Interview courtesy of Radio 2CC
All right. Time to catch up with One Nation leader, Senator Pauline Hanson. Good morning, Pauline.
Good morning, Stephen.
Now, the Victorian state election just took place this last weekend in Victoria. You look your party looks like it’s about to get its first upper house seat.
Well it’s looking positive, Stephen put it that way so I won’t count the chickens before they had been to too many elections like that. So anyway, sorry about my boys. It look, it looks very positive, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed and it’d be great to have representation for the first time ever in South Australia. So that means this year in South Australia we’ve got a seat up in South Australia, in the Upper House, we’ve got the New South Wales state elections that are happening in March. So hopefully if we can pick up an extra seat or two there in the Upper House, it’d be great.
Pauline, were you surprised by the result of the Victorian election
Not really. from what I’m hearing. Daniel Andrews people just put him back in. I blame the Libs. I think putting Matthew Guy back up again, considering he lost to Daniel Andrews last time around and they put the same leader up again, I think that was their big mistake And he didn’t cut it last time and he certainly didn’t cut it this time. So, you know, blame the libs.
I think that’s yeah, I think that’s a fair call too. Whereas the Nationals seem to stand for something and they pick up a few votes, including at a federal level where they’ve, come out and actually made a statement opposing this Indigenous voice to Parliament Do you expect that the Libs will follow suit soon?
I don’t know. Let’s just hold their cards close to their chest. I think they should actually make it known they’re waiting for some more information to give them out about it. Regardless of the information, the whole principle of the whole matter is just divisive. I think it’s racist to actually set up a separate, you know advisory group or another parliamentary arm to the parliament. I think it’s wrong in itself for only 3% of the population and that in itself is should be a big no.
Absolutely. Now David Pocock has finally rolled over and is letting the Government’s industrial relations bill go through Parliament. He was one of the few people that said, no, this is being rushed, there’s no hurry, but yet it’s going through anyway.
Stephen, I’ve spoke to him before. He’s out of his depth. You know, when we put through the ABCC bills, which they’re wanting to pull out of there in the IR bill, you know, just disband it and get rid of it. Yeah The first time when it came around, Malcolm and I, because we had the shared balance of power in the Senate, we spent months going through with businesses, unions, the government. We actually improved their bill on this to make sure we got it right. He has not you can’t tell me he’s had the time to look at all the legislation because he’s got the deciding vote in the Senate, which he actually has to go through all the legislation and shut down debate on the climate change, 43% net zero. He shut down debate on that. He said this is not enough time to be rushed through. Last week we had a meeting with the small crossbench, not the Greens. We agreed that we would hold out for a bill which this is what businesses want so they have more consultation can go on to understand the bill and his. He just back-pedalled on that. So his word means absolutely nothing to me. And Jacqui Lambie is going to put up some amendments to the bill. I said split it and different amendments the ABCC and about the enterprise bargaining right across the board and we’re going to put that up and see what happens with that. But this is so wrong. Like I said, David is completely out of his depth. I think you’re right.
I interviewed him yesterday afternoon that Dave just rolls over. I interviewed him yesterday afternoon. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t across the detail. He keeps saying that this bill is going to get wages moving. But, well, in fairness to David Pocock, not even the government can explain how it’s going to do that.
Look, he doesn’t understand. You can go out and scream that you want and increase wages. The whole thing about wages is you’ve got to have the businesses able to afford it. What the government should be doing is working with state governments to actually reduce the payroll tax. If you want to get higher wages, you have to put more pressure on businesses that are going to have to pay more in payroll tax. So you haven’t thought through. That’s the important part about it. And I’ve been on onto them about payroll tax, which is unfair tax that’s put on to businesses. It won’t get wages moving. People are screaming for good workers. They’re paying them above the award wages now. And so why are you putting more pressure on it? You’re going to have businesses shut down. Why should you force a fish and chip shop, which was in their report, to actually come across and give the same benefits as anyone else? If you want an increase in wages, go back to the Fair Work Commission Increased in the state and federal ward. Start with that.
Yeah, well, I mean that is one of the amendments that they are going to streamline the award process though. I mean, I suppose that’s one of the positives that come out of it.
Well, it’s in a stream that lines the award process. You can’t put pressure on businesses like the mining sector Okay. The mining sector actually brings in billions of dollars in royalties and taxes that they pay in some of the mines like Roy Hill and Gina Rinehart, they pay 7% above the award wage plus all the benefits they get with it. Why are we tying up the mining industry in this as well? So if you had a mine on the East Coast, they’re going to be dragged in the same enterprise bargaining. That’s someone on the West Coast. This is the stupidity about it. They say like mine businesses, because you work in the same shopping centre, you are business the same shopping centre. What is you like mine businesses? It can’t work that way and you shouldn’t be forcing businesses to say what you should be paying your staff or enterprise bargaining. It’s not just not about the wages that you’re getting. It’s all the plus, This is nothing but a drive by the unions to force more people to join the union.
Exactly. And I think that’s the important point here, is it’s being driven by the unions that represent, you know, if even if you take the public sector into account, less than 15% of workers, 10%, if you only look at the private sector, we’re basically letting the tail wag the dog.
Exactly right. I’m not against unions and of course they’ve got to be there for the worker. But if the Government wants to get the country moving and it can’t the economy going, then pull in their bloody spending. The waste is spending. All these bureaucrats, all these bloody public servants, they keep putting on more and more of them. Put your money into infrastructure projects. It’s going to give a return on our assets and instead of waste the money and giving billions of dollars to overseas in climate change and the islands and everywhere, they’re giving money away to, you know, start spending on infrastructure projects in Australia which will get the economy going.
Yep.
Too much like common sense they. Pauline, really good to talk to you this morning. All right, thanks. Steve Bella, Pauline Hanson, One Nation leader. Let’s have a quick look at sport with Bradley.
