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

I'm very pleased that Senator Patrick has moved this motion to bring to the attention of the parliament the manufacturing industry in Australia. I've been speaking about this for years, going back to 23 years ago, when the Lima Declaration was put in place in 1975-76. It was about allowing developed countries like Australia, America and others to sell their product, their raw materials, to developing countries, and then we'd buy it back in finished product. That was an agenda by both our governments, and that's why we are in such dire straits and seeing the demise of our industries and manufacturing.

Can anyone say now that China declares itself to be a developing country? I don't think so. We're now buying so much Chinese product into Australia, and it has destroyed our own industry. What about the times when we made the Hills hoist, the Victa lawnmower and so many other products here? Where is our footwear and clothing industry? Where has it all gone? It has been destroyed because of tariffs. They got rid of the tariffs—this is why it's all gone—to bring the cheap imports into Australia, whereas we're paying only a few dollars a day to overseas countries, and we can't compete with that when we want a decent standard of living and a decent wage for our workers here. That's why it's destroyed our industries and manufacturing. We were supposed to get these countries to rise up to our level, but do you know what's happened in Australia? We've lowered our standard of living here. That's why a lot of Australians aren't working.

Senator Brockman gets up and says, 'You want to take us back to the 1960s.' I will tell Senator Brockman that our unemployment in the 1960s was 2.6 per cent. What is it now? Double that, at least—or that's what the record tells you. But what's the real unemployment rate? If you get one hour's paid work a week, or if you do educational training, you're not on the books as being unemployed, so there are a lot more unemployed Australians in this country. The process in this country has been to go to further education, so you go and get your degree, but at the end of the day there are no jobs in Australia. We have failed in apprenticeship schemes. We have failed because we are now opening up the floodgates with these free trade agreements.

When we did the free trade agreement with America in 2004, implemented in January 2005, supported by the coalition, who brought it in, and supported by the Labor Party, we actually did away with our tariffs from day one—tariffs on wool, horticulture, steel, wine, cotton and beef. From day one all our tariffs were gone. America kept their tariffs for between 11 and 18 years. On top of that they said, 'If that still has an impact on our own industries in our country, we will then put a quota system on.' What did our representatives do? They rolled over and let them have it, and destroyed all these industries.

Like I said, whitegoods are gone. Do we make whitegoods in Australia anymore? No, we don't. They're all Chinese imports that we're bringing into the country. What about the car industry? Another one that's gone. We had a car manufacturing industry. That's all gone. What about our dairy? That's the next one they're working on to destroy, bringing in the cheese products from overseas and from New Zealand—cheap cheese that will destroy our industries here. Who's standing up and fighting for them? We have an agriculture minister who is not doing anything to fight for the Australian dairy industry, because it's all right for her because she's the senator for Victoria.

Senator Green gets up and makes a comment about Labor and that it's the coalition that is sending all our manufacturing and jobs overseas. Let me remind her that it's the Palaszczuk Labor government in Queensland that had the electric trains built overseas in India. Guess what? They weren't built to specifications. They actually didn't comply and they had to be done again.

Lack of energy policy—my God, if you think there's lack of energy policy now, the Labor Party were in there. They want a 45 per cent renewable energy policy. How on earth are you going to do that? That's why we're going to lose a lot more industries and manufacturing in Australia—because we can't afford the electricity costs in this country. I've got one company in Rockhampton that could go under because the electricity cost has gone from $350,000 a year to $550,000 next year, and they've already put $1.2 million of solar panels on the business. That company owner has to decide whether to stay here or go overseas. He exports to 50 countries around the world. This what is they have done.

Senator Green also talks about the sugar mills and that we're not supporting them. It was actually Labor that brought in the reef policy and the Vegetation Management Act that is destroying our sugar cane growers as well. Both sides have allowed foreign investment. They allowed the Wilmar mills to be foreign owned and to screw the sugar cane growers, until I got the code of conduct. It was me, One Nation, that got the sugar cane code for the sugar cane industry, the same as I'm fighting now for a code of conduct for the dairy industry.

So this is what I say to a lot of people: have a look at it. Where are our canneries? Gone. We're now bringing in imports of food from overseas, destroying our own growers here. The pork industry has gone. Look at what happened to the orange growers years ago. Bringing in all this, we have destroyed it. It's because of the free trade agreements that we have signed. I will say this again, and Senator Patrick will agree with me here: they're bringing in 5,000 workers under the free trade agreements. This is why the unions are angry with the Labor Party: they're in collusion with the coalition government in signing these free trade agreements that are negotiated behind closed doors. They're not debated on the floor of parliament. We don't have any say. The agreements are just ticked off, and the Australian people have no idea what you've done. You are actually destroying our industries, our manufacturing and our jobs in this country, and you're allowing foreign workers to come in here to take jobs that belong to the Australian people. No wonder the unions are fed up with the Labor Party; you're destroying our workforce here. Anyone who is allowed to come into the country is working for next to nothing just have to a job here and is taking the money out of the country—and you can't even control that. This is not just bad management; this is being orchestrated. We've signed these agreements. We're supposed to have people with intelligence in this place working hard for the Australian people, but I don't see it.