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

You mentioned the Coalition of Peaks, Minister. There's part of the issue. This is a massive bureaucracy. You've got to have representatives of the peaks. There's no audit. And I'm speaking now on behalf of taxpayers, as well as Aboriginal children and Aboriginals.

I've been to every one of the communities, white and black, on Cape York, and I've asked: What's Close the gap? What do they know about Close the gap? What do they think about Close the gap? Some of the communities there don't even know about Close the gap, because they're not getting the benefits of the funding that's coming from the taxpayers; it's getting hived off by the parasites, white and black—activists, lawyers, consultants, lobbyists, academics, politicians and bureaucrats—along the way.

How is this additional bureaucratic load, this additional constipating layer in the middle, going to strengthen coordination across government? It's adding more people into the middle of this government mess. As I said, it's not just your mess; it's previous governments' messes as well.

Then these are going to be 'advising the Commonwealth'—this is from your own bill. 'Advising the Commonwealth'? How many more people do you need to get advice from? This is getting ridiculous! People across the country, especially Aboriginal people, are laughing at this. Some of them are crying at it.

And then there's the third activity: 'undertaking and commissioning research into systemic issues and barriers'. There's no doubt there are systemic issues and barriers. We can see them. Why do you need yet another group of researchers? This is just going to confuse the mess again.

Then there's 'providing and commissioning educational programs'. Children won't know which way is up, they'll have so many different messages from so many different bureaucrats—so many different parasites.

Next there's 'undertaking public advocacy' to promote the rights and interests of children and young people. We've got so many people in parliament doing that. We've got so many people outside parliament doing that. You've got so many bureaucrats, tripping over each other, doing that.

They're 'to amplify their voices and strengths'. Oh, really? Really? It's not working so far. The nanny state is not working so far.

As to engaging with children: how many more people are going to engage with children? These kids will have their heads spinning.

What about basic needs? Get to the core of the problem. There are, clearly, crucial human needs, and they're being bypassed by these people looking after their own administrative jobs. I also remain concerned about two things. One is that this is a divisive piece of proposed law that is defined by race. It draws distinctions and promotes divisions by race, which makes it racist. It overtly continues and entrenches the them-versus-us mentality that prevails in conjunction with the patronising mentality of victimhood status.

In Aboriginals—and you're an example of this, Minister—we have four per cent of Australians who are Aboriginal; we have 11 per cent of parliamentarians who are Aboriginal. Aboriginals have high potential, but so many are being locked into victimhood. Surely what we need to do is free up Aboriginals to fulfil their enormous potential. They're leading in the NRL, the AFL, business, sport, academics and science, and yet some of the communities are terrible. I think we need to start celebrating Aboriginals rather than locking some victims—