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

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I wish to discuss the burden, the suffering and the courage of a group under assault across our country or, as former State of Origin rugby league star player Marty Bella now realises and calls it, an ideological assault on rural Australia. Senator Pauline Hanson first started discussing this in 1996, one of the first things she did when she got into the lower House. Maurice Newman, well-known businessman and former banker, has spoken about this issue many times publicly in recent years. Rick Gurnett, a farmer, who is a strong supporter and also a member of Katter's Australia Party, has known about this for 20 years. Paul Keating's government signed the deal with the United Nations in 1992.

Marty Bella is a co-founder of Green Shirts, the real conservationists and protectors of the environment and he finds himself now in a real battle. State of Origin was one thing, but Marty, who is a counsellor in the Mackay area, is now in a real battle trying to protect many farmers and many other coastal residents.

I also want to talk about the McDonald family, who I have enormous respect and regard for. Dan, his wife, Katrina, who still barracks for the All Blacks—but, nonetheless, she is a wonderful person—their son, James, who is about 21, 22, their daughter, Ebony, and their second son, Reece, bought a property at Charleville in south-west Queensland particularly because it had stands of mulga which they can use for drought-proofing their property, because cattle don't just put up with it but love the mulga.

Dan is a very professional person; his farm is meticulous. He has very high standards and he is now applying those to fighting the Queensland government and taking them through the court system because that man has been threatened and served notice of a fine of $126,000 for having the hide to feed his cattle in a drought. He is now going to appeal that and continue.

Farmers' properties rights have been stolen. The right to use their property, their soil, their water, their vegetation has been taken from them. Where did the theft of these property rights start? Well, Peter Spencer in the 1990s went up a pole and had a hunger strike and nearly died. I think it was Alan Jones who talked him down, because he tried to talk Peter Spencer into realising that he would be better off alive. Peter Spencer has since had many health problems. I met him again recently. He's a wonderful man. He fought hard for those property rights. The reason was: to comply with the UN's Kyoto protocol.

It started with John Howard, who couldn't afford, politically, to shut down plants and industry, so he went after the farmers. He did that because he could get credits for stopping them from clearing land, because the vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide. He then teamed up in 1996, when the Kyoto protocol was signed, with Rob Borbidge, the then Premier of Queensland from the National Party. Then, to seal the deal on protecting so-called native vegetation—but it was really the stealing of farmers' property rights—he signed up with Peter Beattie. Peter Beattie has admitted in writing that he did this to help John Howard's government comply with the Kyoto protocol, ripping farmers' land off them. Bob Carr did the same. He's admitted it publicly. Anna Bligh then continued it as Premier of Queensland. Who caused this? The government caused this, state and federal. Who pays for it? The famers and the people. This is opportunity theft, and it's people like Rick Gurnett, Maurice Newman, Senator Pauline Hanson, Dan McDonald and his family, and Martin Bella who are standing up for this—everyday Aussies who are doing this entirely voluntarily.

This is destroying our productive capacity in this country. It is a national disaster. When you look right across the farming sector—and I don't have time to discuss what's happening to the canefarmers now and the magnificent work of Steve Andrew, the One Nation member for Mirani in Central Queensland, and canefarmers like Robert Rossiter and Allan Parker. Again, we have Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad stealing property rights and controlling them through supposed runoff restrictions. This was started by the United Nations in 1992 at the UN's Rio de Janeiro declaration for 21st century governance that our Prime Minister at the time, Paul Keating, signed. Again, I ask: who caused it? The government. Who pays for it? The people. It's opportunity theft. We need restoration or compensation for farmers' property rights. (Time expired)