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

Much more than the racist Voice to Parliament was rejected by an overwhelming majority of Australians at the referendum. Australians understood that the Voice was a crucial first step towards a treaty, and they knocked it back. They understood the Voice, treaty and truth-telling would divide this country by race, and they knocked them back. They understood that failure to close the gaps would not be fixed by more bureaucracy and billions of dollars more wasted on the Aboriginal industry gravy train.

They heard from this industry and the Indigenous elites who live large on the Australian taxpayer while Aborigines in remote communities continue to suffer poverty, crime and welfare dependency. They were lectured to by big business, big banks, academics, activists, the Greens, the Teals, Minister Burney and Prime Minister Albanese. They heard these out-of-touch leaders tell them they were racist and stupid if they didn't do what they were told. They were told Australia's international reputation would suffer. Then these leaders went on the BBC to trash Australia's international reputation. They were told by these same out-of-touch leaders that the 'no' campaign was all lies, misinformation and disinformation. They watched the 'yes' campaign castigate the media for daring to report on the 'no' campaign. They rejected all of it.

There is no war on Indigenous Australians, as Senator Thorpe pretends. That she sits in this parliament, along with other Indigenous people, shows this claim for the lie that it is. Senator Thorpe is no victim, on her taxpayer-funded salary. Most Indigenous people reject the idea that they are victims. Governments do not sign treaties with their own citizens.

For the education of senators, I repeat this essential principle of Australian democracy: equal rights for all, and special rights for none. That's because, regardless of race, we all share in the story that is Australia. We all should contribute according to our capabilities, abilities and aspirations. But I have to ask the question: what special or unique contribution entitles Indigenous Australians to special or unique rights greater than those of anyone else? The answer is: none whatsoever.

Let me read out a comment that was sent to me on my Facebook page by Rebecca. She states: 'Can we stop using the term "traditional owners"? Aborigines did not, and do not, own Australia. They were original inhabitants and that is it. Mother Nature provided all that Aboriginals claim as theirs. They did not build Ayers Rock, the Three Sisters, Kakadu, the river systems, the mountains et cetera. They used the land and its natural resources and structures that were already there. They did not construct or design a damned thing and, just as they continue to do today, use and take whatever is available to them.' That's from an Australian, and that's how a lot of Australians feel.