Craig Kelly (Hughes, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Improving Supports for At Risk Participants) Bill 2021. I note the introductory comments from the member for Macarthur, a paediatrician before he came to this place. A few minutes ago, he told the story of how, as a doctor, he had to tell parents of a newborn child that their child had Down syndrome and what the parents' reaction was. I don't have that experience as a doctor; I have that experience as a parent, and that's the position that I come from in this debate. We have a special obligation as a society to look after our children with disabilities and to support them as they grow into young adults and to old age. I think there are good intentions everywhere that we will do the best for those with disabilities.

The New South Wales health department, only a few days ago, on 20 August, was mentioned on the NDS website, which said:

Those areas of concern take up a very large chunk of Sydney: Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and also some suburbs of Penrith. Disability care workers that live or work in those areas are being ordered by the New South Wales government to have their first COVID vaccination by 30 August. I greatly fear that there will be many disability care workers that will not want to take the vaccination and will leave this sector desperately short of workers.

But the question is: is this policy of the New South Wales government correct? Is it wise? Is it what the latest science says? We always must remember:

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

As one of our greatest Prime Ministers, Prime Minister Menzies, said:

... today's truth is frequently tomorrow's error.

If truth is to emerge in the long run and be triumphant, the process of free debate, the untrammelled clash of ideas, must go on. We should not take New South Wales's health dictate for what it is. As members of parliament, we have an obligation to question it and debate it and to look at the latest science.

What does the latest science say? I have a letter written by none other than Dr Peter A McCullough of the USA. Peter McCullough MD, MPH, FACC, FACP, FAHA, FASN, FNKF, FNLA, FCRSA—a gentleman; a respected medical expert with more letters after his name than are in the alphabet; someone who has written countless peer reviewed papers. He has had COVID and his family has had COVID, and he treated them. We could not listen to anyone with higher credibility. What did he write? I would like to quote this directly so it's in the Hansard and everyone in this parliament has no excuse for not understanding what Dr McCullough has written. He writes:

A groundbreaking preprint paper by the prestigious Oxford University Clinical Research Group, published Aug. 10 in The Lancet, includes alarming findings devastating to the COVID vaccine rollout.

…   …   …

While moderating the symptoms of infection, the jab allows vaccinated individuals to carry unusually high viral loads without becoming ill at first, potentially transforming them into presymptomatic superspreaders.

This phenomenon may be the source of the shocking post-vaccination surges in heavily vaccinated population globally.

And that's exactly what we are seeing in New South Wales today. Dr McCullough continues:

The paper's authors, Chau et al, demonstrated widespread vaccine failure and transmission under tightly controlled circumstances in a hospital lockdown … The data showed that fully vaccinated workers — about two months after injection with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (AZD1222) — acquired, carried and presumably transmitted the Delta variant to their vaccinated colleagues.

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