But we also see this as an opportunity to go further, to ensure responsibility among students and reduce the taxpayer load. And also to restore accountability in universities and to restore academic freedom. ‘Cause as you know, that’s been smashed.
[Marcus Paul]
Well, let’s look at some of the figures here. We do need to address the growing $60 billion outstanding HECS debt. Australian debt is now pushing $1 trillion and money could be used productively if repaid. We need to limit student entitlement to seven years’ full-time equivalent.
Certainly, it takes on average around 10 years for a student to repay a HECS debt. And if you’re getting people, students into some of these humanities courses, and I’m not knocking them, I did one. I did a bachelor of arts, obviously. I majored in journalism, but we need to ensure that whatever our kids are studying at uni will get them into gainful employment once they’re finished, because we need these debts repaid.
[Malcolm Roberts]
That’s right. And we’re very concerned. Pauline in particular has been raising this issue for a number of years now that the HECS debt is going up and up and up and it’s currently around 60 billion and growing as you correctly pointed out. I love the way you use data. Pauline has been advocating that we reinstate the 10% discount if fees are paid upfront.
Now that’s because people who can afford university should not be getting a concessional interest rate. They should pay it upfront. Let them do that and that’ll, give the government better use of our funds. And also we want to reduce the threshold for income above which people start paying off the HECS debt. It’s currently at $46,000 per annum income before you have to start repaying.
We want to reduce that so that people start paying it back earlier because we’re all we’re seeing is the HECS debt rising incredibly and people basically on fee-free university education. We also want to raise the standards by which they’re allowed to continue so that if they’re failing, then they don’t continue.
[Marcus Paul]
Well, that’s right. It’s important, I think, to have our institutions, our tertiary institutions, monitor students’ academic progress. And if they are repeatedly failing, well, then they should stop getting fee help. Particularly if they don’t pass half the subjects.
[Malcolm Roberts]
That’s right. And we need to make students aware that they’re getting something from taxpayers and they’re getting money that supports their courses. So we need to make students more accountable for that. It’s not just continue to live off the taxpayer. We’ve got to get job-ready graduates.
And so we applaud the government for this initiative, but we want to take it further to bring back that accountability in the universities and also on the students.
[Marcus Paul]
All right, I want to go to this issue here of, the fact that you’re doing a lot of travelling there in Queensland, which is wonderful, Malcolm, because that’s how you get on top of grassroots issues. You speak to the punters out there and constituents. Again, you’re still hearing the businesses can’t find anyone willing to work.
Fruit pickers in southern Queensland, in tourism and hospitality, charter boat operators in the Whitsundays are cancelling cruises. The retail sector is struggling at Airlie Beach. Why can’t we fill these positions? Is it getting down to the fact that job keeper and job seeker to an extent is so generous at the moment?
[Malcolm Roberts]
Well, it’s really not job keeper, Marcus. It’s job seeker that’s the problem. Job keeper has actually kept some businesses going, kept them afloat. We’ve got to be careful about that.
There are some businesses that haven’t been able to get job keeper and they should be able to, but anyway, that’s another issue, but job seeker is what’s keeping some people on the couch instead of getting off their backside and going and doing some work. Fruit pickers in southern Queensland, but I think we talked about that a couple of weeks ago as well, strawberry pickers, raspberry pickers.
They just can’t get people, and they can’t get locals, can’t get Aussies. And what we’ve relied upon is backpackers to do that job. Just a couple of days ago we were in Airlie Beach in Whitsunday. Yeah, I know. Someone’s got to do it, mate. But anyway.
[Marcus Paul]
Ah, terrible, Malcolm, yes.
[Malcolm Roberts]
But anyway, the tourism and hospitality sector are finding it difficult to get even boat crews they’ve had to cancel charter boat operators in the Whitsundays, cancel cruises because they can’t get people to do jobs because it’s too easy, too attractive on job seeker.
And then retail. We see shopkeepers who are desperate for staff, but we’ve also seen, at a time when we’ve got a massive growing debt and lowering productivity, we’ve also got shopkeepers paying inordinate amounts for electricity, especially government charges.
[Marcus Paul]
Sure.
[Malcolm Roberts]
And they’re saying themselves, all they’re doing is picking up a huge risk and picking up huge stress. They have to work longer hours because they can’t afford it. We’ve got a complete need to look at how we treat people and how we treat businesses, taxation, regulation. We’re destroying our country, Marcus.
[Marcus Paul]
All right, well, the prime minister today is about to spruik a modern manufacturing strategy. There’s a little bit of renewable energy thrown in the mix. I mean, I dunno, we’ve got a conservative premier in New South Wales who’s gone on the record as saying, we’re not real good at building things, but the prime minister says we are.
I like the idea of it, kick-starting manufacturing and building manufacturing jobs and really investing in the sector in new South Wales and round Australia. But is this more marketing? Are these going to be more slogans today? Can the government really back this up? Are you sceptical?
[Malcolm Roberts]
I am completely sceptical, and you hit the nail on the head. It’s just marketing from Scott Morrison. Look, the basics of manufacturing are electricity charges, and we’re pushing the UN agenda and driving our electricity through the roof. And what we’re doing is exporting those jobs to China, India, Asia, because they’re generating electricity at eight cents a kilowatt an hour using our coal that’s been carted overseas for thousands of kilometres.
We’re selling electricity in this country at 25 cents a kilowatt an hour. And that’s ridiculous because we’re using the same coal, and the only difference is the regulations that the government has put in place due to the UN. And the second thing is we’re over-regulated. We’ve got so many regulations in this country.
The small business just cannot compete. Large business cannot compete. That taxation structure gives incentives to foreign multinationals rather than local companies. And then we’ve had the Lima declaration that both parties signed, Whitlam Labor Party signed in 1975 and Frasers Liberal Party ratified it the following year.
And that has exported our jobs, our manufacturing. Until we start restoring our political sovereignty and national sovereignty, we are not going to restore our economic sovereignty. It’s that simple. And Scott Morrison on October 3rd, I think last year, was talking about the unelected, international bureaucrats and unaccountable international bureaucrats.
And then since then, he’s advocated giving the UN’s World Health Organisation, a corrupt organisation, increased power. So the man says one thing and does another. We will not get anywhere until we stop the UN.
[Marcus Paul]
All right, well said, as always. Great to have you on the programme, Malcolm. Let’s chat again next week. Appreciate it. You take it easy up there at Airlie Beach, Townsville. You’re not taking a little charter boat over to Maggie today to really rub it into me, are you?
[Malcolm Roberts]
No, no, no. We’ll be heading down into the Galilee Basin and the Bowen Basin coalfields to listen, pushing some things on safety there.
[Marcus Paul]
Well let’s hear a little more about that next week when we get you back on. Thanks, Malcolm. Take care.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Academic-Integity.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-10-01 15:05:032020-10-01 15:21:22Ensuring Academic Integrity – 2SM with Marcus Paul
