Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

This matter of public importance raises five important questions. Can everyday Australians locked up under house arrest in Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales or Victoria tell the difference between the Liberal Party response and the Labor Party response to COVID? I can't. Can truck drivers and workers who need to cross the border for their livelihoods tell the difference between Labor's border closures and Liberal-Nationals' border closures? I can't. Can grieving Australians needing to travel to see a sick loved one or attend a funeral tell the difference between Labor states' callous restrictions and Liberal-National states' callous restrictions? I can't. Are Labor premiers standing up for small and medium-sized businesses? No, they're not. Liberal and Labor premiers are equally wreaking destruction on businesses, marriages and lives. On Senator O'Neill's motion regarding the vaccination program, can everyday Australians who believe in 'my body, my choice' tell the difference between the threats, intimidation and coercion that Liberals Scott Morrison, Gladys Berejiklian and Steven Marshall use, and the threats, intimidation and coercion that Labor's Dan Andrews, Mark McGowan and Anastasia Palaszczuk use? I can't. Has the Prime Minister or one state premier, Liberal or Labor, stood up for the rights of everyday Australians to manage COVID, not hide from it? No, they have not. Have you even asked the Australian people what they want? No, you have not.

Millions of Australians are currently under house arrest as a result of a COVID protocol that the Liberal-National and Labor parties, acting in concert as one party, enthusiastically imposed on Australians. It's a protocol that says that a sick person is sick until proven healthy. Yet 'sick until proven healthy' is the same as 'guilty until proven innocent'. Both represent a totalitarian mindset, a controlling mindset, that would have been soundly rejected at any other point in our history and should be rejected now. There's no difference between the Labor and Liberal-National parties when it comes to a COVID response. None. As in so many areas, Labor unites with the Liberal-Nationals.