Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is time to get this great nation back to work. There was a time for an abundance of caution, but now it's time for evidence to rule supreme again. I refer to the seating arrangements in this chamber, which bear no resemblance to the ARL and NRL grand finals, with people shoehorned together for hours. It's time to follow the evidence and let Australians get back to work, to do Work for the Dole and to renew household final consumption as it should be renewed. We got the cases in the first wave in Queensland under control on 20 April. Why are we still here now? The nearest fragment of this delicate RNA virus is in a sewerage system or somewhere on the other side of the Timor Sea. It's time for those quivering medical specialists doing Zoom from home to get out from under the doona and start getting back to work, forward facing, serving Australia and working again. The millions of Australians without work, including the 8,000 on Newstart in my electorate, deserve a shot. We need to start in here. Get out from under the doona. Get out from under the cot and give it a crack. Let's give it a go, get back to work and come back in 2021 with the virus behind us. Stop the virtue signalling. We can't even go to Christmas carols at a school. We can't even go to a child's graduation. The virtue signalling in the education departments around this country is a disgrace, and it's time they contacted their own CHOs and got written advice. It's time to get back to work. It's time to open our schools again.