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

I am well known for speaking up about immigration, but what isn't well known is that I am not anti migrant. In 1996, I spoke out about the high rate of immigration from Asia that would have put us on a trajectory of losing our Australian identity. I support immigration when it is in the best interests of Australia, but we have made a mistake in accepting high levels of migrants from countries where democracy is unknown and accepting people who follow Islam and its political ideology.

One of the reasons we don't know enough about the extent of the problems with Islamic immigration is that political parties don't want to upset the Muslim vote. There is plenty of information collected, but it is not published and it is not available to senators like myself. In hiding the evidence of high unemployment and high dependence on social welfare, the government hopes you won't discover the problems associated with Australian Muslim communities.

Despite the best efforts of Labor and the coalition, we have found some reliable information. The unemployment rate amongst Australian Muslims is more than double the average rate and it is more than 50 per cent higher than the nearest other major religious group. The unemployment rate for Muslim women is higher than that of Muslim men, making Muslim women the most likely religious group to be unemployed in Australia. This persistent high-unemployment level among Australian Muslims translates into high levels of income support in the form of payments made by the Department of Social Services.

I don't have enough time to go into greater detail, but in densely populated Muslim suburbs, Muslims are paid high levels of taxpayer-funded support in the form of disability pensions, carer pensions, carer allowances and other forms of income support. Australian Muslims are a significant drain on the public purse, because of the rates of unemployment and dependence on social welfare. You will not hear these facts from Labor, because Labor is muzzled in pursuit of keeping the Muslim vote it already heavily relies on. We looked at the electoral areas containing 10,000 or more Australian Muslims, using 2016 census information. Every one of those 15 federal seats is held by Labor, and 50.4 per cent of all Australian Muslims live in these 15 Labor seats. It is the concentration of the Muslim vote, in a relatively small number of postcodes and electoral divisions, which gives Australian Muslims a much higher influence in Australian politics. What we know for certain is that Labor needs the Muslim vote to keep those seats in the parliament. The reliance on the Muslim vote in turn gives Australian Muslims an important say over Labor policy, and that influence is increasing because of the high birth rates among Muslim women. In fact, the number of Australian Muslims doubled in the decade between 2006 and 2016.

The young age profile of Muslims in Australia means that Muslims will increase naturally at a greater rate than any other. The concentration of Australian Muslims in a limited number of postcode areas, together with the high rates of birth, means Labor is now firmly in the hands of the Muslim voter. The demographic information is irrefutable. The only issue is how Australian Muslims will change the Australian Labor Party and Australia.

The Muslim vote has pushed hard for Labor to abandon its traditional support for Israel and they have kept Labor silent on the fate of Christians in the Middle East, particularly Maronite and Coptic Christians, who once made up 20 per cent of the Middle East and now make up less than 5 per cent. In the lower house seat of Blaxland, in NSW, there are 50,995 Muslims, or 29.2 per cent of the population. In the Sydney seat of Watson, there are 40, 903 Muslims or 23.4 per cent of the population. In Victoria it's a similar situation. In Calwell, there are 29,324 Muslims and in Werriwa there are 21, 761 Muslims.

Labor has made a conscious decision to sell its soul for the Muslim vote. Every speech and every comment made by Labor is now made with reference to keeping the Muslim vote. Labor cannot speak out in opposition or act in government on issues affecting Australian Muslims because it fears losing seats in parliament. The numbers are so finely balanced in the lower house of this parliament that the loss of this small clutch of seats would see Labor's chance of government end. Labor's dependence on the Muslim vote is frightening, because a small but fast-growing group, opposed to our way of life, is bending Labor to its will. And communities of Coptic Christians and Lebanese Maronites and other Christians know how that story ends.

The Muslim vote opposes same-sex marriage, because the notion of sexual orientation is against the fundamental teachings of Islam. So here is Labor's dilemma: how does Labor get same-sex marriage passed, bury the hundreds of thousands of 'no' votes and not upset Muslims in Labor electorates? The best way forward is to let parliament decide, and then they will tell their Muslim voters they had to follow the party line—gutless!

It is common knowledge that areas with high concentrations of Australian Muslims are also areas associated with organised crime and acts of terrorism performed in the name of Islam. Labor knows this as well as any Australian, but it cannot speak directly, so it talks in riddles. Who can forget Bill Shorten talking to the cameras about combating extreme extremism and hoping those watching could see that he was like any one in a hostage situation. He was communicating in riddles, hoping not to offend the hostage takers—that is, the Muslim vote in Australia.

Australian Muslims take all the benefits that Australia has to offer, but Australian Muslims are underrepresented in the workforce and underrepresented in the Defence forces, instead preferring to fight for ISIL in Syria and Iraq. A federal investigation into the status of foreign fighters found 96 per cent had been on welfare benefits, including disability pensions, before leaving to fight overseas. It's a disgrace that more Australian Muslims have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq than have joined the Australian Defence Forces to defend Australia. It is a disgrace our pension system is abused by Australian Muslims, and it is a disgrace the Department of Social Services is inept. It is undeniable that many Australian Muslims choose to be separate from other Australians living in communities. Many of them never leave these communities except when accessing government services and benefits and having holidays in their countries of birth.

One Nation supporters have a positive view of migrants when they are willing to become active citizens, to work and to make Australia a better place. However, we are not seeing too much of that from Australian Muslims. It would be comforting to think the problems we have with Muslim refugees and second-generation Muslims will resolve, given time and money, but there is no evidence anywhere in the world that this will be the case.

We need to learn the lesson from other countries who have accepted high numbers of Muslims into their country. They have found that, as the number of Muslims rise in a country, the tolerance of those Muslims to others in that country falls. Then, Muslims demand special treatment, which is given for the sake of appeasement, but is never enough. The demands just keep coming—discussions to change the words 'race' to 'people' in Section 51(xxvi) of the Australian Constitution for the benefit of Muslims because they are not a race, they are a people.

There are no democratic Islamic countries in the world. If we don't ban further immigration from Islamic countries, our way of life will be lost and the freedoms we take for granted will be gone.