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

nator HANSON (—) (): I rise to respond to the deceit and arrogance of the divisive 'yes' campaign for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament referendum. This was on full display yesterday with Noel Pearson's disgusting rant on a stream hosted by the Australian newspaper. Pearson dismissed the uncounted Australian families struggling with Labor's cost-of-living crisis. He likened the referendum to Halley's Comet, of all things, saying it had no respect for inflation. He's essentially saying, 'Stuff the Australian people going hungry and homeless,' because giving Pearson racially exclusive power in the Constitution is far more important. He said Indigenous people in remote communities were also struggling but didn't say why. I'll tell you why they're struggling. It is because the elites and activists of the Aboriginal industry, like Pearson, are responsible for it. They are responsible for entrenching a disadvantage so their taxpayer gravy train can keep going.

What Australians are really being asked at this referendum is to enshrine this corrupt gravy train in the Constitution so it can never be removed. After billions of dollars per year and over $1 trillion in total over decades, with the gaps as wide as ever, Indigenous Australians are still languishing in poverty and violence in the economic dead ends that are remote communities. The Voice will not be the different approach that will close the gaps. It will be more of the same failure and corruption, stuck in the Constitution for all time.

Pearson repeated the claim that the race power in the Constitution could discriminate against Aboriginal people. I'd like to see an example of that today. If anything, it discriminates against non-Indigenous people. It enables laws supporting native title, for one, as well as the many billions of dollars flowing uselessly to close the gaps. With breathtaking irony, Pearson said race was an outdated concept. Section 51(xxvi) permits this parliament to make special laws 'for members of a race for whom it is deemed necessary'. Pearson said that, with this power, 'It's only right to talk to Indigenous Australians.' He's not wrong, except for decades now that is precisely what has happened, and Pearson has been heavily involved in this process along with other voice campaigners. The failure to close the gaps lies at his feet, those of his fellow elites and those of the thousands of Indigenous corporations, charities and land councils preying on the Australian taxpayer.

More importantly, the race power could just be repealed. The parliament would then not have the power to make special laws based on race—laws which Pearson said could be discriminatory and which Marcia Langton said could harm Indigenous people. I'm supremely confident a referendum to get rid of the race power would enjoy as much support as the 1967 referendum. Equal laws for all and special laws for none. Equal rights for all and special rights for none. That would be true equality for all Australians and would eliminate a constitutional power based on a concept Pearson said was outdated. At the same referendum, we should also repeal section 25, a dead letter giving this parliament the power to disqualify races from voting. It's offensive and should not be in the Constitution.

Enough is enough. This is not the 19th century, and Australia is no longer a bunch of British colonies in which Indigenous people are treated so poorly. This is the 21st century and Australia is a modern nation which is completely inclusive of Indigenous people. The development of this nation has brought wealth, technology, institutions, democracy and civilisation to Indigenous Australians, who were a Stone Age culture in 1788. Most Indigenous people have embraced this modern society and enjoy the same empowerment, agency and prosperity that comes with it. Pearson is one of them. So are the elite extremists like Megan Davis, Thomas Mayo and Marcia Langton. Marcia Langton has promised no more welcomes to country if the Australian people reject the Voice. I can't think of a better reason to vote no, except for one. We're all human, all Australian, and we must be united rather than forever divided by race.