Over the past 12 months I have been working through an issue and story that has, at times, brought me to tears. It is about a miner, Simon Turner, who was severely injured on site doing his job. The accident left Simon totally and permanently disabled; he can never return to work. But it is also about the tens of thousands of workers across the country who could end up in the same position.
Instead of receiving the support and workers’ compensation we would expect, and that coal miners are entitled to, he has been abandoned. Instead of receiving proper entitlements such as accident pay at a full wage, he lives below the poverty line in a garage. The way this has happened has been unlawful, unjust, immoral and unethical. What we’ve uncovered is that this tragedy can happen to anyone and we must fight to have this gap in our industrial relations laws fixed.
This is Simon’s story. It is the story of how any Australian can be thrown on the scrap heap by all the people and organisations who should be there to protect us.
Simon’s injury
Simon worked for Chandler Macleod, a labour hire company who employed him at Mount Arthur, a BHP Billiton Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley. He was an active person and he recounts that he enjoyed his job. At the time of his injury Simon was working on his shift at the mine driving a coal truck.
A coal digger did not see Simon’s truck because of dusty conditions and struck his vehicle. The massive collision directly injured Simon, causing swollen L3, L4 and L5 discs in his back, a pinched sciatic nerve, pinched cranial nerve and a lateral tear in one of the discs. The lateral tear in his back leaks fluid into the spine and the resulting nerve damage goes all the way down his left leg leaving him permanently in pain. As a result, Simon’s leg collapses without notice and he deals with ongoing post-traumatic stress disorder and depression from that day.
Simon’s injuries have meant he is deemed totally and permanently disabled (TPD) and he cannot return to work.
After the accident he was taken to hospital by ambulance where x-rays were not done due to a broken machine, but a doctor indicated Simon should be off work for at least several weeks. During his return from the hospital a BHP representative asked Simon if he would meet with the coal superintendent. Simon agreed and met with him when he returned to mine site.
Pressure
In that meeting the BHP coal superintendent pressured Simon to not report his injury. He says that there have been too many Lost Time Injuries (LTIs). LTIs are reported incidents where an employee can’t come into work because of an injury.
The coal superintendent tells Simon to not report it, that BHP won’t be reporting it and threatens Simon that the way the industry is now, he won’t have a job if he does report it. Casuals like Simon have no job security.
Simon is later asked to come into his next regular rostered shift, ‘just to ensure he gets paid’. Simon goes to site and sits on a steel metal bench for four hours and does nothing. The following shift, Simon is pressured to sign a return to work program which he refuses. It isn’t clear who has made the return to work plan and it certainly hasn’t been done in consultation with Simon.
At this point Simon still has no doctor, no x-rays, no diagnosis and no idea what injuries he has suffered. In Simon’s words, ‘No one knew what was wrong with me and they wanted me to go back out into the pit and start working.’
All of these factors lead me to believe it was an unethical attempt to avoid reporting an LTI. By Simon returning to work for the four hours, even though he did nothing, the mine avoids reporting an LTI because they say he clocked in and therefore returned to work.
It is unlawful to not report a serious injury.
The flaws in the safety system
We now know that some superintendents and supervisors within the mining industry are paid a safety bonus, which is directly related to the number of LTIs that happen on their watch. The less LTIs, the higher the bonus.
The bonus system creates a perverse incentive for superintendents and supervisors to hide injuries and not report them. Simon has been a victim of this perverse incentive.
At the time of his injury Simon, like most of the employees on site, was classed as a casual/labour hire employee. Yet during the year of his injury and the surrounding years, there are no labour hire company employee LTIs reported.
Some labour hire employers are far more concerned about money than they are about people and especially people who stand up for their rights. Simon was terminated without even being told. He found out six months later indirectly through a government agency.
Some companies are known to understate the number of employees on work sites and to describe miners as ‘administration staff’ to get lower insurance premiums – if we did this what would happen to us?
Tragically, we also know that Simon is not the only affected worker. I’ve personally spoken to seven others from the Hunter region who have found themselves in similar situations and believe there are hundreds more in NSW, Queensland and WA. We aren’t talking about just broken fingers.
Their injuries were debilitating. Broken backs, legs broken in half and a myriad of severe and permanent injuries that left people trembling just from talking about them. There have also been suicides within the group. Simon recounts that, ‘I didn’t want to live … three times I’ve thought about killing myself.’
Recently, I presented a submission to the Queensland Board of Inquiry into the Queensland Grosvenor mine explosion that could have had fatal consequences. Here I pointed out to the Board that casuals are not even represented on safety committees, yet they make up such a large part of the industry today.
Mine owners like BHP Billiton and labour hire companies like Chandler Macleod don’t care about anything but money.
The loophole
Under the Black Coal Award, a worker in a coal mine is afforded accident pay and specialised treatment for injuries. However mines avoid their responsibilities by using labour hire companies for their workforce – they are cheaper and have less job security.
In some ways and in some cases, employees aren’t classed by the work they do or where they work, they are classed based on their employer. Importantly when it comes to accessing award entitlements, the employer must be in or about a coal mine. Employers like the mine owner BHP easily pass this test. However, a labour hire firm like Chandler Macleod, the one that employed Simon, is not considered in or about a coal mine and therefore the protections and entitlements don’t apply.
Some mine owners use and explicitly abuse this to avoid their responsibilities to workers like Simon Turner.
Simon worked side-by-side with BHP employees, doing the same job, on the same long-term rosters, on the same site and he came home every day with clothes covered in black coal dust. We believe the current method of classification for miners has led to hundreds of cases of exploitation – pain, poverty and injustice – and this must be addressed.
Simon has not received his accident pay or the specialised treatment he needs to live as good a life as he can with his injuries. He receives a pathetic disability payment which is below the poverty line.
Simon contacted everyone he could – the mine owner, his employer, the workers’ compensation authority, Coal LSL, the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman, his local federal elected representative Labor’s Joel Fitzgerald MP, local state Labor MP, NSW Ministers, NSW government agencies and many more – all of whom ignored his calls for help.
The people and the organisations that should have cared for him did not, and you could be next.
If it had not been for people who cared like Stuart Bonds of One Nation in NSW, nobody would be standing up for Simon Turner today.
Please watch our full video with Simon to learn a bit more about his case and you will see why One Nation stood up for Simon and why we stand up for everyday Australians like you.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/MineSimon.png?fit=2250%2C1688&ssl=116882250Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-07-27 18:45:002020-07-27 15:29:57Miners are being left behind by those who are meant to protect them
Mr Simon Turner was an employee of Chandler Macleod, a labour hire company, and worked at the Mt Arthur coal mine in the Hunter Valley.
The mine owner BHP and his employer called him a casual, even though he worked on the same long-term coal production roster and had the same duties and responsibilities as BHP’s permanent full-time workers, doing the same job.
After being severely injured on a mine site, Simon discovered that he was not getting workers’ injury compensation, accident pay and other entitlements that are part of the Black Coal Award.
In fact, his employer did not even classify Simon as a coal miner and instead classified him as office administration, apparently to lower the workers’ compensation premiums. Simon lost all the benefits of the Black Coal Mining Award including workers’ injury compensation.
During our investigation into the issues surrounding Simon, we uncovered a number of actions that you should take to ensure that you are being protected from similar unscrupulous practices. This checklist can help you to be sure that you are being treated fairly and are covered in case of a workplace accident:
Hi, I want to discuss a story of enormous courage and resilience that brought such anger to me and such tears. The whole industrial relations system is broken and complicit in what is happening to people. The deeper issue affects 10s of thousands of men and women, right around this country, especially in Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley.
I worked in one of the industries that this is involved with from the age of 18 to 53 and I have never seen anything like this. The exploitation, the abuse, the negligence, it’s horrific, it’s unethical, immoral, and unlawful with deliberate breaches of laws.
I want to introduce Simon Turner, who’s been fighting this for six years, and he’s going to tell us his story. And I also want to introduce Stuart Bonds, who has developed the trust in the Hunter Valley and he came to us with it and because he did listen to people, and he’s been pushing it at a time when state and federal governments had abandoned it.
BHP had abandoned its responsibilities, Chandler Macleod Group, the CFMMEU in the Hunter Valley has abandoned its people. Politicians, state and federal, labor and liberal have avoided this issue and done enormous damage. So Simon, can you tell us your story please?
[Simon]
I worked for Chandler MacLeod which is a labour hire company at Mount Arthur, BHP Billiton Coal Mine in Hunter Valley, largest black coal mine in New South Wales. I was severely injured at work, while working in dusty conditions.
I was asked by the BHP Superintendent of Coal not to report my injury, which was clearly a lost time injury. They asked me to come into work and not report my injury at all and BHP weren’t going to report it. Now my employer Chandler Macleod, they didn’t report my injury at all which they both have the same duty of care to report anyone that’s injured at work.
Now, they can’t ask someone not to come into work if they’re injured because that’s also a breach of workplace laws, which they clearly don’t care about. They just get people to do what they need them to do so they don’t record a lost time injury for the mine site.
I started at HVO and then moved to Mount Arthur open cut. I enjoyed my job, I loved it a lot. And then one day we were working in conditions that were very dusty, I was hit by the coal digger because he couldn’t see me.
Now the pit was shut down for dust we were still operating ’cause they “still had to get coal out” as they say, he did not see me as there was too much coal dust and hit a metre behind the back of where I was operating the truck and my injuries are swollen discs L3, 4, 5, pinched sciatic nerve, pinched cranial nerve and a lateral tear in one of the discs, that’s leaking fluid into my spine, and then that nerve damage goes all the way down my left leg.
My left leg collapses without any notice and I’ll just drop. I also have severe depression and PTSD caused by what happened that day.
[Stuart]
So I’m in the coal industry, so I know what’s meant to happen. But do you want to tell us what did actually happen to you?
[Simon]
Well, what happened that day, I was taken back into the first aid and emergency area at the mine site, they then called an ambulance. So I was taken to Muswellbrook Hospital via ambulance. I got there, and they assessed me. I was sucking on the green puffer whistle for pain.
They wanted to do X-rays, so a doctor came in and saw me, and gave me some medication for the pain. And they were going to do X-rays at Muswellbrook Hospital, but then they told me that the X-ray machine wasn’t working. Someone from BHP then turned up at the hospital and he waited there.
The doctor said, “Well, you can go, you got to go and have X-rays. We can’t do the X rays here, you’ll be off for a couple of weeks.” So we go back to the mine site and on the journey back in the car, I was asked if I’d go meet with the Coal Superintendent.
I said, “Yep, okay.” When we got back there, I met him in his office. He said to me, “How are you?” I said, “Pretty sore.” He said, “Listen, I don’t want you to report this. We’ve had too many LTIs.” That’s a lost time injury He said, “Don’t report it, we’re not going to report it, and the way the industry is at the moment, if you report it, you won’t have a job.”
So that’s what happened. Then, they told me to come into the next lot of rostered shifts that I had. Just come into work sign on, I’d only have to stay there for four hours and then they’d send me home and they’d make sure that I got paid. So I went in.
The following day, on day shift for four hours I sat there on a steel metal bench, did nothing. On the night shift someone came out, the fill in OCE and asked me to sign a return-to-work programme, and I didn’t even know what injuries I had, I still hadn’t had the X-rays.
No one knew what was wrong with me, and they wanted me to go back out into the pit and start working.
[Stuart]
So why do you think they wanted you to come back for the four hours?
[Simon]
Well that way, a lost time injury, what we know now is that superintendents and supervisors within the mining industry, their coal bonus is directly related in the amount payable with regards to lost time injuries, so the least lost time injuries, the more bonus they get.
[Stuart]
So lost time injuries in a day lost when the employee can’t come back into work. So when you come back to work, you’re counted as being, worked that day.
[Simon]
Yep.
[Stuart]
Even though you sat on a cold steel bench sticking stickers on hard hat.
[Simon]
I didn’t stick anything, I just sat there. I didn’t stick anything on anything. I actually-
[Malcolm]
You’re in pain
[Simon]
Yeah, in pain. And I actually I was on a fair bit of medication. I went and seen the the ambulance guy. He was on site there at the mine site full time, he gave me a heat pack, that was it, it’s all I had.
And then I never went back after that day ’cause I refused to sign the return-to-work plan because when I looked at it, I didn’t know who done it, it wasn’t done in consultation with myself. It wasn’t done with a doctor. I didn’t even have a doctor at that time.
And my employer who was supposedly Chandler Macleod, hadn’t even spoken to me, so.
[Malcolm]
Now Simon as I understand that you’ve got some graphs which we’re going to put in the video. Can you tell us about those graphs for 20… On the year of your injury?
[Simon]
The year of my injury and the year prior to that and for another two years after my injury, the statistics show for LTIs recorded in the mining industry. When I was injured and I know other people have been injured because they have contacted me, I say there were zero LTIs.
[Malcolm]
And we’ve talked to some of those people.
[Simon]
Yeah, you’ve spoken to them, and they’ll come forward and there’s a lot of people.
[Stuart]
Zero injuries at that mine?
[Simon]
In the whole Hunter Valley. Not just that mine, in the whole Hunter Valley and there is hundreds of injuries, reportable injuries, LTIs where people have not gone to work.
Now, the important thing with that those statistics are coming from Coal Mines Insurance and Coal Services because they’re the monopoly insurer for the industry. Now, when my claim has been put through, it hasn’t been put through on that. I’m not a coal miner I’m employed in the New South Wales Statutory System. So-
[Stuart]
You don’t show up in the mining statistics
[Simon]
It doesn’t show up.
[Stuart]
Under the Black Coal Award as a worker in a coal mine, I know that you’re afforded 78 weeks of accident pay under the Black Coal Award and specialised treatment for your injuries. And that’s given from the monopoly insurer, which is Coal Mines Insurance. So what did you actually receive?
[Simon]
I’ve been receiving $400 per week from two other insurers, at first started out as CGU and then change to GIO, New South Wales Statutory Insurer. So I haven’t received any of the Coal Mine entitlements of the full wage for 78 weeks.
So it’s below the poverty line, what I’ve been living on the whole time. Our Enterprise Agreement had provisions in it for 78 weeks accident pay, which is straight from the Award.
[Stuart]
Can you return to work?
[Simon]
I can’t return to work. I’ve been demmed TPD
[Malcolm]
Totally and Permanently Disabled?
[Simon]
Yeah, I can’t work
[Stuart]
So your $400 is-
[Simon]
$400 a week is for life. That’s it. That’s all I get.
[Malcolm]
That’s $20,000 a year, where you were earning about 92,000 earning less than a quarter.
[Simon]
Yeah. So and that’s… had massive ramifications. for me personally,
[Stuart]
So who’s paying? If it’s not Coal Mines Insurance, who’s paying you, who is paying?
[Simon]
The New South Wales State Government has been paying an injured coal miner from the day that I got injured and the claim was filed with CJU
[Malcolm]
And so that’s the uninsured workers?
[Simon]
Yeah.
[Malcolm]
The uninsured workers-
[Simon]
Uninsured Liability Scheme, that’s where I get paid from.
[Malcolm]
So that’s mums and dads who own small businesses and pay workers compensation, premiums are going up, they’re paying for your injury from a multinational company that’s foreign owned and avoiding its responsibilities. And that’s why your workers compensation premiums for small businesses are going up.
[Simon]
And I’m not the only one. There are a lot more people exactly employed with Chandler Macleod and worked at BHP Mount Arthur.
[Malcolm]
And we met with eight of them when we went to Williamtown near Newcastle, and we listened to 8, the bullying, the harassment, the intimidation, the injuries, were just gross. These people some of them are shattered.
[Stuart]
Yeah, we’re not talking broken fingers here, we’re talking broken backs, legs broken in half severe, permanent…
[Simon]
Bullying and harassment it’s-
[Malcolm]
And people who shake and tremble when you talk to them.
[Simon]
Yeah, there’ve been suicides, we know of suicides that have happened.
[Stuart]
The accident pays there to tie you over until you can return to work. Obviously, deemed TPD you can’t return to work, on $400 a week, running out of money, losing your house. What happened at that point?
[Simon]
Oh, that point. I was about to be evicted. I’ve been deemed TPD so I can’t work again. So I called Coal LSL to check on what long service leave I had accrued. They then tell me that I’m not accruing any because I was sacked. And I said, “Okay.” Now my employer terminated my employment a week after I was injured.
They sent a Separation Certificate to Centerlink. They notified AUS Coal superannuation in January of 16, that I was terminated. They terminated my employment to Coal LSL on the 7th of January 2016. And I find out six months later that I was sacked. I was the last person that got told I was sacked. So they tell everybody else except me.
It’s illegal to sack anyone within six months of them being injured and on workers compensation. So not only have they not paid me what I’m entitled to I’ve been paid from a policy that can’t cover me.
They’ve also sacked me and haven’t told me. On the separation certificate, they say, there’s a question on there, has a workers compensation claim been made or will one be made in the future? And they tick no, and this was filled out six months after I’d been on workers comp.
[Malcolm]
So how did you feel when you find all this stuff out and you’re about to be thrown out your house?
[Simon]
I just couldn’t believe anyone, could be so ruthless and do something like this. I just wanted to give up that’s probably why, you know, the depression and everything and that sets in, I didn’t want to live. Yeah, three times I’ve thought about killing myself.
[Stuart]
So whilst you’re on workers comp, you’re not meant to be getting your entitlements whilst you’re on it. You’re super’s meant to be paid your long service leave still meant to be accruing. So that’s how you found out that you’re sacked? That you weren’t, those entitlements
[Simon]
I found out through Coal LSL only because I rang up six months later. That’s how I found out and then I find out that none of those entitlements
[Stuart]
Were accruing.
[Simon]
Were accruing, all gone.
[Malcolm]
Okay, Simon, so let me just check with you. You were… You’ve lost your Award entitlements and protections, you’re 40% underpaid compared with your BHP employees doing the same job, same responsibilities, same duties, right next to you. And your Coal LSL Long Service Leave provisions were under reported.
And when I asked them questions about that, they had never done an audit on individuals. They – They hadn’t done an audit. And then when they did an audit after I pursued them in senate estimates, they came back and admitted that you were correct. Is that correct?
[Simon]
Correct. Everything was correct.
[Stuart]
So our entire industrial relations system is set up with a series of checks and balances, because we have a federal award and we have to make sure the awards are minimum standard.
So to check all this, you’ve got the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Ombudsman, you’ve got union bosses that go to negotiations, you’ve got your HR department of your labour hire companies, you’ve got mine safety inspectors, lawyers, senators the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, Coal Mines Insurance, Coal Services, Workers Compensation Independent Review Office, which is WIRO, you’ve got the media.
How many of these people have you engaged with and told them what’s going on?
[Simon]
All of them, hundreds of emails.
[Malcolm]
There’s even two more points I would raise. You forgot the Local Federal Member, Joel Fitzgibbon. Now he illustrates what was going on here, because I’ve written to him, he hasn’t responded.
[Simon]
I wrote to him six times.
[Malcolm]
You’ve written to him six times. and in the interactions we’ve had through the media, we’ve explained the enormous scale of this problem, the depth of the problem, he’s come back and said, “Roberts doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s just about the casual employment.”
Well, that’s a misrepresentation of what’s going on. But you’ve also got the fact that some of these players enabled this to happen, they actually created the circumstances. The Hunter Valley Branch of the CFMMEU looks like it has set this up.
[Simon]
It’s the only way, it can happen.
[Malcolm]
Yeah, it can’t happen without that. BHP have been complicit, the Chandler Macleod Group have been complicit. They have stolen part of your life from you. The CFMMEU in the Hunter Valley has done the same. Some of the bureaucrats have done the same.
[Stuart]
Well, you’re meant to have the Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman overseeing all this, to make sure that this exact scenario doesn’t occur.
[Simon]
But it doesn’t have to get to that point. And this is what they fail to say in some and some of the media and social pages that they like to comment on. Not once have I put it in for dispute before it was voted on. They can’t say oh, you voted on it or they approved it. If it gets put into dispute before it even gets to that point, nothing happens. No one’s employed as a casual.
[Malcolm]
So the system is rotten Simon and Stuart the system is rotten. But worse, there are senior players in the system that actively make it happen. Make the corruption happen.
[Simon]
Correct.
[Stuart]
Okay, so you were talking before about putting agreements into dispute before they even get to the Fair Work Commission, to challenge them, to make sure they’re better off overall. So the union have recently contested an Enterprise Agreement which was for BHP’s in house labour hire firm.
So that was the OS agreement at Mount Arthur Coal, which was exactly the same Coal Mine that you were employed at, exactly the same Coal Mine that they have Chandler MacLeod’s still working alongside them, but it was for more money. Am I correct in saying that?
[Simon]
Yeah, the Chandler Macleod agreement pays even less than what the OS agreement does.
[Stuart]
And the OS agreement was thrown out, because it didn’t meet the better off overall test. Yet, there’s people being paid less than that working on the same mine site.
[Malcolm]
And correct me if I’m wrong. They don’t have the conditions and protections that even the OS Agreement has got in it, but that was thrown out.
[Simon]
Yep. That’s right
[Malcolm]
How does this go on?
[Simon]
Well, there’s a letter from Chandler Macleod to the CFMEU that says, “You will not take any legal action against us now or in the future.
[Stuart]
Yeah.
[Malcolm]
What?
[Simon]
I’m serious.
[Malcolm]
I was an underground coalface miner in the ’70s. in the Hunter Valley, I was a mine manager in the ’80s in the Hunter Valley, I worked in the Hunter Valley as a consultant in the 1990s and in the 2000s. There is no way on earth or even underground that the Coal Miners Union would have let this happen. What did happen?
[Simon]
Well, you would think that but basically, it’s their own business model, the union they own the labour hire company, employing casuals, started out as United Mining Management Services, and then basically progressed on to being owners within Tesa and then selling that model on to a larger company called Skilled.
And then basically endorsing EA’s with casual employment.
[Malcolm]
And the bar graph that the stacked bar graph that we’ll put on the screen here that you showed me yesterday indicated that there’s some pretty dodgy deals happening involving union bosses most likely, making money out of it.
[Simon]
Yeah. it’s … They’re business partners with the big mining companies. They basically, they own Coal Mines Insurance along with the New South Wales Minerals Council, which is all the mine owners. They’re a joint venture of Aus Coal Superannuation with New South Wales and Queensland Minerals Council.
And then you’ve got them on the boards of Coal LSL and Coal Services.
[Stuart]
So if one… We’ve see we’ve seen how easy this is to stop, I mean, you just put the enterprise agreements into dispute, they stop the OS Agreement. So we know it’s possible to happen. So if one person or one government body had done the right thing, this wouldn’t happen. This a eight billion dollar black hole doesn’t exist.
[Simon]
So there’s no external scrutiny whatsoever. They control the whole industry.
[Stuart]
They control their own oversight and auditing. So if the… So this is a mine owner, is in bed with the union, and the government’s turned a blind eye, and you have all got screwed.
[Simon]
Yeah.
[Malcolm]
So some of the mining companies want cheaper labour rates. Some of the dodgy union bosses enable that to happen, and they get a cut on it, by the side. So what we can see here is a need for an investigation of all these entities.
We’ve got Coal LSL, Coal Mines Insurance, We’ve got the State Governments Safety Inspectors, We’ve got Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Commission Ombudsman, we’ve got some politicians that we think, we’ve got union bosses all need investigating.
And what that means is that people are no longer protected by the political, by the industrial or by the unions, and they’re certainly not protected by some of these grubby companies.
What it means is that if this can happen to you and hundreds of people you know, and that we’ve met it can happen to anyone in Australia, it can happen to you.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/dominik-vanyi-Mining-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=117072560Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-07-27 18:45:002020-07-27 20:08:21REVEALED: Shocking abuse of workers in mining industry
See the bottom of this article to get your checklist sent directly to you to ensure that you are protected from similar unscrupulous practices.
Mr Simon Turner was an employee of Chandler Macleod, a labour hire company, and worked as a coal miner at the Mt Arthur coal mine in the Hunter Valley. The mine owner BHP and his employer called him a casual, even though he worked on the same long-term coal production roster and had the same duties and responsibilities as BHP’s permanent full-time workers doing the same job.
After being severely injured onsite, Simon discovered that he was not getting workers’ injury compensation, accident pay and other entitlements that are part of the Black Coal Award.
In fact, his employer did not even classify Simon as a coal miner and instead classified him as office administration, apparently to lower the workers’ compensation premiums. Simon lost all the benefits of the Black Coal Mining Award, including workers’ injury compensation.
During our investigation into the issues surrounding Simon, we identified a number of actions that you can take to ensure that you are protected from similar unscrupulous practices.
Enter your details below and we will send you your benefits checklist.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mine.png?fit=2250%2C1688&ssl=116882250Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-07-27 13:43:442020-07-27 14:34:55CHECKLIST: Are you a miner? Find out if you’re getting ripped off
[Marcus] Look, as you know this program is a PC and snowflake free zone. If you don’t believe in free speech well, feel free to tune out now. Senator Malcolm Roberts joins me on the program. Good morning, Malcolm how are you?
[Malcolm] I’m well thanks Marcus, how are you?
[Marcus] I’m okay. Look I know that you’ve been a little unwell of late and I’m glad that we could finally get you on to have a chat, ’cause there’s a lotta things to mull over. You’re well though?
[Malcolm] Yes, I’m very well thank you, very, very well.
[Marcus] Good, okay. There is a reason why the U.S. Black Lives Matter use the clenched fist. Their leaders openly admit they are Marxists, and they promote anti-capitalism, dismantling the nuclear family, defunding police. I mean this is almost like communism, hiding in plain sight, is it not?
[Malcolm] What do you mean almost like? It is, it is Marcus. And you know they don’t go off data, they go off ideology. Because they run off the same thing that people are doing here in Australia. What they do is they fabricate a problem. It contradicts the data, which I’m happy to go into if we have the time. They fabricate a problem, then they concoct a victim, and then they conjure an oppressor, and then they pretend a solution. And then what they do is they disarm minds, by invoking PC, so people are afraid to speak up. And they are afraid to think. And so many, many people disagree with what these Marxist mobs are doing in America. Trump has rightly called them out as Marxist, and wanting to destroy the country. What they then do is they anoint and align other beneficiaries to get them onboard and then they kill debate, stop discussion, it’s intimidation, and then what they do is they use gutless politicians to fabricate systems that put in place their policies. And their policies are Marxist, they’re communist policies. And all they’re interested in Marcus is control. They’re interested in control and nothing else.
[Marcus] And they do it as we know, through things like riots, protests, acts of vandalism, not only in the United States, but I mean gosh, this thing has been infected, well it’s infected Australia sadly. And we know that they’ve targeted a number of our cultural assets, including statues of Captain James Cook and the like. I mean yet many Australians still don’t realise that behind this tricky name BLM it’s ridiculous. It’s almost like they’re tryin’ to pull the wool over our eyes. I’m lucky, and we are lucky in our community that we have people like yourself and Pauline Hanson and others, that notice that this is going on and call it out for what it is.
[Malcolm] Well you’re absolutely correct. And I wanna compliment you Marcus because I saw a comment on your Facebook page, a quote attributed to you and you said, “I don’t want to tell you what to think, I just want to help you think.” So let’s get to the data. I’ve a strong belief in data, because the facts are the facts. So, I moved a motion in the Senate, about the Institute of Criminology, the Australian Institute of Criminology, the 2020 report into deaths in custody in Australia. Notice I said deaths in custody. I didn’t say black, white, indigenous, non-indigenous. Deaths in custody. Here are the facts. The 2017, ’18 rate of death in prison custody for indigenous people was 0.14 per 100 prisoners. And for non-indigenous persons was 0.18 per 100, slightly higher. Now because of the small sample size, you know we don’t have millions of deaths in custody, you can’t say that there’s a difference there. But you certainly can say that the non-indigenous is not lower than the indigenous. The indigenous are not higher. So that’s very, very clear.
[Marcus] Yes.
[Malcolm] There’s no difference. You want me to give you some more figures?
[Marcus] Well, just before you do, it’s important to outline these figures, because you can’t argue with facts. I mean you could try as hard as you can, but at the end of day, you won’t win an argument unless you produce relevant facts like you’ve just done, like Jacinta Price has done on this programme before, and of course like Pauline Hanson’s done. Look, I think what happens, and you’re right, you mentioned gutless politicians. Strong words, but it cuts to the core of really what the problem is. Why is it that here in this country, we only have people like yourself, or Pauline, or Jacinta Price, a few other commentators, who are happy to call it out for what it is and happy to speak their mind, and happy to stand up for free speech, and yet I guess some of the mainstream media, we saw what happened with Pauline last week on Nine Network. Maybe some of what she said was unpalatable Malcolm, but it was the truth.
[Malcolm] Correct.
[Marcus] A lotta the people that were holed up in these apartment complexes don’t speak English. Some of them do have drug addictions. And some of them haven’t been practising social distancing and you can’t argue with the facts. That’s why Daniel Andrews, he said the same thing, the health officer down there in Victoria, said virtually the same thing, But when somebody like a Pauline Hanson, or yourself, or Jacinta Price says it, you’re dragged over the coals for it. What happened to free speech Malcolm?
[Malcolm] Well it’s really simple, when people try to control, which is what the media does, and the media are doing when they’re telling lies, or when they’re misrepresenting things, always beneath control Marcus, there is fear. They’re afraid of facts. Now, you know those facts I just quoted to you, I tried to move a motion in the Senate, just simply to announce those facts. And the facts came from a 2020 Australian Institute of Criminology report into deaths in custody. The publisher of that report is the Australian government. Now this’ll shock you. And probably won’t shock, maybe not shock you because you’re aware of what the real problem is, gutless politicians. But I was stopped from that motion. I was not allowed to put forward the motion that would simply table the data, that’s all it did. All I wanted to do, I didn’t wanna say who was right or wrong, I just wanted to put the data out. The government and the Labor Party colluded to stop me putting out the data. And that’s the problem, we’ve got gutless politicians who are afraid of data, and what they do is they use their own emotions, their own biases to sway people. And people are sick of this because, I’ll make it very clear, I represent the people of Queensland and Australia. Every speech in the Senate I start with the words, “I am a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia.” I listen, I speak up, I push, and I pursue to support the people. I serve the people. That’s what’s wrong in this country. We have politicians thinking the people serves the government, the people serve the politicians. That is complete rubbish. And that is the fundamental error in this country now. We have got government controlling things instead of government serving things. Governments shouldn’t be fixing the economy. Governments should create an environment in which small businesses, large businesses, employees, individuals, can contribute. That’s how we were in the 1900s, right through the 1920s when Australia had the number one, highest position for gross domestic product per person. Highest per capita income in the world. And we have slowly decreased that until we’ve become a shell of ourselves early this year. And then we slammed that in the COVID response. We need to get back, not just to where we were in February, we need to get back to where we were in 1920s, in terms of being the leaders in the world for per capita income. Australians are capable of doing that. All we need to do is fix the damn systems that the governments have put in place over the last 80 years.
[Marcus] Why do the governments in this country kow tow to Beijing, China? And why is it that our economy isn’t set up to be more self-sufficient Malcolm?
[Malcolm] Well it’s really simple, We have number of things, I haven’t got time to go into all one at the moment, but I’m happy to do that one day in the future if you want. But we had a number of changes that have been put in place, under the global approach the elites are pushing, since the formation of the UN. I can rattle them off, there are many. If you just look at some of them. The Lima Declaration in 1975, that was signed by Garth Whitman’s Labour government. The following year his arch enemy Malcolm Fraser, the Liberal prime minister, ratified the damn thing. That destroyed our manufacturing markets. In 1992, we had the UN’s Rio Declaration, for 21st global governments. It was masqueraded supposedly under UNIDO, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. Sorry that was Lima Declaration. But the Rio Declaration put in place an agenda to push climate change, which will get control, which is getting control of our energy which is fundamental, our water, which is fundamental, our property rights, which is fundamental. And that was signed by Paul Keating’s Labour government. In 1996, John Howard’s government said, we won’t ratify the Kyoto Protocol, but we will comply with it. And that stole our productive capacity, in that it took our property rights off our farmers. That’s what happened, and now we’ve got basically nationalised farming that is controlled by regulations over their imports, and sometimes the way they do their very farming. We have nationalised farming now. Then we have the Paris Agreement in 2015. And a lot of international trade agreements and other agreements that have destroyed our productive capacity, destroyed our governments, destroyed our sovereignty. We don’t control our country any more, foreigners do. They control some aspects of our immigration. This is why Liberal and Labour are pushing policies that are helping foreigners, and foreign entities, unelected bureaucrats, and we are opposing them. We need to get our country’s control back in the hands of Australians.
[Marcus] What will it take? The passion that you’ve garnered, I can hear it quite clearly, you and Pauline and others, who fight for the sovereignty of Australia. How do we generate more passion within the community? I know that obviously the One Nation Party, yourself and others, do have a strong following. But how do we make this go? I mean it should be mainstream. This thought pattern that you’ve so eloquently described for us the last couple of minutes, this thought pattern should be prevalent. It should be first of mind, top of mind for all Australians. How do we overcome the barriers, the obstacles, to get this front of mind for hard-working Australians, who basically just want their country back, wanna be able to go to work, want to see the hard work they’re doing pay dividends, be able to afford to buy their own property, to pay fair prices for things like fuel and energy costs, electricity, and utilities, and also, also more importantly, to be able to look back on the history of our country with pride and feel respect for our flag without being made so bloody guilty, or to feel so bloody guilty, the fact that we may be white and we may be Australian for God’s sake?
[Malcolm] Well I love your passion too. Have a look at these basic facts. Pauline Hanson came outta the Liberal Party. And Mark Latham came outta the Labor Party. Half of our voters are former disgruntled Labor voters. Half of our voters are former disgruntled LNP voters. And our votes are going up, every election we have a higher vote for One Nation. And what we need to do is to keep speaking the facts Marcus, keep using the data. Put more pressure on the Liberal, Labour duopoly, because fundamentally the bureaucrats run this country and they’re pushing policies that unelected bureaucrats from the UN pushed. Now Scott Morrison came out and said something in October last year, October the 3rd in Sydney at the Lowy Institute, he said, he will have a review into the unaccountable, internationalist bureaucrats. And we all knew that he was talking about the UN. But I also knew that he would not do anything about it. He was saying those words because he knew that we are resonating with the people over the UN destruction of this country. We also know that I came out first and called the Coronavirus what it really is. The Chinese Communist Party UN virus. The UN’s World Health Organisation colluded with the Chinese Communist Party to suppress the news of this virus, which enabled it to get a gallop around the world. Now Scott Morrison, after I did that, and after we continued to bash Chinese Communist Party, Scott Morrison came out and talked about the communist party and started to hold them accountable with words. But, he turned around and said we need to give the World Health Organisation, a UN body, more power, the power of weapons inspectors. They say one thing and they do another. That’s why he’s got the tag now Scotty from Marketing. We’ve got to get away from people who are marketing people, they build facades and then sell them and get back to the basics of serving the country. And that means we need to speak about the facts and use the data.
[Marcus] And less spin. Malcolm it’s been great talking to you this morning. Let’s do this more often please.
[Malcolm] I’d love to mate, love to.
[Marcus] Okay, we’ll talk soon, thank you.
[Malcolm] Thanks Marcus.
[Marcus] There he is, Senator Malcolm Roberts. What do you make of it, give me a call
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Capture-2.png?fit=1125%2C632&ssl=16321125Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-07-24 16:17:002020-07-27 16:34:34Black Lives Matter with Marcus Paul on 2SM
This morning I was interviewed by Marcus Paul on 2SM and discussed:
The US BLM movement and their openly Marxist agenda.
The war on free speech.
Why isn’t our economy self sufficient?
What will it take to restore our sovereignty?
Transcript
[Marcus]
Look, as you know this programme is a PC and snowflake free zone. If you don’t believe in free speech well, feel free to tune out now. Senator Malcolm Roberts joins me on the programme. Good morning, Malcolm how are you?
[Malcolm]
I’m well thanks Marcus, how are you?
[Marcus]
I’m okay. Look I know that you’ve been a little unwell of late and I’m glad that we could finally get you on to have a chat, ’cause there’s a lotta things to mull over. You’re well though?
[Malcolm]
Yes, I’m very well thank you, very, very well.
[Marcus]
Good, okay. There is a reason why the U.S. Black Lives Matter use the clenched fist. Their leaders openly admit they are Marxists, and they promote anti-capitalism, dismantling the nuclear family, defunding police. I mean this is almost like communism, hiding in plain sight, is it not?
[Malcolm]
What do you mean almost like? It is, it is Marcus. And you know they don’t go off data, they go off ideology. Because they run off the same thing that people are doing here in Australia. What they do is they fabricate a problem. It contradicts the data, which I’m happy to go into if we have the time.
They fabricate a problem, then they concoct a victim, and then they conjure an oppressor, and then they pretend a solution. And then what they do is they disarm minds, by invoking PC, so people are afraid to speak up. And they are afraid to think.
And so many, many people disagree with what these Marxist mobs are doing in America. Trump has rightly called them out as Marxist, and wanting to destroy the country. What they then do is they anoint and align other beneficiaries to get them onboard and then they kill debate, stop discussion, it’s intimidation, and then what they do is they use gutless politicians to fabricate systems that put in place their policies.
And their policies are Marxist, they’re communist policies. And all they’re interested in Marcus is control. They’re interested in control and nothing else.
[Marcus]
And they do it as we know, through things like riots, protests, acts of vandalism, not only in the United States, but I mean gosh, this thing has been infected, well it’s infected Australia sadly. And we know that they’ve targeted a number of our cultural assets, including statues of Captain James Cook and the like.
I mean yet many Australians still don’t realise that behind this tricky name BLM it’s ridiculous. It’s almost like they’re tryin’ to pull the wool over our eyes. I’m lucky, and we are lucky in our community that we have people like yourself and Pauline Hanson and others, that notice that this is going on and call it out for what it is.
[Malcolm]
Well you’re absolutely correct. And I wanna compliment you Marcus because I saw a comment on your Facebook page, a quote attributed to you and you said, “I don’t want to tell you what to think, I just want to help you think.” So let’s get to the data. I’ve a strong belief in data, because the facts are the facts.
So, I moved a motion in the Senate, about the Institute of Criminology, the Australian Institute of Criminology, the 2020 report into deaths in custody in Australia. Notice I said deaths in custody. I didn’t say black, white, indigenous, non-indigenous. Deaths in custody. Here are the facts.
The 2017, ’18 rate of death in prison custody for indigenous people was 0.14 per 100 prisoners. And for non-indigenous persons was 0.18 per 100, slightly higher. Now because of the small sample size, you know we don’t have millions of deaths in custody, you can’t say that there’s a difference there.
But you certainly can say that the non-indigenous is not lower than the indigenous. The indigenous are not higher. So that’s very, very clear.
[Marcus]
Yes.
[Malcolm]
There’s no difference. You want me to give you some more figures?
[Marcus]
Well, just before you do, it’s important to outline these figures, because you can’t argue with facts. I mean you could try as hard as you can, but at the end of day, you won’t win an argument unless you produce relevant facts like you’ve just done, like Jacinta Price has done on this programme before, and of course like Pauline Hanson’s done.
Look, I think what happens, and you’re right, you mentioned gutless politicians. Strong words, but it cuts to the core of really what the problem is.
Why is it that here in this country, we only have people like yourself, or Pauline, or Jacinta Price, a few other commentators, who are happy to call it out for what it is and happy to speak their mind, and happy to stand up for free speech, and yet I guess some of the mainstream media, we saw what happened with Pauline last week on Nine Network. Maybe some of what she said was unpalatable Malcolm, but it was the truth.
[Malcolm]
Correct.
[Marcus]
A lotta the people that were holed up in these apartment complexes don’t speak English. Some of them do have drug addictions. And some of them haven’t been practising social distancing and you can’t argue with the facts.
That’s why Daniel Andrews, he said the same thing, the health officer down there in Victoria, said virtually the same thing, But when somebody like a Pauline Hanson, or yourself, or Jacinta Price says it, you’re dragged over the coals for it. What happened to free speech Malcolm?
[Malcolm]
Well it’s really simple, when people try to control, which is what the media does, and the media are doing when they’re telling lies, or when they’re misrepresenting things, always beneath control Marcus, there is fear. They’re afraid of facts.
Now, you know those facts I just quoted to you, I tried to move a motion in the Senate, just simply to announce those facts. And the facts came from a 2020 Australian Institute of Criminology report into deaths in custody. The publisher of that report is the Australian government.
Now this’ll shock you. And probably won’t shock, maybe not shock you because you’re aware of what the real problem is, gutless politicians. But I was stopped from that motion. I was not allowed to put forward the motion that would simply table the data, that’s all it did.
All I wanted to do, I didn’t wanna say who was right or wrong, I just wanted to put the data out. The government and the Labour Party colluded to stop me putting out the data. And that’s the problem, we’ve got gutless politicians who are afraid of data, and what they do is they use their own emotions, their own biases to sway people.
And people are sick of this because, I’ll make it very clear, I represent the people of Queensland and Australia. Every speech in the Senate I start with the words, “I am a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia.” I listen, I speak up, I push, and I pursue to support the people.
I serve the people. That’s what’s wrong in this country. We have politicians thinking the people serves the government, the people serve the politicians. That is complete rubbish. And that is the fundamental error in this country now.
We have got government controlling things instead of government serving things. Governments shouldn’t be fixing the economy. Governments should create an environment in which small businesses, large businesses, employees, individuals, can contribute.
That’s how we were in the 1900s, right through the 1920s when Australia had the number one, highest position for gross domestic product per person. Highest per capita income in the world. And we have slowly decreased that until we’ve become a shell of ourselves early this year.
And then we slammed that in the COVID response. We need to get back, not just to where we were in February, we need to get back to where we were in 1920s, in terms of being the leaders in the world for per capita income. Australians are capable of doing that.
All we need to do is fix the damn systems that the governments have put in place over the last 80 years.
[Marcus]
Why do the governments in this country kow tow to Beijing, China? And why is it that our economy isn’t set up to be more self-sufficient Malcolm?
[Malcolm]
Well it’s really simple, We have number of things, I haven’t got time to go into all one at the moment, but I’m happy to do that one day in the future if you want. But we had a number of changes that have been put in place, under the global approach the elites are pushing, since the formation of the UN.
I can rattle them off, there are many. If you just look at some of them. The Lima Declaration in 1975, that was signed by Garth Whitman’s Labour government. The following year his arch enemy Malcolm Fraser, the Liberal prime minister, ratified the damn thing. That destroyed our manufacturing markets.
In 1992, we had the UN’s Rio Declaration, for 21st global governments. It was masqueraded supposedly under UNIDO, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. Sorry that was Lima Declaration.
But the Rio Declaration put in place an agenda to push climate change, which will get control, which is getting control of our energy which is fundamental, our water, which is fundamental, our property rights, which is fundamental. And that was signed by Paul Keating’s Labour government.
In 1996, John Howard’s government said, we won’t ratify the Kyoto Protocol, but we will comply with it. And that stole our productive capacity, in that it took our property rights off our farmers. That’s what happened, and now we’ve got basically nationalised farming that is controlled by regulations over their imports, and sometimes the way they do their very farming.
We have nationalised farming now. Then we have the Paris Agreement in 2015. And a lot of international trade agreements and other agreements that have destroyed our productive capacity, destroyed our governments, destroyed our sovereignty.
We don’t control our country any more, foreigners do. They control some aspects of our immigration. This is why Liberal and Labour are pushing policies that are helping foreigners, and foreign entities, unelected bureaucrats, and we are opposing them. We need to get our country’s control back in the hands of Australians.
[Marcus]
What will it take? The passion that you’ve garnered, I can hear it quite clearly, you and Pauline and others, who fight for the sovereignty of Australia. How do we generate more passion within the community? I know that obviously the One Nation Party, yourself and others, do have a strong following.
But how do we make this go? I mean it should be mainstream. This thought pattern that you’ve so eloquently described for us the last couple of minutes, this thought pattern should be prevalent. It should be first of mind, top of mind for all Australians.
How do we overcome the barriers, the obstacles, to get this front of mind for hard-working Australians, who basically just want their country back, wanna be able to go to work, want to see the hard work they’re doing pay dividends, be able to afford to buy their own property, to pay fair prices for things like fuel and energy costs, electricity, and utilities, and also, also more importantly, to be able to look back on the history of our country with pride and feel respect for our flag without being made so bloody guilty, or to feel so bloody guilty, the fact that we may be white and we may be Australian for God’s sake?
[Malcolm]
Well I love your passion too. Have a look at these basic facts. Pauline Hanson came outta the Liberal Party. And Mark Latham came outta the Labour Party. Half of our voters are former disgruntled Labour voters. Half of our voters are former disgruntled LNP voters.
And our votes are going up, every election we have a higher vote for One Nation. And what we need to do is to keep speaking the facts Marcus, keep using the data. Put more pressure on the Liberal, Labour duopoly, because fundamentally the bureaucrats run this country and they’re pushing policies that unelected bureaucrats from the UN pushed.
Now Scott Morrison came out and said something in October last year, October the 3rd in Sydney at the Lowy Institute, he said, he will have a review into the unaccountable, internationalist bureaucrats. And we all knew that he was talking about the UN.
But I also knew that he would not do anything about it. He was saying those words because he knew that we are resonating with the people over the UN destruction of this country. We also know that I came out first and called the Coronavirus what it really is.
The Chinese Communist Party UN virus. The UN’s World Health Organisation colluded with the Chinese Communist Party to suppress the news of this virus, which enabled it to get a gallop around the world.
Now Scott Morrison, after I did that, and after we continued to bash Chinese Communist Party, Scott Morrison came out and talked about the communist party and started to hold them accountable with words.
But, he turned around and said we need to give the World Health Organisation, a UN body, more power, the power of weapons inspectors. They say one thing and they do another. That’s why he’s got the tag now Scotty from Marketing.
We’ve got to get away from people who are marketing people, they build facades and then sell them and get back to the basics of serving the country. And that means we need to speak about the facts and use the data.
[Marcus]
And less spin. Malcolm it’s been great talking to you this morning. Let’s do this more often please.
[Malcolm]
I’d love to mate, love to.
[Marcus]
Okay, we’ll talk soon, thank you.
[Malcolm]
Thanks Marcus.
[Marcus]
There he is, Senator Malcolm Roberts. What do you make of it, give me a call after seven, “Marcus Paul In the Morning.”
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/img_1670.jpg?fit=1009%2C550&ssl=15501009Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-07-16 10:52:222020-07-16 14:09:39Interview: 2SM with Marcus Paul
Thousands of Australians, desperate to quit smoking, will find it almost impossible to purchase nicotine for vaping thanks to Minister Hunt’s capricious decision to ban nicotine imports.
When parliament resumes in August One Nation will move to disallow the new regulations and propose new rules for importing nicotine until local options are available.
“Instead of tackling the issue of illegal importation of nicotine at the border, Minister Hunt imposes draconian regulations that punish vaping users trying to give up smoking,” stated Senator Roberts.
British and New Zealand Governments widely support vaping as one of the most effective ways to quit smoking, however Australia has seen an increase in illegal nicotine supply, likely due to poor Border Force policing.
“This is a lazy decision on behalf of the Minister with zero consultation with industry, users and the medical profession,” Senator Roberts said.
The current laws require a doctor’s prescription prior to importation with proof given to Border Force to allow imports of nicotine for vaping based on prescriptions.
“The increase in illegal nicotine is Border Force not doing their job and not enforcing script-only imports,” said Senator Roberts.
A company needs to spend millions of dollars for research to get nicotine through the TGA process before there is any hope that an Australian chemist can sell it.
Senator Roberts added, “The Government needs to urgently fund the TGA approval process so Australians can buy nicotine for vaping without having to import it. “One Nation supports the use of nicotine for vaping to quit smoking and thousands of Australians can testify to its effectiveness.”
Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I’m delighted to say that this bill holds enormous promise. For far too long, cannabis and hemp have been suppressed for reasons that have everything to do with established interests, and nothing to do with the merits of the plant.
That has hurt people for years and is hurting hundreds of thousands of people now. This bill addresses one area that has been holding back the Australian cannabis and hemp industry. Currently, there is no formal system for providing approvals for the export of medical cannabis and hemp.
The approval must apply, the producer, sorry, must apply to the minister for an ad-hoc approval. While approvals have been granted, the volumes are a fraction of the potential that this crop offers. The Export Control Act, 2020 came in this year and it allows the minister to make rules that govern the issue of exports certificates.
If a substance is on the list, rules are issued to regulate the export of that substance. Now cannabis and hemp were not originally included in that bill. This amendment corrects that. Cannabis and hemp growers and manufacturers can now have certainty about the rules for export.
Every grower is on the same footing. All who meet the rules can get an export licence and sell the product into the world market, and what a market that is? The cannabis and hemp market in Australia is expected to grow to a billion dollars in just four years and double that to $2 billion by 2028.
And at that time, our near neighbours in Asia, in the Asian market will exceed $10 billion. This is a wonderful opportunity, the start of a wonderful opportunity. Australia’s reputation as a high quality, safe supplier of food and medicine will help our producers take a significant share of that huge market.
And I must compliment the government’s decision to require all cannabis producers to follow the International Safety and Quality Standard known as the GMP, good manufacturing practise. Quality processing has been instrumental in growing our reputation for trusted product and that means a lot to people overseas and in Australia.
Internationally, the world market for cannabis and hemp is expected to reach $50 billion by 2030. Some of this growth is from the trend to legalise recreational cannabis, which I need to make clear, One Nation does not support.
We do support natural, Australian whole plant medical cannabis by way of doctor’s prescription to any person with a medical need, supplied by a pharmacist, subsidised on the PBS. I note that the government is also looking to reschedule low THC cannabis into schedule three as an over-the-counter, chemist-only medication.
One Nation supports that reschedule. We have long pushed for this. The Liberal government talks about market efficiency but in the cannabis market, we have nothing but over-regulation and disincentives to enter the market. This bill will help but there is much, much more to be done.
I draw the government’s attention to the review of the Narcotic Drugs act conducted by Professor McMillan, which reported almost 12 months ago, July 2019. Professor McMillan made 26 recommendations to improve the commercial efficiency of the cannabis market in Australia.
None, none of those recommendations have currently been implemented. Many of those recommendations dovetail nicely with the intent of the Export Control Legislation Amendment to develop an Australian export industry for cannabis and hemp.
The report calls for a reduction in the onerous conditions being applied to the industry and to people who work in it. These restrictions are an unnecessary and costly barrier to efficient quality production. They’re holding our farmers back, they’re holding everyone in the supply chain back and holding customers back.
Professor McMillan has recommended that a single licence be issued for all or some of cultivation, production, manufacture and research. This is instead of the individual licences currently being required at each step. The report also suggested licences be valid for five years rather than 12 months.
Now most exported cannabis and hemp is value added, allowing one producer to now grow, process, manufacturer and research new products and a five year licence guarantees the security of their investment, which improves the return of their investment.
By encouraging vertical integration, our producers can benefit from multiple profit centres and insulate against fluctuations in one area of this emerging market. Export opportunities will be enhanced by a wider range of products offered for sale. Volume and diversity resulting from export markets will benefit domestic patients as well.
So let me explain. Currently medical cannabis is prohibitively expensive. This is in part due to the high administrative, regulatory and security costs imposed on each stage of the process from cultivating or importing through to selling the product to a patient.
This high cost is spread across low volumes because of restricted access making each prescription too expensive for patients to afford. And that creates an ongoing cycle of high prices and low affordability leading to low volume which leads to high prices. It’s a vicious cycle.
This bill represents a way out of that self-defeating cycle by allowing for the current small domestic demand to be met from high volume, low cost export production. Medical cannabis is best used when the plant has been processed as little as possible. It is a wonderful natural product.
Conversion into vaping solutions, patches, topicals and capsules does not disturb the compound profile of the plant. It is a wonderful product. Since medical cannabis has been legal for many years in well, most nations on the planet, we are seeing an explosion in new hybridised varieties of medical strains of cannabis.
I’ve seen some of them myself. These have been developed to provide an optimum profile for a specific medical condition. This wonderful plant, and it has many varieties can be tailored to specific needs of patients. And there are many patients in desperate need of this.
Hundreds of different varieties are now available to the world market, hundreds. The more of these varieties that can be grown in Australia to support export demand, the greater the variety that will be available to supply domestic patients. People can have this marvelous natural plant tailored to suit their specific medical needs.
With a professional, efficient, and profitable export industry, Australian patients will be able to access the exact cannabis profile for their particular health condition at much reduced prices, much greater value. So as a senator from Queensland, I’m excited that we have a growing centre for cannabis excellence in Southport.
Our beautiful climate is perfectly suited to growing hemp for food, textiles, cosmetics, oil, building products, and so much more. Queensland will be on the forefront of this multi billion dollar export industry for both hemp and cannabis.
One Nation’s policy of restoring property rights for farmers and building more dams will deliver to our farmers the capacity to grow Australia’s agricultural capacity through hemp and cannabis. Before closing, I want to reiterate what our party leader, Senator Hanson said and express my thanks to Senator Coleman from the Liberal Party and Senator Kitching from the Labor Party.
It was them who made it possible because Senator Hansen and some of our staff have been pushing for this for years vigorously and it’s wonderful to see this step. Tiny though it is, it is a wonderful step. So thank you. In closing, may I suggest that the success of this bill will depend upon what the export rules for cannabis are.
To date, rules on medical cannabis and hemp have been so damn onerous. People were left wondering if the government was fair dinkum about a plant that has so many proven applications, and so many successful runs on the board overseas.
We look forward to the government proving through fair and effective regulation, that they are indeed genuine about implementing this bill’s attention, thank you.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Capture-1.png?fit=551%2C308&ssl=1308551Sheenagh Langdonhttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSheenagh Langdon2020-06-17 15:15:002020-07-07 15:16:19Medical Cannabis & Hemp export industry given green light
One Nation has worked with the Government to pass legislation through the Senate to remove a major stumbling block that will expand the medical cannabis and hemp markets.
Senator Roberts said, “This is a game changer for the medical cannabis and hemp industries.”
The Certification of Narcotic Exports bill replaces the ad hoc approvals for exports with a streamlined process giving certainty to medical cannabis and hemp growers and manufacturers.
One Nation supports natural, whole plant medical cannabis via doctor’s prescription for a medical need, issued from a chemist and on the PBS, but does not support recreational use of cannabis.
“It is a lifeline for thousands of people currently forced to use illegal medical cannabis at high prices, as affordable legal cannabis is hard to obtain,” added Senator Roberts.
The bill will lead to a quick expansion of Australian production for export, which will bring about a greater range and lower prices for Australian patients.
Senator Roberts stated, “Export volumes assist local companies to grow plants with a wider range of profiles, allowing a patient to receive cannabis developed for their specific medical condition.”
“Australia has a unique competitive advantage with perfect climate, existing transport infrastructure and the international standard of Good Manufacturing Practice already in place.”
“Queensland is at the forefront of this multi-billion dollar export industry with a manufacturing facility at Southport, and expected growth to $1 billion over next four years.”
Hemp is known for its strength, durability and versatility, has wide application and its market growth looks promising. One Nation calls on the government to honour the intentions of this legislation and put in place export rules for cannabis that facilitate growers and manufacturers accessing export market.
By refusing to accept accurate data on deaths in custody from the Australian Institute of Criminology in my Motion, the senate has effectively voted that they are not interested in data, not interested in objectivity and not interested in truth.
I stand by my belief and statement, and that is this: all lives matter. I will continue to support free speech as crucial to democracy and freedom, and that is essential for human progress.
Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?
Transcript
Thank you Madam acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I want to speak on a fundamental for human progress. Freedom and Freedom of Speech. Freedom of speech is enshrined in our country after many high court rulings.
It’s not specifically covered in our constitution, yet it’s implied. And because the high court’s rulings, it is enshrined in our country, and yet today freedom of speech is under threat and it’s under threat in this parliament. In fact, our whole way of life is under threat.
Listen to these wise words of American, African-American economist and philosopher, Thomas Sowell. He says, “We are living in an era “where sanity is controversial. “and insanity is just another viewpoint. “and degeneracy only another lifestyle.”
And this point from Thomas Sowell, “Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity “when some people are held responsible “for things that happened before they were born, “while other people are not held responsible “for what they themselves are doing today?”
Take the case of All Lives Matter. Surely there wouldn’t be anyone in Australia who would disagree that all lives matter. Yet in just four days, we witnessed the following events. Labor Senator Helen Polley tweeted the words “all lives matter” last Tuesday.
And she was eaten alive by her own party. She retracted the tweet. Senator Pauline Hanson stated in her matter of public importance speech that we need, and she wants all people to be equal under the law.
Yet Greens senators, Rice and McKim and labor senators Ayres, labor senator Ayres, implied, or stated that Senator Hanson is racist and that I am racist. Senator McKim said it before I even, even started my speech. “Their statements and implied statements are false.
“They are lies and lies are a form of control. “People lie when they lack a coherent argument “and it cannot counter our position, “cannot counter our argument. “So they resort to personal attacks and lies.” Liberal speakers, during Senator Hanson’s matter of public importance said many times that all lives matter.
And Senator Hanson moved a motion then, tried to move a motion the next day that all lives matter. The government and labor stopped Senator Hanson. All senators in this chamber, except for me and Senator Hanson disagreed it seems that all lives matter.
So the people leading this country don’t think that all lives matter. The next day, the fourth day, I tried to present graph, prior to present data, showing the data on deaths in custody and the government stopped me. Stopped me, presenting their own data.
Notice that I said deaths in custody, not black deaths in custody, not Aboriginal deaths in custody, deaths in custody. And it came in this report. Now I’ll go through that data, from the Australian government’s own Australian Institute of criminology. It’s the latest report.
It’s the 2020 report entitled “Deaths in custody in Australia” written by Laura Dotty and Samantha Bricknell. in 2017-18, the rate of death in custody for prisoner types was indigenous persons, 0.14 per 100 prisoners, non indigenous persons, 0.18 per 100 prisoners.
Now non-indigenous appears to be 25% higher yet I tell the truth and I did not mislead. This would not be a statistically significant difference as the sample numbers are so small. So we can say without any, without any doubt that non-indigenous and indigenous persons died in custody at roughly the same rate.
The 2017, 2018 total deaths in police custody and custody related operations was indigenous people, three, non-indigenous people, 14. In 2017-18, 79% of indigenous deaths in prison custody were due to natural causes. 4/5 of deaths in prison custody were due to natural causes.
Over the decade to 2018, non-indigenous persons were nearly, non-indigenous persons were nearly twice as likely as indigenous persons to hang themselves in prison custody. Motor vehicle pursuits represented 38% of indigenous deaths in police custody and custody related operations.
Almost four in 10, driving the vehicle themselves. From 2006 to 2016, a 41% increase in indigenous imprisonment rates corresponded almost exactly with a 42% increase in people identifying as indigenous. In other words, the rate of indigenous deaths in custody stay the same in proportion and did not increase.
Using the figure of 437 unconvicted indigenous deaths without reference to critical detail and context results in a distorted discussion of indigenous issues. And when real issues remain hidden, they cannot be solved. That leads to proposed solutions being not useful and possibly harmful.
The issue is not unequal treatment before the law, the real issue for Aboriginal people, maybe lifestyle or cultural or poverty or welfare dependency. But let’s have the truth because only then can we identify core problems and only then can we identify core solutions.
Only then can we really care for the disadvantaged and help them solve the challenges they face. But all people must be equal before the law. Another real issue then is dishonesty in parliament and fear of data. Fear of data, that’s what brings objectivity.
And yet the people in this parliament run from it. Their own data. So I wanna make these core points. Number one, these are hard data from the government’s own agency yet the government is jumping from its own shadow, afraid to debate, even though the points are supportive of their case.
That begs the question, is the government is afraid of a split within its own ranks? The wokes versus the real liberals? and several liberals have approached me and discussed the party’s fear of data and reality. Number two, the left or control side of politics hates data.
It undermines their use of opinion, hearsay, smears, emotions, propaganda, and lies to hijack issues. That fabricates victims and that weakens the very people they claim to be helping. Their ideology is based on victim-hood as a means of creating division and separation and that cripples people.
Thirdly, the government’s position in suppressing the data shows a fear of data, a disdain of data, a disrespect for people, highlights how, it highlights how issues are pushed to avoid data. Climate, Senator Ian McDonald stood up there.
The former Senator Ian McDonald stood up there in the last Monday of 2016 and said, looked across at me and said, “I don’t always agree with Senator Roberts, “but I’ve got to admit and respect him for starting “the debate on the climate science that we have never had “in this parliament and still have not had.”
The absence of data allows destructive policies that are hurting and killing people and certainly making life miserable financially, materially and emotionally. With the exception of Senator Hanson and myself, all other senators have effectively voted that all lives do not matter.
All other senators have effectively voted that they are not interested in data, not interested in objectivity, not interested in truth. I stand by my belief and statement, and that is this, all lives matter. I will continue to support free speech as crucial for democracy and freedom.
And essential for freedom that is essential for human progress. Thank you, Mr.President.
Labor, Greens, Centre Alliance and Jacqui Lambie last night voted down a Bill for mandatory sentencing for paedophiles. One Nation voted strongly in support of this Bill.
Transcript
Thank you, Mr. Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I don’t serve just voters, I serve everyone who is a resident of Queensland and Australia. And that especially includes those who don’t vote because they’re too young.
I won’t go over the statistics, the gory details because they are horrific. Other speakers have done this from both sides of the chamber but I do serve the young. And why do I serve the young? Because the abuse of children is not only the most heinous crime.
It is also the destruction of our nation’s future. As I see it, the child, especially the young child up to about six is the embodiment of our universe. It is the ultimate expression of our universe. The lovely eyes of a child, and what is going on in the heart of that child from zero to six are the critical years.
According to Maria Montessori, he has done more work than anyone else ever on the development and behaviour of humans. And she says that zero to six are the critical years for the development of intellect and character. And some mongrel comes in and steals that person’s development, that young child’s development.
And I did look at yesterday and the day before, when I was in the Hunter Valley with Stuart Bonds, and we were helping some people who are victims at adult of corporate crimes, group crimes. And Stuart and his wife Sini have a lovely daughter called Penny.
And Penny is an absolute delight. Eye shining, heart pumping, asking questions. She’s only two and a half, but speaks like a four year old, speaks like an adult in many ways, full sentences. And I was just marvelling at that lovely little human, the embodiment of her universe, combined with the human spirit.
As Tom Peters said the renowned management expert, he said many years ago, and I’ll always remember this. “The height of our civilization is the four year old.” There’s developing, but they haven’t been corrupted by our society yet. And yet children need to be protected.
They’re naive, worse than that or more important than that, they’re innocent. And they can be preyed upon. They’re weak and vulnerable in many ways, despite that sparkle and that energy. And when somebody molests a young child, they’re doing enormous damage, lasting damage, terrible damage.
They’re not doing it just to the child because the child’s pain, plays out for the rest of her or his life. That is terrible. But then what happens to that pain? Is it sometimes gets transferred to other people when that child becomes an adult.
And so on the handing down of that pain, a lifetime of pain, a cost in sorting out that person’s problem sometimes later on the costs that are borne by our society, the cost that can be born by other individuals. And that is a huge cost to our society. So every way we look at this, this bill must go forward.
We know that sentences on paedophiles are not tough enough. We know that judges are being weak and society is not dealing with this vital issue anywhere near adequately. We must have much more serious sentencing because judges have shown they have been weak.
Now we’ve had questions about this bill, Senator Hanson and I have listened intensely to the Labour Shadow Minister for the Shadow Attorney General. And he made some good points, provided us with some data.
We then went to the Attorney General and listened to the Attorney General, reassured us on those points, reassured us on the checks and balances in this bill, because these are the worst of criminals, but they still need to be treated fairly and within the law.
This bill, as it is now sends a powerful message to the scum of our society, the absolute scum and dregs of our society. We must be tough on those who hurt the weak, who hurt the vulnerable, who hurt our kids. Our kids are the future. Our kids deserve to be free from this scum.
We are voting in favour of this bill because of our kids and I commend this bill to the Senate.
