House debates
Monday, 18 November 2024
Private Members' Business
Medicare
12:37 pm
Russell Broadbent (Monash, Independent) Share this | Hansard source
Australia has a world-class health system: Medicare. The backbone of that system is the dedication of our highly skilled, hardworking healthcare workforce. These healthcare workers are subject to intense conditions that wouldn't be acceptable in any other industry, but day in day out they get on with their job and do it wonderfully. They bore the brunt of the pandemic. Even though overwhelmed by immense pressure and unknown variables, healthcare workers stood as our first line of defence. But, four years on, healthcare workers are still overwhelmed in large part by unprecedented and unexplained levels of sickness right across the country. Why isn't anyone investigating this phenomenon? The Australian people deserve answers.
Today I rise to speak on a matter of grave national importance which has, until now, been met with silence by those who should be taking decisive action. My recent correspondence with the Prime Minister highlights alarming findings in synthetic DNA contamination in Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 products, detected at levels of up to 145 times above the TGA's own stated limits. Let me assure you that I did not write those letters lightly. My letters were accompanied by a science summary co-authored by 52 eminent scientists including Dr David Speicher, a Canadian virologist, who authored the report investigating DNA contamination in Australian COVID-19 Pfizer and Moderna vials; Professor Angus Dalgleish, one of the world's leading oncologists; Emeritus Professor Wendy Hoy; Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy; Professor Alexandra Henrion Caude; and Kevin McKernan, former research director of the Human Genome Project. These distinguished individuals put their names and reputations on the line attesting to the overwhelming evidence of synthetic DNA contamination in these vaccines and the risks posed to Australians.
The science summary speaks directly to the catastrophic implications of this contamination. Experts have determined that as few as three to 10 molecules of the SV40 promoter and enhancer sequences contaminating Pfizer's product can potentially trigger cell mutations, leading to cancer. Yet Dr Speicher's analysis of Australian vials detected billions of these molecules in a single dose. For the TGA to dismiss these concerns outright without credible testing or scientific analysis is a failure of duty to the Australian people. Even as the evidence was brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and subsequently passed to the health minister, we received no scientific denial, no testing and no thorough investigation, only a letter from Minister Butler's office referring to the TGA statement asserting the findings as so-called misinformation. The TGA statement has since been revealed as misleading and wholly unreliable, containing at least 14 false assertions, as documented in the comprehensive analysis co-authored by investigative journalist Rebekah Barnett and leading scientific experts.
We are at a crucial juncture this day. The TGA is yet to perform appropriate tests to confirm or deny Dr Speicher's report findings. The TGA has been using a testing method for DNA contamination that grossly undermeasures the levels of DNA contamination, a method Moderna itself seems deems inadequate for this purpose in its own patent documents for these drugs. No further evidence has been presented to allay the concerns of scientists or the public. Instead, we see avoidance, misleading statements and a complete lack of accountability from our regulators.
I must also draw attention to the extraordinary efforts made by the Town of Port Hedland Council, who, after hearing from cancer expert Professor Angus Dalgleish and from their own community experiencing a sevenfold increase in deaths, passed a historic motion calling for the suspension of these products and for the TGA to conduct independent testing. They took a stand not out of political agenda but from their ethical duty to protect our community. It was the testimony of Professor Dalgleish, observing an alarming increase in aggressive cancers among vaccinated individuals, that gave weight to this decision. Professor Dalgleish's observations are echoed by other medical professionals worldwide who are documenting what they term 'turbo cancers', cancers of an aggressive nature never seen at this scale before.
So, for the health and safety of all Australians, I call upon this House and the Prime Minister to act now. Invoke the precautionary principle and suspend these products until independent testing can confirm or dispel these contamination findings. Australia cannot afford the risk of another crisis, one that would eclipse even the devastating Thalidomide disaster. We must protect the health of all Austrians, and that requires transparency, accountability and action.
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