In a podcast livestreamed this afternoon, Senator Malcolm Roberts clarified One Nation’s position in regard to Gina Rinehart’s comments about Israel, Elon Musk, and giving away land. These were made at the National Bush Summit in Townsville.

For reference, Ms Rinehart was speaking fondly of finding ways to attract investment in northern parts of Australia.

As far as we can tell, she is one of the few people trying to lift the region up while it remains ignored by Canberra.

She first spoke about SpaceX trillionaire Elon Musk, saying:

‘What industries should we try to attract? Well, what about the world’s best microchips? What about Elon Musk’s communication satellites? What about defence manufacturing to protect our people and critical infrastructure?’

Ms Rinehart then said, ‘Over at the sparsely or non-populated islands on the screen … where there aren’t high-end tourist facilities, offer to Elon … at no cost for his SpaceX satellite construction and launches.’

This is the same National Bush Summit where Ms Rinehart invited Pauline Hanson onto the stage and presented her with an orange bulldozer.

One Nation has enjoyed high-profile support from Ms Rinehart, including the donation of a small plane which One Nation’s supporters thought was ‘sexy’.

Israel was mentioned during the summit, and you can imagine how the antisemitic alcoves of social media reacted…

This is what Ms Rinehart actually said:

‘Townsville made important history years ago as a navy base at Townsville, helping defend our country in the second world war. That important culture, a very important culture, could flourish again if we also offered free land, be that near Prairie if suitable, or elsewhere near Townsville, for the Israelis. And encourage the Israelis to develop and build their advanced war drones and/or other advances in defence and improve upon their Israeli-style domes. Manufacture them here to sell to our country to help make our people and critical infrastructure safe.’

Well, cue a full week of hysterics. There is no reasoning with the current anti-Israel mob online.

And we should keep in mind, Ms Rinehart is not a politician, not a candidate for One Nation, and not in government. She is a private citizen, floating ideas to solve Australia’s very real defence blind spot. She is also an active investor in the future of not only this nation, but the world, with a $1 billion stake in SpaceX. These are the sorts of people who drag our woeful Labor government into the future, entirely against their socialist tendencies.

Honestly, thank Heavens for people like Gina Rinehart who give generously of their time and money to uplift regional areas and our veterans.

But to be clear, giving land away to Elon Musk and Israel is not One Nation policy, or even a post-it note of a policy. It has never, and will never, be on the table. And Ms Rinehart never suggested that it was.

Today, Pauline Hanson’s fellow Queensland Senator, Malcolm Roberts, clarified this during his Friday Live.

‘Pauline Hanson chairs a party meeting every morning, she said that she told Gina Rinehart she disagreed with her position.

‘And I just re-iterate the second point that we need to say is that Gina Rinehart is a private citizen, just like anyone here in this country, she is entitled to have her say.

‘I disagree with her. Pauline disagrees with her.

‘But she is entitled her to have her say. But what she is also entitled to is to have it being reported properly, and we believe it wasn’t.

‘Thirdly, giving land away to any foreign entities (be it Israel or Elon Musk or anybody who is a foreign entity) is not One Nation policy and never will be. We have been consistent in this policy from day dot. One Nation is AUSTRALIA FIRST!!! and only Australians should own land and farms in this country.’

And that should really be the end of it.

If anything, it strengthens both of their positions. It is obvious that the relationship between these entities is spiritual rather than controlling. The same cannot always be said of other parties and their donors.

Besides, the beauty of being a wealthy mining magnet and investor, such as Ms Rinehart, is they are free to float ideas in the public forum. Some of them will be taken up, others won’t, and that is fine.

Besides, Ms Rinehart has a point, the defence of this nation has been utterly woeful for decades. We are, strategically, in a worse position than when we entered the last world war. Attracting lucrative space investment (which is also closely tied to military technology) would certainly be in Australia’s interests. So would taking some lessons from Israel’s Iron Dome technology. As it stands, Australia relies more heavily on swamps and crocodiles at the Top End than warships.

While the idea of giving land away might be a non-starter, at least it forced media to have the conversation about defence investment, which is something it has been shy on since Aukus and those pesky French submarines.

Flat White is written by Alexandra Marshall. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.

The post No, One Nation isn’t giving land to Musk or Israel appeared first on The Spectator Australia.