Tuesday, 10th September
1996.
5.15pm : Mister Acting Speaker,
in making my first speech in this place, I congratulate you on
your election and wish to say how proud I am to be here as the
Independent member for Oxley. I come here not as a polished
politician but as a woman who has had her fair share of life's
knocks.
My view on issues is based on
commonsense, and my experience as a mother of four children, as
a sole parent, and as a businesswoman running a fish and chip
shop. I won the seat of Oxley largely on an issue that has
resulted in me being called a racist. That issue related to my
comment that Aboriginals received more benefits than
non-Aboriginals.
We now have a situation where a
type of reverse racism is applied to mainstream Australians by
those who promote political correctness and those who control
the various taxpayer funded "industries" that flourish
in our society servicing Aboriginals, multiculturalists and a
host of other minority groups. In response to my call for
equality for all Australians, the most noisy criticism came from
the fat cats, bureaucrats and the do-gooders. They screamed the
loudest because they stand to lose the most - their power, money
and position, all funded by ordinary Australian taxpayers.
Present governments are
encouraging separatism in Australia by providing opportunities,
land, moneys and facilities available only to Aboriginals. Along
with millions of Australians, I am fed up to the back teeth with
the inequalities that are being promoted by the government and
paid for by the taxpayer under the assumption that Aboriginals
are the most disadvantaged people in Australia. I do not believe
that the colour of one's skin determines whether you are
disadvantaged. As Paul Hasluck said in parliament in October
1955 when he was Minister for Territories:
The distinction I make is this.
A social problem is one that concerns the way in which people
live together in one society. A racial problem is a problem
which confronts two different races who live in two separate
societies, even if those societies are side by side. We do not
want a society in Australia in which one group enjoy one set of
privileges and another group enjoy another set of privileges.
Hasluck's vision was of a
single society in which racial emphases were rejected and social
issues addressed. I totally agree with him, and so would the
majority of Australians.
But, remember, when he gave his
speech he was talking about the privileges that white
Australians were seen to be enjoying over Aboriginals. Today, 41
years later, I talk about the exact opposite - the privileges
Aboriginals enjoy over other Australians. I have done research
on benefits available only to Aboriginals and challenge anyone
to tell me how Aboriginals are disadvantaged when they can
obtain 3 and 5 % housing loans denied to non-Aboriginals.
This nation is being divided
into black and white, and the present system encourages this. I
am fed up with being told, "This is our land." Well,
where the hell do I go? I was born here, and so were my parents
and children. I will work beside anyone and they will be my
equal but I draw the line when told I must pay and continue
paying for something that happened over 200 years ago. Like most
Australians, I worked for my land; no-one gave it to me.
Apart from the $40 million
spent so far since Mabo on native title claims, the government
has made available $1 billion for Aboriginals and Torres Strait
Islanders as compensation for land they cannot claim under
native title. Bear in mind that the $40 million spent so far in
native title has gone into the pockets of grateful lawyers and
consultants. Not one native title has been granted as I speak.
The majority of Aboriginals do
not want handouts because they realise that welfare is killing
them. This quote says it all "If you give a man a fish
you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish you feed
him for a lifetime."
Those who feed off the
Aboriginal industry do not want to see things changed. Look at
the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Members receive $290
a day sitting allowance and $320 a day travelling allowance, and
most of these people also hold other very well paid positions.
No wonder they did not want to resign recently!
Reconciliation is everyone
recognising and treating each other as equals, and everyone must
be responsible for their own actions. This is why I am calling
for ATSIC to be abolished. It is a failed, hypocritical and
discriminatory organisation that has failed dismally the people
it was meant to serve. It will take more than Senator Herron's
surgical skills to correct the terminal mess it is in. Anyone
with a criminal record can, and does, hold a position with ATSIC.
I cannot hold my position as a politician if I have a criminal
record - once again, two sets of rules.
If politicians continue to
promote separatism in Australia, they should not continue to
hold their seats in this parliament. They are not truly
representing all Australians, and I call on the people to throw
them out. To survive in peace and harmony, united and strong, we
must have one people, one nation, one flag.
The greatest cause of family
breakdown is unemployment. This country of ours has the richest
mineral deposits in the world and vast rich lands for
agriculture and is surrounded by oceans that provide a wealth of
seafood, and yet we are $190 billion in debt with an interest
bill that is strangling us.
Youth unemployment between the
ages of 15 to 24 runs at 25 % and is even higher in my
electorate of Oxley. Statistics, by cooking the books, say that
Australia's unemployment is at 8.6 %, or just under one million
people. If we disregard that one hour's work a week classifies a
person as employed, then the figure is really between 1.5
million and 1.9 million unemployed. This is a crisis that recent
governments have ignored because of a lack of will. We are
regarded as a Third World country with First World living
conditions. We have one of the highest interest rates in the
world, and we owe more money per capita than any other country.
All we need is a nail hole in the bottom of the boat and we're
sunk.
In real dollar terms, our
standard of living has dropped over the past 10 years. In the
1960s, our wages increase ran at 3 % and unemployment at 2 %.
Today, not only is there no wage increase, we have gone
backwards and unemployment is officially 8.6 %. The real figure
must be close to 12 to 13 %.
I wish to comment briefly on
some social and legal problems encountered by many of my
constituents - problems not restricted to just my electorate of
Oxley. I refer to the social and family upheaval created by the
Family Law Act and the ramifications of that act embodied in the
child support scheme. The Family Law Act, which was the child of
the disgraceful Senator Lionel Murphy, should be repealed. It
has brought death, misery and heartache to countless thousands
of Australians. Children are treated like pawns in some crazy
game of chess.
The child support scheme has
become unworkable, very unfair and one sided. Custodial parents
can often profit handsomely at the expense of a parent paying
child support, and in many cases the non-custodial parent simply
gives up employment to escape the, in many cases, heavy and
punitive financial demands. Governments must give to all those
who have hit life's hurdles the chance to rebuild and have a
future.
We have lost all our big
Australian industries and icons, including Qantas when it sold
25 % of its shares and a controlling interest to British
Airways. Now this government wants to sell Telstra, a company
that made a $1.2 billion profit last year and will make a $2
billion profit this year. But, first, they want to sack 54,000
employees to show better profits and share prices. Anyone with
business sense knows that you do not sell off your assets
especially when they are making money. I may be only "a
fish and chip shop lady", but some of these economists need
to get their heads out of the textbooks and get a job in the
real world. I would not even let one of them handle my grocery
shopping.
Immigration and
multiculturalism are issues that this government is trying to
address, but for far too long ordinary Australians have been
kept out of any debate by the major parties. I and most
Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed and
that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger
of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40 % of all
migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin. They
have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not
assimilate. Of course, I will be called racist but, if I can
invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to
have a say in who comes into my country. A truly multicultural
country can never be strong or united. The world is full of
failed and tragic examples, ranging from Ireland to Bosnia to
Africa and, closer to home, Papua New Guinea. America and Great
Britain are currently paying the price.
Arthur Calwell was a great
Australian and Labor leader, and it is a pity that there are not
men of his stature sitting on the opposition benches today.
Arthur Calwell said "Japan, India, Burma, Ceylon and
every new African nation are fiercely anti-white and anti-one
another. Do we want or need any of these people here? I am one
red-blooded Australian who says no and who speaks for 90 % of
Australians." I have no hesitation in echoing the
words of Arthur Calwell.
There is light at the end of
the tunnel and there are solutions. If this government wants to
be fair dinkum, then it must stop kowtowing to financial
markets, international organisations, world bankers, investment
companies and big business people. The Howard government must
become visionary and be prepared to act, even at the risk of
making mistakes.
In this financial year we will
be spending at least $1.5 billion on foreign aid and we cannot
be sure that this money will be properly spent, as corruption
and mismanagement in many of the recipient countries are legend.
Australia must review its membership and funding of the UN, as
it is a little like ATSIC on a grander scale, with huge tax-free
American dollar salaries, duty-free luxury cars and diplomatic
status.
The World Health Organisation
has a lot of its medical experts sitting in Geneva while
hospitals in Africa have no drugs and desperate patients are
forced to seek medication on the black market. I am going to
find out how many treaties we have signed with the UN, have them
exposed and then call for their repudiation. The government
should cease all foreign aid immediately and apply the savings
to generate employment here at home.
Abolishing the policy of
multiculturalism will save billions of dollars and allow those
from ethnic backgrounds to join mainstream Australia, paving the
way to a strong, united country. Immigration must be halted in
the short-term so that our dole queues are not added to by, in
many cases, unskilled migrants not fluent in the English
language. This would be one positive step to rescue many young
and older Australians from a predicament which has become a
national disgrace and crisis. I must stress at this stage that I
do not consider those people from ethnic backgrounds currently
living in Australia anything but first-class citizens, provided
of course that they give this country their full, undivided
loyalty.
The government must be
imaginative enough to become involved, in the short-term at
least, in job creating projects that will help establish the
foundation for a resurgence of national development and
enterprise. Such schemes would be the building of the Alice
Springs to Darwin railway line, new roads and ports, water
conservation, reforestation and other sensible and practical
environmental projects.
Therefore I call for the
introduction of national service for a period of 12 months,
compulsory for males and females upon finishing year 12 or
reaching 18 years of age. This could be a civil service with a
touch of military training, because I do not feel we can go on
living in a dream world forever and a day believing that war
will never touch our lives again.
The government must do all it
can to help reduce interest rates for business. How can we
compete with Japan, Germany and Singapore, who enjoy rates of
two %, 5.5 % and 3.5 % respectively? Reduced tariffs on foreign
goods that compete with local products seem only to cost
Australians their jobs. We must look after our own before lining
the pockets of overseas countries and investors at the expense
of our living standards and future.
Mister Acting Speaker, time is
running out. We may have only 10 to 15 years left to turn things
around. Because of our resources and our position in the world,
we will not have a say because neighbouring countries such as
Japan, with 125 million people; China, with 1.2 billion people;
India, with 846 million people; Indonesia, with 178 million
people; and Malaysia, with 20 million people are well aware of
our resources and potential. Wake up, Australia, before it is
too late. Australians need and want leaders who can inspire and
give hope in difficult times. Now is the time for the Howard
government to accept the challenge.
Mister Acting Speaker,
everything I have said is relevant to my electorate of Oxley,
which is typical of mainstream Australia. I do have concerns for
my country and I am going to do my best to speak my mind and
stand up for what I believe in. As an independent I am confident
that I can look after the needs of the people of Oxley and I
will always be guided by their advice. It is refreshing to be
able to express my views without having to toe a party line. It
has got me into trouble on the odd occasion, but I am not going
to stop saying what I think. I consider myself just an ordinary
Australian who wants to keep this great country strong and
independent, and my greatest desire is to see all Australians
treat each other as equals as we travel together towards the new
century.
I will fight hard to keep my
seat in this place, but that will depend on the people who sent
me here. Mister Acting Speaker, I thank you for your attention
and trust that you will not think me presumptuous if I dedicate
this speech to the people of Oxley and those Australians who
have supported me. I salute them all.
