Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pursuant to order, I now call Senator Bell to make his first speech and ask senators that the usual courtesies be extended to him.

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

I rise to address this chamber with gratitude and a deep sense of duty for the people of New South Wales and Australia, who I am here to serve and to my party, One Nation, that I'm here to represent.

First I want to thank my wife, Amelia. None of this would be possible without your sacrifice, your dedication as a mother to our daughter, Rosetta, your patience and your constant support, especially during the long days and even longer nights of work with campaigning. You have stood by me, supported me, defended me and provided me with encouragement, advice and love, and I would not be standing here today without you. To my parents, Elizabeth and Lindsay, thank you for teaching me the values of hard work, self-discipline and responsibility. The values that I bring into this chamber were shaped around our family's kitchen table, and I carry them with me today. I would not be here today if it were not for both of you. To my brothers, my wider family and my friends, thank you for standing with me, for supporting me, for reminding me where I come from and for keeping me relatively grounded.

To the One Nation parliamentary staff with whom I've had the privilege of working in this building, some of you for nearly a decade, thank you for mentoring me, for supporting me and for preparing me for this moment. Thank you to the One Nation head office staff and the One Nation state teams. I have seen firsthand the dedication and the commitment that you show, which keeps our movement running. You work harder than big parties with a fraction of the resources. You do not ask for praise. You just get the job done, day in, day out. And you get it done.

To Senator Warwick Stacey, whose vacancy I now fill, I want to acknowledge your service to this party and to thank you for the campaign you fought. I know your strength and determination—your commitment to the people of New South Wales and this country—and I'm honoured to follow in your footsteps as a representative of One Nation in this chamber. And to my fellow One Nation senators and to our leader, Senator Hanson, I want to thank you for your trust, your support and your unwavering commitment to the people of Australia. It is an honour to join you in this chamber. I've worked beside you, I've learnt from you and I've seen firsthand the integrity and determination you bring to this parliament every day.

I enter the Senate by way of a casual vacancy, and I am fully aware of what that means. I was not elected by name on a ballot paper, but I was elected on principle, on a platform of policy and belief carried by the party that I represent. That party is Pauline Hanson's One Nation, and I am proud to be here under that banner. Like many One Nation members and supporters, I never thought I would be in politics. I did not grow up dreaming of holding elected office. I did not follow the usual path to this place, because the truth is I haven't always applied myself the way I should have. I didn't make the most of the opportunities my parents gave me, and I didn't honour the sacrifices they made the way I should have. I dropped out of university, I have wasted time in my life and I have often not taken things as seriously as I should have.

Then one day I lost my job working shifts at a video store, after the march of technology carried on and video stores across the country disappeared almost overnight. I was out of work with no degree, no trade and no back-up plan. So I took work in catering, I worked mowing lawns and eventually I signed on with a labour hire company, and for the next four years I worked unloading shipping containers by hand at factories and warehouses, stacking pallets, wrapping them up, sometimes unloading 20-foot containers and sometimes 40-foot containers. It was four years of waking up at 3.30 in the morning, working hard and reflecting on the choices I had made and what I wanted to do with my life. I can tell you this: I learnt more in those four years about what matters in life than I ever did at university. Eventually, while working that job, I went back to part-time study and picked up a few qualifications. I got a chance to work as a claims assessor, contracting, working for myself and doing what I could to stay afloat.

But then something happened: Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister at the time, called a snap double-dissolution election, Pauline Hanson was returned to parliament and One Nation won four Senate seats. The very next day, I walked into the One Nation head office and handed them my resume. That's when I met Senator Roberts for the first time, as they were still counting the votes to see if he would be joining Senator Hanson in parliament. I didn't hear anything for a few months, and then one day I got a phone call from Senator Hanson's chief of staff, James Ashby, who has, for better or worse, had to put up with me ever since. It was a phone call that changed my life, because the next day I met Senator Pauline Hanson and that afternoon I was offered a job. For the next nine years, I had the honour of working for Senator Hanson and One Nation in this place and across the country, fighting for the people of Australia and the future of this great nation.

To anyone watching today who is doing it tough, who's lost their job, who's failed an exam or who feels like they've missed their shot, I want you to know something: it is never too late to turn things around. You can get knocked down and you can make mistakes, but, with hard work, a bit of luck and a willingness to keep going, you can find your way. I never imagined I would be standing here in the Australian Senate, but I kept showing up, I kept working and, when the chances came, I took them. If I can do it, so can you.

Now I want to take a moment to properly acknowledge Senator Hanson, the founder of the party I represent and my greatest mentor, who should be sitting here today were it not for others in this place deciding that the conventions on tabling legislation and the conventions on allowing others to speak, debate and be heard apply to others but not her. Now some may think that, by shutting her down, by banning her and by abusing her, they have won some victory. The truth is you have won nothing and only made Senator Hanson stronger—and that is hard to do, because she is already one of the strongest women I know. You have failed because despite the best efforts of the political establishment to remove Senator Hanson from this place, be it through the legal system, jailing her, or by dirty political tricks, banning her from taking her rightful place in this chamber, Senator Hanson is still here, because the people chose her. She is still here, that is still her seat, and it remains her seat by the will of the people and not by the whims of the Senate. She is still here, and with every year the number of people in this place and around the country standing with her is growing.

From her first speech in the House of Representatives in 1996 to the near decade of service to this chamber, she has never backed down—not once and certainly not this week. For her courage, she has faced more abuse, more slander and more misrepresentation than any politician in living memory, and through it all she has continued to speak up clearly, directly and with unmatched bravery for the people this place so often forgets. The longer the years go on, the more Australians can see that she was right all along—right on immigration, right on energy, right on national security, right on our national sovereignty, right on foreign ownership and right on protecting the freedoms of this nation. Her contribution to this country dwarfs nearly all others and her legacy will endure through generations because, when Senator Hanson speaks, she speaks for the forgotten people of this country—the workers, the farmers, the small-business owners, the pensioners and the mums and dads who play by the rules and just want a fair go. She has not just given them a voice but given them the courage to use their voice. That is what she has taught me to do, and that is what I am doing today.

I believe Australia is the greatest country on earth and it is home to the greatest people on earth. Australians don't ask for much—just a fair go, a country that works and leaders that put the people first. But, right across this nation, people are angry. And they have every right to be angry. They are not angry because of some hate for Australia; it is because they love Australia, and they see it slipping away. They see their towns and suburbs transformed without ever being asked. They see house prices and rents exploding while wages stay flat. They see power bills soaring while our coal and gas exports are sent overseas. They see crime rising and our standard of living falling. They see their values mocked, their history trashed and their kids taught to be ashamed of who they are. They see a country that once worked now struggling under the weight of bad policy, weak leadership and politicians and political parties that seem to serve the interests of everyone but the people of this country. They see the major parties bow to corporate interests, foreign investors, globalist think tanks, the United Nations and a woke agenda while ordinary Australians are lectured, insulted and told to shut up. Well, we will not shut up, and One Nation will continue to give the people a voice.

I stand here as a proud Australian who loves this country. I believe this country belongs to the people who built it, who defend it and who call it home. It should be a government's first duty to protect them and to serve them, not to serve foreign nations or the interests of the United Nations, left-wing radicals, activist judges or unelected bureaucrats pushing an imperialistic, progressive political agenda. It should be to the Australian people, first and foremost. I believe strong families, secure borders, local jobs, personal responsibility and the rule of law are some of the foundations of this nation. I believe the Anglo-Celtic values that built this country and the Christian bedrock upon which so much of this great nation stands must be defended. I will fight to protect these institutions from the radical ideologies and globalist forces that threaten to tear them down.

Much of what has made this nation great has been torn down, which is why I believe we need to not only defend these things but restore these things, which made our nation great but have been neglected and undermined. We must restore what drove our standard of living—cheap, reliable, Australian energy. We must restore control of our nation's borders because our immigration and investment policies, which were once about building a nation, have become a betrayal driven by big business, global pressure and the politics of greed and cowardice. We must restore our national identity to one grounded in a shared culture, a proud history and an Australian way of life. These pillars matter because, if they crumble and fall, the nation falls with them. If we do not act to defend our borders, to end mass immigration, to put our people first, then Australia is lost. We must act urgently because Australia is at risk of being swamped by mass immigration.

Under this Albanese Labor government, we have been subject to one of the most reckless and careless immigration experiments in our nation's history. The reason this has been allowed to happen is that others in this place do not truly see Australia as a sovereign nation. They see nothing special or unique, nothing worth preserving. But I do. A nation is not an economic market. It is not a workforce. It is not a population that is too old that needs to be replaced. It is not a population target dreamed up by bureaucrats or bankers that we must hit. A nation is a people bound by a shared history, a shared culture and a shared way of life. It is a contract between the living, the dead and those yet to be born. A nation is a gift we inherit from our ancestors, and it is our duty to protect and preserve it for those who come after us.

For years now, that contract has been torn up. Under this government, over one million people having been brought into this country in the middle of a housing crisis, an energy crisis and a cost-of-living crisis. The result? Skyrocketing rents, crumbling services, overloaded infrastructure and neighbourhoods that change beyond recognition in just a few short years. This is not an immigration policy; this is a betrayal. It's a betrayal of Aussie families, mums and dads, who feel like they are being pushed aside in their own country, be it through mass immigration or weak laws on foreign investment. A young mum and dad with two kids should not have to compete with every millionaire from China, India or the United States or compete with global investment firms just to buy a home in suburban Sydney, but that is what is happening around the country every day because so many politicians in this place believe Australia should not have real borders—that anyone can come here, in any number, and that anyone can buy a home here, whether they live here or not. This is a disgrace.

Housing in this country should be for Australians trying to build a life and raise their family, because this is our home. This is not some abstract global marketplace; this is our home. This nation is home for our people, the people of Australia, and to act otherwise is a betrayal. The Australian people have never asked for or approved of this betrayal. They did not ask for their suburbs to be reshaped. They didn't ask for their kids to be priced out of the housing market. They didn't ask for their hospitals or schools to be pushed to breaking point. But is happening anyway because political parties in this place, for their own reasons, for their own special interests, have decided they will not listen to the people of Australia.

I am proud to say One Nation is listening, and that is why we will not apologise for putting Australia first. We will not apologise for demanding that illegal migrants be deported and that government make the necessary cuts to immigration. We will not apologise for defending our borders, our values and our way of life. It is our duty to defend these things. It is our duty to the people of Australia and to our future generations. This is the responsibility I have to my daughter—to protect and defend the Australia that I have inherited, that she has inherited, before the Australia that was gifted to us by our ancestors is gone forever. No nation can survive without defending its borders and without a shared language, a shared culture and a shared sense of who we are. We are not just an economy. We are not just a labour pool. We are a people with roots, with loyalties and with an Australian way of life that is worth defending. If we lose that, we lose the nation itself. I will fight with everything I have to make sure that such a tragedy never comes to pass.

To be clear, this is not the only threat posed to the future of this nation. Another is the steady, deliberate failure to manage our energy system, a failure that goes far beyond net zero. Australia should have the cheapest, most reliable energy in the world. We are blessed with abundant natural resources. Coal, gas, uranium—we have the lot. We should be a powerhouse. Instead, we are becoming powerless. For years governments of both stripes have torn down what worked and replaced it with slogans, subsidies, foreign-made solar panels, and wind turbines contaminated with asbestos, and net zero is the excuse being used to cover this up.

Let us be clear: net zero is not a climate policy; it is an economic wrecking ball, and it is being swung with force at the heart of this nation's prosperity. Families who once had steady jobs, affordable power and a sense of security now face the exact opposite. Power bills are soaring. Manufacturing has been shut down. Industry that is the backbone of our economy, such as Tomago Aluminium, is on the brink. Coalmining jobs that have sustained regions like the Hunter and helped to fuel our future are being sacrificed and thrown away for nothing. Farmers in regions like New England are being strangled by green tape, torn apart by industrial wind and solar projects, and pushed off their land to make way for energy infrastructure that is fuelled by an obsession. Regional towns are being gutted, losing their jobs, losing people and losing hope. The lights are flickering on a power grid that used to be the envy of the world. Why? It's because both major parties surrendered to a fantasy. Labor pushes it and the Liberals pretend to oppose it, while signing up to the exact same targets and treaties and supporting the exact same policies that are causing the damage and the decline. Australians are being told to sacrifice everything for net zero, and they are getting nothing in return—just more pain.

In New South Wales, we once had some of the cheapest, most reliable energy in the world because we used our own coal and gas and we believed in self-reliance. Now these same industries are under attack, while we are told to rely on Chinese-made solar panels and foreign supply chains. This is national self-harm, and it must end.

I believe in cheap, reliable energy not just because it's good economics; I believe it is a moral obligation. I believe that restoring our energy system and delivering cheap energy to the people of Australia is the greatest moral obligation of our time. We must decide what we value more: destructive international treaties like the Paris Agreement that say we must sacrifice our nation's prosperity so other nations may profit, or the future and wellbeing of our own children. Nothing will rebuild this nation faster than affordable power in the hands of its people. That is the path to a stronger Australia, and that is the fight One Nation is here to lead.

But it is not the only fight we will lead. We must also fight to defend what it means to be Australian, because our culture and national identity are also under siege. Children are taught to feel ashamed of our history. They are taught that the statues of great men and women who helped build this country should be torn down. They are taught our national flag can be burnt. They are taught to hate Australia Day, our national day—a day that has been hijacked by extremists to promote their agenda of hatred and division. This must stop.

Australia is the most generous, free and fair-minded nation on earth. We do not need to rewrite our past to build a better future. We need to honour the legacy of our ancestors. That is what we should be teaching our children, because that is how we build a better future for our children. That legacy includes all of us. It includes Indigenous Australians. It includes the British settlers who founded our institutions and brought our democratic traditions. It includes generations of Australians from all backgrounds who worked, served, sacrificed and made this nation what it is. We must teach our children to be proud of their country and not ashamed of it, because Australians should be proud of their country. That pride should be passed on, not torn down. Our children should be raised to honour what came before them: the soldiers who fought, the values that built the nation and the culture that holds it all together.

We are not here to apologise for Australia. We're here to defend it, preserve it and teach the next generation to do the same. If others will not do that, then One Nation will. We are a nation, with an identity, with roots and with a way of life that must be protected, because what is the point of bringing down the cost of living if the life we are left with isn't worth living?

To the people of Australia, my mission in this place is simple: to put you first always, to defend and conserve the values that made this country strong, to speak for the millions of Australians who've been ignored for too long, and to carry forward the fight that Senator Pauline Hanson began when she stood alone in this building many years ago and spoke truth others would not dare say.

Senator Hanson has started a movement: one of courage, conviction and plain old common sense. The light of that movement burns like a light on a hill that guides us, and I will do everything I can to keep that light burning, in our towns, on our farms, in our factories and in the hearts of every Australian—and right here in the Senate, and right beside her when she returns.

I am here to represent the people who sent me, as Senator Hanson taught me: loudly, clearly and without apology—and unashamedly One Nation. I thank the Senate.