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

This is not my first speech but, as a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I want to speak on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of honest Australians and Queenslanders who voted for One Nation at the last election and the vast majority of Australians who did not vote, in their primary vote, for the government. I listen to the people and I speak for the people, because One Nation is of the people. Let me make it very clear: we believe that money should be in peoples' hands not governments' hands. So why not bring the tax cuts forward? That's a question I want to consider.

Tax is an issue that's dear to my heart. It drives behaviour, and many people seem to forget that. Tax creates or chokes the environment for small business, large companies, employees and consumers. That is clear. It's well known, yet the government seems to be forgetting it. I've said many times in the Senate and in public that the taxation system in this country is our most destructive system in Australia. It is choking our country. When we change the tax system for the better, we will change behaviours and we will actually have smaller deficits—and I'll touch on that later today. But for now I want to introduce another concept, productive capacity. It's what our country will produce in the future. What is the capacity of us to produce and to produce effectively and efficiently? There are students in the gallery of this chamber from time to time, and it is their productive capacity that I'm particularly concerned about—the future of Australia. That's why we do not just tick and flick what the government puts up; we do what's best for our country. I want to thank Senator Cormann for the two presentations he arranged from the staff of the Treasury—great people. We got on very well and we appreciate their advice to us and their sharing of some information.

It's tempting to grab hold of the tax cuts—the tax offsets, sorry; they're not tax cuts, they're tax offsets—as a sugar hit, and the promise of bigger tax cuts after another two elections, more than half a decade away. Yet high energy prices, right now, are highly regressive and hurting the poor the most. So much for the bleating from over here from the Greens! They are in favour of, they have caused, the higher energy prices that are highly regressive for the poor. In the world's greatest exporter of energy, this country, we have pensioners and other most vulnerable people who cannot afford energy.

I can remember, as a high school student, cycling past the Kurri Kurri smelter in Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley as it was under construction. That smelter shut down recently because of the destructiveness of the Liberal-Labor policies on energy.

We support tax cuts—yet we want to consider the risk in getting rid of a $158-billion revenue stream and not replacing it. Why does the government lock itself, and two future governments, into a position half a decade out? And will the government guarantee no rise in GST?

Tax offsets, not tax cuts, are only for people paying tax—yet not all taxpayers—because they're really hand-backs or offsets that the ATO calculates. And they don't take care of people who don't pay any tax at all, such as pensioners.

So what about pensioners being choked with rising energy prices and rising food prices due to drought and high water prices? What about farmers—food producers—crippled with water prices? Until recently, Liberal-Labor governments—and I say 'Liberal-Labor governments' deliberately, because it makes no real difference, as I'll show you in a minute—borrowed money for recurrent expenditure. That's like a family putting its grocery bill on the home loan.

Why are Canberra public servants paid such huge salaries? What happened to our Constitution's competitive federalism and the accountability that it brought? I'll tell you what's happened to it: it's been destroyed.

Tax offsets are a sugar hit and can be taken away from the people through electricity prices overnight—well, within 12 months. Yet infrastructure charges—which are what my leader, Senator Pauline Hanson, and I have been advocating for—cannot be taken away, and they increase the productive capacity of our country.

If the economy will benefit so much from the government's supposed tax cuts, why are we waiting half a decade until 2024-25? Why not do it straightaway? It's all about priorities—as I'll show you, because One Nation wants reality for the people of Australia.

I'm going to discuss some problems and then some solutions. One Nation focuses on two primary things: management of our economy today and the vision for the future. Managing today requires two components: (1) cost of living—focusing on that, in economic management; and security, in terms of who we let into the country, for example; and (2) the vision for the country's future productive capacity. Good governance involves stewardship, management, governorship—which is for the long-term future—and trusteeship of the values of this country and our culture.

Let's discuss some facts briefly. 'Mandate': the government says it has a mandate. The government got one-third of the votes—or less than that, in places. And certainly we have a mandate in the Senate to speak for the people who support our campaign on energy and infrastructure.

Just a note to the Prime Minister: he does not tell the Senate what to do and how to do it; the Senate makes that very clear. It is under the Senate's grace that we debate issues, because the Senate is the house of the people of the states and a house of review.

On the debt, I say as I look to the members of the government over here: the debt in this country has doubled under your rule, Prime Ministers Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. And Mr Morrison, by the way, was also the Treasurer. Prime Minister Morrison's Liberals got fewer votes than Mr Turnbull's Liberals.

And regional Australia now is in recession. Businesses are shut. Go to anywhere from Cunnamulla to Cairns and you'll find shops boarded up—empty, vacant, dark, oppressive. Interest rates have just been cut to one per cent, yet credit card interest rates have been raised 1½ to two per cent.

Let's turn to the Governor-General's recent speech on behalf of his government. He said, 'A government's role is to shape the environment so people can seize the opportunities.' I agree completely. And he said, 'We are good people.' Again, I agree. Yes! In Australia we have amazing, resourceful, practical, innovative people. We have abundant resources. We're the world's biggest exporter of energy. There's plenty of water up north. We have a great climate. Our soil is a little bit thin compared to other agricultural countries, but we have so many boundless resources. And yet we're led by wombats.

Let's consider the poor economic management under the Liberal-Labor duopoly, which is destroying Australia's productive capacity and potential and destroying our environment for investment in the future. History and the record of Liberal-Labor show us that they're building facades and selling them. That's the history of our country in recent decades. There's more interest in looking good than doing good, and I'll explain that in a minute too.

But let's come to the primacy of energy. The No. 1 lesson of the last 170 years, since the start of the Industrial Revolution, is that the ever-reducing prices of energy in real terms have led to enormous increases in human progress. That is clear. Yet, under the Liberal-Labor duopoly, in the last 10 years we've seen a doubling of energy prices. It's a reversing of the energy trend, and that will lead to the future of our kids being a decline in human progress. That's what we want to reverse—that decline.

Let's think about the Renewable Energy Target. It was brought in by the Howard government and put on turbochargers by the Rudd and Gillard governments, destroying our competitiveness in this country. Network costs are high as a result of gold plating because of the structure of those under the now National Energy Market, which is really a national energy racket. Retailers are making money for jam, with guaranteed returns. The National Energy Market is not only a dictate of bureaucrats; it is able to be gamed, and companies, including foreign owned companies, are now making off like bandits while pensioners freeze.

Then we have privatisation and corporatisation. I was once in favour of government getting out of just about everything, but I've come to realise that, when it comes to monopolies like electricity and water, we cannot afford to have those assets in the hands of foreign owned multinationals that don't give a damn about our country. Under the old regime of competitive federalism, each state was responsible for its own electricity prices and reliability, and the focus of the minister in charge was to drive down the price of energy while ensuring reliability. Now, under privatisation and corporatisation, the focus is on the boards governing those entities driving up the price to maximise profits, without adding any more value. That is scandalous. That is now focusing energy deliverers on raising prices, and when we focus on raising prices what do we get? We get rising prices, higher prices. We've gone from having the cheapest energy in the world, with a focus on declining prices, to having the highest electricity prices in the world, with a focus on driving up the price of energy. That is simple, but no-one talks about it.

Think about the example of Kilcoy. We have a Chinese company wanting to buy land there and build the largest solar industrial complex in the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps in the world. They want to add cadmium and lead to Brisbane's water supply. But it's not just Brisbane; it's Ipswich, possibly Toowoomba, the Gold Coast and Logan. More than 2½ million lives are threatened. We're turning productive, high-quality prime agricultural land into an industrial wasteland for low-density energy production. Who did this? Liberal and Labor did this. And who pays? The people pay.

Then what we see is our coal going overseas to China to build wind turbines. They can use our coal more cheaply than we can because of our ridiculous Liberal-Labor regulations of the last 10, 15, 20 years. China is at a competitive advantage already. They send their wind turbines and their solar panels to us while they use our coal to generate electricity cheaply. And then we pay them subsidies to destroy our electricity network. We pay them subsidies! This would be like John Curtin as Prime Minister in 1942, when he saw the bombs falling in Darwin from the Japanese bombers, sending a cheque to the Japanese government, saying, 'Here, you might need a subsidy to help you destroy our economy.' I'm not criticising the Chinese for doing that. They're making a rational decision as a result of our government's stupidity. We're subsidising the destruction of our country.

Think about property rights. Think about people like Dan McDonald, an honest, hardworking farmer; farmer Sharon Lohse; and Bruce Wagner in Boonah. John Howard was agnostic on climate. He even said so seven years after he did the damage. His government stole farmers' property rights to comply with the UN's Kyoto protocol. You're wondering why I'm angry? It's because it happened all across Queensland and most of New South Wales thanks to Bob Carr and Peter Beattie. The initial agreement was with Rob Borbidge, the Premier of Queensland in 1996, when John Howard floated the idea to comply with Kyoto and cut the guts out of our agricultural sector. His government did it deceitfully by avoiding the Constitution so that they wouldn't have to pay compensation.

This is destroying the productive capacity of our country. Who did it? It was the Liberal-Labor duopoly. Who pays? It's the people who pay. The Liberals and Labor have identical or similar political positions on climate that are driving higher energy prices. The onus is on them to provide the data and facts justifying their policies, because they never have. Former Senator Ian Macdonald, from the Liberals, said in 2016, in this chamber, that we have never had a debate on climate science—never. He is correct. The Liberals and Labor have similar policies on gas. They are abandoning Australians and Australia. There are high immigration numbers under the Liberals and Labor. On foreign ownership, go for it, under the Liberals and Labor.

The Liberals and Labor are working together against minor and medium parties. Prime Minister Morrison suggested Labor and the Greens ahead of One Nation when it comes to preferencing. When are the Liberals and Labor going to merge? They are both chasing the same voters. Labor abandoned the workers. Liberals abandoned small business. The Nationals abandoned the farmers and the bush. When are they going to merge? They are all chasing preferences from the Greens. Maybe they will merge with the Greens, who are the ones who set the agenda. At times, they even suggest to preference the Greens first. That tells you about the Liberals and Labor. Labor always preferences the Greens first.

Who did this, again? It was the Liberals and Labor. Who is paying? It's the people. Every monopoly ever has been created by government. That includes education, energy and the centralisation of government. The tax offsets and cuts will be chewed up by higher energy prices and water prices within 12 months. The poor need real jobs and hand ups, not handouts. Tax rates and bracket creep mean nothing to people who have no job or have lost their assets to capricious banks, as many farmers have. We have a needlessly complex tax system that is made more complex because of the convoluted way that this government is giving tax breaks to low- and middle-income earners—we applaud that but not necessarily the way they're doing it—while ensuring a surplus and overall longer term bracket creep.

Think of these considerations. Think of progressivity. Theoretically, contrary to what the Greens say, the government has maintained that. We compliment them for that. Think of bracket creep. It is cyclical. They are not doing anything about bracket creep. They are just putting it off for another day. Think of a consumption boost. Potentially there could be, but the people in the Treasury can't really say where it will be spent. Will it be spent on imported goods, helping the Chinese and the Americans, or on Australian goods? Think of the budget's effect. It is affordable, so they say. They will keep the budget in surplus. There is then the political balance and a narrative. They need a surplus even if it is tiny and fragile. They then want horizontal equity so that the same tax is paid even if there are different income sources.

Get this: they want to maintain a 24 per cent tax take. In this beautiful country, the aim used to be 10 per cent. It has gone up two and a half times under the Liberals and Labor. It's an already complex tax system made more complex by offsets. Yet, out of this mess, eventually comes a better, simpler tax system. That would be half a decade from now, after two more elections. Who knows what will happen in between. People need transparency in the tax system, because that's what drives behaviour. With offsets, they don't get that. People in this country feel confused, directionless and hopeless. It's five years before they can get some real relief for middle-income earners.

These tax cuts and tax offsets are yet another political distraction, hiding the reality of economic mismanagement. The productive capacity of our country is being destroyed. Foreign multinationals pay no company tax. The weakest people are the PAYE people, which is the vast majority of Australians, frantically too busy surviving and complaining to take action. Farmers are abandoned, workers are abandoned and PAYE people are abandoned, and yet there's a possible structural change going on in the economy right now, according to the Treasury. Now we have competitive welfarism across the state rather than competitiveness.

Here are some solutions. If the tax cuts are so good, so beneficial, bring them all forward and get the benefits now, straightaway: increased economic behaviour, increased economic activity and possibly a higher tax take. We've seen modelling just recently, and we'll be back on this, from the University of Queensland and the CIS on that. They can do both, tax offsets and investment in coal-fired power and water security, to drive down people's costs, removing the artificial burdens on energy. They can tax foreign multinationals who currently pay no company tax, and they can do that to dramatically improve the surplus. How about this for an idea for the government? The $3 billion that's currently paid for subsidies to energy producers could be paid out of consolidated revenue. Mrs Brown, the pensioner down the road, currently pays for the subsidies to multinational electricity producers and the state government of Queensland. Higher electricity prices are highly regressive. It's a hidden Greens tax. Instead of the pensioners paying for them and instead of all of us paying for them—the wacky Greens programs that have been picked up by Liberal and Labor—why not have it coming out of consolidated revenue, paid for by increased revenue from multinationals?

Conclusions from me: economic mismanagement is destroying Australia's productive capacity and potential and yet we have enormous potential if we get back to basics. We need to invest in productive capacity: coal-fired power and water infrastructure. We need proper tax reform and tax rates locked in. One Nation is about positive policy for managing Australia, reducing the cost of living through proper economic management, enhancing security and having a vision for future building. We need creative and productive investment for the future. We need proper, responsible economic management. (Time expired)