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

Thank you. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia I speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021. This bill is notable for what it is not. Before financing economic response packages using taxpayer funds, government must pay taxpayers the respect and courtesy of a comprehensive definition of the problem being addressed and then a comprehensive detailed plan to which taxpayers and our parliament can hold the government accountable. Yet state and federal governments are lurching from one COVID event to another with no detailed plan. This breeds confusion, duplication, waste and, as we've seen, contradictions within and between governments that are, in plain language, stupid and leave taxpayers incredulous.

This is driving fear, confusion, frustration, insecurity and anger between, within and across our country and our communities. Everyday Australians have had a gutful of states blaming and bickering with each other and with the federal government while imposing capricious, arbitrary COVID lockdowns and restrictions, killing businesses, killing employment and killing our economy—and killing people. People are crying out for leadership, competence and integrity. People need to be heard and they want a proper plan.

What's involved in a comprehensive plan for managing a virus? It starts with data, truth and care. In March and April 2020 I spoke in the Senate and indicated that after seeing reports of tens of thousands of deaths in Italy, Spain, France and China we would vote with the COVID-19 measures the government introduced. At the time, I repeatedly warned the government that in the months ahead we would hold the government accountable. I expected them to provide the people with data and with a proper, detailed plan for their COVID response. I've been holding government accountable since May 2020 yet we've still not seen a proper, detailed plan. The government has not even shared the underpinning data on the virus characteristics nor the Doherty Institute modelling nor the erroneous, flawed UK modelling on which the Doherty modelling is based. Yet the government has splashed a huge bucket of taxpayer cash, hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, like swill.

Economic measures need to be based on a solid plan. In Senate estimates hearings in March and May this year, the chief medical officer and head of the federal Department of Health both agreed with my list of strategies for a proper plan to manage the virus. There are seven strategies. The first is isolation, lockdowns and national border closure, only initially. The second is testing, tracing and quarantining of the sick and the vulnerable. The third is restrictions, such as social distancing and masks. The fourth is injections, vaccines, provided they are properly and fully tested and safe. The fifth is treatments using cures and prophylactics. The sixth is personal behaviour, such as washing hands. They added that one. The seventh strategy is health and fitness. Both health officials confirmed that my list is complete. It does not miss anything. It does not contain anything that should not be in a plan. All these seven strategies need to be considered. I'll return to this list in a minute.

I asked these officials for data characterising the virus, in terms of severity or mortality and transmissibility. I specified clearly that I wanted data relative to past respiratory diseases, such as SARS, MERS and severe flus, including the 1918 Spanish flu and the 1997 H5N1 avian flu. Their later written answer included a diagram showing that, while COVID-19 is highly transmissible—highly contagious—its severity is low to moderate. I'll say that again: its severity is low to moderate. The diagram does not show that some people with COVID-19 have no symptoms. Many people diagnosed with COVID show symptoms typical of flu. A small group with comorbidities can die. Having that breakdown into groups is crucial to having a proper plan for managing the virus. Where is that breakdown? Why has government not shared this data with the people.

By the way, Texas and Florida have opened their economies and removed COVID measures, including lockdowns, masks and business closures. These jurisdictions have experienced a pattern of infection, hospital admission and mortality almost identical to that of other US states that are still in lockdown. After Florida's only lockdown, Governor DeSantis apologised to his residents, and he has had no further lockdowns despite Florida having a high proportion of aged residents.

So how many of the seven strategies are our governments adopting? Firstly, the states are capriciously using lockdowns, killing our economy, killing small business, killing the regions and killing people through increased suicides and attempted suicides. That's slamming a trillion-dollar debt on Australians not yet born. Even the UN's World Health Organization, a corrupt, incompetent and dishonest body, now admits lockdowns are a blunt instrument to be used only initially to get control of a virus. In continuing to use lockdowns, states are revealing they have not mastered the virus. Instead, the virus is managing the states. Six days ago, the New South Wales Deputy Premier and Leader of the Nationals openly admitted that the New South Wales state government has no clue what is happening with lockdowns. We welcome his honesty.

Lockdowns are a form of controlling people, useful for increasing widespread fear. Fear is a weapon not only for control; it's used to win elections. Invoking a crisis is a well-known tactic to help incumbent governments. The federal government's partially closed national borders are a form of isolation, yet there are valid, proven strategies for better managing this that are based on data. Due to a looming election, it seems the Prime Minister has taken a lesson from Queensland, the Northern Territory and WA, which ramped up fear of the virus before state elections to invoke the power of incumbency and fear. What a disgrace! When politicians and media talk about the cost of COVID, they are lying. The truth is it's the cost of politically driven, capricious government restrictions that are not based on data.

The second strategy is testing, tracing and quarantining of the sick and vulnerable. Although improving, testing and tracing in Australia have been poor. Vulnerable people are largely not adequately and fairly quarantined. Taiwan, though, a small island crammed with a population similar to Australia's, has achieved an amazing performance with no interruption to its economy and no legacy debt. Taiwan did not lock up everyone. Instead, it protected the sick and the vulnerable. Taiwan's economy continued to hum along because this proven strategy cut COVID's economic costs.

The third strategy is restrictions such as masks and social distancing. Remember: initially there were not enough masks available, and authorities here and overseas told us that masks were not important. Yet later, when masks became available, the same authorities told us masks are vital. When Queensland's health minister earlier this year forced mask use, she was asked whether drivers alone in cars by themselves would have to wear masks. She clearly had no clue and then hesitatingly said, 'Mm, yes.' When Brisbane, in one corner of our state, had three COVID-19 cases in January this year, the Labor government mandated masks across the entire state, including in the tiny town of Bamaga, 2,700 kilometres away in our state's northern tip, where there were no cases at all. Masks are becoming a form of conditioning people to follow orders and to submit to government.

Vaccines or injections are the fourth strategy. The federal Chief Medical Officer, the head of the federal health department and the head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration have all refused to guarantee the safety of these expensive injections. There have been reversals of advice, and the public is now afraid and hesitant. Health authorities do not know the dosage needed, don't know the number and frequency of doses and admit that injections will not prevent transmission of the virus, will not stop people getting the virus and will not end restrictions. The effect on children in the womb and on future generations is not known. The long-term effects on people injected are not known. Why the hell are the government injecting with an untested, unproven drug?

Serious adverse effects, including deaths, due to the injections have occurred here, and overseas thousands of people have died. Governments, state and federal, have repeatedly contradicted their own earlier advice and assurances. Federal health minister Greg Hunt publically admitted, 'The world is engaged in the largest clinical vaccination trial.' We're not lab rats. Governments are using threats of digital passports, or, as I call them, digital prisons, that withdraw services and prevent access to work and to livelihoods, to travel and to events. Government wants to remove basic freedoms. No wonder vaccination hesitancy is spreading across our country. Never before have Western governments injected healthy people with a substance that can kill.

The fifth strategy is that, at the same time, our government is depriving us of Ivermectin, a known treatment and preventative for COVID-19. This would dramatically reduce costs—the need for packages. Over a period of 60 years and for various diseases, Ivermectin has proven safe in 3.7 billion doses. It's already approved in Australia to treat a number of health conditions. In April last year, I raised the topic of promising Ivermectin in vitro trials on COVID in Melbourne, yet the government has done nothing. Ivermectin is easily affordable and over the last year overseas has become a highly successful and proven treatment for COVID, plus over 40 medical scientific papers now hail Ivermectin's success. Prominent doctors across many fields of medicine, including immunology and respiratory diseases, advocate Ivermectin for treating COVID-19. Yet the federal government in Australia sits on its hands, is not exploring Ivermectin's potential and refuses to authorise its use for COVID. The government is ignoring a proven medicine that could end this virus's reign, as it has overseas. The government again has blood on its hands. Overseas, this proven strategy is drastically cutting COVID's economic costs and keeps people healthy and economies healthy.

Ivermectin has one hurdle though. Its use will eliminate the hundreds of billions of dollars revenue for vaccine makers from vaccines that bypass standard testing and approval processes.

The sixth strategy is personal hygiene, such as hand washing, personal behaviour and practical actions. It's the same as for stopping the flu or a cold, another strain of coronavirus.

The seventh strategy is health and fitness. Obesity and other diseases increase the risk of COVID-19, yet government has done nothing. Although this is mostly personal responsibility, there's a role for government providing data and advice.

Of the seven strategies that senior federal health officials confirmed the government is relying on only one expensive strategy of injections with known adverse health effects and on the partial closure of borders. Instead of data, governments are pushing fear. Instead of a detailed plan, governments are pushing paranoia. Instead of strengthening our economy, governments are lining big pharmas' pockets. COVID-19 exposed our country's core, atrocious state and federal governance—atrocious and deadly.

Governments talk now about a new COVID normal. That is rubbish. If governments cared and wanted us to feel safe, they would have an end-to-end solution for COVID, a solid, detailed plan based on solid data and specifying what actions will be taken, why they will be taken, when they will be taken, where they will be taken, who will be responsible and how they will be taken—a solid plan. Before an economic package is produced, there must be a plan. Then it must be costed and a business and health case made for it. When organisations, whether a business or a government or a not-for-profit, work to a plan, the plan can always be changed as circumstances change and more data comes in, yet our state and federal Liberal, Labor and Nationals governments have never attempted to make a detailed plan. That shows that Liberal and Labor and Nationals governments do not care about people's health and lives, do not respect the taxpayers of Australia, do not provide solid governance.

Governance of an entity, any entity, has three aspects. First is trusteeship for the entities' values, yet governments are trashing Australian values. Second is custodianship for the entity's future, for those Australians not yet born, yet governments are trashing our children's future and burdening them with a trillion dollars of avoidable debt. Third is stewardship for the entities' resources, yet governments are wasting taxpayer funds and killing our country's productive capacity. Instead, the government in this bill is just going to spend taxpayer money and tell other departments who they're giving it to. This is not a plan. It's an excuse to splash cash and not be accountable. It will motivate unaccountable premiers to waste more taxpayer money while destroying our country's tax base. It's the very opposite of our Constitution's foundation: instead of competitive federalism we are having yet another example of competitive welfarism. The core issue this bill perpetuates is shoddy governance, atrocious governance.

Repeatedly, this government shows it cannot plan. That means it cannot govern. It is based on hollow marketing slogans. Its intent is to look good, not to do good. It aims to be re-elected, not to serve. The only thing this government has going for it is Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party. This bill discusses government making 'disaster payments'. It dishonestly does not discuss the fact that state and federal government caused the disaster.

Australia needs honest, competent, consistent leadership using solid data. Government needs to serve the people and serve Australia's national interest. We need to restore governance that cares for people's lives, cares for people's livelihoods, cares for people's security and cares for people's future. We need governance that cares for our country's security, our country's values, our country's economy and our country's future. We need a government that is honest and that serves the people. We have one flag above this parliament, we are one community and we are one nation.

We will be supporting one of the Greens second reading amendments, to recover financial support from entities paying executive bonuses, and Senator Patrick's third reading amendment to instil a register of entities— (Time expired)