The following is an excerpt from Senator Sean Bell’s maiden speech.
I entered the Senate by way of a casual vacancy, and I am fully aware of what that means. I was not elected by name on a ballot paper, but I was elected on principle – on a platform of policy and belief, carried by the party I represent.
That party is Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. And I am proud to be here under that banner.
Like many One Nation members and supporters, I never thought I would be in politics. I did not grow up dreaming of holding elected office. I didn’t follow the usual path into this place.
The truth is, I haven’t always applied myself the way I should have. I didn’t make the most of the opportunities my parents gave me. I didn’t honour the sacrifices they made the way I should have. I dropped out of university. I wasted time. I didn’t take things seriously when I should’ve.
I lost my job working shifts at a video store after technology moved on and video stores across the country disappeared almost overnight. I was out of work. No degree. No trade. No backup plan.
So, I took work in catering, I worked mowing lawns, I eventually signed on with a labour hire company and for the next four years, I worked unloading shipping containers by hand at factories and warehouses, stacking pallets, wrapping them up, sometimes unloading 20-foot containers, sometimes 40-foot containers.
It was four years of waking up at 3:30 in the morning, working hard, and reflecting on the choices I’d made and what I wanted to do with my life. And I can tell you this: I learned more about what matters in those four years than I ever did at university.
Eventually, while working that job, I went back to study part-time. Picked up a few qualifications. Got a chance to work as a claims assessor, contracting, working for myself, doing what I could to stay afloat.
But then something happened that changed my life.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a snap double dissolution election. Pauline Hanson returned to Parliament. One Nation won four Senate seats. And the very next day, I walked into the One Nation head office and handed in my resume. I met Senator Roberts that day, as they were still counting votes, to see if he would be joining Senator Hanson in Parliament.
I didn’t hear anything for a few months and then one day, I got a phone call from Senator Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby who has, for better or worse, had to put up with me ever since. It was a phone call that changed my life. The next day I met Senator Pauline Hanson. That afternoon I was offered a job. And for the last nine years, I’ve had the honour of working for Senator Hanson and One Nation – in this place, and across the country, fighting for people of Australia and for the future of this great nation.
To anyone watching today, who’s doing it tough, who’s lost their job, who’s failed an exam, who feels like they’ve missed their shot, I want you to know something: it’s never too late to turn things around. You can get knocked down. You can make mistakes. But with hard work, a bit of luck, and a willingness to keep going, you can find your way.
I never imagined I’d be standing here in the Australian Senate. But I kept showing up. I kept working. I took the chance when it came. If I can do it. So can you.
Now I want to take a moment to properly acknowledge Senator Hanson, the founder of the party I represent, my greatest mentor who should be sitting here today, but were it not for others in this place deciding that the rules that apply to others – the conventions on tabling legislation, the conventions on allowing others to speak and debate and be heard – apply to everyone but her.
Some may think by shutting her down, by banning her, by abusing her, that they have won some victory, but the truth is you have won nothing and only made Senator Hanson stronger and that’s hard to do because she is already one of the strongest women I know.
No, you have failed, because despite the best efforts of the political establishment to remove Pauline Hanson from this place – be it through the legal system, jailing her, dirty political tricks, by banning her from taking her rightful place in this Chamber – Senator Hanson is still here, because the people chose her.
She is still here, that is still her seat, and it remains her seat, by the will of the people, not by the whims of the Senate.
She is still here and with every year the number of people in this place, and around the country, standing with her, is growing.
From her first speech in the House of Representatives in 1996, to her near decades of service in this very chamber, she has never backed down. Not once. And certainly not this week.
And for her courage she has faced more abuse, more slander and more misrepresentation than any politician in living memory. And through it all, she has continued to speak up, clearly, directly, and with unmatched bravery, for the people this place so often forgets.
And the longer the years go on, the more Australians can see she was right all along.
Right on immigration.
Right on energy.
Right on national security.
Right on national sovereignty.
Right on foreign ownership.
Right on protecting the freedoms of this nation.
Her contribution to this nation dwarfs nearly all others. Her legacy will endure through generations. Because when Senator Hanson speaks, she speaks for the forgotten people of this country – the workers, the farmers, the small business owners, the pensioners, the mums and dads who play by the rules and just want a fair go. She has given them not just a voice, but the courage to use it.
And that is what she has taught me to do. And that’s what I’m doing here today. Australia is the greatest country on Earth. And it is home to the greatest people on earth. And Australians, we don’t ask for much, just a fair go, a country that works, and leaders that put the people first
But right across this nation, people are angry. And they have every right to be. Not because they hate Australia, but because they love it. And they see it slipping away.
They see their towns and suburbs transformed without ever being asked.
They see house prices and rents explode while wages stay flat.
They see power bills soar while our coal and gas are sent overseas.
They see crime rising and standards falling.
They see their values mocked, their history trashed, and their kids taught to be ashamed of who they are.
They see a country that once worked, now struggling under the weight of bad policy, weak leadership, and politicians and political parties who seem to serve the interests of everyone except the Australian people.
They see the major parties bow to corporate interests, foreign investors, globalist think tanks, the United Nations and the Woke agenda, while ordinary Australians are lectured, insulted, and then told to shut up.
Well, we will not shut up. And One Nation will continue to give the people a voice.
I stand here as a proud Australian who loves his country.
I believe this country belongs to the people who built it, who defend it, and who call it home. Our government’s first duty is to them.
Not to foreign nations.
Not to the United Nations.
Not to left-wing radicals, activist judges, or unelected bureaucrats pushing an imperialistic progressive political agenda
To the Australian people. Full stop.
I believe in strong families, secure borders, local jobs, personal responsibility, and the rule of law.
I believe in the Anglo-Celtic values that built this country, and the Christian bedrock upon which so much of what is great about this nation stands, and I will fight to protect these institutions from the radical ideologies and the globalist forces that threaten to tear them down.
And much of what has made this nation great, has been torn down. Which is why I believe we need to not only defend and but restore these things which made our nation great, that have been neglected and undermined.
We must restore what drove our standard of living, cheap, reliable Australian energy.
We must restore control of our nation’s borders, because our immigration and investment policies, which were once about building a nation, have become a betrayal driven by big business, global pressure, and the politics of greed, and cowardice.
We must restore our national identity, to one grounded in a shared culture, a proud history, and an Australian way of life.
These pillars matter, because if they crumble and fall, the nation falls with them.
If we do not act to defend our borders, to end mass immigration, to put our people first, then Australia is lost.
And we must act urgently. Because Australia is at risk of being swamped by mass immigration. Because under this Albanese Labor government we have been subjected to the most reckless and carless immigration experiment in our nation’s history.
And the reason this has been allowed to happen is because others in this place do not truly see Australia as a sovereign nation.
They see nothing special or unique – nothing worth preserving. Well, I do.
Because a nation is not an economic market. It is not a workforce. It is not a population that is too old that needs to be replaced. It is not a population target dreamed up by bureaucrats or bankers that we need to hit.
A nation is a people, bound together by a shared history, a shared culture, and a shared way of life.
It is a contract between the living, the dead, and those yet to be born.
A nation is a gift we inherit from our ancestors, and it is our duty to protect and preserve it for those who come after us.
And yet for years now, that contract has been torn up.
Under this government over one million people have been brought into this country in the middle of a housing crisis, an energy crisis, and a cost-of-living crisis.
The result?
Skyrocketing rents.
Crumbling services.
Overloaded infrastructure.
And neighbourhoods that change beyond recognition in just a few short years.
This isn’t immigration policy; it is a deliberate betrayal.
A betrayal of Aussie families, mums and dads, who are being pushed aside in their own country.
Be it through mass immigration or weak laws on foreign investment, a young mum and dad with two kids shouldn’t have to compete with every millionaire from China, India, or the United States, or compete with global investment firms, just to buy a home in suburban Sydney.
But that is what is happening around the country every day because so many politicians in the place believe Australia should have no borders, that anyone can come here, in any numbers, anyone can buy a home here, whether they live here or not. This is a disgrace.
Housing in this country should be for Australians trying to build a life and raise their families.
Because this is our home, this is not some abstract global marketplace, this is our home. This nation is our home, for our people, the people of Australia.
And to act otherwise is a betrayal. And the Australian people have never asked for or approved of this betrayal.
They didn’t ask for their suburbs to be reshaped.
They didn’t ask for their kids to be priced out of the housing market.
They didn’t ask for their hospitals and schools to be pushed to breaking point.
Yet it’s happening anyway, because the political parties in the place, for their own reasons, for their own special interests, have decided they will not listen to the people of Australia.
But I am proud to say One Nation is listening.
And that is why we will not apologise for putting Australians first.
We will not apologise for demanding illegals are deported and government make the necessary cuts to immigration.
We will not apologise for defending our borders, our values, and our way of life.
Because this is our duty to the people of Australia and our future generation.
This is the responsibility I have to my daughter. To protect and defend the Australia I have inherited, that she has inherited, before the Australia that was gifted to us by our ancestors is gone forever.
No nation can survive without defending its borders. Without a shared language, a shared culture, and a sense of who it is.
We are not just an economy. We are not just a labour pool.
We are a people, with roots, with loyalties, with an Australian way of life worth defending.
If we lose that, we lose the nation itself.
And I will fight, with everything I have, to make sure that such a tragedy never comes to pass.
And to be clear, this is not the only threat posed to the future of this nation.
Another is the steady, deliberate failure to manage our energy system, a failure that goes far beyond net zero. Australia should have the cheapest, most reliable energy in the world. We are blessed with abundant natural resources, coal, gas, uranium, the lot.
We should be a powerhouse. But instead, we are becoming powerless.
Because for years, governments of both stripes have torn down what worked and replaced it with nothing but slogans, subsidies, foreign-made solar panels and wind turbines contaminated with asbestos.
And Net Zero is the excuse being used to cover it up.
Let us be clear, Net zero is not a climate policy, it’s an economic wrecking ball. And it is being swung, with force, at the heart of our nation’s prosperity. Families who once had steady jobs, affordable power, and a sense of security now face the exact opposite:
- Power bills are soaring.
- Manufacturing is being shut down. Industry that is the backbone of our economy such as Tomago Aluminium is on the brink.
- Coal mining jobs, that have sustained regions like the Hunter, and helped fuel our future, are being sacrificed and thrown away for nothing.
- Farmers in regions like New England, are being strangled by green tape, torn apart by industrial wind and solar projects, and pushed off their land to make way for foreign-owned energy infrastructure, to fuel an obsession.
- Regional towns are being gutted, losing jobs, losing people, losing hope.
- And the lights are flickering on a power grid that used to be the envy of the world.
Why? Because both major parties surrendered to a fantasy. Because Labor pushes it, and the Liberals pretend to oppose it, while signing up to the exact same targets and treaties and supporting the exact same policies and projects that are causing the damage and the decline.
Australians are being told to sacrifice everything for Net Zero, and they’re getting nothing in return.
Just more pain.
In New South Wales, we once had some of the cheapest, most reliable energy in the world. Why? Because we used our own coal and gas, and we believed in self-reliance. Now those same industries are under attack, while we are told to rely on Chinese-made solar panels and foreign supply chains. It’s national self-harm, and it must end.
I believe in cheap, reliable energy, not just because it is good economics, I believe it’s a moral obligation. I believe that restoring our energy system and delivering cheap energy to the people of Australia is the greatest moral challenge of our time.
Because we must decide, what do we value more, destructive international treaties like the Paris Agreement that say we must sacrifice our nation’s prosperity so other nations may profit, or the future and well-being of our own children. Because energy it is the single greatest input into our economy that lifts living standards, drives wages, and creates real jobs. Because nothing will rebuild this nation faster than affordable power in the hands of its own people.
That’s the path to a stronger Australia. And that’s the fight One Nation is here to lead. But it is not the only fight we will lead, we must also fight to defend what it means to be Australian, because our culture and national identity are also under siege.
Children are taught to feel ashamed of our history.
They are taught that the statues of great men and women, who helped build this country should be torn down.
They are taught our national flag can be burned.
And they are taught to hate Australia day, our national day, a day that has been hijacked by extremists to promote their agenda of hatred and division.
This must stop.
Australia is the most generous, free, and fair-minded nation on Earth.
We do not need to rewrite our past to build a better future.
We need to honour the legacy of our ancestors. That is what we should be teaching our children.
Because that is how we build a better future for our children.
And that legacy includes the Indigenous Australians, and it includes the British settlers who founded our institutions and brought our democratic traditions, and it includes generations of Australians, from all backgrounds, who worked, served, sacrificed and made this nation what it is.
We must teach our children to be proud of their country, not ashamed of it.
Because Australians should be proud of their country. That pride should be passed on, not torn down. Our children should be raised to honour what came before them, the soldiers who fought, the values that built the nation, and the culture that holds it all together. We’re not here to apologise for Australia, we’re here to defend it, preserve it, and teach the next generation to do the same.
And if others won’t do it, One Nation will.
Because we are a nation, with an identity, with roots, with a way of life that must be protected. Because what’s the point of bringing down the cost of living, if the life you’re left with isn’t worth living?
