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

Perhaps the most outrageous idea to rise out of racist identity victim politics is that rent should be paid to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by other Australians. It shouldn't. The idea that Australians should pay rent for living in their own country is offensive. It's based on the idea that only Aborigines own Australia. They don't. Australia belongs to all Australians.

I was born here, and no self-identifying Indigenous Australian, including those with a minute amount of Indigenous heritage, has more right or connection to this land than I do. We have all contributed to this country, and we all share in its achievements, failures, resources, disasters, virtues, values and shortcomings. The only good thing about the race based rent idea is that the activists who want it reveal their true motivation. It's not about justice or redress; it's just about money—other people's money. It's just about their greed.

If this mob succeed in their bid for a race based voice to parliament it's only a matter of time before this idea is on the political agenda. It's only a matter of time before non-Aboriginal Australians are forced to pay yet more tax—a race based rent tax. As usual, the Aboriginal industry will keep all the money and truly disadvantage Aborigines, and remote communities will continue to suffer poverty, unemployment and crime. One Nation calls on all sensible Australians to reject this discrimination. We urge the government to audit the Aboriginal industry and to finally act to fix the real problems in Aboriginal communities.