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

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia of all colours I reinforce the right of people to protest and speak lawfully. We are in favour, in One Nation, of freedom over control. I want to make the comment that Senator Hanson condemned the killing of George Floyd in her speech. It stuns me that Senator Ayres can so blatantly reverse Senator Hanson's clear position. That is dishonest.

I refer to Senator Rice, who said, 'Racism exhibited by Senator Hanson.' That too, from Senator Rice, is a lie. It is false. It is dishonest. It is cowardly. Stating accurate data, as Senator Hanson did, in a coherent, logical argument; calling for all people, regardless of skin colour or race, to be treated the same under our laws is the reverse of racism. It is fairness, it is honesty and it is care. Yet out-of-touch and ignorant policies, such as those of the Greens of artificially raising energy prices and tossing workers out on the scrap heap, are what exposes the Greens fault lines across our society. These policies of the Greens are hurting all people and most savagely our most vulnerable and poorest people, black and white. Resorting falsely to labels shows that Senator Rice cannot counter Senator Hanson's data and logical argument.

I remind the Labor Party that their Senator Polley tweeted, 'All lives matter.' She was slaughtered by her own Labor politicians. She withdrew the tweet. So accordingly I can conclude that in the Labor Party all lives do not matter.

Now let's turn to the protest. I draw to people's attention the protest of activists last week. In breach of the COVID-19 restrictions they blatantly ignored the stated health concerns and wilfully broke the law. That is the issue. The protesters have not been punished, yet our law-abiding businesses continue to be punished. Livelihoods are being crushed complying with these restrictions. Tourism and hospitality are key sectors in Queensland shouldering the burden, a burden that the Queensland Labor government placed, and continues to place, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community well beyond these border use-by dates.

The Palaszczuk Labor government implicitly gave permission for 30,000 demonstrators to turn out to the Black Lives Matter protest. Meanwhile Queensland businesses stay closed, restaurants stay closed and stadiums stay empty. Premier Palaszczuk remains obstinate and defers critical decisions to Queensland's Chief Medical Officer. To add insult to injury, emotional and financial injury, the Queensland Labor government has now callously stated, 'Our border closures and restrictions have not created financial hardship.' What? Meanwhile these economies continue to unravel. That is Labor's arrogance, insensitivity, callous disregard for people, dishonesty, weakness, gutlessness and fear. This cold-hearted indifference to the people and businesses of Queensland undermines any remaining confidence that business may have had in Premier Palaszczuk's Labor government to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, based not on data but on hidden agendas. This simply does not make sense. It is not fair to allow businesses to continue to collapse due to government hypocrisy and cowardice.

We all know the reality is quite different. While some people can congregate and demonstrate, people on the border continue to suffer. Over the next three months, which is when Queensland's Chief Health Officer believes it will be realistic to open the Queensland border, the Gold Coast will lose a further $1 billion in revenue on top of its existing losses. Southern visitors spend three times more than intrastate travellers, so we cannot expect that Queensland travellers alone will save the glitter strip economy. Gold Coast Airport traffic fell 99 per cent in April and May compared to the same time last year. This is financial hardship, and the Queensland Labor government still have not provided the data they relied upon to close the borders in the first place. Lifeline is taking calls of distress from people.

State and federal politicians who attended the Black Lives Matter demonstrations broke the law. The Palaszczuk Labor government in Queensland has a duty of care to all Queenslanders. Labor's blatant hypocrisy needs to stop.