Russell Broadbent (Monash, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A Nobel Prize winning drug was discovered in Japan in the 1970s. The drug has been safely used in over 3.7 billion doses since 1987 and has been added to the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines. This drug was used successfully by a number of countries around the world in the treatment of COVID. In fact, there are 250 studies which show that this drug significantly lowers the risk of mortality from COVID. Yes, I'm talking about the drug ivermectin. You would think that, with such a safe and effective drug at our disposal in the midst of a pandemic, we'd look at whether we could use this drug to protect our population. But, no, what did Australia do? On 10 September 2021, on the eve of the many vaccine mandates, we banned it. Why? According to the TGA:

… people who have been prescribed the substance—

Ivermectin—

for this purpose may believe themselves to be protected from the disease and not get vaccinated …

This safe and effective drug stayed off our shelves until 3 May 2023, when, all of a sudden, it reappeared. Who or what caused this reversal? I'm aware that some doctors are even prescribing ivermectin to people suffering from vaccine injury and long COVID.

I'll finish by quoting one health expert, who said: 'If the TGA cannot tell the difference between toxic horse deworming medicine and a potentially life-saving, safe and effective medicine, they should not exist. Who was it should take responsibility for taking the life-saving drug off the market?'