James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have the Labor Party to thank for the introduction of cane toads into Queensland and Australia, and it looks like we're going to have the Labor Party to thank for the infestation and the growth of fire ants in Queensland and Australia.

For those who are listening at home, fire ants are pretty bad things. They're an invasive species that have started spreading throughout the Gold Coast and they're threatening many species of birds, mammals, reptiles and frogs. The flow-on effects from this infestation are actually quite serious because this also impacts upon humans, and we are here to defend humans in terms of their natural environments in Queensland and Australia.

What we're seeing on the Gold Coast, and I have to thank Councillor Hermann Vorster for this—we have a council and councillors who are standing up and fighting for their community because they know that the state Labor government and the federal Labor government aren't doing enough to fight fire ants. Already on the Gold Coast we're seeing beaches and parks closed because of this infestation.

To eradicate fire ants from Australia, experts argue it will require at least $592 million over the next four years. But what the Labor Party are doing is they're not eradicating the fire ants; they're just going to contain them. That is the wrong strategy. I know a little bit about invasive species because I've had a little bit to do with the yellow crazy ants up in Far North Queensland. When we came to power in 2013, the Labor Party then had a policy of containment rather than eradication, so in 2013, Tony Abbott, the government and Warren Entsch put money into eradicating yellow crazy ants. It is an ongoing project, and we have to do the same thing with these fire ants. So what we have, sadly, is a federal Labor government and a state Labor government who are not doing enough to fight these. Indeed, the Invasive Species Council has said, 'We are in a war and the fire ants are winning. The window to stop dangerous fire ants taking over Australia is rapidly closing.' I call upon the federal Labor government and I call upon the state Labor government to stand up and do something, work with the Gold Coast City Council and work with people like the Councillor Herman Vorster to make sure that we do eradicate these invasive species.

Over the coming months, there is going to be a big discussion in Australia about a referendum. We don't know when the date is because the government would like to keep it a secret, like they like to keep everything secret about this referendum. The government is proposing that we change Australia's Constitution but won't tell us any of the detail. It is like the government are trying to sell us a car but are not giving us any details about the car. They are just saying it is a car. We don't know whether it is a Ford, Holden, whether it is manual, automatic, whether it takes diesel. It could be a ute. It could be a tricycle. We just know it is something. You should be pretty worried about that. You should be a bit suspicious about that, when any political party or any government won't tell you the details. If they aren't going to tell you the details, it is a case of 'if you don't know, vote no'.

I also think there are 10 reasons—I will count them down—why you should vote no. The Voice is legally risky. The Voice hasn't been road tested. There is no comparable constitutional body like this anywhere in the world. Enshrining a voice in the Constitution means it is open to legal challenge and that means lawyers are going to make a lot of money. There are no details—there is nothing. We saw today in question time coalition shadow ministers ask the Labor ministers some pretty simple questions, and guess what? We got some pretty smoky answers coming back. When I say 'smoky answers', I mean we didn't get answers at all. What we are seeing is we sort of don't know, and this is a bit of a worry because the Labor Party want us to change the Constitution.

The Voice is going to divide us. Any political party or any government should be trying to unite the country, and what this voice is doing, what Labor's Canberra voice is doing, is dividing this country. We are in a cost-of-living crisis at the moment. People have power bills going through the roof, mortgages going through the roof, insurance bills going through the roof. Everything is going through the roof; in fact, there is no roof left because so much stuff is going through the roof. But what are the Labor Party talking about all the time? They are talking about the Voice and about something that is going to divide this country. Shame on the Labor Party for that. You should be doing things that bring us together as a country. Senator Nampijinpa Price, to quote my good friend, said, 'The voice will not unite us. It will divide us by race.' That should be a message to everybody in this chamber, because the Constitution is something that belongs to all Australians.

The fourth reason is it won't help Indigenous Australians; it won't. It is just going to be something for people to—we don't know what it is going to do. We don't know the details but we know it is not going to help Indigenous Australians because we all want to help Indigenous Australians but we don't need to change the Constitution to do that. In fact, what Canberra needs is more ears. It needs more eyes. It doesn't need another voice. Canberra needs to listen and open its eyes to the problems that already exist and work with communities rather than adding another level of bureaucracy. No issue is beyond its scope.

This Voice model is not just to parliament; it goes to all areas of executive government. That means all government departments, the Reserve Bank. I saw in the paper the other day one of the proponents to the Voice is saying it is going to get involved with AUKUS, so we will have this third body that will stick its nose into everything—fair play to it—but what about the Senate and what about the House of Reps? This is why we have elections in this country. We elect people to this chamber and the other place to make decisions. Suddenly we're going to have this other mob who are going to stick their nose into everything.

Reason No. 6 is that it risks delays and disfunction. In the Australian parliament we deal with hundreds of pieces of legislation each year. The cabinet deals with many, many issues each week. The Voice's scope goes beyond parliament. It covers departments and agencies. How is The Voice going to handle this? It's going to delay everything. Everything has to go through this, until it gets the big stamp that says yes or no or we don't know or let's consider it. It is going to delay decision-making. If you think Canberra is slow at the moment, if you think it is a little bit of a turtle or a snail, that will be nothing compared to that slowness. I don't know what the reverse of steroids is, but it's going to be like a dead turtle. It is just not going to move at all.

Reason No. 7 is that it will open the door to activists. Remember our good friend, Thomas Mayo? He will end up on The Voice, and you're going to have 'ex' communists. It's not that he has joined the IPA—he is still very left wing—it's just there is no communist party left in this country. You will have people like him being the de facto decision-makers.

Reason No. 8 is that it is going to be costly and bureaucratic.

Reason No. 9 is that it is going to be permanent, because the Constitution, once you change it, doesn't get reversed. So you're going to have the Voice as a permanent, bureaucratic delay-making type of machine that is just going to divide Australians.

Reason No. 10 is: there are better ways forward. On this side of the chamber, we do support Indigenous recognition, and we have done so for decades, actually. We do support that. What the Prime Minister should be doing is putting forward a model that supports Indigenous recognition. Guess what? Ninety per cent of Australians—95 per cent—of Australians would vote for that model. But, no, the Prime Minister wants to play ugly politics. He wants to divide Australians. I say: shame on the Prime Minister.

When it comes to the Prime Minister, it is interesting that there are parts of Queensland he doesn't go to. He's never been to Burketown and he's never been to Doomadgee. This is important, because these areas got smashed by floods earlier this year—absolutely smashed, Senator Caddell—in a huge natural disaster. But, of course, because there were no TV cameras or newspapers there—and the internet is pretty dodgy because the Labor government aren't great with communications—the Prime Minister has not turned up to an area that got smashed by a natural disaster. I say to the Prime Minister: please go to Burketown and Doomadgee. Meet with the Ernie Camp, the Mayor of the Bourke Shire Council. Meet with Ernie's wife, Kylie. Hello Kylie and Ernie. They are solid citizens of this county. Work with them to ensure that the resilience of the Bourke Shire and Doomadgee Shire come together. It should be beyond party politics.