Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Over the past 12 months, I have received an ever-increasing number of emails and requests from my constituents for face-to-face meetings about Australia's involvement with the WHO pandemic treaty and the outcome of the World Health Assembly. I appreciate that some in here, on both sides, might brush these concerns off as antivaxxer hysteria or the tinfoil hat brigade, both terms being dismissive and, let's face it, pretty offensive to those articulating genuine concern within our electorates.

After the pandemic and the subsequent decisions made by state and federal governments, people in my electorate are sincerely fearful of the potential outcomes for themselves and their families and have been trying to stay informed about each new development in the process. There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet, some accurate and up to date and some not so. On my concerned constituents' behalf, I'd like to offer my own concerns and hopes around where the Australian government are heading in regard to this issue.

My constituents have outlined their fears in relation to Australia's sovereignty should we sign up. To be honest, when the treaty was first broached in its original draft form, I too was worried about the idea that, should we sign up to an agreement of this nature, we would not be in control of our own decisions around treating the health of our own population. The people who have reached out to us as their parliamentary representatives are not conspiracy theorists for calling this out, as there were genuine points contained in the draft that could lead any reasonable person to this conclusion.

Many in my electorate have also expressed concern around sovereignty over their own bodies and livelihoods. With so many who have visited me at my mobile offices losing their jobs during the pandemic—and I have friends who did—and being unable to work in their professions until very recently, it's not hard to understand where this concern is coming from.

Since its original draft in 2021, many amendments have been made to the WHO pandemic treaty, in consultation with experts and governments across the globe. I have been doing my best to keep up. In the early phase of proposals, commentary in the British Medical Journal suggested:

It will take years to draw up any convention and it is unclear exactly what it will cover and how much global authority it will hold, with countries pushing and pulling in different directions.

Well, that pushing and pulling is continuing. As it stands, as of 29 May this year, negotiations on the pandemic treaty had failed to reach a conclusion before the 2024 World Health Assembly. The WHO indicated that states had agreed to continue discussing the next steps for negotiations, with the aim of agreeing the timing, format and process to conclude the pandemic agreement. Essentially, it has stalled once again, and there is no agreement by the global community or, importantly, Australia.

I would like to say to each member of my electorate who has reached out to me and asked for my assistance in protecting their rights and freedoms and in protecting our nation's sovereignty, that I have heard you and I agree with you. I don't believe in international foreign powers having a hand in how we make decisions for our nation and its population. I don't believe in governments exerting undue control over their citizens. As a member of the National Party, one of our key values is that the role of government is to provide a framework within which our community can thrive, by supporting individual achievement and understanding the importance of free choice and a fair go. I was not in support of border closures and the resulting state based serfdoms that ensued. I was not in support of people losing their jobs because they made a decision about themselves and their bodies—decisions that any citizen of a democratic country like ours should be able to make. I will not dismiss your real concerns. I share them with you.

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