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

I will make it quite clear. Labor's Treasurer, Jim Chalmers—I don't know where he was last Saturday. Not only did they not have the guts to stand a candidate for Farrer, but, if we are to believe last night's performance, they also have no idea what the average Australian is concerned about. We know they are hopeless on social policy. They have no intention of taking Australia back for the majority of Australians. They have no idea how angry Australians are about being welcomed to our own country. They have a deaf ear to the fact that some people will never become part of Australia if they can't speak the language or if they hate what Australians value most.

Then, last night, we get one of the most shameless performances in all of budget history—no shame in admitting that our young people will face budget deficits way into the next decade and no shame that gross debt will reach a million million dollars next year. I repeat: a million million dollars. Go and tell young people that. No wonder there were no revenue projections for the next ten years. This mob will raise taxes even more—$77 billion in net tax increases next year. They had no shame about telling us that inflation could reach seven per cent, but then they have the gall to say they will help young people into houses. How the hell do they get houses with interest rates climbing to ten per cent?

I have said before that Gough Whitlam, one of Labor's heroes—and, certainly compared to this lot, a real hero—was turfed out in a landslide defeat in 1975 because he was economically incompetent, but revenues were then 24.5 per cent of GDP. Last night, Chalmers had no shame in announcing that the Albanese government's revenues would be 27 per cent of GDP and no shame in saying that there would be higher taxes over the medium term. There is nothing in this for hardworking and productive Australians—nothing. The handouts to renewable energy continue, when anyone with a modicum of common sense would say: 'Scrap net zero. Get out of Paris and do what this country did for years until it was overtaken by the global warming climate change hoax. Use our plentiful natural resources to deliver the kind of wealth to individuals and businesses that used to be taken for granted and then say emphatically that we will decide who comes to this country and no-one is welcome to bring the problems they left behind into our once stable and united world.'

The polls say that the Albanese-Chalmers farce is supported by barely 30 per cent of the voters—that is, 70 per cent don't want them. Last night proved why they don't want them. One Nation will take Australia back to the majority of Australians. One Nation will educate Australians, as we care about the next generation. This generation has to live within its means. The age of bribing voters has to end. The age of irresponsible spending has to end. In fact, the age of not having the guts to tell Australians the true story of the mess Labor is leaving this country must end. A government that can't tell voters the truth does not deserve to be in government.

That brings me to the seat of Farrer. They said One Nation was a party of grievance, a party of protest, a party that would always be on the fringe. They said we were racist, illegitimate and divisive. They said we might get the odd Senate seat but would never win a seat in the House of Representatives. But then something happened in South Australia a few weeks ago. That state's political landscape was reshaped by a One Nation earthquake. We won as many seats as the Liberals did and we smashed their primary vote. We achieved massive swings in safe Labor seats and made them marginal. We demonstrated we could convert our surge in the polls into votes. They panicked, suddenly realised One Nation was a real chance in the Farrer by-election and did everything they could to stop us. They spent a fortune and created attack websites and social media accounts. They put up billboards all over the electorate. They bullied our volunteers. They ran dozens of hit pieces in the media, and there was a lot of cheap mudraking.

Well, the people of Farrer have sent a loud and strong message, but I suspect it will fall on a lot of deaf ears. I congratulate David Farley on his stunning win in Farrer, and I'm please to acknowledge his presence in the Senate chamber today. David is a native of Narrandera, in the heart of the Murrumbidgee irrigation area. David is going to be most welcome to work with the team, and I congratulate David on his win.