Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of Senator Roberts's motion to refer the World Health Organization pandemic treaty to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, because his motion goes to the essence of democracy. It goes to what our forefathers have fought for for the last 250 years. I hark back to that great year, 1776, when the great patriots of the USA fought against foreign oppression. I know many of those on the opposite side like to laugh at that, but that was the flame that lit the light of democracy. That was followed by the French Revolution. What makes Western civilisation so great is that it is founded on grassroots movements, not unelected elite bureaucrats out there in Switzerland who make these decisions and then use globally controlled media to influence decisions.

While I agree with you, Senator Brown—I don't think that we're going to give up our sovereignty to the WHO on what is binding and non-binding—we do risk being influenced by the so-called vibe. We saw that during the COVID pandemic, when we would religiously follow the orders or proclamations from the WHO without any questioning. We had great big organisations under the umbrella of the 'trusted news initiative' giving commands, and you weren't allowed to question anything. If you did, you were censored. We have seen that come out recently with the Twitter files, where the White House, for example, was influencing social media companies. Anyone who tried to put out a story that might have questioned the safety of the vaccines was immediately barred from social media. That is not right. That was a globally coordinated effort. There were no laws in place to say that any of that was legal. What was in place was a system of influence that has been brought about by the centralised control of wealth. I will give a bit of a prologue here in this country.

My first memory of politics is from 1983, when Bob Hawke was elected. Within months of being elected, he went to the High Court in order to overthrow a state government that wanted to build a dam. Put aside the environmental issues of the Franklin dam. The fact of the matter is that the Labor Party used the Constitution to argue that foreign treaties ought to override state powers. That undermined democracy, and it undermined our own Constitution. You cannot tell me that, when Deakin and Barton—the two great protectionists of this party and the first two prime ministers of this country—helped to formulate the Constitution and said that the federal government should have foreign powers, that meant that foreign treaties could override domestic law. That's exactly what the Franklin dam decision did, and that was the start of the unwinding of our sovereignty in this country.

In 1985, Paul Keating let foreign banks into this country without any capital controls. That mattered, because for the next 30 years we saw the banks go out on a borrowing spree. They went from having $8 billion in debt in 1985 to having $800 billion in 2007, and all that money went into housing. There were no controls over how much went into manufacturing or industry. If I had my way, for every dollar that we borrowed offshore for housing another dollar would have to go into industry. We have to cut down on foreign debt, because it is another form of influence.

Then we had the Button plan, which ultimately destroyed manufacturing in this country. It destroyed the great state of Victoria. That was followed by the Dawkins plan, which brought in and empowered universities. So we basically got rid of our manufacturing industry and replaced it and empowered these Marxists in universities who go around and undermine the working population.

To cap it all off, we had superannuation, which basically funded the sale of our infrastructure to unelected officials in superannuation, along with foreign ownership. That superannuation has a centralised all the battlers' wealth in this country. For example, the industry funds use one proxy manager, they own over 20 per cent of all the major top-50 companies in Australia and they vote together with that one proxy vote. What's happened in Australia has also happened overseas. We have wealth managers, like BlackRock and Vanguard, who have controlling interests in NBC and Pfizer. These people who sit on the boards also sit on the NIH, and there are massive conflicts of interest. That is where we get the problem with these treaties and the World Health Organization.

As Senator Roberts rightly pointed out, Bill Gates, I think—I stand to be corrected on this—is a massive donor to the World Health Organization. He might be the second-biggest donor. He has enormous influence. He's not accountable to anyone. He, himself, has backflipped on how effective the vaccines are. Yet again, there is no level of accountability. That is the problem with organisations like the World Health Organization.

I think they served a purpose after World War II. I think the United Nations was created with the good intentions of trying to find a peaceful solution between countries going to war. But, as we know with the famous Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt leaked conversation, back in 2014, Ban Ki-moon condoned the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Ukraine. So you have to ask yourself why the United Nations isn't trying to strive for peace, rather than interfering domestically with countries' policies. That is the difference.

I've got no problems with seeking cooperation between countries. That is very important. We do not want conflicts going on. At the same time, we have to respect a nation's sovereignty. That means the people and the government must listen to its people. This is particularly relevant, because section 477(1)(c) of the Biosecurity Act empowers the health minister to declare an emergency on a recommendation by the World Health Organization. That is already in legislation. That is very, very scary—the fact that we have already legislated, the fact that the health minister can make a unilateral decision based on the recommendation of the World Health Organization.

That is why this inquiry is so important. We need to shine a light on the dealings of the bureaucrats. Let's face it, it's the bureaucrats who run—I've often said this. It's the bureaucrats who are a shadow government in this country. It's not us. We turn up here for 19 weeks of the year and we run across the chamber to the bells—like monkeys on a tin can or whatever. No, it's the bureaucrats who have permanent jobs here. They get to go on the junkets over to Switzerland. Occasionally, the other side might get to go.

I think I picked up before that there are permanent bureaucrats living in Switzerland who do the deals. So you can imagine how easily influenced they'll be by their colleagues in Switzerland, when they're going out wining and dining and having schapps after a day on the slopes. I must admit—maybe I should try and jag a job, thinking about it like that! What a cushy job that would be. The point is, you can imagine how easy it would be for these bureaucrats to be influenced by these people. Those in Australia would never even know.

So much money was spent throughout COVID. We saw the World Health Organization flip-flop. They flip-flopped on masks. They flip-flopped on remdesivir. You have to ask yourself why they flip-flopped. Was it political pressure? Was it the wheelings and dealings of, for example, these wealthy fund managers, like BlackRock, Vanguard and the Gates of the world who have conflicts of interest, trying to push their drugs onto people when they weren't properly tested?

I think it's a fantastic idea that we shine a light on the wheelings and dealings of these treaties. I ask everyone to support this motion.