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

Mr Anthony Albanese said: 'The LNP should explain why they believe free trade agreements should include investor-state dispute settlement provisions, which undermine Australia's national sovereignty and the right of this parliament to determine the way that health policy and other policies operate here in this nation.' That is what Mr Albanese said. I cannot believe the Labor Party are determined to support this. They say: 'Let's just sign it. We'll get it through the parliament and we'll deal with it later. We can renegotiate it and do something.' I understand that the New Zealand Prime Minister didn't do that. She actually dealt with it now. She said, 'No, that's not good for our country.' She is prepared to deal with it. Besides, I don't trust any one of them to actually change it once it's passed here in this parliament. I don't believe that they're prepared to stand up for the Australian workers or against this ISDS that's in the agreement.

I will go to some of the comments from some of the unions. They're not supportive of the Labor Party wanting to sign this, I can tell you. This is the statement from the former ACTU president, and current Labor MP, Ms Ged Kearney:

The Turnbull Government's blind pursuit of the troubled Trans Pacific Partnership agreement will sacrifice workers and Australia's sovereignty for the profits of multinational corporations.

Steve Ciobo has said that the deal is "18 free trade agreements". The Australian people haven't seen the text of one agreement, let alone 18. This process is a mess and makes a mockery of our democratic principles.

Ms Cathy O'Toole, another Labor member in the lower house, said:

The current LNP TPP waives labour market testing and includes clauses that allow foreign companies to sue the Australian government. These clauses are known as ISDS provisions. To waive labour market testing does not put Australian workers first and, quite frankly, is absolutely nonsensical.

That's another Labor quote.

Let's go to the unions. The ACTU's president, Michele O'Neil, said:

We should have a trade agenda that puts working people and fairness at its core. But the Turnbull Government has only ever looked after big business in its trade negotiations.

Well, Labor is right beside you this time.

The TPP is a bad deal that hands more power to big business. It's bad for working people, it's bad for people who rely on affordable medicine, and it's bad for our sovereignty. The only winners are corporations.

We urge parliament to oppose unfettered corporate greed by voting against this deal, and to adopt a trade agenda that will deliver real benefits for working people.

On 13 September this year, the Australian Council of Trade Unions national secretary, Sally McManus, said in The Sydney Morning Heraldthat the ACTU and union movement:

… are disappointed by the ALP's decision to vote for the TPP enabling legislation.

This one here is a real beauty. I love this one. The ETU's national secretary, Allen Hicks, said that the ALP 'blindly support the deeply flawed' TPP. He said:

This dodgy deal is opposed by the majority of the Senate crossbench—

he got that right—

meaning it can only pass through the parliament if Labor gives it the green light … The opposition not only has an unprecedented ability to demand a better deal, failing to do so will see them forced to accept responsibility for the significant failings of this agreement. The TPP is all about looking after the big end of town, maximising profits for multinational corporations at the expense of what is best for the Australian public.

There are a couple more quotes here, but it's not just the Labor Party. These bills have been put up by the coalition and supported by the Nationals.

The Nationals claim to support Australian rural communities, but once again we have these bills that will rip the guts out from the jobs market and devastate many rural and regional communities, and the Nationals are waving them through. The Nationals know this trade deal will kill jobs in rural and regional Australia. The Nationals know that the TPP-11 puts the interests of multinational businesses ahead of working Australians, yet they still wave it through. As for the Nationals—wow!—what have they done? Over the years since my time in parliament, I've seen the destruction of the dairy industry. It's still happening. In Queensland, I've seen that we've gone from 1,500 dairy farms down to 385. We are not supporting them. We can't even give them a decent farm-gate price for their milk. They are not even working to actually make that come about.

I have seen the sugar industry on its knees. Who got the code of conduct for them? It was I and One Nation in this parliament. We did that to give them a reprieve from being shut down by a multinational company that was waved through to take over the mills in North Queensland, and it's still happening. What about the citrus growers? Many years ago, the trees burnt, bringing in free trade from overseas. What about the pork industry? That was another one that died. 'Oh, yes, a free trade agreement—absolutely wonderful. Let's take off the tariffs in this country and then destroy our own industries here'! I love hearing the government side. The government said, 'But it's going to bring in $15 billion by 2030.' I tell you what, the way we're going, we won't have any industries left here at all, because we will have either sold them to foreign interests or destroyed them, like the sugar industry and the dairy industry. All of these farming sectors are going under. It's like 'get big or get out'.

No longer do we have a way of life in this country where people can have a farm and know that they can look after their families. That's why the average farmer is 54 years of age and telling their kids to get off the land because there's no future for them. That's where we're headed, and that's all because of government policies. The National Party's supposed to be standing up and fighting for these people? I don't damn well see it. I wouldn't worry about how we're going to be in 2030; the farmers are shutting down now because they can't irrigate anymore, due to the cost of electricity. They are being absolutely devastated. I don't see any help for them whatsoever. You're talking about free trade agreements. Once our farming sector is gone, open up the floodgates, because we'll have all this product coming into Australia. A lot of it is absolutely rubbish. It's grown in human faeces and sewage. We talk about biosecurity in this country, where we force our farmers to have a decent standard of food production, yet we don't know what we're importing into Australia or what we are eating, and we don't protect our own farming sector. Biosecurity is going to be the next big problem here.

The unions are screaming at the Labor Party for actually going ahead and passing the TPP agreement, because they know it's not good for the workers. They are so right. The Labor Party, once they get in here and get their union fees and money from hardworking Australians—who can ill afford to pay the enormous costs of union fees on a weekly basis—come into this place and use the same old rhetoric. They think they're standing up for the workers of this nation; I don't see that whatsoever. These free trade agreements that they'll be passing here will lead to the destruction of hard workers. One Nation will keep fighting for them. I will ensure that there is a place for Australian workers. What have you done about the 457 visa holders coming into this nation? They were at their highest levels under the Labor Party, up to 130,000. All the coalition is doing is moving the goalposts around. The maritime engineers union, who are just about on their knees, can't get jobs for their own Australian workers, and are about to close down their training schemes in Newcastle and Fremantle. You can't support them, because we've got that many foreign workers on the ships here in Australia. You've got a lot to answer for.

The people don't know what to do. They put their trust into major political parties that they think are out there to look after them. If you pass this and you think that you're going to change it, you're lying to the Australian people, because you won't change it. You're going to be farcical and say, 'We're going to change it; we're going to put the amendments through,' but you know damn well your amendments will not get up in the lower house. Then you'll say, 'Well, we tried, but we didn't get it through.' Don't put it that way. Vote against it here on the floor of parliament. Show the Australian people, your supporters, the ones who voted for you and who trust and believe in you to make the right decisions for them. Don't support the TPP until you get it right. Make deals that are right for the Australian people first and foremost—not foreigners and not other people around the world—to ensure they have jobs and a decent standard of living. Look after your own people here, because they are screaming out for someone to stand up and speak for them.

Sitting suspended from 18: 29 to 19 :30