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

I totally agree with Senator Whish-Wilson and his comments here. Thank you very much for expressing those in the chamber—I think it needs to be done. We talk about a free trade agreement. This is not about a free trade agreement; this is about doing over the Australian people with all these free trade agreements that have been agreed upon over the years.

The bill, the Customs Amendment (Growing Australian Export Opportunities Across the Asia-Pacific) Bill, helps to give effect to three free trade agreements: the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the Australia-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement. Well, we've seen it in the past with America, and there's been free trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea—you name it. There are all these free trade agreements—nothing's free. Let's make that quite clear. These trade agreements have seen the demise of so many industries and so much manufacturing in Australia. If you actually think that we can maintain our standard of living, pay the wages that we do in this country and do deals with countries that only pay a few dollars a day, you're absolutely kidding yourself. That's what's happened with our industries and manufacturing in this country. That's why we don't have a car industry, a clothing and footwear industry or a whitegoods industry. It keeps going on and on and on. We've flooded our market with products from overseas countries that have destroyed our own industries here. Why? Because they can't afford to pay the wages. They can't afford to keep up with countries that only pay a few dollars a day in wages, and you keep opening up the floodgates for it to continue. Shame on you—both of you! Who are you protecting? Your mates in there? The multinationals? The United Nations? Who? Because it's not the Australian people. What you have done is disgraceful to this nation.

I go back to the American free trade agreement. Oh, you're great negotiators—absolutely fantastic! Let me draw you to the conclusion of 2004 and the American free trade agreement. You got rid of our tariffs from day one and you allowed America to keep the tariffs on our beef, horticulture, cotton, wine and steel—all this for 11 to 18 years. And then they said, 'Hey, listen: if you still do damage in our country, we want a quota system and we won't take your product any longer,' but we signed it away. I don't know why we're here in this parliament discussing this, because we have no say in it. We are representatives of the Australian people, yet we have never been given the opportunity to debate this. We're only here rubber-stamping this. We've got no say in this parliament. You've done your deals behind closed doors. Do the people have any say in this? None whatsoever. I think it's disgraceful that you haven't done that.

We did the TPP-11. It has worried me since 1998. At that time they called it the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. It was exactly the same as the ISDS—the investor-state dispute settlement. That means that, if we bring in laws in this nation which cause foreign companies to lose profits from their businesses, they can then sue us for the profits. During the TPP-11 debate, I asked Senator Reynolds about this. She said, 'That's hypothetical.' There have been two cases of it in the tobacco industry, so it's not hypothetical. I'm sick of whitewashing and not telling the Australian people exactly what can happen. New Zealand, under their free trade agreement, have side agreements with the countries that they would not be involved in the ISDS, so they're protecting themselves. What have our representatives done? Nothing—absolutely nothing to protect us. I wonder: how many more of our ministers, once they leave this place, will get jobs along the way? I raise this because it needs to be raised. Too many times I've seen ministers who have done deals in this parliament and then ended up in jobs with high wages once they're out of here.

There is often very little opportunity for politicians, industry leaders and other Australians to examine the agreements before they are introduced. Free trade agreements sound good in practice but often have problems in hindsight. It's smoke and mirrors. They are feel-good agreements but are potentially damaging to Australia. Some countries' agreements say they're going to get rid of half of the tariffs on fruit and exports, but it really is about jobs. All these free trade agreements are opening up the floodgates for them to bring workers into this nation.

That's why the workers of Australia are fed up with the Labor Party, who are supposed to protect their jobs and who are agreeing to this free trade agreement—as they have with all the other free trade agreements that we have signed with all the other countries. They are not protecting Australian jobs. We have the people here in Australia. They want work and they want training. They want the jobs. Why do we have to open up the floodgates for other nations to bring their workers into Australia? Can anyone answer me? Why?

Then we come to agriculture. We've lost our orange industry. We bring in fruit from overseas—for example, mangoes. Now we are looking at bringing in bananas and apples from overseas. And what about our sugar industry? So here we are, a country that produces so much produce here, opening up the floodgates for this free trade agreement to bring produce here, which could eventually, through biosecurity or another reason, damage our industries here.

It beggars belief why there is no resistance in this parliament and very few people standing up for the people of Australia. I shake my head when I see members of this parliament going along like sheep to the slaughter. You have sold us out—you really have. There are very few people in this parliament who are fighting for the Australian people. Do you really understand what is happening to our country? We hear today about Bellamy's being sold, and now the same company, the Chinese company, is wanting to buy up Lion's, which is a multinational. It will probably be rubberstamped because that's what FIRB does. FIRB rubberstamps everything. It doesn't knock anything back, because the government thinks, 'Oh, well, it's money coming into the country; they can't take it with them.' The attitude here stinks. You are all saying, 'Oh, well, they can't take it with them,' but you don't get it—you really don't get it. You don't understand that you are destroying industries and jobs here in Australia.

Why can't we be smart and actually produce the goods here and sell those goods overseas? They will buy the product, because we have quality. But, when they come here and they buy up our land, our farms and our industries, they are actually using our land, our resources and our water to produce the goods that they send back to their own countries—right from paddock to plate, decimating our industries. Then they write off everything in their taxes—and a lot of these companies don't even pay taxes here. It is a short-term sugar hit. That's exactly what we have done. It's short-term sugar hit. For what? It's because you only see yourselves here for the short term. I don't see any long-term vision for this country coming from our current politicians. You are too gutless to understand. All you are concerned about are your own positions and making sure that you get endorsed at the next election, so you go along like sheep and agree with who is telling you what to say and do.

The people will judge me and what I say. I am prepared to stand up and be accountable to the people who elected me to this place. They will judge me at the next election. At the end of the day, when I am finished in this place, I will sit back and know that I can judge myself honourably and know that I have stood up for what I believed in, said what needed to be said and was out there fighting for the Australian people and this country. There are probably a lot of people in here who truly want to but haven't got the guts to stand up and vote against it or to say what is wrong. Until we get people with intestinal fortitude in this place, nothing will change.

There are some positives here with these free trade agreements, as Senator Whish-Wilson said. Yes, there are positives, but, overall, do I support this? No, I don't. I don't support it, and do you know why? I don't support it because we haven't been given the opportunity to really debate this. You have brought this legislation here to be rubberstamped. It was the same with the TPP-11. It was ratified here in the parliament, but you haven't got any say in it. The Liberal-National government and the Labor Party have agreed to allow this deal to happen, but they have never given the people of Australia a voice. That's because they are not interested in the people of Australia having a say. Maybe I haven't always got it right, but at least I do believe in what the people have to say.

Free trade agreements can result in the import of cheap items that are manufactured in conditions that are much worse than the workplace conditions of Australia; therefore Australian manufacturers struggle to compete. They can include import into Australia of substandard fruits, potentially impacting on biosecurity. They increase threats from imports. It is already difficult to check containers coming into Australia. Some of the regulations they've put in here are going to call on the country to make a list of who imports and exports to and from their country. We can't even check our own imports into Australia with the containers that come in. We are lucky to check one in 100 containers. How will we police, if we buy from Peru or Indonesia, that the product is actually from that country? How do we know that it's not coming from somewhere else? We don't. Free trade has destroyed our clothing, car manufacturing, pork and fruit industries. As I said, the US free trade agreement is very one-sided.

Let's go to Indonesia. That's part of it as well. The Australian government is focusing its Indonesian aid to unaccountable bodies. The benefits to Australia from the Indonesian agreement will not pay back the considerable foreign aid paid to Indonesia. In 2019-20 Indonesia will receive $255.7 million for education, infrastructure, agriculture and governance programs. That's what we're paying to Indonesia. Australia is the fourth-largest aid donor to Indonesia. The Department of Foreign Affairs said that Indonesia has been a top recipient of Australian aid, receiving $359 million in 2017-18 and $540.1 million in 2012-13. This is what the taxpayers are giving to Indonesia and to other countries in that whole area. That is what frustrates me. Here we have Australian farmers, families and communities struggling, crying out for help from our Australian government. They're going through drought, floods, fire or whatever, and we give them an absolute pittance. Yet we give hundreds of millions of dollars to other countries surrounding us. How do you think taxpayers feel about that? It's their taxes.

I have never seen so much wasted money, from this government, business organisations and departments, as I have since I've been back in this parliament. The waste of money is disgraceful. You're buying your way into these other countries. The Prime Minister is hardly ever in the country addressing the real concerns of the Australian people; he's always overseas. He doesn't get it. The government doesn't get the struggles of people out there at all, and it gives them a pittance compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars given to other countries.

I've spoken about this many times before. I just feel devastated by what the government has done. I think they are pathetic in how they have governed. The people expected more from the coalition government after the election, and a lot of Australians are starting to wake up to the fact that they are not really addressing the concerns and needs of the Australian people. The drought that has hit Australia has been a test for them. People will wake up to the fact that these free trade agreements we are continually signing are not in our best interest. We are a small fish in a big pond and we seem to be swinging to the tune of these other countries around the world. We are not looking after our own, first and foremost, and that's what we're here for. We were elected members of parliament to represent the people of Australia, and that's what we should be doing. Our concern should be about them, and I just don't see it. I feel very sorry for the people out there who are crying out for that helping hand—someone to understand and listen to them.

I'm sure the members of this parliament will not cross the floor, will not follow their conscience and will not stand up for what they truly believe in. They'll think: 'Let's follow the party line. Let's vote the way the party tells us to vote, and we'll keep going along those lines.' If you don't, you won't get pre-selected next time around. You look after your jobs, you look after your futures, because you're not doing it for the people out there who are relying on you to look after their lives, their futures and, most importantly, future generations.