Posts

Hong Kong’s Struggle Shows the Cost of Communism

,

Hong Kong is a lesson of what happens when communism is imposed on democracy. China assured the citizens of Hong Kong they would be respected, and then promptly broke that promise. The top 10% of income earners in Hong Kong own 40 times the wealth of the bottom 10%, with income inequality worsening every year under communism. This confirms that free enterprise lifts people out of poverty, while communism puts them in it. Communism promises joy and inclusion – while delivering misery and repression.  

China is improperly imprisoning freedom journalist and businessman Mr Jimmy Lai.  China is taking a well-worn path of totalitarian governments  seen throughout history.  We must remain alert here in Australia against the actions of a government with its own totalitarian tendencies.

One Nation firmly stands for free enterprise, small government, and the primacy of the family—unlike Communist China.

Transcript

Hong Kong is a lesson in what happens when communism is imposed on democracy. China assured Hong Kong citizens that they would be respected, and then promptly broke that promise. In Hong Kong, the top 10 per cent of income earners now own 40 times the wealth of the bottom 10 per cent. Every year under communism makes income inequality in Hong Kong worse. It confirms that free enterprise lifts people out of poverty, while communism puts them in poverty. Communism promises joy and inclusion, while delivering misery and repression. Repression leads to everyday citizens having less, leading to more repression, which leads to more inequality, and on it goes. 

China is improperly imprisoning freedom journalist and businessman Mr Jimmy Lai. China is taking a well-worn path of totalitarian governments across history. 

Australia has cause for reflection. We’re discussing this motion in the shadow of a looming Senate legislation guillotine. In a guillotine, the government gets the numbers to do whatever it wants, and it does just that, which is how communism starts—with unchallenged power. Senate guillotines have become commonplace. They should not be. Both parties have silenced democratic debate during guillotines, although it seems that Labor is wearing out its guillotine faster than Robespierre. 

Three days of hearings into the misinformation and disinformation bill heard from expert witness after expert witness, all criticising the government for introducing a ministry of truth tasked with issuing sanctions against any social media platform which resisted removal of what the ministry considered ‘misinformation’. This is how communism starts. The committee report had little in common with witness testimony. The report was nothing more than the government’s ‘truth’. The first target for the Albanese government’s ministry of truth should be the Albanese government. 

I welcome calling out Chinese communist repression, and I look forward to a wider conversation on where our actions in this chamber are leading Australia. 

/1 Comment/by

Labor’s Destruction of Democracy

,

The disrespect by Labor towards the Senate Estimates process is reprehensible, especially for a government elected on promises to be ‘transparent and accountable’.

As a representative of the people of Queensland and Australia, it’s my duty to uphold the sanctity of this Senate as the House of Review. The government’s audacity in cherry-picking what information it deems fit for our consumption reeks of contempt. This blatant obstructionism frustrates the very essence of our democratic institutions.

The culture of secrecy by Labor extends far beyond the Senate Chamber. Orders for document production are routinely disobeyed, undermining the integrity of our oversight mechanisms. It’s time we punish these acts with the sanctions they deserve.

/by

Supporting Debate Supports Democracy

The motion from Labor on Wednesday 18 October shows complete contempt for the Senate and for the people of Australia who put us in this house.

I spoke to oppose Labor’s guillotining of debate. The Family Law Act is being amended and the government is amending its own amendments, which tells us the legislation is hasty. That demonstrates even more importantly that we must have scrutiny and debate on this bill. The modern Labor party is only interested in ramming through legislation on energy, immigration and other bills impacting Australians. Meanwhile, it plans to shut down debate across the country with its censorship bill.

Prior to the election Anthony Albanese promised that his party would listen and engage in consultation. Actions speak louder than words. This is a leader in bed with the United Nations — not a leader for the people of Australia. A government worthy of respect supports such protocols as debate, scrutiny, and accountability. It respects the will of the people. The current Labor party is failing the nation on all those checks and balances. It’s a party gone rogue.

Transcript

Here we are again today with Labor proposing to guillotine debate on bills. This will come up in the formal motions. It has become Labor’s custom and practice in this chamber to guillotine debate on bills and to stop orders for the production of documents, and who helps them every time? The Greens. They say they are the masters of transparency and scrutiny, but what do they do? They guillotine debate almost every time. They guillotine debate on just about everything. 

Let’s see who else supports them. Will it be the usual cronies or will they stand up and support debate? It’s true that the Liberal motion is also setting a guillotine, but at least it restores some hours for debate, and that’s what’s fundamentally important. It’s extended until 10 o’clock tonight, thank you, and extended tomorrow before imposing a limit. The Liberals are trying to compromise. That’s why today we’re supporting their extension of hours motion and sitting late tonight.  

Here we are again with the Labor Party avoiding debate on bills that are the subject of so many amendments. The Family Law Act is being amended and the government is amending its own amendment bills—not just once, twice or three times but many times. They won’t let discussion happened on that. The fact that the Labor government is putting forward so many amendments to its own legislation shows that the legislation is hasty. That’s why we must have scrutiny of this.  

The Family Law Act has been called the slaughterhouse of the nation. It has been killing people in this country—killing families and killing kids—since 1975 when it was introduced by the Labor Party following UN policy. That is a fact. There have been 48 years of the slaughterhouse of the nation thanks to Lionel Murphy and the Labor Party. Now they are introducing bills to make it even more complex. They won’t allow scrutiny of that complexity. What are they hiding? 

We also see that other parties, including my own, have got a significant number of amendments in this chamber. We’re not even allowed to discuss our own amendments or explain our own amendments. What kind of democracy is that? What kind of scrutiny is that? What kind of responsibility is that? 

Look at the two migration bills. Think of the impact on housing. We will be getting 1.2 million new arrivals in this country this year. Where are they going to sleep—under what roof and in what bed? What will that do to the cost of housing and the cost of rent in this country? Labor at the same time is invoking UN 2050 net-zero policies, which are raising the cost of living dramatically. We have high inflation raising the cost of living dramatically. Housing is going up, and they want to bring in more people. We have a lottery, a ballot. Energy prices and inflation—they won’t allow scrutiny of this.  

Instead of consulting properly in the first place, the government has chosen to put forward poor legislation and just ram it through. The Labor Party need to start doing what Anthony Albanese promised as opposition leader and start listening and consulting, not walking with their ears closed and ramming through legislation. Didn’t you learn from last Saturday? The disinformation and misinformation bill will shut down debate. Not only do you want to shut down debate here but you want to shut down debate right across the country. That’s the modern Labor Party for you.  

This is not how the Senate is supposed to work. The Senate is supposed to be the house of review on behalf of the people. We were elected to represent the people and to debate issues for the people. We’re not their masters; we serve them. This is the people’s house, and Australians expect their senators to give each piece of legislation careful, extensive and respectful scrutiny. The motion from the Labor Party this afternoon shows complete contempt yet again for the Senate and for the people of Australia who put us in this House and who we are supposed to serve. Labor promised consultation and listening, yet, in practice, shows us Labor does not even know what those words mean. 

/by

Event: Save the Date – Labor’s War on Freedom of Speech

Free Speech Conference

Reserve your seat here: https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech-bne

Labor’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 is a direct attack on freedom of speech.

With the government taking aim at free speech and threatening the very foundations of our democracy, it’s vital that we stand against this bill. We must fight to protect our fundamental right to express ourselves.

There is a major problem with this bill and it is far more than just a slippery slope for our civil liberties. It is highly subjective in its definition of what constitutes ‘misinformation’ – in fact, ‘misinformation’ will mean whatever the government wants it to mean. That’s why it is being called ‘Orwellian’ with references to ‘The Ministry of Truth’ which featured in the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell.

The information censorship being sought by this bill could easily include legitimate criticisms of the government, questions about the science underpinning climate change ideology, questions about high immigration, questions about gender dysphoria, and the ‘no’ campaign against the voice to Parliament. When the ‘truth’ becomes a subjective tool for the government of the day, you have to ask, who will be fact-checking the fact-checkers?

Petition (scroll down to sign)

https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech

/26 Comments/by

Labor’s War on Freedom of Speech

Labor’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 is a direct attack on freedom of speech.

With the government taking aim at free speech and threatening the very foundations of our democracy, it’s vital that we stand against this bill. We must fight to protect our fundamental right to express ourselves.

There is a major problem with this bill and it is far more than just a slippery slope for our civil liberties. It is highly subjective in its definition of what constitutes ‘misinformation’ – in fact, ‘misinformation’ will mean whatever the government wants it to mean. That’s why it is being called ‘Orwellian’ with references to ‘The Ministry of Truth’ which featured in the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell.

The information censorship being sought by this bill could easily include legitimate criticisms of the government, questions about the science underpinning climate change ideology, questions about high immigration, questions about gender dysphoria, and the ‘no’ campaign against the voice to Parliament. When the ‘truth’ becomes a subjective tool for the government of the day, you have to ask, who will be fact-checking the fact-checkers?

Petition (scroll down to sign)

https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech

Free Speech Conference

Reserve your seat here: https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech-bne

Transcript

Fight Labor’s War on Freedom of Speech.

Freedom of Speech is an essential human right and the fundamental principle of Australian democracy.

Labor’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 is a direct attack on freedom of Speech.

This legislation targets everyday Australians, independent media and non-government political parties while carving out protections for government, mainstream Big Brother media and approved organizations.

It would give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) draconian powers to silence critics of the government and impose fines up to $6.8 million on social media platforms if, in ACMA’s opinion, they have not done enough to prevent the dissemination of what ACMA considers to be misinformation or disinformation.

The big problem with this bill is its highly subjective definition of what constitutes misinformation. Basically, misinformation will mean whatever the government wants it to mean. This could easily include legitimate criticisms of the government. Questions about the so-called science underpinning climate change ideology, questions about high immigration, questions about gender dysphoria, and statements for the No campaign against the voice to Parliament.

Don’t believe for a second the senior Liberal-Nationals Coalition figures opposing Labor’s bill, because when they were in government the coalition proposed very similar legislation just before the last election. The major party’s hidden agenda is the protection of their two-party system. They’ve watched votes leaked to minor parties and independents over the years and they’re desperate to close down our communication efforts.

If this bill is passed, you could even be saying goodbye to the Please Explain cartoon series.

We must take a stand for freedom of speech, we must fight for it. As Thomas Jefferson said, the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time. Freedom requires constant vigilance.

Making sure that hard won individual freedoms endure in our society requires constant vigilance.

You can help defend freedom of speech in Australia by putting your name to One Nation’s petition against Labor’s anti free speech censorship bill.

We urge you to sign our petition and make this the biggest in Australia’s history, this issue is that serious.

Yet it goes well beyond that. We’re gathering One Nation members of Parliament and esteemed independent speakers from around Australia for a conference in Brisbane on August 26th. More details are to come.

We’re energized and ready to take this to the Liberal-Labor Uni-Party.

Let’s help Pauline Hanson’s One Nation protect the most important of individual human rights.

/16 Comments/by