Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know that there are many grieving families, fearful families and concerned families. I raise the fact that, in my correspondence both to the Prime Minister and to the Premier of Queensland, I expressed concern over their use of insufficient and flawed modelling to lock us all away and cause untold damage to our economy and businesses and jobs. Their responses to my letters avoided addressing the real issues.

If, as I suggested in March, the federal government and state governments had learned from nations like Taiwan and promptly adopted rigorous testing combined with strict isolation of their sick, aged and vulnerable, then many Australians could have stayed at work, with minimal economic disruption and better health. The difference is that Taiwan had a plan and relied on solid data, and, as a result, Taiwan have had seven deaths in the time we've had 517. They have a similar population to ours in terms of total population, yet they're under greater threat because of their highly densely populated country and because they're closer to China.

Recently, in The Sydney Morning Herald, the Hon. John Hewson said:

Planning – or the lack of it – has been the great failure of … the Morrison government … It has been building over years of neglect and poor policy, but now it is being laid bare by both COVID-19 and the Royal Commission …

Queensland's own Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, has stated this past week that she is only looking at the health issues, and this is very concerning. Who is looking after the big picture for us all? What about mental health, economic health, jobs, families and businesses? The Queensland Premier referred us to the location of a website for her data. We checked. There's no relevant data—a weak Premier, irresponsibly abdicating her duties, hiding behind the Queensland Chief Health Officer. The Morrison and the Queensland governments both need to step up and demonstrate leadership and tell the truth, and they need to show us the data and the plan across all aspects of managing a way out of this pandemic and the resulting recession and, in the process, ensure security for all Australians.

Question agreed to.