One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has blasted proposals for Australians to pay a weekly rent to Indigenous groups based on their ancestral claims to the land

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has blasted a movement calling for Australians to pay a weekly rent to Indigenous groups based on their ancestral claims to the land.

She branded the movement – backed by First Nations senator Lidia Thorpe – as an ‘outrageous’ money grab based on greed and ‘racist identity victim politics’.

In a blistering attack in Parliament, senator Hanson savaged the ‘Pay The Rent’ movement supported by senator Thorpe and feminist writer Clementine Ford.

‘The idea that Australians should pay rent for living in their own country is offensive,’ she said in a speech to the Senate on Monday.

‘It’s based on the idea that only Aborigines own Australia. They don’t. Australia belongs to all Australians.’

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has blasted proposals for Australians to pay a weekly rent to Indigenous groups based on their ancestral claims to the land

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has blasted proposals for Australians to pay a weekly rent to Indigenous groups based on their ancestral claims to the land

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has blasted proposals for Australians to pay a weekly rent to Indigenous groups based on their ancestral claims to the land

Senator branded the plan - backed by First Nations senator Lidia Thorpe (pictured) - as an 'outrageous' money grab based on greed and 'racist identity victim politics'

Senator branded the plan - backed by First Nations senator Lidia Thorpe (pictured) - as an 'outrageous' money grab based on greed and 'racist identity victim politics'

Senator branded the plan – backed by First Nations senator Lidia Thorpe (pictured) – as an ‘outrageous’ money grab based on greed and ‘racist identity victim politics’

She insisted that anyone born in Australia has equal claim to the ownership of the country, regardless of any Indigenous heritage.

‘We have all contributed to this country and we all share in its achievements, failures, resources, disasters, virtues, values and shortcomings,’ she said.

‘The only good thing about the race-based rent idea is that the activists who want it reveal their true motivation.

It’s not about ‘justice’ or ‘redress’. It’s just about money – other people’s money. It’s just about their greed.

‘If this mob succeed in their bid for a race-based Voice to Parliament, it’s only a matter of time before this idea is on the political agenda.

‘It’s only a matter of time before non-aboriginal Australians are forced to pay yet more tax – a race-based rent tax.’

She claimed that system would be abused and the money diverted away from those most in need. 

‘As usual, the Aboriginal industry will keep all the money and truly disadvantaged Aborigines in remote communities will continue to suffer poverty, unemployment and crime,’ she said.

‘One Nation calls on all sensible Australians to reject this discrimination.

‘We urge the government to audit the Aboriginal industry, and to finally act to fix the real problems in Aboriginal communities.’

The ‘Pay the Rent’ model movement allows homeowners to pay a percentage of their income to a body led by Aboriginal elders without any government oversight.

One per cent of weekly wages is the level suggested by Robbie Thorpe, a veteran Aboriginal rights activist from Melbourne who ran a similar scheme in Fitzroy in the 1990s.

The 'Pay the Rent' model proposes homeowners would pay a percentage of their income to a body led by Aboriginal elders without any government oversight

The 'Pay the Rent' model proposes homeowners would pay a percentage of their income to a body led by Aboriginal elders without any government oversight

The ‘Pay the Rent’ model proposes homeowners would pay a percentage of their income to a body led by Aboriginal elders without any government oversight

Luke Currie-Richardson says the 'Pay the Rent' would work as a type of land tax, based only on those Australians who own property paying rent to the traditional owners of that land

Luke Currie-Richardson says the 'Pay the Rent' would work as a type of land tax, based only on those Australians who own property paying rent to the traditional owners of that land

Luke Currie-Richardson says the ‘Pay the Rent’ would work as a type of land tax, based only on those Australians who own property paying rent to the traditional owners of that land

Under the suggested one per cent – with the median Australian employee’s earnings of $1,250 per week – it would cost each Aussie around $12.50 a week, or around $650 a week.

Mr Thorpe aaid the rent scheme is ‘a rational, reasonable, responsible means of reconciling 200 years of unchecked genocide, as far as I’m concerned’. 

Proponents say it could then be extended to all users of the land, with people holding weddings or organising concerts also encouraged to hand over money.

On the eve of Australia Day, senator Thorpe said: ‘It assists sovereign grassroots fight the many campaigns and struggles we face everyday.

‘Pay the rent from grassroots for grassroots. No strings attached to government agenda. ‘

Author Clementine Ford added: ‘We need to stop paying lip service to decolonisation and start paying the rent to the First Nations people.’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted senator Thorpe for reaction to senator Hanson’s comments. 

WHY SOME ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS WANT YOU TO ‘PAY THE RENT’ 

Source: paytherent.net.au 

Australia is founded on land that was stolen from Indigenous people. The wealth that has been generated by that theft is disproportionately distributed.

All people who live here today, or who have lived here in the past, have not benefited equally from the continuing dispossession of Indigenous people. 

Indeed, many are deliberately and profoundly marginalised from power and the spoils of colonialism. However, some uncomfortable facts remain:

Every day, people consume food grown on Indigenous land or harvested from Indigenous seas; they drink water that flows across or under Indigenous land.

Every day, people who are not Indigenous to this land take shelter in homes built upon it; they socialise, gather, and make family and community here.

Every day, business is conducted on this land for the benefit of non-Indigenous people.

Every day, land belonging to Indigenous people is traded for profit.

This land was never empty; the sovereignty of First Nations people was never ceded. 

Despite centuries of attempted genocide that continues to this day, Indigenous people have managed to hold onto and nurture culture and connections with country. 

At the same time, Indigenous health and wellbeing have been devastated; Aboriginal people are significantly more likely to be incarcerated, over-policed, to die in custody, for children to be separated from their family, and are more likely to die prematurely from preventable illnesses or to die by suicide. 

While governments and individuals have said Sorry to the Stolen Generations, they have taken no meaningful action towards making right, nor towards preventing further harm.

Paying the Rent is a step towards acknowledging these facts. 

It is part of a process that all non-Indigenous people – individually and collectively – need to enter into if we are to move towards justice, truth, equality and liberation for First Nations people.

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