MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (15:49): Fuel is spiking over $3 a litre in many towns. Hundreds of service stations have run dry, empty. The entire country might run out of fuel if the Strait of Hormuz isn't opened up soon.
And what's the Albanese Labor government's priority? They're out taking a victory lap on the new free trade agreement with the European Union—a free trade agreement that we haven't seen. Australians are still in the dark as to what we've signed up for.
The draft agreement is still being kept secret by Labor, the least transparent government in our history. One Nation supports fair trade that is in Australians' interest, not free trade for the sake of globalism. Australians have been sold out by the Labor government—again.
The EU FTA makes a binding commitment to implement obligations under the Paris Agreement, and no-one has been allowed to read the fine print. The Paris Agreement was sold to Australians as a responsible step toward a cleaner future. But what it has meant in practice is something very different: higher costs, constrained industries, and a deliberate reaming of Australia's economic strengths.
Australia is a resource-rich nation. Yet, under the obligations of the UN Paris Agreement, we've handed over our independence. Net zero has driven up electricity prices, discouraged investment in reliable baseload power and placed enormous pressure on business, mining, manufacturing and agriculture.
While other major emitters continue to expand their output, Australia has been pushed into an economic disaster. And let's be clear. The European Union is not a democratic body.
What we can see from this agreement is that our farmers are getting a raw deal. They are already hurting, with the cost of diesel and fertiliser tripling—and that's if they can get it. The National Farmers' Federation made it crystal clear: this deal is extremely disappointing.
The deal throws open the Australian market to heavily subsidised European agriculture while keeping our farmers locked behind quotas and restrictions. This is not free trade. This is global control dressed up as diplomacy Nowhere is the betrayal clearer than in the dairy industry.
Ben Bennett has warned that this deal risks unleashing a 'tsunami of cheese' into Australia as tariffs are stripped away. Our farmers are already struggling and are now expected to compete with Europe's massive subsidised dairy industry flooding our shelves. As Bennett has said, this kind of agreement is neither free nor fair for the Australian dairy industry.
The imbalance is staggering. Europe exports tens of thousands of tonnes of subsidised dairy into Australia every year, while we send a fraction of it back. Yet this government has agreed to further open our market, with little in return.
That's not negotiation; it's surrender. This deal sends a dangerous message that Australian farmers are expendable. Let's have a look at what else Labor says they've secured in the deal.
Keep in mind that we don't really know what we're getting, and we don't know what Australia is giving up, because the government hasn't released the text of the agreement. Australia will introduce a new luxury car tax category, with an increased threshold of $120,000 for electric vehicles. That means we're going to subsidise electric vehicles over normal cars.
And watch out for the road user tax. Tariffs will be eliminated on renewable energy and battery products—more net-zero handouts at taxpayers' expense. The agreement reportedly makes commitments on climate change, gender equality and women's economic empowerment.
I guess we won't be getting the 'Office for Men', then! Media reporting says there will be major changes for Australians migrating to the European Union, but what Australia will have to accept in return has been kept secret. Will these be reciprocal rights?
Will Australia have to accept another wave of migration from the European Union's 450 million people under this deal? No one knows, and Labor won't rule it out. Any change to migration to Australia on top of our current mass migration would be destructive.
There's no transparency, no accountability, just dictators and dodgy backroom deals. In the middle of a crisis where fuel bowsers might run dry, it speaks volumes about this Labor Party's priorities. We must take back control of our country.
One Nation will keep fighting for our farmers and for our families that Labor has long forgotten.