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| Senator Pauline Hanson Watch in video bottom of Page |
Senator Pauline Hanson (Leader of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation): If we are going to talk about division and dysfunction, let’s talk about the real cause—climate change ideology. It is an appalling, unaccountable ideology. It’s an ideology which insists on reducing emissions at any cost up to and including the demise of Australia’s manufacturing, resource and agricultural sectors. It’s the ideology which is based on little more than computer models which have, time and time again, never panned out in reality. It’s an ideology which has empowered other countries to demonise Australia, threaten its economy and threaten its very sovereignty. And it’s the ideology which has stalked the coalition and Labor, who have allowed themselves to be led by the nose to abandon the farmers, the miners and the businesses of our nation. The Nationals have once again been hopelessly compromised by this ideology.
Memories appear to be very short in this place. In 2019 Queensland voters were decisive in delivering the coalition another term and they sent a clear message the Nationals, in particular, will ignore at their peril. Queensland voters rejected climate change ideology. Queensland voters rejected the instability and dysfunction it has caused in Australian governments. They’re sick of the major parties playing politics with this ideology, so they’re not going to look kindly on this wishy-washy, will-they-or-won’t-they approach by the Nationals to net zero by 2050. ‘Never say never,’ says the minister for agriculture about net zero. Different eyes?—the returning of Barnaby Joyce.
Farmers need a commitment. They need the Nationals to come clean, not after a new coalition agreement but right now. The Nationals in support of paying farmers to not farm? What’s the point of the Nationals if farmers aren’t farming? They are abandoning their traditional base for a few cushy ministerial jobs. Farmers aren’t going to tolerate this much longer. It’s not just their livelihoods but the life they and their families choose which are at risk. The Nationals have failed them on water reform in the Murray-Darling Basin. The Nationals failed to support the dairy industry in its crisis and this is supposedly the party of farmers. Farmers’ livelihoods and our food security must not be risked.
The world’s population is growing. Australia can and should play a leading role in feeding it. Our farmers are among the world’s best. Yet here are the Nationals looking to tie the farmers’ hands behind their backs by paying lip-service to net zero. We need to let farmers do what they do best—growing quality food, looking after their land and injecting hard-earned export dollars into our economy and our rural communities. It so pleased me to hear Senator Canavan say, ‘We need to get manufacturing going.’ That’s been my saying for the last 25 years.