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

I'll just briefly say that this government has lost its way—and so have the state governments—in dealing with the escalating crime that is happening. I want people to think about this. As crime increased, we had the Voice debate in this nation. What it's done is to pit one Australian against another. There's hatred brewing out there: 'You've stolen our country. You've invaded our nation.' We've got senators here who are standing up; it's war. It's just ridiculous where we are at this moment. That's being transmitted to the kids who see this is happening. Children feel they can get out there and do whatever they want to. They have no respect for anyone else in our society. Every day on our TV screens we see the hatred and the crime that's being committed. Up in Cairns 60 cars have been stolen in one month. You've got kids behind wheels of cars, drag racing to outrun the police. What is happening about it? Nothing.

I went to a meeting this morning with the minister's office about Closing the Gap. I asked the question: do you have self-determination? She said: 'Yes, we do. We have all of our community groups. We have our members and organisations, and it goes from the bottom up to the top.' I said, 'It's really not the state governments that are stopping you.' She said, 'No, it's not.' The fact is that the people, themselves, who are in these organisations cannot run them because they don't know what the hell they're doing. Until you actually have people who really understand the process of being directors of companies, who can stop the nepotism and really get to the issues of it—it's not the government, it's not the taxpayers and it's not the lack of interest. It's people who have not got the understanding of how to really deal with this whole issue. So start taking the blame for your own inability to do the jobs that you are supposed to be doing, and help the kids of this nation.