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

In a speech earlier this year, I made the point that one can judge a man by the company he keeps. I observed that one of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's first orders of business was a private meeting with globalist billionaire and manipulator extraordinaire Bill Gates. I spoke to a more recent meeting the Prime Minister had with Larry Fink, the chairman of BlackRock, the merchant bank that now owns Australia and tries to control Australia. In the break, the Prime Minister once again used taxpayers' money and a taxpayers' plane to hobnob at concerts, exhibition openings and attend a billionaire's birthday soiree. In so doing, the Prime Minister has demonstrated that he will kiss the ring of any elites he needs in order to keep swanning around as though the weight of responsibility—

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, Senator Roberts. Point of order, Senator Polley?

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's totally unparliamentary language, and I seek to—

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What's your point of order?

An honourable senator interjecting—

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not going to repeat it! He knows what he said. It was completely inappropriate, and I ask that he withdraw.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, with the indulgence of Senator Polley, can I ask you to perhaps take that on notice and look at the etymology, the origin of that saying? I think it is different from what Senator Polley thinks it is.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know what he meant!

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's different from what Senator Polley thinks it is.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to rule. There has been a request that you withdraw, Senator Roberts. I'm not going to insist that you withdraw, but you have been asked by others to withdraw, so I invite you to do that.

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

While I don't take responsibility for other people's feelings, I will withdraw in the interest of not upsetting people too much. He is swanning around as though the weight of responsibility of running this beautiful country of ours was somehow not on his shoulders. It's not the job of the Prime Minister to party at a time when everyday Australians are struggling to pay their rent, pay their mortgage, find a roof to put over their heads and pay their electricity bills, especially because of his government's policies. Can someone on the government benches please remind Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that the word 'party' in 'Labor Party' doesn't mean what he thinks it means?

All the while Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, and now known as the 'Minister for Misery', has been out there destroying our productive capacity, making people's lives harder. His latest policy is a tax on commercial vehicles, including utes that tradies need to be a tradie. How can a so-called party of working Australians introduce a ute tax that will make it harder for tradies to own what is an essential tool of their trade? Have you considered what that tax would do to housing construction? It will cut house production and raise house costs. If ever the analogy of fiddling while Rome burns is appropriate to a modern leader, it's now. It's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. What a disgrace!