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

The $4.5 billion per year National Indigenous Australians Agency has been quick to deny it's been developing demands to be made by the Voice to Parliament which were revealed in a letter sent to my office last week. I remind the Senate of what some of these demands were: Aborigines paying only 50 per cent of the rate of income tax; Aboriginal groups owning beaches and national parks and charging the rest of us to use them; 10 per cent of all judges, magistrates, police officers, ADF officers, vice-chancellors and ambassadors being Aboriginal; no entry tests and no fees for Aborigines going to university; 50 per cent discounts for Aborigines going to sport and music events on public land; Aborigines having first claim on all public housing in Australia; a reduced age of eligibility for the age pension for Aborigines; rivers and streams being owned by local Aborigines who will charge the rest of us for water consumption; the same for mining royalties; all new liquor licences to be vetted by the Voice; and the Voice office being the same size and having the same budget as the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. As I said, the NIAA has been quick to deny this action list for the Voice, and no wonder. If any of these demands was met, 97 per cent of Australians would be made second-class citizens based solely on race.

However, minutes of government organisations' meetings with Aboriginal groups around the country, obtained through a freedom of information request, show these sorts of demands are being discussed. These include exclusive sovereignty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over lands and waters; the creation of a new Aboriginal state with its own constitution from land under native title; a treaty or treaties recognised in the Australian Constitution; racially exclusive designated seats in parliament, reserved only for Aborigines; Aborigines receiving a fixed percentage of all Australian gross national product; Aborigines being exempted from paying land tax; funding for the Voice to Parliament being generated from percentages of land and water taxes; funding for Aboriginal bodies and programs being linked to reparations for theft of land; creation of a black parliament; a race based rent tax from an open chequebook; race based inherent rights for Aboriginal people in the Australian Constitution; renaming more towns and landmarks after Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; the creation of sovereign wealth exclusively for Aborigines; Australian taxpayers funding the preservation of Aboriginal languages; the Australian flag being changed because it symbolises the injustices of colonisation; statues of explorers being torn down; Aboriginal traditional ways of life being enshrined in the Constitution; the curriculum in all schools being changed for non-Indigenous Australians; Australia being decolonised; and fee-free access for Aborigines to sport and recreation, including free sporting equipment. Like the demands contained in the letter sent to me, many of these would make most Australians second-class citizens in their own country. The $4½ billion NIAA has been actively discussing them with Aboriginal groups for years.

These are the dangers of putting a Voice to Parliament in the Constitution. For these and many other reasons, Australians must vote no in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor's racist referendum.

I need to also say this here. I've read out a lot of these claims, and a lot of people would identify with some of these demands, because they're already happening—the tearing down of statues and the welcome to country. I am sick to death of hearing about it. I refuse to acknowledge it. A lot of Australians ask me, 'Why should I be welcomed to my own country?' That in itself is ridiculous. With Aboriginal names, we can see the changes that have happened over the years, and they're still changing and wanting change. Flying the Aboriginal flag in this place wasn't put to the Australian people at all. We've just accepted this flag that was brought about in the 1970s, with no authority from the Australian people. To fly it here in this parliament, without the vote from the Australian people, is appalling. I'll tell Australians this: get ready for a very rocky, racist way of life that we will experience if the Voice gets up.