This afternoon Pauline and I spoke on her ‘Matter of Public Importance’.
“Allowing activists to breach COVID19 restrictions without punishment, even as the same restrictions are devastating jobs, businesses and lives, is a grave insult to law-abiding Australians.”
In addition to discussing the border closure in Queensland, Pauline used facts and logic to discuss the Black Live Matter Movement and Indigenous deaths in custody but was labelled by Labor and the Greens as a racist.
This tells me that they have no evidence to dispute her so they resort to lazy name calling.
My speech starts at the 5 minute mark.
Transcript
[President]
Senator Hanson.
[Hanson]
Thank you very much, Mr. President. The matter of public importance I’ve raised today, is based on our state government’s, in particular, the weak leadership of Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, for allowing activists to breach COVID-19 restrictions without punishment.
Even as the same restrictions are devastating jobs, businesses and lives. It’s a grave insult to all law abiding Australians. Last weekend, we saw tens of thousands of Australians pack city centres across the nation in protest of Black Lives Matter.
This protest started in the United States with the unnecessary death of a Black American, at the hands of police officers. No one could possibly condone the way in which George Floyd died. But what upsets me, is the attitude of many people black and white, that his death matters more because he is black.
And yet when a white 40 year old Australian American woman by the name of Justine Damond was shot, there was no protest. No one really cared, because she was white. George Floyd had been made out to be a martyr. This man has been in and out of prison numerous times.
He was a criminal, and a dangerous thug. George Floyd had a criminal history of breaking into a pregnant woman’s home, looking for drugs and money, and threatening her by holding the gun to her stomach. It sickened me to see people holding up signs saying, Black Lives Matter, in memory of this American criminal.
I’m sorry, but all lives matter. And if I saw signs being paraded on the day, that said that very thing, we wouldn’t be having this debate. More whites die in Australia and America in relation to deaths in custody than blacks, that’s a fact. But where’s the outrage for white people?
For the majority people in custody, it’s because they’ve broken the law. In other words, they’ve committed crimes against innocent people. To hear brainless comments from people saying that our indigenous Australians should not be locked up, as was the case put forward in 1995, is absolutely ridiculous.
Black and white Australians must face punishment, if they commit an offence or break the law. We cannot allow bleeding hearts, and those on the left to destroy the fabric of our society, and our freedom. The public sentiment calls for those who do the wrong thing to be held to account for their actions.
I’m used to seeing gutless behaviour from political parties. But what I have seen transpire over the last few days, the word gutless doesn’t even begin to describe it. When the severity of the Coronavirus pandemic became apparent, we asked Australians to make some sacrifices.
We asked them to stay at home, to shut down their businesses, we asked people to put their livelihoods on the line, for the well being of every Australian. And they’ve done that, much to their own demise. So after what I saw over the weekend, I don’t blame the 445,000, small mom and dad businesses in my home state for saying they feel betrayed.
And although there were just two new cases of Coronavirus across Australia, the Queensland Labour Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, has kept our state border in lockdown, like a scene out of Germany in the 1960s, when they established Checkpoint Charlie.
And while Checkpoint Palaszczuk claims to be saving Queenslanders from the COVID-19. She authorises a mass gathering of 30,000 Black Lives Matter protesters in Brisbane, which flew in the face of all social distancing laws. Not one person was reported to be fined, or held to account.
Even when someone was filmed jumping on a police car, what an insult to law abiding Australians. We saw the scene played out across Australia, and every politician who turned a blind eye, should hang their heads in shame. People are furious and I don’t blame them.
They want to know how can this happen when our pubs, clubs, gyms, restaurants and businesses are still crippled by the full force of COVID-19 restrictions. They can barely have 20 people in a room. Doesn’t Queensland’s economy matter? Doesn’t Australia’s economy matter?
These activists should never have been allowed to march, and call Australians racist, especially when we can’t even hold a proper funeral for our loved ones. I say shame on the politicians who were too gutless, too scared of losing votes to stand up to the mob.
[Roberts]
Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, of all colours. I reinforce the right of people to protest, and speak lawfully. We are in favour, in one nation, of freedom over control.
I wanna address straight away though, and make the comment that Senator Hanson condemned the killing of George Floyd in her speech. It stuns me that Senator Ayres, can so blatantly reverse Senator Hanson’s clear position. That is dishonest.
I wanna refer to Senator Rice who said quote, “Racism exhibited by Senator Hanson.” That too from Senator Rice is a lie. It is false, it is dishonest, it is cowardly. Stating accurate data as Senator Hanson did, in a coherent, logical argument.
Calling for all people, regardless of skin colour, or race to be treated the same under our laws, is the reverse of racism. It is fairness, it is honesty, it is care. Yet out of touch and ignorant policies, such as those of the Greens, artificially raising energy prices, and tossing workers out on the scrapheap.
That is what exposes the Greens fault lines, across our society. These policies of the Greens are hurting all people, and most savagely our most vulnerable and poorest people, black and white. Resorting falsely to labels, shows that Senator Rice, cannot count a senator Hanson’s data, and logical argument.
And I remind the Labor Party, that Senator Polly tweeted, their Senator Polly tweeted, “All lives matter.” And she was slaughtered by her own Labor politicians, she withdrew the tweet. So accordingly, I can conclude that in the Labor Party, all lives do not matter. Now let’s turn to the protest.
I draw people’s attention the protest of activists last week, in breach of the COVID-19 restrictions. They blatantly ignored the stated health concerns, and willfully broke the law. That is the issue.
The protesters have not been punished, yet our law abiding businesses continue to be punished, and livelihoods are being crushed, complying with these restrictions. Tourism and hospitality are key sectors in Queensland, shouldering the burden.
A burden that the Queensland Labor government placed, and continues to place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community. Well beyond these border restrictions use by dates. The Palaszczuk Labor government, implicitly gave permission for 30,000 demonstrators to turn out for the Black Lives Matter protest.
Meanwhile, Queensland businesses stay closed, restaurants stay closed, and stadiums stay empty. And Premier Palaszczuk remains obstinate, and defers critical distance decisions to Queensland’s Chief Medical Officer.
To add insult to injury, emotional and financial injury, the Queensland Labor government has now callously stated, our border closures and restrictions, have not created financial hardship for our border closures, what? Meanwhile, these economies continue to unravel.
That is Labor’s arrogance, insensitivity, callous disregard for people, dishonesty, weakness, gutlessness, and fear. This cold hearted indifference to the people and businesses of Queensland, undermines any remaining confidence that business may have had in Premier Palaszczuk’s Labor Government, to respond to COVID-19 pandemic based not on data, but on hidden agendas.
This simply does not make sense, and it is not fair to allow businesses to continue to collapse due to government hypocrisy, and cowardice. We all know the reality is quite different, because while some people can congregate and demonstrate, people on the border continue to suffer.
Over the next three months, which is when Queensland’s Chief Health Officer believes it is realistic to open the Queensland border, the Gold Coast will lose a further $1 billion in revenue, on top of the existing losses.
Southern visitors spend three times more than intrastate travellers, so it is not enough to expect that Queensland travellers alone, will save the Glitter Strip economy. The Gold Coast Airport, traffic has fallen 99% this April and May, versus the same time last year.
This is financial hardship, and the Queensland Labor Government, still has not provided the data they relied upon to close the borders in first place. Lifeline is taking calls of distress from people. State and federal politicians who attended the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, broke the law.
The Palaszczuk Labor Government in Queensland has a duty of care to all Queenslanders, and Labor’s blatant hypocrisy needs to stop.
[President]
Thank you Senator Roberts.
