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

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I find it ironic that the Liberal Party has decided to bring on this matter of public importance mentioning the skyrocketing price of electricity, when they are the ones pushing for the United Nations net zero pipedream. It's ironic that they would mention growing mortgage stress. Their government was the one that printed over $500 billion out of thin air during the COVID mismanagement. That caused Australia's inflation problem. The Reserve Bank of Australia said they needed to raise rates to fight inflation by sending people with a mortgage broke. Supposedly they were trying to fix the inflation that the government caused—the gall, to mention real wages, which are forced down by the spiralling inflation problem, and suppressed by our unsustainable immigration intake.

Only today the Liberal Party was completely absent from a vote on my amendment to the Housing Australia Future Fund bill to acknowledge that our immigration problem is a problem for housing. It's the core problem driving skyrocketing house prices and rentals. Big business loves high immigration, because it keeps wages down. With a million more arrivals into the country fighting for the available jobs, no-one has to put wages up. On top of that, the government's inflation is stealing everyone's purchasing power. Australians are getting hit with a double whammy. If you want life to get better, unfortunately that won't happen if you vote for either Liberal or Labor. They're two wings of the same bird.

The core of all the problems is the price of electricity. The price of electricity is being artificially inflated by green United Nations net zero policies. Electricity prices affect every part of our lives, not just the power bill at the kitchen table. Without cheap power, manufacturers can't produce the products we want and need at a reasonable price, farmers can't afford to pump the water that irrigates crops and keeps cattle alive, and shops can't afford to keep the lights on and keep the doors open. So, you don't just pay the price of the UN climate net zero pipedream once, in your power bill; you pay for it again and again and again in every other bill as well.

Wind and solar cannot supply our baseload power needs. The more wind and solar that's put into the grid, the higher electricity prices go. This is a fact, and it's replicated in every country that has gone further down the United Nations net zero path than has our country. The proof is already here in Australia, too. With the highest amount of wind, solar and batteries ever on the grid, our electricity prices have never been higher, thanks to your policies If the wind and solar crowd isn't lying when they keep telling Australia that wind and solar is the cheapest form of energy—your electricity bills would be lower than ever, cheapest forever. They're lying, and we are all paying the price.

The elites of this country won't let us have a conversation on the actual solutions to these problems. Backroom party powerbrokers rule the major parties with an iron fist. Anyone who has an original thought, acts on it and steps out of line is kicked out of the party. It's actually against the Labor Party rules to cross the floor. No matter how much you morally disagree with something, if you vote with your conscience you can kiss your job goodbye. This is the rot that's corrupting our politics. We need to return this parliament to a house of states' representatives, people's representatives. That means you come here to actually represent and serve the people who elect you, not the party powerbrokers. Politicians should be warned: you've been able to get away with these dodgy deals for decades because of the apathy of the Australian people.

No more! Every day, thousands of Australians are waking up. More people than ever are watching exactly what you're doing in this chamber. They're not impressed. You might think you're clever in the way you dodge questions and in the political games you play—yes, Senator Simon Birmingham; yes, Senator Don Farrell: you think you're clever—but people see through it. Meanwhile, life is getting tougher for Australians. People won't take your hollow promises and empty performances any longer. The people of Australia are waking at last.