Thousands of Australians took the opportunity to participate in citizen-led democracy on Reddit on Thursday February 23, engaging Senator Malcolm Roberts from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation with questions on a wide range of topics including Lidia Thorpe, housing, inflation, and tax reform during the Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.
Asked about Thorpe’s position on Indigenous sovereignty, Senator Roberts said: “When Senator Thorpe finally settles her position on what she wants, I will have something to review and comment.
“However, the push for treaty and sovereignty will do nothing to help the disadvantaged living in remote communities. These concepts of Aboriginal sovereignty and treaty are divisive concepts that will only lead to a split country running under different treatment based on the colour of your skin. That is the exact opposite of where we should be headed.”
Roberts also explained One Nation’s position on inflation and rising house prices: “On the supply side, there is no doubt zoning and planning approvals are too restrictive. Red and green tape makes it harder to increase housing supply and the huge amount of regulation in place doesn’t work because we still have housing estates being put on un-insurable floodplains.”
Criticising PM Anthony Albanese’s increase in immigration from 200,000 per year to a “huge” 300,000 per year, Senator Roberts outlined an alternative two-pronged strategy for making inroads into the housing affordability problem: “First, reduce immigration to reduce the demand on housing and perhaps allow for better consolidation in existing areas.
Secondly, instead of hollowing out regional areas and driving people to the cities, turn that around and encourage infrastructure and development generally in regional areas where land is cheaper and more readily available.”
On forcing multinationals to pay their fair share of tax, Roberts said: “Our interim tax policy is to tax multinationals on per unit of production. There will be no capital flight because our nation has the most lax policy on large foreign-owned companies due to legislation that Liberal PM Menzies introduced in 1953, and PRRT legislation that Labor PM Hawke introduced in the 1980s.”
Asked about opposition to full foreign ownership of land, Roberts said: “[The land] should be sold back to Australians, it’s not necessarily the case that the Government would need to be involved. Over time this should be gradually achieved, possibly through the gradual implementation of a 51%+ citizenship ownership requirement as other countries do.”
On the rise of China in the Indo-Pacific, Roberts said: “The most important place we need to fight China’s influence is at home first. It won’t matter if we’re friends with our neighbours if China already owns half the country we’re trying to protect by being friends with our neighbours.
The shift to wind and solar will make us critically vulnerable to China who owns more than 90% of the supply chain for that energy source. Our universities are leaking commercial innovation and even defence secrets back to China. We have much work to do here before we can properly reach out to our neighbours to shore them up.”
When asked if he felt the appeal of conservative politics in Australia was waning, Roberts replied: “I disagree that the appeal is waning. The major parties combined at the last election recorded the worst primary vote in modern history. I believe much of this desertion of the Liberal/Nationals is because they failed to adhere to conservative principles (see the $500 billion in money printing over COVID).
Sure, there are some on the extreme left as well but conservatism has the answers. As the blackouts start rolling through our grid many more will come to realise that.”
Asked about his greatest achievement as a senator, Roberts added: “On a specific issue it is stopping the CashBan bill that Labor and Liberal-Nationals passed through the lower house.
More broadly it is increasing accountability in the Senate and in Senate estimates through asking data-based questions that expose bureaucrats and politicians for misleading the parliament and the people.”
There were many other questions asked, and Roberts went into considerable detail about them.
The full AMA can be found on the r/AustralianPolitics subreddit, one of the largest and longest-running Australian political forums with over 225,000 members.
Contact subreddit moderators: https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAustralianPolitics
Disclaimer: The author does not necessarily agree or disagree with the views of One Nation. The contents above are purely for public interest, and each person should form their own views.
Craig Hill is a Brisbane-based Social Justice Campaigner, Writer, Teacher and Business Consultant. He has campaigned for social justice in Australia, promoted human rights in China and worked with the homeless in Honolulu. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Business, a Graduate Certificate in Education and a degree in Management. He is also the General Manager of The Australian Business and Leadership School.
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