George Christensen's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2022-07-06T23:05:41+00:00
items: Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020, Data Availability and Transparency (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2020; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Parliament House: Protests | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: COVID-19: Morrison Government | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: Social Media (Protecting Australians from Censorship) Bill 2022; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: COVID-19: Vaccination | Grievance Debate | House debates
items: Religious Discrimination Bill 2021, Religious Discrimination (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2021, Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill 2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Morant, Lieutenant Harry (Breaker), Handcock, Lieutenant Peter, Witton, Lieutenant George | Adjournment | House debates
items: Mitochondrial Donation Law Reform (Maeve's Law) Bill 2021; Consideration in Detail | Bills | House debates
items: COVID-19: Vaccination | Motions | House debates
items: Mining | Statements by Members | House debates
items: COVID-19: Vaccination | Statements | House debates
items: Blackburn, Ms Shandee | Statements by Members | House debates
items: China: 2022 Winter Olympic Games | Statements by Members | House debates
items: National Health Amendment (Enhancing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) Bill 2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Illegal Detention of Australian Journalists (Free Julian Assange) Bill 2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Personal Explanation | Statements | House debates
items: Fuel | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
items: COVID-19: Vaccination | Statements by Members | House debates

Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020, Data Availability and Transparency (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2020; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: It may surprise the member for Maribyrnong to know that I probably agreed with nearly 90 per cent of what he said there. We are in this brave new world where big data poses a grave threat to...
encoded: It may surprise the member for Maribyrnong to know that I probably agreed with nearly 90 per cent of what he said there. We are in this brave new world where big data poses a grave threat to individual rights and privacy, and big data collected by government that is enjoined with big business is probably the scariest situation that I can imagine arise for privacy and for our freedoms. The one thing that I didn't agree with the member for Maribyrnong on was the words that this work had achieved the right balance. Sure, I acknowledge that there has been a lot of discussion between the government and the opposition on this bill, which has taken out of the original bill a lot of the problematic areas. There have been Senate inquiries that have looked into this bill that have taken out a lot of the problematic areas of the bill. But being better doesn't necessarily make it good. There is a litmus test that we should have in this place when a bill comes before us: did any of your constituents ever email you about government sharing data with different departments or sharing data with state governments or sharing de-identified data with universities? Did anyone ever walk into your office and ask you, as an MP, to vote for this bill, or say that there was a problem they saw that necessitated this proposed act? Did anyone ever stop you in the street? Did anyone ever phone you or one of your staff members about it? I'd say by and large the answer for every single person who inhabits this chamber would be 'no' on this front. So why are we doing it? Where does it come from? I've heard from the government and now the opposition the argument that, if there's a natural disaster, an extreme event, we can easily get payments to people. If they don't have the data that they need to present to get that payment, we can look at Medicare or we can look at something else and get their data for that purpose. But there's an old saying that hard cases make bad law. That is an extreme situati…
date: 2022-03-30T17:43:00+00:00

Parliament House: Protests | Constituency Statements | House debates
type: item
description: You'll be pleased to know that, having had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday, I'm going to be speaking a bit more slowly and a little less ferociously, but speaking nonetheless. There were tens of...
encoded: You'll be pleased to know that, having had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday, I'm going to be speaking a bit more slowly and a little less ferociously, but speaking nonetheless. There were tens of thousands of people—perhaps even hundreds of thousands; I'm not sure—that were vilified in this place and in the press recently, and those were the people who participated in the Convoy to Canberra rally that we saw over the last couple of weeks. The media and power elites have done their best to try and trivialise that protest, and they've focused on the very, very few in the crowd who probably didn't do the right thing, whereas the vast majority did. They trivialised the size of the crowd. Having been there on both protest days, I can tell you: if that was an NRL game, it would've been a packed house; it would've been sold out, and there would've been people wanting more tickets. It was the biggest rally I've seen in this place in the 11 years that I've been here, and that was echoed by none other than Chris Uhlmann, who said it was the biggest rally that he had seen in Canberra in the past three decades. The media tried, on the one hand, to claim that there were about 4,000 people at the protest; on the other, they were blaming them for overflowing the EPIC grounds, where most of the protesters were camping. You can't have it both ways. Here in this place and in the media, the protesters were demonised and painted as fringe and violent, but the only violence that I saw was that committed against those protesters, with two instances of road rage, spurred on, I believe, by the biased reporting from the Canberra Times, which whipped up locals against those people. Those people were far from fringe. There were people from all walks of life, from brickies to graziers. There were occupations all over the place, and people had their tenure in those occupations written on their backs—doctors, nurses, teachers, firies and ambos who have lost their jobs due to 'no jab, no job' mand…
date: 2022-02-17T10:15:00+00:00

COVID-19: Morrison Government | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: For the past two years state governments, with the assistance of the federal government, sadly, have imposed many regulations and restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures...
encoded: For the past two years state governments, with the assistance of the federal government, sadly, have imposed many regulations and restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures have eroded our freedoms, our human rights and our civil rights. Such infringements on our rights were introduced under the guise of public safety, but the oft-cited health advice on which they were allegedly based has never been held up for public scrutiny. States have introduced draconian measures, such as border closures, without having the validity of such measures tested in court. Governments have prevented doctors from prescribing medicines that were safe and effective, with a long history of safe use. Governments have mandated and coerced Australians to undertake a medical procedure that does not have long-term safety data. Substances that people are forced to inject into their body out of fear of losing their job are produced by big pharma companies that are getting very rich off these mandates while bearing no responsibility for any of the harm their products may cause, thanks to an indemnity granted by the government. We already know some of the harmful effects but we don't know all of them, because there is no long-term safety data. There's always going to be a section of the Australian community that for whatever reason is hesitant or totally opposed to these provisionally approved inoculations. The mainstream media are kidding themselves when they seek to demonise all pro-freedom people with the antivaxxer slur. There were tens of thousands of protesters on the lawns of parliament on Saturday. They were not all antivaxxers. Most of them were actually fully inoculated—I'd say many of them—but they were antimandate. They were hardworking people. Many of them lost their jobs due to workplace vaccine mandates. They were opposed to the discriminatory measures that are locking ordinary Australians out of polite society as well—locked out of cafes, locked out of resta…
date: 2022-02-14T12:12:00+00:00

Social Media (Protecting Australians from Censorship) Bill 2022; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. Firstly, can I thank the member for Kennedy for his enthusiasm in seconding it. Can I thank also the member for Wide Bay who seconds the notice...
encoded: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. Firstly, can I thank the member for Kennedy for his enthusiasm in seconding it. Can I thank also the member for Wide Bay who seconds the notice of motion and is also here in the hope that he would be the one rising to second it. Thanks to Senator Matt Canavan for his work on this issue and the Nationals backbench policy committee, who have been deliberating on this issue for some time. This bill really seeks to reinforce one of our commitments to civil and political rights, through the international convention on civil and political rights, and I particularly refer to article 19, which states: Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference— 'without interference'. It also states: Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice— or her choice. What we find today is that we have a grave problem with foreign social media services. We're talking about big tech. We're talking about outfits like Facebook, outfits like Twitter, outfits like Google and YouTube, outfits like Instagram, outfits like WeChat, outfits like TikTok which have become notoriously censorious of political discourse. In fact, in its biggest example, the then leader of the free world, the former President of the United States Donald Trump was taken down off a fair few of these platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter. That was much to the delight of the Left across the world. But US venture capitalist Fred Wilson, one of the early investors in Twitter, who is Left leaning and who doesn't like Donald Trump said—and it behoves all of those who delighted about the former president being removed from social media to listen to these words: I think it is problematic that Twitter has this much power. Not only a…
date: 2022-02-14T10:37:00+00:00

COVID-19: Vaccination | Grievance Debate | House debates
type: item
description: Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker, for your input there. Vaccine mandates in this country have been imposed on workers. They weren't part of their original employment contracts, but now they...
encoded: Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker, for your input there. Vaccine mandates in this country have been imposed on workers. They weren't part of their original employment contracts, but now they are. They have been abandoned all across the political spectrum, just left to go on the scrapheap of unemployment. That is a disgrace, and we wonder why there were, on the weekend just gone, and why there are going to be, on the weekend to come, thousands of people outside this place demanding that something be done about these mandates. They want their jobs back. They want their lives back. They want this nonsense to end, and end it should. End it could have already. Foreseeing this coming—foreseeing all of the restrictions that were coming down the line—I put in a request to the powers that be in this place late last year. I said that what we should do is mandate that the data from the Australian Immunisation Register that goes down the pipeline through the myGov app and My Health Record and all the rest of it not be able to be used for the purposes of discrimination. That wasn't done, and it could have been done. I'm very regretful that that wasn't done. Now, we could look at broadening the basis for exemptions that ATAGI can approve, and I think that ATAGI should actually be made to go and develop the criteria to enable conscientious objection to be a valid exemption for these workplace mandates. Why? It is because we know that, when we force someone to act against their will and when we force someone to go against their deeply held conscientious beliefs, there can be psychological, mental and emotional harm caused. That's reason enough to provide that exemption. There are so many people from all walks of life who have been harmed by this. I met some the other day, and I've got to tell you that most of them, I suspect, were Labor voters—'were' being the operative word. I'm not sure who they'll vote for, because no-one seems to be helping them this time round. There were…
date: 2022-02-08T17:11:00+00:00

COVID-19: Vaccination | Grievance Debate | House debates
type: item
description: It's a pleasure to rise in this grievance debate. There are plenty of grievances that people have. One that many people know that I have is with the vaccine mandates that have been rolled out...
encoded: It's a pleasure to rise in this grievance debate. There are plenty of grievances that people have. One that many people know that I have is with the vaccine mandates that have been rolled out around the nation, principally by state governments. Unfortunately, we haven't had any action from this place in dismantling those mandates. Lest people think it is a fringe issue, this is affecting real people—real mums and dads and real workers—out in my community and right around the country. I have met nurses who were unceremoniously sacked after decades of work with Queensland Health. Hospital administration workers have also been sacked. I'm aware that a senior Mackay Queensland Health official in a meeting with other Queensland Health officials and local GP clinics said words to the effect, 'We're glad we're rid of all of those people'—'those people'; those are the words she used. She meant those people who choose—and Australians are entitled to choose—not to get a medical procedure done that they feel isn't right for them. It doesn't matter what we think; that's their right. It's bodily autonomy. Emergency aircrew workers in Mackay have lost their jobs. People who have served in the defence forces and aged-care workers in Proserpine, Bowen, Mackay and Townsville have all been unceremoniously sacked. I know that there are issues with aged care, but surely to goodness there could have been something done to redeploy these people or appropriately compensate them. Teachers throughout Bowen, Mackay and elsewhere have approached me about having their jobs terminated as well. There are counsellors and psychologists also in Mackay. I've raised this before in this place. A psychologist who saw all of her patients by telehealth from her own house can't work in that field anymore. Apparently COVID is going to sneak down the internet. The NBN is not that good! Then there are police and administration workers in Mackay. I have had police in other parts of my electorate also contact …
date: 2022-02-08T17:11:00+00:00

Religious Discrimination Bill 2021, Religious Discrimination (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2021, Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill 2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: It is with pleasure that I rise to speak on the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021. I want to address some of the remarks that we have just heard, because there was a lot of criticism around...
encoded: It is with pleasure that I rise to speak on the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021. I want to address some of the remarks that we have just heard, because there was a lot of criticism around clause 12 of the bill. Make no mistake, my view is that this bill is weak. This bill is watered down. This bill will do only a little bit of good. I support it because it will do a little bit of good, but it won't do much in the grand scheme of things. Clause 12 is actually where the rubber hits the road for this bill. People of faith wanted one thing from this parliament, they wanted one thing from this government, and that was a shield, not a sword. They want a shield to protect themselves from people who come after them because of what they believe—people who want to cancel them from society, who want to take their jobs, who want to strip them of titles. That's what we're talking about here. Let me give the exact example of where harm is done. Previous speakers were asking questions out loud: 'Well, what can't you say? What is it the government is saying here that people should be allowed to say?' Let me tell you about this rabid right-wing extremist from Tasmania. Not really—it is the Archbishop of Hobart. His name is Julian Porteous. He's a Catholic archbishop. He committed the heinous crime of sending out a missive to students within the Catholic school system, and the missive was about the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage. He sent it out to students in the Catholic school system—presumably mostly Catholics—to go home to their mostly Catholic parents, which you'd think would be just completely and utterly innocuous. A Catholic prelate was talking to his flock about the Catholic Church's teaching on a particular issue. As controversial as it might be for some, it shouldn't be controversial to note what is the church's teaching, particularly to people who are part of the Catholic Church system. For that heinous crime, he was dragged before an antidiscrimination tribuna…
date: 2022-02-08T18:25:00+00:00

Morant, Lieutenant Harry (Breaker), Handcock, Lieutenant Peter, Witton, Lieutenant George | Adjournment | House debates
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description: Apart from the last sentence, I concur with the previous speaker. We should never have had lockdowns. If justice were a meal, it would be better served cold than not served at all, and in a...
encoded: Apart from the last sentence, I concur with the previous speaker. We should never have had lockdowns. If justice were a meal, it would be better served cold than not served at all, and in a country where belief in a fair go is in our DNA the quest for justice should never fade. That's why, 120 years after the fact, there remains a strong desire amongst many people, some of my parliamentary colleagues included, for one of our national legends to receive long-overdue justice. In February it will be 120 years since the execution of Harry Morant—better known as Breaker Morant—and Peter Handcock, as well as the sentencing of their colleague George Witton to life imprisonment. Their trials and execution have been the subject of great conjecture in Australian history as well as the subject of stories, books, ballads, a screenplay and the 1980 movie titled Breaker Morant. Harry Morant established himself as quite a character from very early on in life. He was undoubtedly an expert horseman, reportedly a womaniser and perhaps a little loose with the truth about his past and legendary exploits. Depending on which stories you believe, he may even have been a bit of a scoundrel. But being larger than life or, indeed, being a scoundrel does not make justice any less deserved. Even in times of conflict on foreign soil, everyone should be entitled to due process and equality before the law. Morant, Handcock and Witton were not tried in accordance with the military law of the time—1902 we're talking about. Their convictions were likely unlawful and their sentences likely illegal, as the men were not afforded an opportunity to appeal, which was a right enshrined in law in 1902. There was a failure to implement the courts martial recommendations of mercy, and there were denials of a proper opportunity to consult legal counsel before trial, the right to communicate with witnesses and next of kin and the right to communicate with the Australian government of 1902 to seek intervention a…
date: 2021-12-02T11:17:00+00:00

Mitochondrial Donation Law Reform (Maeve's Law) Bill 2021; Consideration in Detail | Bills | House debates
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description: I want to commend the amendments that have been put to the House. There are many bioethical dilemmas with the bill that is before us. I, for one, have met with a sufferer of this horrific...
encoded: I want to commend the amendments that have been put to the House. There are many bioethical dilemmas with the bill that is before us. I, for one, have met with a sufferer of this horrific ailment, and I do feel massive sorrow around the fact that I cannot vote for the bill if the bill doesn't have these amendments. It is a serious affliction. I've spoken to this girl at length about that affliction and what it has caused for her life. I realise right here and now that those people do deserve some form of hope. There are two bioethical dilemmas, one being the issue of essentially three sets of DNA being in a new human being. I'm willing to put my concerns on that to the side. But where I can't put my concerns to the side is around the destruction of human life. I just do not believe that we can destroy human life to alleviate the suffering, or the potential suffering, of another human life. Knowing that this process, this treatment, hasn't resulted in anything that is successful as yet leads me to say that we probably shouldn't destroy human life. I do commend the amendments and I hope the amendments are supported, because if the amendments were supported, I would support the bill, and I suspect there might be other people that would support the bill.
date: 2021-12-01T17:28:00+00:00

COVID-19: Vaccination | Motions | House debates
type: item
description: I second the motion. I'll be very brief. I support this motion because of the heartache that I am hearing and the harm that I'm hearing from my constituents, people who have lost their jobs or...
encoded: I second the motion. I'll be very brief. I support this motion because of the heartache that I am hearing and the harm that I'm hearing from my constituents, people who have lost their jobs or are about to lose their jobs, all because they will not be part of, or do not wish to be part of, a provisionally approved medical procedure in this country. It is a provisionally approved medical procedure. There is no denying that fact; it's on the TGA's website. For governments to be saying to people—it is not, I appreciate, the Australian government; it is state governments that are saying it—that they must go and have this medical procedure done in order to keep their job is anathema. It is hurting people—a lot of people. To show the stupidity of it—I mentioned this last night in this place—a psychologist in Mackay who does home consults by telehealth has to be double vaccinated, or she loses her career of 30 years. Tell me: how is COVID going to crawl down the internet and infect one of her patients? It's absurd. But the whole thing is absolutely absurd. It's not just workers who are going to be hurt here. I know of small business owners—cafe owners—who don't want to partake in the medical procedure, and they are going to have to shut their doors. Perhaps even some of them will go bankrupt in Queensland from 17 December. We can do something about it here in this place. We should do something about it. We control the data that comes from the Australian Immunisation Register. It can be flicked off with a switch, and then no-one knows who's vaccinated and who's not. We should have that stance until the people who are imposing this medical segregation actually say they're going to stop it and not harm anyone anymore.
date: 2021-12-01T15:24:00+00:00

Mining | Statements by Members | House debates
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description: The behaviour of anti-coal activists at Carmichael Mine in North Queensland has reached a dangerous level. They are putting their lives at risk and endangering the lives of mine workers who are...
encoded: The behaviour of anti-coal activists at Carmichael Mine in North Queensland has reached a dangerous level. They are putting their lives at risk and endangering the lives of mine workers who are just trying to do their job. The level of harassment, abuse and intimidation that workers are subjected to is illegal and disgusting. We recently had an aggressive high-speed off-road vehicle chase, with activists pursuing and swerving towards the vehicles of mineworkers. They circled a mineworker's ute in their own vehicle, accelerated and then slammed on the brakes right in front of that worker's ute. It's fine to protest. I support the right to free speech and the right to march peacefully in the streets. You all know I support the freedom protests. But it's interesting to juxtapose how an anti-coal activist behaving violently in North Queensland is dealt with by the law with how a freedom protester marching peacefully on the streets of Melbourne is dealt with. As I said, it's fine to protest, but it's not fine to put other people's lives at risk and it's not fine to trespass on private property. We've seen activists chaining themselves to railway lines, abusing railworkers just trying to do their jobs. The latest was this morning, with a serial offender suspending herself from equipment at the Abbot Point coal terminal. The problem is that these serial offenders get a slap on the wrist in court, and then they're back at it again. The law needs to be stronger. North Queensland workers need to be better protected from the illegal and dangerous behaviour of these serial offenders.
date: 2021-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

COVID-19: Vaccination | Statements | House debates
type: item
description: Philosopher Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest thinkers of our time, said: As citizens, we must prevent wrongdoing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong sufferer and...
encoded: Philosopher Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest thinkers of our time, said: As citizens, we must prevent wrongdoing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong sufferer and spectator, is at stake. That is why I want to talk about the harmful impacts of vaccine mandates. I have received over 100,000 emails about vaccine mandates. Some are from people who have lost their jobs. Some are from people who are vaccinated but are wanting to register their opposition to governments forcing other people to be vaccinated. Contrary to the mainstream media line, the vast majority of people opposing such mandates are not anti-vaxxers. They are people who have had adverse reactions; who have suffered vaccine injury; who have lost their jobs and, as a result, lost their families; or who have watched their friends, family members and colleagues suffer as a result of those mandates. They are hardworking Aussies who do not believe anyone should be forced to get the jab in order to work or to access basic and essential services, let alone be ostracised from the wider community. People from all over the country have contacted my office to tell me about their stories. These are real people who are scared and suffering. They are police officers, nurses, doctors, paramedics, teachers, miners, small-business owners, mums and dads. They are your sisters, your brothers, your neighbours and your family members, and I want to give them a voice in this chamber. One of my constituents from Mackay is pregnant. She has now lost her job due to a workplace vaccine mandate and is in significant distress because, she says, she can't access doctor and midwife appointments in person because she is unvaccinated. She is not anti vaccination; she just wants to be sure of the long-term effects of the vaccine before she has it. Then there are those on the verge of suicide or who have attempted suicide because of the stress of workplace vaccine mandates. I have had constituents tell my office they…
date: 2021-11-30T19:55:00+00:00

Blackburn, Ms Shandee | Statements by Members | House debates
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description: In February 2013, a young Mackay woman, 23-year-old Shandee Blackburn, was brutally stabbed to death on her way home from work. It was an horrific crime that rocked our community, and it remains...
encoded: In February 2013, a young Mackay woman, 23-year-old Shandee Blackburn, was brutally stabbed to death on her way home from work. It was an horrific crime that rocked our community, and it remains unsolved. In the last few days, however, as a result of an investigative podcast by the Australian's Hedley Thomas, we have learnt there are some very serious questions being raised about the DNA testing at Queensland's government-run laboratory. Samples sent to that lab have not been fully tested and, on a number of occasions, DNA could not be detected—not even in a sample of Shandee's own blood. One of this country 's most respected forensic scientists, Dr Kirsty Wright, has looked into the case and has grave concerns. Dr Wright is calling for testing at the lab to be suspended and an inquiry conducted. She has said: … we need a public inquiry because I don't believe the police and the courts can trust any of the DNA results coming out of this lab … Doctor Wright also said: … this has the potential to be the biggest forensic disaster in Australia's history. And yet the Queensland health minister has refused to consider an inquiry or the retesting of the evidence. The family of Shandee Blackburn—and I spoke with Vicki Blackburn, Shandee's mother, earlier today—have called that response a disgrace. They do deserve better. I'm calling on the Queensland government to take action to immediately investigate that forensics facility and see what can be done to have justice for Shandee.
date: 2021-11-29T16:14:00+00:00

China: 2022 Winter Olympic Games | Statements by Members | House debates
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description: I rise to call for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. To go ahead with these games without formally registering our concerns about crimes against humanity occurring at the...
encoded: I rise to call for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. To go ahead with these games without formally registering our concerns about crimes against humanity occurring at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party sends a very strong message to the victims that we actually turn a blind eye to their suffering. So I, for one, will not turn a blind eye and will never forget their anguish. We, as a nation that respects human rights and dignity, must not let this happen. In a few months time the best athletes in the world will converge on Beijing for the Winter Olympic Games and, whilst sport does unite us and brings out the best in humanity, it is also crucial that the world unites to respect the humanity of those who suffer human rights atrocities occurring at the hands of the CCP. We refused to turn a blind eye to the rapidly-deteriorating human rights situation in Hong Kong and the Tibet autonomous region. Tibet and the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region are where Tibetans, Uighurs and other minority groups are subject to widespread religious and cultural repression, forced labour, sterilisation, political indoctrination, arbitrary detention, torture and death. Make no mistake: the Tibetans, the Uighurs and other minority groups in those regions are victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and cultural genocide. This is happening now. Whilst the International Olympic Committee has made it clear that it is not in the business of politics, the Olympic Charter's principles of solidarity and nondiscrimination are hard to reconcile with holding the 2022 games in a country whose government stands credibly accused of perpetrating crimes against humanity and genocide. We know what's going on and it would be a betrayal of our common humanity to stand in silence. So I say to the House and to members of the International Olympic Committee that the desire to stay above politics does not mean turning a blind eye to mass atrocity. There's still time to urgently p…
date: 2021-11-29T10:45:00+00:00

National Health Amendment (Enhancing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) Bill 2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak. Debate adjourned.
encoded: I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak. Debate adjourned.
date: 2021-11-29T19:12:00+00:00

Illegal Detention of Australian Journalists (Free Julian Assange) Bill 2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. In moving the Illegal Detention of Australian Journalists (Free Julian Assange) Bill 2021 to the House, I note that it seeks to enshrine an...
encoded: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. In moving the Illegal Detention of Australian Journalists (Free Julian Assange) Bill 2021 to the House, I note that it seeks to enshrine an offence of seven years imprisonment for a head of a foreign government if the head of state detains an Australian journalist or requests another foreign government to detain an Australian journalist in the course of undertaking legitimate journalistic activity. Mr Speaker, I have to tell you, it gives me no pleasure in having to put this bill before the House today, because by introducing this bill it is a recognition that we are failing to protect the rights and freedoms of our own citizens. And I, for one, think this is an absolute disgrace. Regardless of what you think of Julian Assange, who this bill focuses on, the bottom line is that he is an Australian journalist being detained—there are those people who dispute that; you could say 100 per cent that he is an Australian publisher—and punished for exposing the corruption of the powerful. The Biden administration, which has continued on the case against Julian Assange, is using one of our own to intimidate other journalists who even think about exposing secrets and war crimes. They don't care about an Australian citizen—in this case—he is dispensable. But at the end of the day, this is not about him. I am not asking anyone in this chamber to like Assange—you don't have to put him on your Christmas card list—and no one has to agree with what he says or the way he carries out his business. But you don't have to like someone to stand up and say that the way they are being treated is plain wrong. An Australian journalist is potentially facing 175 years in jail—an effective death sentence—for exposing crimes against humanity, corruption and shedding a light on the plight of the weak and vulnerable. As the Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange did not commit a crime, he simply reported the truth. Now, I understand you and ma…
date: 2021-11-29T10:17:00+00:00

Personal Explanation | Statements | House debates
type: item
description: Thank you very much for that. This is just to refer to reports and claims that I directly compared state premiers to Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot. I wish to inform the House I did not. I said the...
encoded: Thank you very much for that. This is just to refer to reports and claims that I directly compared state premiers to Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot. I wish to inform the House I did not. I said the path they were on was troubling. If there is concern over any misrepresentation that I did say that, then that's regrettable. Further, there have been false claims in the Senate, on the social media and elsewhere that I called for and/or incited violence. I did no such thing. I never did and never would. I abhor violence.
date: 2021-11-25T09:53:00+00:00

Personal Explanation | Statements | House debates
type: item
description: CHRISTENSEN () (): I wish to make a personal explanation.
encoded: CHRISTENSEN () (): I wish to make a personal explanation.
date: 2021-11-25T09:53:00+00:00

Fuel | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
type: item
description: It is my pleasure to rise on this matter of public importance raised by the member for Kennedy, my electoral neighbour and good friend. I should say we're talking about fuel security here in...
encoded: It is my pleasure to rise on this matter of public importance raised by the member for Kennedy, my electoral neighbour and good friend. I should say we're talking about fuel security here in Australia, and I want to begin by acknowledging some of the recent things that have happened in this space in Australia under the Morrison government, such as the minimum onshore stock holding obligation to safeguard key transport fuels, including increasing diesel stocks by 40 per cent. It's a very good start, a long way from where we were under previous policy. I also note the investment of over a quarter of a billion dollars in constructing new diesel storage to create about a thousand new jobs, but more importantly to increase diesel storage in strategic key locations across the nation, and also locking in our remaining refineries; they were dwindling and threatening to go by the wayside. Locking them in also gives us a level of security that we didn't have before. But it is probably an understatement to say that that's just a good start. There is a lot more that needs to be done, because we are well short of international obligations of around 90 days of fuel security, which is considered what is needed by any sovereign nation to get through some crisis. If there were a situation where our shipping lines were cut and we were reliant on fuel coming in from another nation, we would be in a lot of trouble, which is why other avenues need to be explored, such as biofuels. The member for Kennedy and I have been long-time supporters of the idea of expanding the ethanol industry through a mandate. I drive on ethanol just about all the time. When I go to a bowser that has an E10 option, I use that. It's clean, it's efficient, it drives very well, and, on top of that, it is a green fuel. So we could do more by boosting that. There is so much more that could be done in that space. In my remaining time, I want to respond to the first part of the member for Kennedy's matter of public i…
date: 2021-11-24T15:59:00+00:00

COVID-19: Vaccination | Statements by Members | House debates
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description: The totalitarian regimes responsible for the most heinous atrocities in the 20th century—think Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot—didn't get there overnight. They used fear to control. They...
encoded: The totalitarian regimes responsible for the most heinous atrocities in the 20th century—think Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot—didn't get there overnight. They used fear to control. They excluded the dirty people, softly at first. They justified the exclusion. They moved to harder exclusions and eventually eliminated people either socially or physically. In 21st century Australia state premiers are racing down that familiar path, trying to out-tyrant each other, drunk on power, setting up their own biosecurity police states complete with medical apartheid. Sadly, we have enabled it, refusing to rein them in and, worse, supplying the Australian Immunisation Register data that underpins this medical apartheid. Fear is a justification of choice for coercion and control, with non-vaccinated Australians increasingly demonised, ostracised and socially eradicated. In Queensland the Premier tweeted that people not vaccinated raise red flags—not just one, but 22 of them. In the media politicians and health bureaucrats all claim COVID-19 is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated, but there is no justification for such demonisation. In a German study 55 per cent of symptomatic patients over 60 were fully vaccinated. Gibraltar, where all 34,000 residents are fully vaccinated, is recording 60 new cases a day. The totalitarian path we are unquestionably on has never ended well. The solution is a rediscovery of human dignity, along with—and I don't say this lightly—civil disobedience. (Time expired)
date: 2021-11-24T13:47:00+00:00