Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

See, you can hear it—just smug, just hubris. And it's not funny. It's serious, and I'm being deadly serious, because it was a deadly time. We lost so many lives, and we mourn for those thousands of Australians who did lose their lives because of COVID.

So disease preparedness is important, and that's why this legislation is important. And it should be important enough for every Labor member. Mind you, if it were a union piece of legislation, they'd all be in here talking, and they should be talking about disease preparedness. They should be talking about these sorts of things for the sake of their electorates and for the sake of the country, because it's important. Things such as this are important. This legislation should be rejected. It should be going to a Senate inquiry. It's too important not to.

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