Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I want to bring to the chamber's attention that we understand there has been a change in position from Pauline Hanson's One Nation party. They will be not supporting these amendments, on this occasion. They will be folding and selling out to back in the Liberal-National government yet again. This has very big consequences for older workers in my state of Queensland, which is the home state of Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts. If you had believed them when they were out there you would have thought Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts had had the interests of older workers in Queensland. Instead, as we could have predicted because we've seen it so many times before, they've rolled over, they've caved in and they've backed in the Liberal-National government.

I really would have thought that after the most recent Queensland election, where Pauline Hanson's One Nation party was demolished by Queensland voters, they might have learnt something from that. They might have learnt that you pay a price at the ballot box for selling out your voters. What we saw in the lead-up to the Queensland election was Pauline Hanson's One Nation party sell out older voters by demanding, over and over again, that Queensland's borders be opened. If you have a look, as I have done, very closely at who votes for Pauline Hanson's One Nation party, it tend to be older people. Despite that, Pauline Hanson's One Nation party and Senator Hanson herself repeatedly called, through the Queensland election campaign, for Queensland borders to be opened, exposing older people in Queensland to the risk of contracting COVID and dying.