Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, the member for Dawson stood in this House and like so many of his ilk sought to co-opt the meaning of the Eureka Stockade for his own political purposes. The member sought to use the diggers oath to justify the self-indulgent and dangerous antilockdown and antivaccination protests.

The member might not understand this, but the diggers did not stand together to defend their right to undermine health advice. They did not stand together to spread a deadly virus, and they certainly didn't stand together against mask wearing and QR check-ins. How deluded can you be? The diggers stood together to put the proposition very clearly that there should be no taxation without representation. They put the proposition for male suffrage and the right for men without property to stand for parliament—a privilege that the member for Dawson constantly demeans and abuses. Don't degrade the memory of these Ballarat diggers. Peter Lalor, the leader of the stockade, lost his daughter to tuberculosis. He watched her die from a lung infection. His son then went on to become a doctor. He probably would have followed the health advice.

I know that times are tough right now, but the way to get through them is not through division and protest. If the member for Dawson wants a flag to rally around, he should go and find his own, because this one is taken!