Len Harris,
Senator for Queensland
First Speech - 11/8/1999Madam President, as a new member of this house, I thank the people
of Queensland for their courage in voting for Pauline Hanson's One Nation. This
seat was won by Heather Hill, who led One Nation's Senate ticket. A High Court
challenge and a controversial decision that Great Britain is a foreign power under
the terms of the Australian Constitution ruled Heather ineligible to take her
place in this chamber. I respect Heather and have no doubt that she would have
made a fine representative in the Senate for the people of Queensland. I
have been given an opportunity that I will not take lightly or for granted. I
am pleased that Heather with Bronwyn, Brett and Jane are working with me to achieve
the goals and objectives that have made Pauline Hanson's One Nation a new political
force. This change is long overdue in a country that has been governed for too
long by Tweedledee and Tweedledum. I wish to make a very special
thank you to my wife, Betty; to my children, Kent, Brendon and Dene and their
partners; and to my parents, Enid and Jack. To the team in North Queensland: thank
you for your support. We believe that truth will always prevail.
We are very conscious of the words of Arthur Schopenhauer: All truth passes through
three stages. First it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third,
it is accepted as self-evident. I am going to use this opportunity
to peel away the myths surrounding One Nation and present some facts; to explain
the platform of positive changes that drove me to stand up for my children and
grandchildren and future generations of Australians; and to present the positive
faces of those involved in this new development in Australia's political history. I
believe that a safe, secure and prosperous society depends on the integrity and
sanctity of the traditional family unit. I am appalled that approximately one
million children do not live with their fathers in Australia. During my trips
around Queensland, I have been inundated with pleas for help from non-custodial
parents who have been deprived of access to their children. Divorce is unfortunate
but possibly the only solution for some families. But we must remember that children
ideally should have a mother and a father. Denial of parental and grandparents'
contact with children I believe is synonymous with child abuse. Maintenance
is a necessary tool to ensure that parents do not abdicate their parental responsibilities.
But providers should not be forced into poverty and a position that restricts
their opportunity to develop a new family. We advocate that the Family Law Court
should be abolished and replaced with family tribunals. The current system is
too expensive and too adversarial, and children are used like pawns in a game
of chess. Family tribunals allow for consultation with no legal representation
where quick talking and well-paid lawyers can confuse the issue. Senior
Magistrate Stan Deers has accused some partners of using domestic violence orders
to enhance their opportunity to seek custody of their children, as stated in the
Courier-Mail on 5 July 1995. People who make vexatious or malicious domestic violence
orders should face the full force of the law and pay costs. The
current formula for determining child maintenance is unfair and unworkable and
needs to be scrapped. Non-custodial parents want to provide for their children,
but under the current system most are left in a life of poverty with no future
of having another family life and in a lot of cases unemployed because that is
the only way to survive. Suicide and murder have plagued many families. Members
of the parliament must work together to find fair solutions. The
disabled in our society are some of the most overlooked members of our community.
We recognise that many Australians have disabilities and benefit from and contribute
to living in the community, but there are others who require centre based care.
Both options require services with realistic staffing levels and adequate funding
as a priority. Aged care is not a social welfare burden; it
is a just entitlement. The current consumer price index based method of calculating
benefits does not reflect the cost of living of our pensioners. Self-funded retirees
have worked responsibly to provide for themselves in their later years only to
be faced with deeming on their investments. Deeming on their investments, savings
and transfer of assets should be abolished. Community transport services, home
help and support services are provided to ensure that the elderly can enjoy a
safe and comfortable lifestyle in their surroundings for as long as they desire.
It is time that we stopped expecting the aged and frail to erect bars on their
windows and live in a virtual prison whilst criminals are treated with kid gloves.
I commend the Deputy Prime Minister for adopting One Nation policy and recommending
a referendum on capital punishment. Madam President, I would
like to take this opportunity to state my position on a controversial subject
and correct some of the misunderstandings and untruths that have been propagated
by our political opponents. As a result of Pauline raising the issue of immigration,
it is pleasing to see that the major political parties have reassessed their policies.
Australia has benefited from immigration. However, there is no doubt that previous
government immigration, population policies and practices were implemented for
their votes and not for the wellbeing and future of our nation, as stated by Barry
Jones, the previous member for Lalor. The fact is that, until
very recently, the discussion of immigration was sternly discouraged because the
government and the opposition did not want to discuss it, along with many other
issues. The policy of immigration requires a process of balance. On one hand we
have concern for the migrant and on the other we have concern for the host country
and its people who will be supporting, accepting and providing a new home for
the migrant. Employment, hospitals, nursing homes and infrastructure must be addressed
before any future burden is carried by the taxpayers and all Australians. Our
policy of net zero immigration would result in approximately 30,000 new immigrations
each year. Our policy of not exceeding net zero immigration is because we believe
Australia is near her carrying capacity. A population policy must be the result
of unbiased scientific thinking and must not be highjacked by self-interested
pro-immigration elites, including big business who are all too frequently chasing
profits, not Australia's interests. Immigration mistakes are big mistakes; they
do not go away, they just continue to get more expensive for the Australian taxpayer. Quality
in the immigration debate is still lacking, particularly from some of our political
and media opponents. There are still many legitimate questions to be asked regarding
Australia's population and immigration policy, and I defend the rights of Australian
people to continue to discuss and determine these issues. Multiculturalism
should be killed stone dead. Immigration could have a negative impact on Australia.
The Labor Party was a haven for a growing band of family dynasties. Bill Hayden,
a former Governor-General and Leader of the Labor Party, made the statement that
endorses One Nation's principles. Australia is a multiracial country but multiculturalism
will destroy us as a nation and a cohesive society. Whatever our cultural background
may be we must consider ourselves to be Australians first and foremost. As one
migrant has stated to me, home is not where you are born but where you are prepared
to die. The Australian on 27 July 1999 carried a report from
the Social Policy Research Centre that states that almost one-third of Australians
feel they have lost control of their economic future and worry about losing their
jobs. The orthodox economic policies implemented by our governments have clearly
failed to improve the standard of living for the majority of Australian people. Pauline
Hanson's One Nation is strongly opposed to free trade as it currently operates.
Our citrus, lamb, pork, rice and sugar industries, to name a few, have found out
the hard way that free trade is a misnomer. We want fair trade, not free trade.
We also oppose the policies that have sent our manufacturing industries overseas,
along with thousands of Australian jobs. No country can remain wealthy without
a strong manufacturing and value adding industrial base. We are increasingly dependent
on foreign goods to satisfy basic demands, creating more social and economic problems.
The only way out of this mess is to re-industrialise this country. We have to
stop being the world's quarry pit and start transforming our natural resources
into finished products. It makes no sense to sell iron ore for a pittance and
buy back steel. It makes no sense to export woodchips and import paper. It makes
no sense to export silica sand and import fibre optics. Our rural industries need
support to transform their raw commodities to value added products. Steps must
be taken to protect our standard of living by increasing selective tariffs to
protect Australian jobs. We need to further encourage Australian
industries by introducing truth in labelling that will enable consumers to clearly
identify genuinely Australian owned and made products. Most Australians will buy
Australian made and owned products if they can find them on the grocery shelves.
Australia must not be seen as a tax haven for multinationals who pay little or
no tax at all, while small business and PAYE citizens carry the burden. If they
do not like it, they can leave and small business and Australian companies will
fill the void. Foreign ownership of our enterprises should
not exceed 49 per cent. Foreign ownership of our assets is unacceptably high.
We have signed 41 international tax agreements which give foreign owned companies
a competitive advantage over Australian companies. By virtue of paying little
or no tax they have a market advantage that enables them to out price and out
service those Australian companies and businesses which pay their taxes. The government
does not publish accurate and concise information about the level of foreign ownership
of our land, businesses, companies and natural resources. When Pauline Hanson
was a member of parliament even she could not access this information. What hope
does the general public have? Multinationals buy out their
competition and monopolise the markets. Examples of multinationals destroying
Australian owned companies are Coonagra and Boral. Not only have they bought out
their competitors and monopolised the market but government has financially assisted
one of these multinationals in their expansion, whilst their Queensland owned
competitor was thrown to the wolves and Queenslanders lost their jobs. We must
protect Australian industries and protect Australian jobs like the United States
protects theirs. National competition policy is a textbook
theory which has failed in practice. The Labor government must be held accountable
for the pain and suffering inflicted on the Australian people through its national
competition policy legislation. Proudly introduced and implemented by Mr Keating
and the Labor Party and supported by the Liberal and National parties, this legislation
has destroyed and continues to destroy the livelihoods of many in rural and regional
areas, especially is Queensland, which is the most decentralised state in Australia. Australians
are demoralised at having a government and its agencies fail to defend our country's
interests. The devastation of the lamb, pork and rice industries
and the government's recent decision to allow the importation of salmon, with
its potential to irreversibly damage the environment and industry, are unforgivable.
The government are acting against the interests of those people who voted them
in as their representatives to protect their rights and interests. Are milk, bread,
electricity or local government rates any cheaper as a result of the national
competition policy? A mixture of market forces and government controls in certain
circumstances can operate for the overall public benefit. Although the economic
purists hate to admit it, this mixture of market forces and government intervention
is necessary to preserve an adequate level of competition and consumer choice.
This mixture preserves the economic opportunities for the whole community, not
just the big end of town. The main problem with the national
competition policy has been its overzealous implementation with little or no regard
to the anti-competitive nature of unregulated markets and with little or no regard
to the very real social costs of national competition policy. Pauline Hanson's
One Nation supports a mixed economy that has two sorts of government controls:
controls on big business that prevent oligopolies and outright monopolies forming,
and measures that support small and medium size business to compete with big business.
This counterbalances advantages enjoyed by the multinationals and big business,
which include superior purchasing power, taxation advantages and economies of
scale. This helps to ensure that the elusive level playing field can be achieved.
The economic cost to consumers of protecting manufacturing industry is justified
by the social benefits, more Australian jobs and less Australian debt. Australia
is resource rich. We should be leading world technology, not selling our intellectual
resources overseas where multinational companies can exploit them with minimal
benefits for Australians. The protection of our workers' entitlements
is very important, and I am pleased to see that the government and the opposition
are now taking this matter seriously. However, it was not until Pauline Hanson
released her policy to protect workers' entitlements in 1998 that Labor or the
coalition displayed an enthusiasm to fix this most serious problem. Inland
tourism is an industry with fantastic potential to be developed. For too long
Australian promotions have concentrated on the eastern seaboard. The Australian
outback is beautiful, and I will be doing my best to ensure that we promote the
western side of the Great Divide to tourists and overseas visitors as well as
the eastern seaboard. Small businesses are doing it tough for
a variety of reasons, but our unfair dismissal laws are adding to the problem.
Unfair dismissal legislation as it presently stands is a disincentive to increasing
small business employment, and I would like to work with the government to help
our small business operators achieve their full potential. There
is a place for unions in Australia to protect the workers' rights. Enterprise
bargaining has the potential to take away hard fought rights of workers. We do
not support compulsory unionism, as it is an infringement of freedom of choice
and freedom of association and encourages complacency on the part of the unions.
We do not approve of the practice of channelling money from membership fees to
political parties without the authorisation of the member. Australians
have a long and for the most part successful relationship with firearms, and I
do not believe that imposing national gun laws was the correct action to deal
with an increasingly violent, divided and amoral society. We believe that decent,
law-abiding citizens should have reasonable access to firearms for legitimate
reasons. I have always greatly admired Gandhi, and I believe
his thoughts to conclude my maiden speech are fitting. I ask members of the chamber
to reflect on these words: The things that will destroy us
are politicians without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without
work, knowledge without character, science without humanity and business without
morality. Madam President, with humility, diligence and the
grace of God, I, Leonard William Harris, pledge to serve each individual Australian,
so help me God. I swear by the Australian Cross to stand truly by each Australian
and fight to defend our rights and liberties. 
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