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

We are locked in an all-or-nothing fight for Australia's very soul. On one side are the Australians who built this country: the battlers, the people from the bush, the people who contributed to this country with their hard work and their blood, sweat and tears, the diggers who fought to defend the rights and principles on which this nation was founded, and the Australians now left disenfranchised as their country has changed for the worse right in front of their eyes. On the other side are the rabid far-left—the Marxists, the communists, the socialists, the toxic Labor Party and the hateful Greens, the hypocrites who bring hordes of people here in the middle of an unprecedented housing and rental crisis, and the idiots who flood Australia with people who mean us deliberate harm, despise our values, laugh at our complacency and take advantage of our leaders' weakness.

Today it's been revealed the hideous Iranian regime actively organised and orchestrated crimes on Australian territory against Australian people. What is absolutely certain in this space is that Iran had fertile ground to plant and grow its hatred in Australia, because current immigration policy allows people who nurture these hatreds to come here and commit these crimes. Labor has given 3,000 people from Gaza permission to come here. That's 3,000 potential agents for the Iranian revolutionary guard. We should immediately and permanently ban immigration from any countries where this hatred prevails. We cannot afford to take any risks with the safety of the Australian community.

Immigration has gotten so out of control that many Australians no longer recognise their own country. This isn't just about housing or jobs; this mass migration is tearing at the fabric of who we are. When I see our flag flying, I see the sacrifice of those who built and defended our nation. It should unite us all, but Labor's agenda is to divide us and to destroy our culture, our identity and our love for our country. If we lose that unity, we lose Australia itself. This is the true cost of mass immigration: the slow destruction of our nationhood.

Labor told us they were going to bring the numbers down. They lied. They've brought about 1½ million people here since they were elected. Today Labor is bringing 1,544 people per day. That's more than 560,000 a year. Where are they supposed to live? Where are struggling Australians supposed to live? In the past three years, Labor has effectively dumped 1½ million people into our housing market and onto our health and education systems, our roads and our waters—even adding 12 million tonnes a year to our emissions. Australians are left in the cold while Labor just waves more people through the gate.

And make no mistake: this is no accident. It's deliberate. It's intentional. It isn't about a skills shortage or education exports; it's about importing voters and keeping Labor in power. It's about Labor remaking Australia in Labor's perverted image. It's not the politicians and the bureaucrats paying the price. It's ordinary Aussies paying the price, with higher rents, lower wages, homelessness, poverty and our unique culture—envied around the world—being chipped away piece by piece.

If you want an end to this crime against Australia, if you want an end to out-of-control immigration, then you stand with One Nation and you stand with me. If you want a safe and united Australia, one people under the Australian flag, you stand with One Nation. We must make sure immigrating to Australia is a privilege to be earned, not an entitlement. Immigrants must have fluent English and definitely no burqas. We must enforce the law and deport the 75,000 people who've breached their visas and the 100,000 failed asylum seekers who were told to go home but haven't—no excuses, no endless appeals and no loopholes. We must cut the numbers drastically. One Nation's policy is to cap immigration at approximately 130,000 per year, numbers we can actually accommodate. When we can, then we can look at increasing those numbers over a period of time. We have no problem with immigration that serves the national interest. We acknowledge this is a country built on immigration, and we acknowledge the immigrants who have adopted our values and contributed to our country. We must shut down the rorts and the backdoor channels. We must put Australia back in charge of who comes here. We must withdraw from the UN Refugee Convention, reintroduce temporary protection visas and refuse entry from nations that foster extremist ideologies incompatible with Australian life. It's basic common sense. It's fairer and it's what most Australians want.

Yet our politicians tend to forget about that. I think they're living in their own world and don't really understand how Australians are struggling out there with the cost of living. High immigration is the cause of it. Yet they're on about these renewables and carbon emissions. Why would you bring so many people—1,500 people a day—into the country if you're worried about your carbon emissions and the Paris Agreement that you've signed? It doesn't make sense. As I said, you're adding 12 million tonnes of emissions a year to it. Why would you bring in such numbers when it's affecting the housing and rental accommodation, services, health, education, nursing homes, roads, infrastructure—everything, you name it.

The Australian people are fed up with it. They've had a gutful of it. Yet you keep bringing them in. You have no regard for the Australian people. You go on about the housing issue in this parliament and say that you're going to build 1.2 million houses. What an absolute joke you are. I cannot believe this. You believe the rubbish that you're telling the Australian people. You actually believe it. I listen to the Labor senators get up and espouse all of this. It's just an absolute, ridiculous joke. Australians feel that they've been stripped of their own identity. They're ashamed. They're ridiculed by even their own councils if they fly the Australian flag. It's alright to see the Palestinian flag out at these protest rallies—even Hamas flags, terrorist flags.

On Sunday there is supposed to be this march for Australia. To those Australians out there that want to go out and have their say and wave the Australian flag: good on you. I congratulate you because you're standing up for the values that you feel are being stripped from you by governments, whether it's this government or former governments. You feel that you're not being listened to. This country is not the country that I grew up in. I'm ashamed of where we're headed—all this wokeness, the escalating crime, the cost of living, high electricity costs and the decline in our moral values that is happening. There's all this transgender rubbish and what's going on with women spaces. It's just absolutely disgusting. So many of you support it here. Where are your morals, your principles and your values? I can't understand it. We're supposed to represent the Australian people.

I see the decline in my nation—and I feel sorry for those men and women that have fought and sacrificed their lives to give us the democracy and nation that we should all be so proud of. All I can do is keep fighting for the Australian people with the best I possibly can, to keep raising these issues to bring awareness of what is happening in our country, and I stand by my fellow Australians with pride, with dignity and with love for this country. I will continue to fight for the Australian people to the best of my ability.

Senate adjourned at 20 : 52