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

ON (—) (): Never in the history of this country has so much money been wasted on a referendum Australia shouldn't even be having. There is no question this referendum is bitterly dividing Australia and dividing Indigenous Australia too. There is no doubt this will be the most expensive referendum exercise ever.

In this week's budget, this government is blowing more than $364 million on this unnecessary, divisive and racist referendum. Add it to the $75 million in the October budget and this means taxpayers are forking out more than $400 million for the Prime Minister's personal vanity project. The last referendum in 1999 cost approximately $67 million. Adjusted for inflation, today it would have cost about $124 million. There's every reason to believe the extra money is being banked to fund the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, which, in their arrogance, Labor will legislate even when the Australian people reject it. That's why the 'no' vote must be overwhelming and send a clear message to Labor that Australians will not permit them to create a voice.

The money includes more than $10 million to increase mental health supports for Aborigines during the referendum period—typical Labor hypocrisy. They've halved the mental health support for everyone else at a time when nearly all Australians are struggling with the legacy of pandemic lockdowns, the cost of living and the housing crisis. We won't ever get a straight answer from this government about why this racist referendum is costing more than three times what it should. That's because this government has never considered itself accountable to the Australian people, and never will.