MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (16:59): I thank Senator McKim for this motion. The Greens have finally shown their true colours: 'Let's nationalise essential services.' From their website, those would include power, water, telecommunications, education, transport, health care and labs, which are industries that collectively hold $3 trillion in assets. No government could afford to pay just compensation at that price, which section 51 of our Constitution requires.
Any attempt to nationalise these industries will fail on that basis. Greens party policy calls for a national chain of government owned supermarkets, so perhaps add a few hundred billion dollars more for those. Actually, let me pause and focus on a government owned supermarket in the hands of the Greens for a moment.
What would it look like? No plastic packaging, of course—former senator Whish-Wilson's contribution—in fact, very little packaging at all. Customers would need to bring their own bags and scoop out their purchases, just like in The Handmaid's Tale.
When a new shipment arrives, Aboriginal Australians would shop first, then migrants with brown skin—Senator Faruqi's description, not mine—then gay and bi folk, then men dressed as women, followed by actual women, and then straight white men last, if anything is left. Brown onions are available; white onions, not so much. Staff can be organised by hair colour: green hair in produce; blue hair in cleaning goods, just like toilet ducks; and red hair in hot food.
Pricing is based on genetics. Please share your Ancestry DNA results in order for us to decide how much loading you will be charged for your white privilege. Staff dress is strictly pants and shirts for the women and skirts and blouses for the men.
The Greens have of course built their supermarkets without walls, so the checkouts aren't very busy. Following World Economic Forum guidelines, meat is restricted to one lamb chop per week or one cockroach per week, and shopping trips are limited to one visit per person per week. Senator McKim interjecting— Senator ROBERTS: I'm glad the Greens can see the sense of humour.
The bags of coal on display are empty and make fart noises when you touch them. Stores are now only open every Friday morning because staffing has been affected by the Greens' four-day working week and working from home, plus leave for maternity, paternity, sickness, bereavement, bad periods, stress, gender reassignment, domestic violence, study, union meetings and, of course, annual leave from having leave.
I'm pretty sure I missed a few there! The Greens' economic justice policy calls for the nationalisation of all natural monopolies and essential public services, which reflects the wording in Senator McKim's motion. Natural monopolies include water, rail, roads, sewerage and electricity, so I'm really not exaggerating my comments here at all.
To be conducted under government ownership is property development and housing—but not all of it, since paying for $11 trillion in real estate might tire out their magic money fairy. In other words, this motion is a Greens wet dream—total power and control in the hands of a government that will then make decisions based on victimhood and feelings. If this sounds like I'm having a lend, I'm having no more of a lend than the Greens and Minister Bowen have been taking at the taxpayer's expense in the name of saving the world from the sky god of warming.
The government's attempt to effectively nationalise the power market to promote so-called renewables has resulted in a bill of hundreds of billions of dollars. It has shown the sheer incompetence of government when asked to perform tasks which are best left to the private sector. Let's be clear.
One Nation is not opposed to government-private partnerships which are part of our energy policy. We believe, though, that some infrastructure, including rail, should be publicly owned. Banking must have a government owned bank to provide a fair go for everyday Australians, which our banks stopped doing years ago.
Senator McKim interjecting— Senator ROBERTS: Just one out of others. The real reason for the motion is simple: the Liberals moved to the left, and the Nationals followed them. Labor moved further to the left, and the Greens move so far left they're sitting in totalitarian territory.
One Nation opposes this motion. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Neill ): Before I call Senator Shoebridge, I've counted three terms about body parts and body motions already in this debate. I remind senators to think carefully about the language choices they make that bring respect and order to the Senate rather than descend into inappropriate language that I think is less than satisfactory for this place.
I look forward to your contribution, Senator Shoebridge.