STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BABET (Victoria—United Australia Party Whip) (13:49): Once upon a time you got a job because you were good at it. I know it's a radical concept—you studied, you trained and you proved yourself. These days, that is not enough.

We have not enough of, 'Are you qualified?' and too much of, 'Do you add diversity points to the board's annual report?' We live in a world where airlines, universities and government departments brag about hiring people based off everything except the one thing that actually matters: their competence. That's not progress; its lunacy. DEI doesn't bring people together; it teaches us to look at each other through a checklist.

It doesn't build trust; it corrodes it. It takes real achievement and wraps it in an asterisk. The irony is that DEI was supposed to make people feel valued.

Instead, it has turned workplaces into guessing games. When someone gets promoted, you don't instantly cheer. You might whisper, 'Was it earned or was it DEI?' It's not fair to anyone, least of all to the person who actually worked hard for it.

Australians want fairness. That means everyone gets a chance, but no-one gets a short cut. It means opportunity should go to the best person, not to the best demographic.

If you required surgery, you wouldn't want diversity; you'd want precision. If you stepped on a plane, you wouldn't want a pilot who represents equity; you'd want a pilot who can actually land the bloody thing. If you called the fire brigade, you wouldn't want inclusion; you'd want somebody who could pick you up and carry you on their shoulder out of a burning building.

So what do we have to do? We need to scrap the quotas. We need to shred the HR buzzwords.

We've got to get back to basics: merit, excellence, a fair go. And we should scrap DEI everywhere.