David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I recall in November last year being here in the Senate and doing my job, and I recall other senators being in here doing their job. We were talking about housing and tax breaks for billionaires. But I can't remember if Senator Hanson was here during that. That's right; she was off on some junket with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago during a two-week sitting period, schmoozing with billionaires and no doubt talking about all of Trump's talking points and how wonderful it would be, while the rest of us were actually doing our job. Then, One Nation comes in here and starts putting on this kind of motion saying, 'Inflation is a result of government spending,' conveniently forgetting that President Trump—who your leader, Senator Hanson, was schmoozing with on a paid billionaire junket in Mar-a-Lago in November of last year—started a bloody war which has driven inflation through the roof.

I remember One Nation, at the start of this war, in February, coming out and cheering it on. There were images of Senator Hanson, images of Donald Trump and images of Gina Rinehart. I remember all the images and how you loved the war. It was great and terrific—because it fed into One Nation's racist attacks on Muslims and Islamophobia. That's what they did. They were feeding that trope, and they thought they had great images of Senator Hanson—not working here in the Senate, which she's paid to do by the Australian public, but schmoozing off in Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump. They had, no doubt, some lovely little images of Senator Hanson and Gina Rinehart, and no doubt they were negotiating the gift of the next expensive plane from Gina Rinehart, because you got sick. I understand Gina Rinehart doesn't like always travelling with Senator Hanson in her plane; I get that. I wouldn't want to be travelling around the country with Senator Hanson in my plane if I had one. So Gina Rinehart, instead of bringing Senator Hanson on her plane, buys her a plane!

The billionaire class absolutely owns One Nation, and then you come here and say that the reason Australians can't afford things is reckless government spending. Well, maybe it's because of the investor tax breaks that One Nation votes to keep every single time they're on. Maybe there's not enough money to build public housing because you refuse to tax fossil fuel profits. Maybe there's not enough money for public housing and to build the houses Australia needs because One Nation opposes ever putting any impost on the resources industry.

I've been watching One Nation come in here every day to defend Gina Rinehart, defend the minerals industry's 'get out of jail free' cards and defend fossil fuel profits, and it turns out that Gina's been watching it too—she bought you a plane! I don't think it's just because she doesn't want to have Senator Hanson in her plane; I think it's because Gina Rinehart, the billionaire class, own One Nation. They absolutely own One Nation.

We've been watching One Nation play distraction politics. Senator Hanson was off at Trump's Mar-a-Lago in November last year learning about distraction politics and how you can weaponise migration and weaponise attacks on migration to avoid taking on the one per cent and the billionaire class. That's the lesson Senator Hanson was getting at her CPAC trip with Donald Trump last year. She was learning how to weaponise migration and make us hate each other and fight amongst each other for tiny little scraps out of the system while the one per cent and billionaire class absolutely cream it in and steal from us—steal from the public purse, steal from public resources. That's what Senator Hanson was doing for two weeks in November of last year, not the job she is paid to do—to come here and be a senator for the public. She accepted this billionaire's gift, as One Nation always does, because that's who owns One Nation.

When we hear you talk about ordinary Australians and working Australians—from 10,000 feet above, in Gina Rinehart's jet—as though that's who you're fighting for, we see you. We see you in the corporate jets. We see you at Trump's mansion. We see you at these far-right billionaire funded conferences. And, increasingly, the Australian public is going to see you for what you are because you don't give a rat's about people who can't afford a mortgage. You want to create division and divide Australians against each other. You're playing by Trump's rulebook, and that rulebook is looking increasingly crap.