Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

We may not be able to recite, line and verse, the tale of the Trojan Horse, but we get the gist—a gift that proved not to be a gift at all but a deception aimed at those tired of fighting. These days, you don't need a trojan horse. A private plane gifted to you by Australia's richest person can do the job. Obviously, I'm referring to the gift billionaire Gina Rinehart handed Senator Pauline Hanson, an odd gift to accept considering One Nation has styled itself as sticking up for battlers. Senator Hanson has galvanised supporters around that and a list of grievances including the idea that they want to fix Australian politics by taking a hammer to things.

During last week's National Press Club speech, the leader of One Nation gave us a long list of things she doesn't like. There were the usual suspects: immigration, multiculturalism and people speaking anything other than English, even in their own homes; the ABC, SBS and most other media that aren't Murdoch media; the United Nations; and foreign aid. We've got net zero and wind turbines. Of course, we Muslim Australians got a mention, spoken about in a way that simply could not be done to other faiths. Islamophobia being normalised and tolerated is just wrong.

In a modern democracy like ours, Senator Hanson is entitled to have her say. But, as much as she's entitled to have that say, Australians that support her are entitled to know how she'll deliver. We heard time and again 'I'm not making that decision now; that's all on the table'. But Senator Hanson has been in politics in one way or another for 30 years. You either don't know how you're going to get things done or you're not prepared to tell people how you're going to do it. Australians deserve a fair dinkum answer.

For Australians attracted to One Nation because they think politicians say one thing and do another, I get it. But what should we think about a party that says it's standing up for Australian battlers but votes against them? For example, One Nation has complained you can't sack people, which suggests they're going to want to change that. One Nation has voted against moves to criminalise wage theft. They voted against protecting penalty rates. They're against lifting the minimum wage for battlers on the lowest incomes. What about same pay when contractors and workers are doing the same job? One Nation is against that.

This one really gets me. If you're a worker killed on the job, should the employer be held accountable for that if it was their fault? One Nation says no. But pay attention to who One Nation is really helping when it votes against workers. One Nation is actually doing the bidding of some of the biggest businesses and billionaires that have fought these changes for years—and there's your trojan horse. If you think politicians should do what they say and say what they'll do, then there's a big old 'please explain' owed by One Nation.

There's something else I just can't sit by and be quiet about. I've always known Australia to back the underdog, the person who has the odds stacked against them but makes it through. Yet lately we've had a lot of talk—bad talk, ugly talk—about migrants, banning them for things that they're not responsible for at all. It makes them feel bad for who they are, despite doing everything that was expected of them. We need to call this out.

I'm the son of migrants. We spoke English and Bosnian at home. I went to school with a lot of students whose migrant parents were the cleaners, the cooks, the mechanics, the bricklayers, the seamstresses, the factory workers, the owners of milk bars who worked crazy hours over seven days a week and the mums leaving for a day's work as the dads were coming home from night shift. They worked their guts out to build a better life for their kids while pushing their kids to do well at school—pushing them to become doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers, which they then went on to be.

I want to say this to migrant Australians who've made our country their country of choice: we see you, we see all that hard work you did or are doing and, most importantly, thank you for that hard work. You haven't just built a better life; you've actually chipped in to build a better country, and that's deserving of a pat on the back, not a slap-down by a political figures. That's just wrong. If you're in favour of a stronger nation, then surely it's better for our country to get people working together and not against each other. How is the country made stronger by picking fights with each other? The answer is it isn't. We can do better than that for people than those who seek to divide us.