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

My questions are to the minister. I have two questions. This bill is specifically trying to partially solve a problem that government caused—not just your government but the previous government. The extra costs people are facing in our community right across the country are due to skyrocketing electricity prices cascading through all stages of our economy, driving inflation. That has been admitted by the energy relief payments that were announced in the budget. The 2050 net zero target, coming from the UN policy, is hurting Australians all over the country. It has been admitted. We've also got insane Greens climate policies destroying baseload power, forcing up prices, thanks to the Labor Party and the Liberals and Nationals, who've adopted these Greens and UN policies. We've got high immigration, driving up house prices and rents.

I've recently been travelling, for the last five weeks or so, in regional Queensland. In Bundaberg people are sleeping in tents, caravans and cars in parks. In Gladstone, people are sleeping in tents, caravans and cars in showgrounds, and that is happening across regional Queensland. We've had a mismanaged response to COVID, with half a trillion dollars in cash splashed around, driving inflation and, of course, higher prices. While shutting down the supply side of the economy, it was driving up prices.

People are doing it tough, Minister, because of your policies. My first question is: are you aware of that? Secondly, who's paying for this solution to the problem you've created? I'll tell you who's paying for the largesse in this budget and the ability to afford these increased welfare payments, which are necessary because people are doing it tough due to your policies. I'll tell you who's paying for it: agriculture, with exports recently at record levels; the mining of coal—I'm proudly wearing a tie that I got 40 years ago from a coal company—and the mining of iron ore and other minerals. That's what's paying for our ability to afford these increased payments. Government is causing the problems, slamming everyday Australians, and mining and farming are providing the money to ease the burden government has inflicted. Are you aware of that, Minister?

When you sit back and look at it, every major problem in this country is due to government, largely the federal government. Who pays? It is always the people who pay. Yet who has the solutions? It is the people. We could fix this far better, Minister, if we just addressed productive capacity. We will be supporting Greens amendment 2028, limiting the period for recovering errors from people overpaid to six years, and we will be supporting the bill as it stands at the moment.