George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The tourism operators in the Whitsundays would have to be some of the most brilliant business owners in this country, considering what they've been through in recent years. They've endured quite a lot. They've been buffered by cyclones. They've been rocked by shark attacks. But the latest and ongoing round of lockdowns and restrictions and border closures from the chief medical officers, who seem to be running our states at the moment, could be the thing that finally sends them to the wall. It's sad to note that these snap lockdowns are endorsed by the federal government and the opposition, and yet there is growing evidence to show that these lockdowns do more harm than good.

I'll share those findings in a moment, but here is the cry for help from Tourism Whitsundays Chief Executive Officer Tash Wheeler on behalf of the 345 tourism businesses that that organisation represents. Ms Wheeler says: 'Every day I receive numerous calls from distressed tourism business owners who are on the verge of collapse. The current situation is more severe than that at this time last year.' She explains that island resorts, which staffed up for the school holidays again, are now sitting at 20 per cent occupancy. Because it's tough to get staff, they've had to provide full-term contracts to secure workers, and now they're facing the loss of all those school holiday travellers from their key domestic markets. Overnight sailing vessels, which did what they were asked to do and pivoted their products away from overseas tourism offerings to provide for the domestic market, have seen that market disappear due to the lockdown as well, and these businesses are on the cusp of closing their doors permanently. Whitsundays Chamber of Commerce President Allan Milostic points out in today's Whitsundays news: 'It's incredibly hard for all businesses, large, medium and small, as they've got to stock up on staff when it's flat out, and then they're suddenly at 25 per cent.' One in every three jobs in the Whitsundays is a tourism job. The region is the most tourism-reliant in Queensland. These businesses are now in dire straits because of draconian lockdown measures.

So do these lockdowns work to destroy viruses, or do they just destroy livelihoods? There are some highly credible studies that have surfaced this year which essentially conclude that lockdowns are doing more harm than good. In the National Bureau of Economic Research working paper 'The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy responses on excess mortality' researchers measured the change in excess deaths following the introduction of stay-at-home or lockdown orders. They call stay-at-home orders SIP, or shelter in place. Rather than reducing deaths, the finding was that lockdowns increased them. The report concluded:

We find that following the implementation of SIP policies, excess mortality increases.

And further—

… the implementation of SIP policies does not appear to have met the aim of reducing excess mortality.

In the US, the finding was that the reduction in non-COVID health care partly contributed to an increase in non-COVID deaths. Another study in the UK predicts that there will be approximately an additional 3,000 deaths within five years due to a delay in diagnostics because of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the way, here in Australia, the death rate from January to April this year is 5.6 per cent higher than the 2015-19 average. One must wonder if lockdowns and restrictions have actually contributed to that increase.

Another study in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, titled 'Assessing mandatory stay-at-home and business closure effects on the spread of COVID-19', made the same findings as the US study. The European study noted:

… we do not find significant benefits on case growth of more restrictive NPIs—

Non-pharmaceutical interventions—that is, mandatory stay-at-home and business closures—

Similar reductions in case growth may be achievable with less-restrictive interventions.

In summary, it all may be for naught. Businesses will close and precious freedoms will be lost for no other reason than that they're politically popular.

Unelected health officials have never had it so good, and there is no doubt that the power has gone to their heads. I don't know that anyone could have envisaged a year and a half ago that we would be facing the degree of lockdowns and restrictions that we are continuing to suffer through.

House adjourned at 20:00