Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by ministers to all coalition questions without notice asked today.

I'm going to talk about Senator Henderson's questions about the fact that the focus groups are homing in on what a debacle the Prime Minister has created in this country with the cost of living. We have got a rental crisis going on in this country where we have thousands of Australians homeless. We have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Australians homeless and millions struggling to make ends meet. That has been the result of the Labor party's reckless immigration policy, where they ramped immigration up to over 500,000 people. For what reason? I don't know. The only reason I can figure is that it was a sop to the universities, because half of these immigrants are going to university. I think they really need to explain—and today would be a good day to start—why they suddenly decided there was a need to increase immigration to such a high rate.

I have heard one reason given that they had to catch up after COVID. I don't know why that's a reason, because throughout COVID the building industry was shut down. So it's not like the infrastructure was still being built. It's not like essential services were still being built. As a matter of fact, we had a lot of people working in essential services who were unable to work. After the economic catastrophe of COVID, why would you suddenly decide to bring in so many people? Was it Treasury? Was it Treasury's big population agenda that they've been running for years to keep the GDP, the gross domestic product, looking good while ignoring the per capita domestic product? I don't know. These are the questions that the Labor party need to answer.

I've got to be honest with you, I think the Australian people are sick and tired of the lack of transparency coming from those on the other side. The Labor Party, those on the other side, are not interested in serving the people. They are only interested in controlling the people. A lot of people say, 'Look out for the New World Order.' I say, 'No, we're living in the New World Order.' The New World Order is democracy and people power. That's what a liberal democracy is. It's grassroots movement and the people telling the government what to do. The forefathers of our great friends, the American patriots, brought that on in the American War of Independence, where they overthrew the hereditary rights of the aristocrats.

As we stand here in this chamber today, we need to reflect on that. We represent the people. We're here to serve the people, not bring in hundreds of thousands of people and put our people—our Australians—out on the street. We are not here to put our Australians on the brink of bankruptcy because of reckless immigration that drove the interests rates up, which has sent mortgages and rents through the roof. And what do we get? If they're not wasting time on the Voice and identity politics and trying to divide Australia between black and white, we then get this new ridiculous law where they want to impose emissions standards on cars. That is going to add thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars to the cost for our hardworking tradies—the very people who build houses.

I know we're not allowed to impute motive in this chamber, so I won't, but it doesn't take a lot to join the dots—high immigration. Pull out the builders. Destroy the building industry. Let's put all the people out on the streets. If I didn't know any better, I would think that these people want to destroy the Australian economy, and by 'these people' I mean the Australian Labor Party. So I say to the Australian Labor Party: you need to be more transparent, and you need to get your loyalties straight. They are to the Australian people. And you need to release that modelling. The idea that somehow you've got a public interest immunity claim, that somehow this isn't in the interest of the public and that you don't have to release this modelling, is absurd. It is absurd, and only a Labor Party not interested in serving the Australian people would actually propose to keep this a secret. Shame on you.