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

I rise to speak on the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022. One Nation will support this legislation, which effectively aligns referendum practice with election practice. This is not to be taken as support for the question to be put to the Australian people at the referendum on the Voice to parliament proposed by the Labor government.

One Nation will be active campaigners for the 'no' vote. We cannot support a race based Voice to parliament. We will not support taking the Constitution backward more than 50 years. We will not support giving a minority of Australians more political power based solely on their race. We will not support opening the door to a separate, sovereign, independent black state being established in Australia. We will not support a proposal that, if successful, will expose Australia to a series of constitutional crises that will threaten the supremacy of parliament and make the country ungovernable. We will not support handing over the government of Australia to the unelected High Court. We will not support allowing activists and the Aboriginal industry to hold parliament and the executive government hostage.

The Voice to parliament is racism at its very worst. It is effectively a perverse apartheid, and there's not a shred of evidence that it will address real Aboriginal disadvantage or close the gaps. In fact, there's every indication that it will only entrench the disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities. This is because the same leaders of the Aboriginal industry, which have failed to close the gaps over the decades at the cost of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, are the ones eagerly anticipating high-paid, constitutionally protected jobs with the Voice. These frauds, who have no experience of the real disadvantage in remote communities, will only keep it going because they have a vested personal interest in doing so. They saw what happened with the corrupt money train that was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Once the corruption, nepotism and dysfunction of ATSIC became obvious, parliament wisely abolished it, although it took about eight years after I warned the government to get rid of it.

They don't want that to happen with the Voice, which is why they want to put it into the Constitution. Once it's in there, it will be very difficult to remove. It is no small thing to change the Constitution, and it's critical the Australian people are given all the information they need to make a wise decision. But Labor won't do that because it knows the details of its plan for the Voice won't be acceptable to the Australian people. Fortunately, the activists pushing the Voice are revealing their true intentions, because they are drunk with power and can't help themselves.

First we were told by the Prime Minister that only parliament would decide the powers of the Voice. Since then, members of his own referendum working group have admitted they are looking forward to these powers being decided by the courts. The same working group can't even decide on the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment or the question to be put to Australians at the referendum. It's indicative of the wider division within Aboriginal Australia being caused by this proposal to forever separate our nation by race. While the Prime Minister claims there will be no public funding for the 'yes' case or the 'no' case, we know he's stacking the odds in favour of the Voice with bucketloads of taxpayer money.

Only donations to the 'yes' campaign have received tax-deductible status. More than $30 million has been budgeted to establish local and regional versions of the Voice, and we're yet to see exactly how much this referendum—let alone the Voice itself—will cost taxpayers. This is why I foreshadowed that I will move the second reading amendment circulated on sheet 1857. We will note that referendums held separately from federal elections cost the Australian people more than holding them in conjunction with elections, and we will call on the government to hold the coming referendum at the next election.

I remind this government that it must at all times, always, look for sensible ways to save money. This amendment requires the government to do precisely that, yet there was an indication today that Australian taxpayers may have to pull back on what they can claim in their tax in order to save the government money. To those hard-working Australians: you're going to have to miss out on getting some tax deductions back while the government spend very loosely with the money. It's also why we must have a comprehensive audit of all the taxpayer funds thrown at Aboriginal land councils and corporations and why they've have failed Aboriginal communities.

This is not the first time I have raised this. I have been raising it for years and years, and we know for a fact that about $33 billion of taxpayers' funds goes into the Aboriginal industry, and that, on average, about $44,000 is paid to every Aboriginal, whereas only $22,000 or thereabouts is allocated for every other Australian. You see, it's not about money; there has been money. It's about keeping these people in poverty and the conditions that they are in—in remote communities, mainly.

For the majority of people who claim to be Aboriginal, there is no real definition. Anyone can jump on the bandwagon from one census to the next and increase it to 24 per cent. They believe there's about 850,000 claiming to be Aboriginal at this stage; that's an increase of 24 per cent since the last census, yet the increase in the Australian population was only eight per cent. Does anyone question that? Are you interested? Is it easier to jump up and down and say, 'I'm claiming Aboriginal status,' with no true definition of it? No wonder a lot of the Aboriginals themselves are fed up with the whole system. They see people abusing it and claiming Aboriginality when they are not Aboriginal, because of the benefits paid out by the government, and that's quite obvious, with $33 billion a year for approximately 850,000 people who claim Aboriginality. And it's based on race, not on means-testing. We have age pensioners who have to pass the means test. We have people on the NDIS who have to pass a test. We have disability pensioners who have to pass a means test. But we don't do this for this race based voice that we want to introduce in this parliament.

I want to talk about this referendum. I have stated I'll be moving an amendment to it. The referendum should be held at election time, again saving about a hundred million dollars. We're talking about wanting to buy submarines that are going to cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and how we're going to pay for it. Well, let's get rid of the tax cuts to those hardworking Australians—the ones who are truly struggling. That's the way to pay for this. It's not about reining in government spending and the money that's been wasted through NDIS government programs and also a hundred million dollars for Aboriginal communities to deal with climate change of all things. Let's throw out another hundred million dollars for a referendum when we can have it at the next election. No, it suits you to have it at a time you know you've got more chance of getting it up. You don't care about saving the taxpayers' dollars, but you'll be looking to pull back their tax relief.

I don't know if you really understand how hard people are doing it out there, how many people are going to lose their homes, how many people are suffering. People can't even go to the doctor anymore; they can't afford it. They can't even afford their prescriptions. They cut back on their food; they can't afford it. If referendums are held during an election, there will be savings to the Australian taxpayers. That's what we're here for: to ensure that the taxpayers' money is accounted for. But there's no accountability in this place for bad decisions, for anything, for ministers who are useless in the positions that they hold and the portfolios they deal with. They have no idea, no understanding. No-one's held accountable. You pass laws in this place all the time where you are ensuring that directors of companies and everyone else are held accountable with jail terms and heavy fines, yet you don't do it for yourselves. You can make decisions in this place, but no-one's held accountable.

There's another thing I will be moving. It's a citizens initiated referenda, and it's been a policy of mine and One Nation since 1997. This is about true democracy. It's about giving power back to the people to have a say on something. If it's that important to them, they will make the effort to sign a petition. Two per cent of electors must sign a petition. That is then overseen by the Australian Electoral Commission, and 50 per cent—it has to be investigated—have to be eligible to sign that petition, so we can't have people from overseas or people in the country who are using false names just to sign the petition. It's overseen to make sure that we do have eligible people who are actually signing the petition. That petition then comes to the parliament, and it's up to the parliament then to decide whether they accept that petition and do something about it. If not, it automatically goes to the next election as a referendum. You are giving the people the opportunity. If they want to insert or remove anything in their Constitution, they have a right to have a voice and put it to the parliament. There are a lot of things that the people want to say and want changed. It's not all about policy when it comes to elections—what we, the members of parliament or political parties, want to do. The people should have a right to have a voice. This will give them that opportunity if there is something really concerning them. Isn't that what democracy is about? Isn't that what this chamber is about—representing the people of this nation?

When I put up that second reading amendment, I hope that you will consider it wisely and give some power back to the people. We would not be the first ones to have it. New Zealand and other countries around the world have this referendum. It's called the citizens initiated referenda. If you're truly interested, go and read up on it. If you do vote for it, it will show me and the people of Australia that you really care about giving them a voice that they don't have. I note and commend the notice of the motion to this effect proposed by senators, who can be assured it will receive enthusiastic support from One Nation.