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

[by video link] Today I put on the record One Nation's demand for the establishment of a royal commission into the management of the COVID-19 pandemic by Australian governments. It is essential that there be a comprehensive, honest and transparent examination of how federal, state and territory governments have handled this pandemic, because it has affected every single one of us. Many people have died, families have been separated, the education of our children has been severely disrupted, thousands of Australians have lost their jobs, countless businesses have been closed—in many cases permanently—hundreds of billions of taxpayers' dollars have been spent, and military personnel and resources have been deployed in Australia, with yet more set to reinforce an exhausted aged-care sector in crisis. How can we not have a royal commission into this unprecedented event? The Australian people deserve nothing less. If we don't learn from and understand the mistakes of this pandemic, we are doomed to repeat them. Last year, this Senate denied—yes, denied!—Australians a parliamentary inquiry into my bill outlawing COVID-19 vaccine discrimination. You denied Australians their say about the pandemic of discrimination that you unleashed upon us. You denied them a say, because you were so frightened your conspiracy to silence the Australian people would be exposed. The people deserve their say in an open and honest accounting of this wretched pandemic. The people deserve to see what justified the decisions which have destroyed so many lives these past two terrible years. One Nation will never stop fighting for a royal commission into this pandemic.