Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a number of other questions that I want to put to Senator Hanson, but, before I do so, I might just try to put this debate that we're having at the moment in some context. Let's be honest about what's happening here. What's happening here is that Senator Hanson and her colleagues are now scurrying back into this chamber to try to fix the mess that they created last night. They have been shamed into coming back into this chamber to reverse cuts to pensions and cuts to allowances that they voted for only last night. In Senator Hanson's case, she voted for them twice.

This is just the latest example we are seeing from Senator Hanson and her One Nation colleagues in their ongoing campaign to sell out the very battlers that they say they are here to represent. This has been happening for so, so long, ever since Senator Hanson and her colleagues came to this chamber after the double dissolution. We've seen it on a range of workplace matters. Senator Hanson and her One Nation colleagues voted for the government's ABCC legislation. What was buried in there was that Senator Hanson—despite all of her xenophobic remarks criticising foreigners, criticising migrants—in voting, along with her colleagues, for the ABCC legislation made it easier for construction companies to bring in temporary overseas workers to replace local workers. If that's not selling out the battlers that she says that she represents, I don't know what is.

In voting for the ABCC legislation, Senator Hanson and One Nation also voted to cut apprenticeships in the construction industry. They've actually cut the floor out from underneath the young battlers who they say that they are here to represent, by reducing the number of apprenticeships that are available to young people in the construction industry. In voting for that ABCC legislation, Senator Hanson and her One Nation colleagues also made it a hell of a lot easier for construction companies to bring in labour hire and keep people in insecure work. These are the people that Senator Hanson and her colleagues say that they are here to represent—people in regional Queensland, in particular, and outer suburban areas who are really struggling to make ends meet, who are on labour hire rather than permanent work, who are in casual employment rather than permanent work, who are struggling to get an apprenticeship. Through Senator Hanson's own votes, she is actually making it harder still for these people, by removing what opportunities they do have.

Who can forget that we've seen them do it as well on penalty rates? There have been a number of occasions now when we on the Labor side have given One Nation and Senator Hanson the opportunity to stop cuts to penalty rates from going ahead. But over and over again they vote with the government to let these penalty rate cuts go through, to cut money out of the pockets of the battlers that they say they're here to represent. We've seen them do it on child care, by voting with the Liberals to cut childcare payments to low-income families. We've seen them do it again on labour hire, by refusing to back amendments that Labor moved that would have held host employers liable for underpayments to workers made by labour hire firms.

These people are the biggest bunch of hypocrites this Australian parliament has ever seen. They spend every day out there, particularly in regional Queensland, claiming that they're the friends of battlers, claiming that they are going to come down here to Canberra and sort out the major parties, and, at every single chance they get, they line up and vote with Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals to cut money out of the pockets of the very people they say that they represent. I'm actually surprised that it's only about 85 per cent of the time that Senator Hanson and One Nation vote with the government. You would think it is 100 per cent. They might as well just go and join the Liberal Party today, which is where Senator Hanson came from in the first place. If you're going to come down here and continue voting with the Liberals to hurt battlers, to allow more 457 visas into construction sites, to cut apprenticeships, to hurt labour hire workers, to cut child care to low-income families and now to cut bereavement allowances, why don't you just go back and join the Liberal Party? You might as well do that since you're voting with them all the time.

Here again, on this very bill, we're seeing yet again Senator Hanson and One Nation sell out the battlers that they say they represent. They might sit there and smirk about it. It is actually not funny. It's not funny that you get out into regional Queensland and tell people that you're going to protect them and you come down here and leave them in the lurch by voting with the Liberal Party over and over again. It's not funny; it's dishonest, and you should be ashamed of the fact that you keep on doing it. These people have a right to be represented in the way that you say that you're going to, not sold out every time you come down here to Canberra.

On this bill, let's just cut through the nonsense that we've been seeing from Senator Hanson and her colleagues all day today and here tonight. They're trying to proclaim this as some massive win that they've been able to engineer for pensioners. What has actually happened here is that they've been caught out yet again selling out the battlers that they say they represent.

Last night we had the farcical situation in this chamber where two of the three One Nation senators weren't here for a vote. The vote, for a Greens amendment, I think, that was backed by Labor to try to protect this bereavement allowance, was put. The Greens voted to protect bereavement allowances. Labor voted to do so. Senator Hinch mentioned that he did. I'm not sure about some of the other crossbenchers. All of us were standing up for the battlers that you say you represent. Senator Hanson came over here, sat with the Liberals and voted to cut the bereavement allowance altogether, and two of her senators couldn't even be bothered showing up. We then had this pathetic situation where those two senators came into the chamber. One said he was detained inadvertently and one said he was in the toilet. Not only did they vote to cut this bereavement allowance once but they demanded that it be put to the vote again so that they could get the numbers up and guarantee this bereavement allowance could be cut once and for all.

Don't pretend that you're in here trying to help battlers or trying to protect the bereavement allowance. What you're actually doing is coming in to fix the mess that you created last night by voting with the Liberals not once but twice. The only reason this has happened is that you have been shamed into it. I and a number of other people were out on social media very loudly last night pointing out what you did. And I notice, Senator Hanson, that you spoke to the minister about this amendment last night. I bet that was after you had been exposed for being a fraud yet again and for selling out the battlers that you say that you represent again. I see you nodding there. Is that correct?

The CHAIR: Senator Watt, I remind you to direct your remarks to the chair.

I see Senator Hanson nodding there, so I'd be interested to know if it's correct that she only actually bothered to talk to the minister about this after her selling out of battlers yet again had been exposed.

It's bad enough that we get this One Nation crowd coming down to Canberra and repeatedly voting with the Liberals to sell out the battlers that they represent, but then to spend the entire day lying about why they are moving this amendment just makes it even worse. Just be honest. Be honest and admit that you made a mistake, you sold out the battlers that you represent, you got it wrong, you've seen the error of your ways and now you're trying to rectify it. Don't get Malcolm Roberts in his tinfoil hat out there trying to pretend something different; just be honest for once. Admit you got it wrong. Admit that you're actually going to stand up for the battlers that you say you represent and you're going to vote with Labor, just like you should have done in the first instance. And maybe you should make a habit of it and vote with Labor on a whole range of other things to protect the battlers that you say that you care about.

The claim that you are in here today because you care about pensioners and you want to save people is an out-and-out lie. I'm glad that you've been found out for it and I'm glad that you've come in here and moved an amendment. But as we've heard, despite this amendment, there will still be 30 people a year whose partners will die and they will need support. We're not talking about rich people. Thirty low-income Australians a year are going to die and their partners, who would have once qualified for a bereavement allowance to help them pay for a funeral and get back on their feet—they might not even have a job—will be actually worse off still because of the vote that you cast last night. Why aren't you fixing that? Why aren't you making sure that every single person you sold out last night is going to be no worse off? Why are you still leaving 30 people a year in the lurch?

Now that you have seen the error of your ways in relation to the cuts to the bereavement allowance that you voted for last night, what I want to know is: have you got other amendments ready to go now to try to reverse the other cuts that you voted for last night? This was not the only cut to low-income Australians that One Nation voted with the Liberals to get through last night. One Nation last night also voted to cut the wife pension, the widow allowance and the partner allowance and to make people older than 55 now stop volunteering in order to qualify for the dole and make them go out and look for work instead.

There are a whole range of other cuts that One Nation voted with the Liberals last night to put through. There are thousands of low-income Australians, battlers who One Nation say they care about, who are still going to be worse off as a result of all these other cuts that you voted for last night. Are you going to move amendments? Are One Nation going to move amendments to reverse the other cuts that you voted for last night or are you still going to leave out thousands of people who once got a wife pension and won't anymore, who once got a widow allowance and won't anymore and who once got a partner allowance and won't anymore? Are they going to be fixed up or are you going to leave them to be hung out to dry with less money in their pocket facing a much harder existence?

This is not the only sellout that you committed last night. I really hope that you have other amendments to make up for the sellouts to a range of other people that you committed last night as well. Don't think you get off the hook by fixing one problem when you created many. We are onto you and we are going to keep exposing you for the lies and fraud that you keep on committing every single time you come down here and vote with the Liberals.