Senate debates

Monday, 18 March 2024

Statements by Senators

Labor Party

3:10 pm

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

On the weekend, former ACTU president and former Labor member of parliament Jennie George AO published an article in the Australian newspaper. It's compulsory reading. Jennie clearly holds Labor's light on the hill in her heart, and her words echo the sadness and grief of many Labor true believers. She said: 'The party that was formed to give political expression to the needs of working people has allowed the light on the hill to dim.' In a recent speech I remarked that in 2024 Labor's famed light on the hill is now nothing more than the sun reflecting off solar panels, which we know are expensive, short-lived and an environmental disaster—just like the Albanese Labor government.

Jennie George's judgement of the modern ALP is savage. She says: 'Labor today is not the party it was; it has lost its moral compass.' Ouch! Labor Party members like Jennie have not left the party; the party left them. The Overton window is a metaphor for the acceptable range of ideas and policies in which many politicians think they can act. Through it, such politicians see the middle ground of Australian politics. Under successive Labor-Greens and Liberals-Nationals governments, the Overton window has moved so far to the left and to the autocratic—that it no longer provides for everyday Australians. We're losing wealth, spending power, access to housing, democracy and enjoyment of the riches our country has to offer. Establishment parties continue to take from working Australians to line the pockets of their millionaire and billionaire mates at the World Economic Forum.

One Nation is the only party that still stands for working Australians and for all who have come here to lift themselves up through their own hard work and enterprise. Our One Nation policies will make the lives of working Australians easier. Jennie George's words embolden old Labor to take back their party and excise from its ranks those who wear the mark of the World Economic Forum. Restore the ascendancy of our parliament, and return power to the people we are supposed to serve.