Your Tax Dollars At Work, Fixing Problems Australians Face Everyday

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

Australians doing it tough were given another reminder yesterday of what they get in return for the more than $200 000 a year they pay Pauline Hanson to sit in the Senate and fight for them.

Rather than using the final sitting week to push for cost of living relief or any measure that might help the people who vote for her, in the hope she will shake up a system stacked against them, the Queensland senator opted once again for a self-indulgent stunt that offered nothing more than another round of second-hand embarrassment for the Coalition MPs.

The performance was billed as a stand on national security. Those watching from the public gallery said it looked closer to a primary school assembly where one kid refuses to take her hat off.

Staff inside Parliament confirmed the spectacle ate into time allocated for legislation with actual consequences for ordinary people. One staffer said the chamber was beginning to feel less like the nation’s upper house and more like a taxpayer subsidised amateur theatre.

In regional Queensland, voters who once saw her as an outsider willing to take on the political elite were left wondering how many more stunts they need to sit through before she delivers meaningful change. Many said they backed her to rattle cages, not to turn Parliament into a stage show every few months or cosy up to billionaires.

For now, taxpayers can only watch on as another day of Parliament is squandered on self indulgence. The bill, as always, is theirs to pay.

More to come.