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

This will probably be one of the most momentous days in the history of our nation and this parliament. We're looking at passing a piece of legislation that will enable the people of this nation to go to a referendum on a Voice to parliament. As I've travelled around the country and spoken to a lot of Australians, they're still very, very confused about what this means to them and to future generations.

Some of the speakers today in this chamber, I cannot, and will not, agree with them. But as I look around the chamber and at the people in the galleries, I see people of all different cultural backgrounds and all different races; people who have migrated to this country for a better way of life. This nation was founded on the Westminster system of government after it was settled by the English. Yes, we all acknowledge there were other people in this nation at the time, but it's been on the backbone of, as people say, the colonials, the convicts and the people who came here, many of whom were dragged here from England and other places against their will. They were the stolen generation as well. Many atrocities have happened over a period of time, and we have acknowledged that. We can't change it, but we have acknowledged it.

Our country has grown with a parliamentary system, the same system as in England, which started with a parliament with people elected based on their dedication and passion and wanting to make changes for the betterment of this country. Those opportunities have been afforded to anyone, whether they be people born here, migrants, refugees or even Indigenous Australians. To say that they've never had a voice is truly untrue. It's not the truth. We have Indigenous people sitting in this parliament based on their ability and dedication who hold their seats in this place with pride, representing not only their own cultural background but all Australians—the same as I do. My cultural background may be English-Irish, but my responsibility in this place is to all Australians, regardless of race, colour, or creed.

To raise issues, as Senator David Pocock has, and to say that a lot of these questions haven't been answered and that there are problems out there, comes from a senator who, on many occasions to do with legislation, hasn't consulted with the people and with businesses and has just supported the legislation. Yet he dares to question the fact there was consultation that went on at Uluru that never did. It never did. A bunch of academics went out there. The Aboriginals I have visited in some of these communities haven't even been consulted. They have no idea what's going on. I'm sure Senator Price will back me up on this.

When we talk about the problems. Billions and billions of dollars have been thrown at it over the years. I've spoken about it since I first came to parliament in 1996. The money has not gone where it's needed to go. You have your bodies. You have over 3,200 Aboriginal corporations and bodies. You have a department that was set up under the previous government, the NIAA—$4.5 billion a year. You handed out over $1 billion in grants in one year to 1,500. All the other government departments are handing out $11½ billion in grants. Where has the money gone? That's the question you need to ask yourselves. Where has the money gone? Who have you put in charge of it? Is the fox in charge of the hen house? And yet you turn around and want to blame everyone else in this nation who is not Aboriginal or Indigenous for the faults when maybe you should look in your own backyard and question yourselves. Why haven't things changed?

You talk about the stolen generation. Yes, it did happen at the time. Ask yourself why. A lot of these children would not have survived if they were not taken away from their families. That's the truth of the matter. Some Indigenous have even admitted that. We don't do it these days, but we should for some children, because of the sexual abuse that is happening to them. But we turn a blind eye to it. We keep putting them back in families that are not going to protect and look after those children. But we don't do it to non-Indigenous families. We take the children away. Is that right for the children?

How many of you in this chamber have actually been to these Aboriginal communities, have actually seen what is happening? Children on the streets in the middle of the night, children who fear going back to their homes because of the abuse—the alcohol and drug abuse, the sexual abuse—these are young children. Why is it my fault because I am a white? Why is it not the communities' fault? Why are we turning a blind eye to this? These are the problems that we really need to ask questions about. Do you think a voice to parliament is going to change all of this? And Senator Thorpe was right: they want Senate seats in this place duly allocated to the Indigenous. Why? Even Senator Farrell asked me a couple of years ago: would I support an increase to 14 senators per state? No, I would not. We are overrepresented. We don't need more senators. We need people with a vision for the future of this nation. That is what we need, not more members of parliament pushing their own agendas.

This is not bringing us together. This voice to parliament is going to be divisive. We are all Australians together. No-one is taking into consideration my place in all of this or the place of any other Australian who was being born here but who is not Indigenous. Do you really care about the fact that I am part of this land just because you can say that you have had a connection with this land for 65,000 years? I don't care. I have heard it raised from 40,000 to 50,000 to 60,000 and now 65,000 and I have even heard 100,000 years, just because you have got your cave paintings and your Dreamtime and you have this connection with the land. What about my connection with this land? What about the farmers? What about the people who work the land? What about the defence personnel? What about the people who have died, sacrificing their lives for the freedom of this nation? Every person who would lay down their life to protect this country for freedom has every right to this land.

You say that you have a connection to the land, the waters, the environment—I actually went up to Palm Island. I remember the conversation with the Aboriginals up there who asked for my assistance, and I did all that I possibly could to help them with the hospital issue, the education, the housing—disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful. And if you remember my interview, Charlie Perkins was there. He said, 'You have no idea the connection that we have with the land.' I said, 'If you have got so much of a connection, why don't you clean it up?' There is more to it than that. It is about the fact that we are all Australians. We cannot change what has happened in this nation. We cannot turn back the hands of time. We acknowledge what has happened, but do you think that you can actually give people authority, voices to parliament, and that is going to make things better? It is people who have the fortitude to call it out for what it is, and it is people who will fight against those being called racist because you dare to challenge anything.

The word 'racist' means nothing these days. It is about being a member of parliament to represent all Australians, and I come to the point where we are being lied to. Even Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who is in the chamber today, said the Voice to Parliament could be challenged in the High Court. There are no guarantees. And then you have on the front page of the Australian, 'Indigenous Voice to Parliament yes campaigner Thomas Mayo's radical vision threatened that politicians would be punished if they ignored the voice advisory body.' It goes on to say, '… the Voice to Parliament being the first step towards reparations and compensation for Indigenous Australians.' More money, more greed, more power, more control. And then it says, 'The power of the Voice was its ability to punish politicians that ignore our advice on legislation and funding.'

Is this your truth-telling? Is this what you mean, someone who's been caught on videotape saying this or 'The fact is, we are going to use the rule book of the nation to force them,' and, what I have already spoken about and as Senator Thorpe has said, it's to pay the rent, for example? 'How do we do that in a way that is transparent and that actually sees reparations and compensation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people beyond what we say and do at a rally?' And also, 'It is a way to further what we need for our people in any negotiations for treaties and for other things, like legislation, reform and abolishment of the old colonial institutions.' What does that mean, 'reform and abolishment of the old colonial institutions'?

You see, that is why I said, in my opening statement, there is so much confusion, so many lies. You haven't been upfront with the people. You haven't declared exactly what you're intending. As I said, and I'll tell the people my views, I believe you intend to form a state within the country, a black state in this nation. You intend to allocate seats in parliament to the Indigenous. All you're doing is putting the wording into the Constitution, and you are going to make the legislation yourself.

I think it was Minister Watt who said on the floor, here, one time, 'We will have the Voice in the Constitution and then we will draft the legislation to suit.' That's what the Australian people must consider. You have no idea what Labor's intentions are, because they're not being truthful with you. You need to know the truth. Everyone needs to know the truth.

I call on Indigenous Australians to consider this hatred that's being peddled, this racism over a period of time. That has to stop. When you have a senator in this place say, 'This is war,' that's why there's confusion with our youth, why there are crimes being committed. What happened on the streets of Alice Springs was disgraceful, and in Townsville and other places around this country. It needs to be about us all working together to find the answers to it. The Voice to Parliament is not it. You've got the Voice. You've got a big voice now as it is. You've got more representation in this parliament, per the numbers, of Indigenous people who claim to be Indigenous.

That's another thing. You haven't got the guts to even admit that there is identity fraud in this nation. You've knocked back my bill. You've knocked back a Senate inquiry into it. Why, when you have people jumping on the bandwagon and claiming Aboriginality? You say there are going to be 24 elected representatives. Who are they? Are you going to have Bruce Pascoe or Senator Lidia Thorpe? Who are you going to have on it? Can you just imagine that? Who is going to be your Voice to Parliament? Are they truly going to be Indigenous? You owe people the right to have a voice but you really don't want it. So be truthful with the Australian people.

You in Labor have been very disciplined. You've held your people back. You can't tell me that each and every one of you agrees with this Voice. But you'll have your say at the ballot box, as everyone will. To the people of Australia: we are one people, one nation, and should be under one flag. I am telling the people of this nation, vote no to this piece of legislation and the referendum.