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

Premier Daniel Andrews. We in One Nation said from the start that we need to treat the virus seriously. We said we must put lives first. We said there's no manual. We said we were understanding. We said we would support an open chequebook and do whatever is necessary. And we said we would come looking and hold people accountable. On accountability, the Queensland Premier has said she has handed control to the Queensland Chief Health Officer, Dr Young, who has honestly admitted that her sole responsibility is people's physical health. Who's going to manage the economic health? Who's going to manage people's mental health? Experts now estimate that the number of deaths from suicide will be far greater than the deaths from COVID-19. Queensland Labor have abdicated yet again. They've tossed the running of the state over to a health officer who's focused only on physical health—not mental health, not economic health. Just as the former Labor MP Jo-Ann Miller courageously and publicly said today: 'Labor has abandoned us in Queensland.'

I listen to Neil Breen on 4BC in the mornings, and I commend him for holding the government accountable: stories of Labor control freaks being so heartless—twins flown to Sydney on a 16-hour trip rather than a half-hour helicopter ride to Brisbane to get treatment, and one of the twins dying; cancer treatment for a Ballina woman just south of the border—denied; an infant under cancer treatment, in hospital alone and needing his mum—abandoned; suicides; and a newsagent in Currumbin who, to get there from the Tweed, had to drive to Sydney and fly to Brisbane and stay in quarantine, and then drive to Currumbin. These are insane things. And then the Queensland Premier—remember—welcomed the Black Lives Matter protesters, with 30,000 people on our streets spreading the virus.

The Prime Minister created the national cabinet, which is handy for dodging the blame if it goes pear-shaped. I must commend Senator Patrick for pointing out the messy failure. The Prime Minister has created a monster: the premiers and the Prime Minister making decisions without data. I wrote a letter to the Queensland Premier a few weeks ago, calling for her to provide the data on which she bases her decisions. She pointed to two websites. Our staff went there—no data.

Let's look at the symptoms of what's going on in our nation. We've handed sovereignty to foreign agencies. Senator Cormann in representing the Prime Minister responded today to my question with: 'We are going to live up to our international obligations.' To hell with the international obligations! Let's put foreigners behind Australian people. We have an obligation in this Senate, in this parliament, to Australian people.

Look the Water Act of 2007 that's gutting our food production and the Murray-Darling Basin. Look at our energy policy, where we've gone from the lowest cost electricity to the highest cost electricity. Why aren't Australians getting the benefit of our wonderful, high-energy, low-pollution clean coal? Why are our farmers losing their rights to use their land? Why are Hunter Valley coalminers with no safety protection told to not report accidents or be sacked with no workers' compensation and no accident pay? They're 40 per cent underpaid compared to permanents right next door to them in the same job to on the same mine site. Long service leave entitlements are not being tallied correctly and they were refusing to be audited until I came onto the scene. They have no leave. They have no protection. They've been abandoned by the state government, abandoned by federal government agencies and abandoned by the Hunter Valley CFMMEU, which has made deals with employers, undermining these miners. Local, state and federal Labor MPs like Mr Joel Fitzgibbon have abandoned them.

Queensland Labor are controlling farmers. They are misquoting and misrepresenting the science to control farmers. What we see now is control. We see this headline from Katrina Grace Kelly, writing in The Australian: 'After all this time'—meaning seven months—'we still haven't got a recovery plan'. It's not just me who thinks this way. Then we have this from Terry McCrann: 'Waiting for Godot, from one pandemic debacle to the next'.

This is hopeless. It is absolutely hopeless. It is an abdication of responsibility and accountability. We need trust and truth based on data for a plan to ensure recovery, back to Australia being No. 1 in the world for per capita income. We would start with just a simple plan to recover from COVID, because at the moment, as I said in my introduction to this speech, Australians are slaves. We are slaves to COVID. We know that there's a second wave coming. It started in Victoria. What are we going to do? Are we going to stay locked up until everyone has had many, many waves and we've locked down each time? That's no way to run a country. That's not leadership. That's abdication. We need strong leadership like Taiwan's and we need to get it quickly. Instead of being slaves to COVID, we need to master COVID. Taiwan has shown us. Sweden have shown us to some extent. You don't have to agree with their ideas, but at least they tried something. Israel has mastered COVID. Singapore has mastered COVID. South Korea has mastered COVID. Taiwan is not the only one.

We need to get on with the job of eating humble pie, admitting our mistakes, getting the data, telling the truth, developing a plan and providing real leadership. That's what the people expect. That's what we deserve. And that's what One Nation are going to continue to push for. We are going to expose the shortfalls in this government, the shortfalls in the last 80 years of government, and then we are going to put Australia on the right track. We were keen to see the Nationals today at least recognising some of the things we have been saying and doing. So there is hope, but we must get by with the truth and trust. (Time expired)