Plebiscite (Future Migration Level) Bill 2018
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (09:58): The Greens oppose the Plebiscite (Future Migration Level) Bill 2018. It's a bill that is, in its initial drafting, embarrassingly nonsensical. I think it's the third time One Nation have brought this legislation forward to get knocked on the head, and they didn't even have the wit to redraft the question that they initially put in their 2018 draft.
So what's the question that One Nation wanted to put to the Australian public on migration? They wanted to put this: From December 2005 to December 2016 Australia's population grew from 20.5 million to 24.4 million; 62% of this growth was from net overseas migration. Do you think the current rate of immigration to Australia is too high?
They are giving us figures from a decade ago. We're going to send that out to every Australian and then ask, 'Do you think the current rate of immigration is too high?' You couldn't make up the stuff that comes from this cowboy Ma and Pa Kettle outfit that calls itself One Nation. Maybe they were desperate and embarrassed because their leader has been so utterly nationally shamed for coming in here, in that grossly disrespectful, racist, appalling, divisive way, wearing a burqa.
Maybe they were so embarrassed by that that they just wanted to rush any kind of reheated vomit up, bring it in and put it into this chamber again. That's what this is. It's the reheated One Nation vomit of division, anti-immigration and Islamophobia.
That's what this is. Let's not pretend it's anything else. They want to have a plebiscite, and they say they believe in the Australian people, but what's the outcome of their plebiscite?
Absolutely bloody nothing. They want to have a big national plebiscite, the end result of which is that nothing happens. That's One Nation all over, isn't it?
In the shadow of their leader's appalling burqa fiasco in here, they bring a reheated 2018 bill, they don't even bother changing the wording of it, and then the end result of the plebiscite is absolutely bloody nothing. It has no binding effect. These guys are just a bunch of amateur performance racists who come in here.
That's who One Nation are: amateur performance racists. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Chandler ): Senator Bell on a point of order? Senator Bell: Point of order—that's clearly an improper personal reflection on the One Nation senators.
I ask that it be withdrawn. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes. I think, Senator Shoebridge, you should withdraw that comment and be mindful of your language.
Senator SHOEBRIDGE: I withdraw it. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you. Senator SHOEBRIDGE: This legislation is an amateur racist attempt to divide Australia.
That's what this legislation is. It comes from a bunch of cowboys who play on Islamophobia and division. Do you want to know why we've got a housing crisis in this country?
Do you want to know why, as the coalition says, there aren't enough tradespeople to build houses? I'll tell you why there aren't enough tradespeople to build houses: Labor and the coalition privatised TAFE across the country, destroyed TAFEs across the country and destroyed the pipeline of public TAFEs providing skilled trades to the country. That's why we've got a shortage of trades: Labor and the coalition, in their neoliberal push to privatise anything that's not nailed down, privatised TAFE and screwed the Australian future.
Not only that—the coalition and Labor between them have sacked pretty much every apprentice from every public department in the country. They don't employ apprentices, they don't have public TAFE, and then they come in and wonder why there aren't any tradespeople to build houses. It's because of their neoliberal privatisation crap.
And then One Nation, the Nationals and Labor want to blame the housing shortage on migration. They privatise TAFE and destroy the pipeline for tradespeople, and then they come in here and dog-whistle on migration. Labor and the coalition want to talk about a housing crisis.
Even in the answers that Labor gives to the inevitable racist questions that come from One Nation about migration—linking migration to a housing crisis and talking about record migration—they validate One Nation's racist attack on migration because they never challenge the attack on migration. Labor always comes in here say, 'Oh, we've got a housing crisis—we know that—and we're reducing net migration.' Well, I call rubbish to that, because the reason we've got a housing crisis is that Labor and the coalition refuse to build public housing.
The reason we've got a housing crisis is that Labor and the coalition think the answer to the housing crisis and young people having no homes is to give discounts and tax credits to the property industry, to try to manipulate the capital gains tax system and to reduce the home deposit to five per cent and balloon out housing prices. They will do everything they possibly can in the face of a housing crisis—and we know we've got a record housing crisis—except for what the Greens and young people have been calling for for years now, which is to build public houses, build public TAFE, train tradespeople, give people a home, invest in hospitals and transport, give people a future they can believe in, pass environmental laws that give young people a hope that their future will be protected, and reject the racist dog whistling from One Nation.
That's the answer—build public housing, build public infrastructure, build public institutions, train people in public TAFE, tackle the climate crisis, fight racism and put the racist rhetoric from One Nation in the bin, where it belongs.