Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

The key function of being a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia is to listen. This morning I retweeted a quote from a self-styled energy activist, Mr Luis Aramburu, who boldly and correctly said:

The green fringe is against:

Coal

…

Natural gas

Nuclear

and even hydro. What do they want? The starvation of most of humanity?

Mr Aramburu sums up the Australian political landscape so clearly. This country is being consumed by the green fringe, contrary to what people want, and that is the real reason political parties are sliding. We see that at both state and federal level and in the churning of government. The truth behind poll numbers is that both the ALP and the LNP are sliding, not just the LNP. The ALP's primary votes are dwelling in the low 30s. Why? Why are numbers so low?

The reason is that Australian political parties have taken a lurch to the left, abandoned Australian values and trashed common sense, becoming destroyers of humanity, not builders of humanity. Parties have embraced Marxism, and everyday Aussies have had a gutful. No new dams and no new coal-fired power stations are being built. Gas is off the radar, and we won't consider nuclear. Instead, successive governments have relied on the hope and prayer of the sun shining or the wind blowing, and our economy is now paying the price.

The current ruin of our economy shows why the political parties are suffering with poor poll numbers. It is the opposite to the picture painted by this Greens motion. The secret to increasing poll numbers, as history shows, is not to embrace more whacky-backy Greens tripe but to repudiate it, cast it aside, reject it and denounce it. In its place, we should suggest a progressive view of humanity that hopes for and relies on the best of society, a vision of where we once were, a proud nation, united under one vision to build a successful future based on jobs for everyone in a safe and secure society.

We can only build this type of vision that unites Australians when we listen to what Australians need. People tell us they need cheap power, yet not everyone in the chamber is—in fact, few are—apt to be listening. For example, Senator McGrath came into the chamber recently and carried on about where Liberal Party senators live across Queensland, as if that mattered. For what it's worth, Liberal senators could live on the moon, because, from what we see, it doesn't matter where LNP parliamentarians live; they still don't listen to rural and regional Queenslanders around them.

If the Liberals and Nationals listened to people, they would realise that Australians and Queenslanders want the renewable energy target dumped now, not in three years when electricity prices have doubled as a result of the new policy. They want it dumped now. If they would listen, they would learn that people are worried about electricity prices and that to focus solely on reliability instead of price is folly. When the process of delivering a service is improved, the reliability of that service goes up, and the price of that service goes down. We need to work on the process. What we are doing here with this government, this opposition and the Greens is tinkering with the fundamentals and destroying it.

The Greens created a problem that doesn't exist to force action that's not needed. In their rush for seeking Greens preferences, both the LNP and the ALP have fallen for the climate con and now the energy con. Instead of relying on unsupported opinions, we must base policy on solid data that will withstand scrutiny. Human progress depends on cheap energy. That has been shown for 170 years. Now, in the last 10 years, we have reversed that. One Nation's message to Senator McGrath and the general body politic is clear: to win votes and reduce the cost of power, take action today. We can come over to your office, Senator McGrath, and give feedback we've heard from Queenslanders as we travel around our state. Our door is always open, as should be everyone's in this chamber.