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

Everyone has been calling for a royal commission into the banking sector, and the coalition government have actually instigated that. Labor say they've been calling for a royal commission into the banking sector, as have the Greens and One Nation and, I believe, Senator Hinch and others, and we were very pleased to see it happen. Now we are talking about the valuers and liquidators involved in this. In the Senate inquiry that One Nation had last year, it came out that they played a very big role in the devastation that shut down a lot of people in the farming sector who lost their properties, yet nothing was done about it.

We are now proposing an amendment to include those people in this bill. We have confirmation that it can be done under this bill. If Labor are so much for all the battlers out there, why don't they want some accountability to ensure that these people are taken to task for their actions? Why aren't Labor prepared to stand up for this? This is an amendment that calls for accountability, so that they cannot just do what they want to do and destroy people's lives. The government, from the minister's office, is saying that this is unconstitutional. We have asked: which part of the Constitution? Absolute silence! Nothing has come back to us. They can make a comment like that, but they can't back it up with evidence.

They come under the Corporations Act—and that's fine—but there is no reason why either side cannot pass this amendment. Do you really want to stand up and ensure accountability in this country from the banking sector? They hire these liquidators and receivers. They don't pay for them, though; it's the people who are going under who have to pay the bills for this. They rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that's why people lose their properties. But you sit here in deafening silence and you're not prepared to make them accountability to the public. You sit there and say that you're for the battlers and you call for a royal commission into the banking sector. Is this Labor? Is this what you really want?

Labor constantly accuses One Nation of being out there grandstanding and not being prepared to stand up for the battlers and the farmers. Yet, here we are, moving an amendment to legislation that is going to be so beneficial to people in this country. It will make them accountable, and Labor just sits there and does absolutely nothing about it. You know who's really fighting for the people of this country, the battlers. It's One Nation.