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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Hanson today relating to the Australian Constitution.

On election night the Prime Minister said: 'It is not a 'yes' or a 'no' vote. We are all Australians.' Hence I asked, 'Why have we got race based policies?' The minister basically answered: 'There's a lot of hurt and pain out there. Children are actually dying before they are one year of age.' We actually know all of that. My question was basically about an individual needs basis. About 30 per cent of Australians are living in poverty and are struggling. They don't have the advantage of having their kids' school fees paid or sent to boarding schools or of having their health costs funded by taxpayers.

We now know that about $40 billion is paid into what I call the Aboriginal industry. Australians want to help people. There's no question about that whatsoever. But when we have no definition of aboriginality and a lot of people claiming to be Aboriginal who are not Aboriginal to get this funding, it's a bit rich. When people need a helping hand it should be on an individual needs basis because the majority of Aboriginals—80 per cent—live in the cities and not in rural and regional areas.

Another question I asked was why they refused to have a royal commission. The answer was: you just can't because one member of this parliament asks for a royal commission. I have to clarify that. The government took to a referendum that they wanted an advisory body to actually inform the government. It wasn't an advisory body. Twenty-six senators in this place—elected members of this parliament—voted for a royal commission. It wasn't one person; it was 26. That was disregarded. Also we do need an audit of where the money has gone. Australians want that audit done.

Question agreed to.