Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, no, no, you sold us out. You explain why you sold the gas for 6c a unit. Do you deny that? You're laughing. The honourable member is laughing. He thinks it is funny that we sold our gas for 6c a unit, and we have to buy our own gas for $19 a unit. He thinks that is funny, and I would like to put that on record.

There is a saying in the trade union I belong to, the CFMEU: do you work to live, or do you live to work? Increasingly, we are being forced to live to work. Jobs are drying up all over Australia—don't believe the unemployment figures. It would be good for people in this place to reference the Liberal members, the two brothers that were ministers. One of them outlined how the ALP was doctoring up the unemployment figures. He was an expert in that field, and, when he became minister, he put in a whole new art form of doctoring our unemployment figures! They had no relationship to the number of people that were looking for but couldn't get a job in Australia. Jobs are closing, and there are no new mines opening in Queensland because the Queensland government is opposed to coalmining. There are no new mines opening up in hard-rock mining because the entire mineral potential of Queensland is tied up under exploration permits and mining leases, and the Labor government removed the 'use it or lose it' clause from the legislation. It is an interesting phenomenon that should be looked into by psychologists and university professors as to why the ALP is the anti-workers party and the LNP is the anti-business party.

It would be fascinating, but the truth of the matter is that that is the way that it is.

In Queensland, we can't go mining because all the mining fields in Queensland are locked up by people holding mining leases and exploration permits who have no intention of working. They do not even know or understand what they own. I asked one person, 'So what do you have up there?' He said, 'Copper, silver, lead, zinc.' I said, 'No, I mean what size of resource?' He said, 'We're not really going into that.' He's not really going into what composite of lead-zinc he owns. He's just there to play stock market games.

The double degree has done nothing. The woke class is closing down coal. We're importing our electricity from China. It's a rather interesting one that one. We import our electricity from China, while China has announced the building of 200 major coal-fired power stations. There's got to be something wrong here. The ALP sacked 12,000 railway workers in Queensland. God bless my union, the CFMMEU, because we sacked Jackie Trad, the person responsible. They also sacked 2½ thousand electricity workers, and the ETU—I've seen some running dogs in my life, but the ETU should be up there with some of the worst unions in Australia. So far they've been crawling along, grovelling and snivelling to the ALP. But they've forgotten they have a membership where 2½ thousand of their members were sacked by the ALP state government, and they're still out there supporting them. Their wage structures have dropped in the electricity industry. So that union is a disgrace. My union have stood up. You want to stand up against coalmining? We are quite capable of destroying you. Those are our jobs. That is our future. India and China have to have coal-fired power stations.

We're moving an amendment to this legislation, and I very much thank my colleague from South Australia for supporting our amendment. We will be moving:

That all words after "House" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not supporting a Senate Inquiry into the bill and not declining to give the bill a second reading:

(1) notes that in 2001 a far North Queensland sugar mill was sold by a bank and receivers at allegedly an undervalued asset price, leaving millions owing in original farmer shareholders …

The mill is worth $200 million. It was sold out from under the farmers for $2 million. The people that got it sold the mill two years later for $74 million. There was not a single action taken by ASIC. What are they paid for? I am putting on public record and I'll be going public to say that, unless the boss of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission can provide evidence that he has taken action in any of these cases, he should be prosecuted for taking money off the public purse under false pretences.

He doesn't believe he has any responsibility to the people. Right at this moment, there is a bloke that had a company that didn't pay his workers' wages and didn't pay the contractors. Because he appointed the liquidator, the liquidator sold him the assets, stripped, of course, of all the liabilities. So he didn't have to pay the workers and he didn't have to pay the companies. They're all owner-operator contractors. He didn't have to pay anyone. Then he does it again. He's done it again. Right at this very moment, there are some 200 or 300 workers that haven't been paid and who knows how many contractors that haven't been paid. He's done it again.

In this case, Wayne Swan had the ASIC person in charge in his office, and he went very close to dressing him down. Wayne Swan was very angry that no action had been taken in this case and in the case of the Innisfail sugar mill. When Joe Hockey came in, he had the bloke in, and he was very angry. But I would plead with the government to understand that you're in charge of a Public Service that laughs at you. They treat you with contempt. They don't feel they have any responsibilities to the Australian public.

Look no further than this case in North Queensland, right before us at this very moment, where 265 employees have not been paid for six, eight, 12 weeks—whatever it is. The employees' superannuation hasn't been paid in two years. ASIC were informed of this two years ago, and not a single solitary action has been taken, while they're taking $300,000 a year off the people of Australia to make sure that criminals are not allowed to carry out their deceitful, thieving actions. In the case of the mining company in North Queensland, two of the workers have now committed suicide. They're dead. There are some 20 or 30 being thrown out of their homes—they've been served notice because they can't keep the payments up on their homes. And this bloke—do you think you'll get a dollar out of him? The money is already hidden all over the place. But he doesn't have to worry, because he's not going to be prosecuted. ASIC has never prosecuted anyone in North Queensland's recent history—not one single case.

A sugar mill worth $200 million was sold out from under the farmers for $2 million—no action taken. And they sold the sugar mill two years later for $74 million. Thirty-nine of the farmers came themselves to get a civil action carried out, and within three months there was a settlement out of court for $23 million. That will be a measure of the incompetence of ASIC. No, it's worse than incompetence. If you're taking money and not doing your job, then you're taking money under false pretences, and I think that's criminal.

We move forward with this legislation to protect hardworking people that risk their lives—mining is a very, very dangerous occupation—and that then are not paid by charlatans whose mining leases are protected by government. They aren't even required to work the mining leases. For the first time in Australian history, we have legislation without any of the 'use it or lose it' clauses that were put in there, ironically, by wonderful Labor governments that were truly Labor in every sense of the word. The Labor Party of Australia today represents the exact opposite point of view. They represent the wokey classes, the endowed classes, the double-degree done-nothing classes who believe it's their right to rule. They're represented by the ALP. Those are their representatives in Australia. It's the complete opposite of what the Labor Party was formed by and for—the complete opposite.

So we move this legislation today to try to bring ASIC to heel. I think it's disgraceful that the minister is not here to face the music. I think it's disgraceful the head of ASIC is not here to face the music. We commend the Leader of the House, Mr Burke, on having made some moves in this direction, but they should be in this place. He, like I, has been in state parliaments, where the minister would be there facing the music. If he's going to move legislation, then he will sit in the parliament and face the music, and the head of the department will also sit in the parliament and face the music. But not here. They hide out like dingoes in their ivory towers. They won't come near this place. They won't face reality. Mr Deputy Speaker, is it appropriate for me to move this amendment now?

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