By One Nation Leader Senator Pauline Hanson
There was an excellent story by James Morrow in the Herald Sun this week which covered my long-held position on port leases and so-called "belt road arrangements" with overseas governments and corporations that don't have Australia's best interest at heart.
You can read the full story here:
https://www.heraldsun.com.au
These are issues I’ve been talking about for the last 20 years and now a majority of Australians are realising that what I’ve been saying has real relevance for our nation.
In the current strategic and economic climate, the issue of national sovereignty has to be front and centre in the government’s thinking.
Port leases and belt and road arrangements with overseas governments and corporations are the tip of the iceberg. They’re against our national interest and in the interest of the Chinese Government - our national and state governments have a lot to answer for.
Our governments – state and federal – have been asleep at the strategic wheel. They’ve taken a classic “it’ll be right” approach and now their worst nightmares are looming just over the horizon.
They’ve been dazzled by the money and the promises of everlasting international friendship when they should have been focused on what’s best for Australia.
If we don’t have Australian sovereign interest underpinning one hundred percent of our national and international agreements then we make ourselves vulnerable economically, socially and from a defence perspective.
It’s too late when a threat emerges to try and undo a huge web of damaging agreements.
Both sides of politics are experts at appearing to act when in fact it’s often about window dressing.
The Prime Minister can throw a few hundred million at beefing up defence facilities, but we all know the defence bureaucracy is a nightmare and moves at glacial speed.
Being in debt, either contractually or in real terms to a foreign power that sees you as a soft target, is madness. Selling off your assets, giving control or access over roads, rail, ports, transport, off-shore resources, technology, universities and government itself through influence peddling means we might as well turn the lights off and hand over the keys.
We’re vulnerable on multiple fronts right now and you can bet our enemies are taking advantage of that. Covid has caused national emergencies all over the world. It’s made us dig into the Treasury like never before; it’s put societies in a state of dislocation, and it’s led to many nations taking their eye off regional and global strategic defence threats.
While all that’s going on the CCP has weaponised trade knowing it’s further weakening our economy – that’s not the actions of a friend it’s the actions of someone that’s quite happy to bring us to our knees while they continue to consolidate around us.
The government’s housecleaning on this should not just be aimed at the Chinese government. We have commercial arrangements in place with allies that are one-sided and costing us hundreds of millions a year – our offshore oil and gas industry is a perfect example where our loss is other nations’ gain.
