Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I hear senators in this chamber call for a CDC, do you know what I think of? I think of more government control. I think of more bureaucracy. I think of all of the garbage that came along with the previous pandemic we just had, the so-called COVID pandemic—the pandemic that only happened on the TV screen.

I rise to support Senator Hanson's COVID-19 Vaccination Status (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2022 to end vaccine mandates. I think it's about time that we end vaccine mandates. It's been four years since 2020, and we've still got vaccine mandates for a virus with a near 100 per cent survival rate, a virus that didn't do anything to you unless you were already on your way out the door, if I can use that analogy—absolute freaking garbage. The fact that we are debating whether or not people can be discriminated against on the basis of a COVID-19 vaccine beggars belief. That is what it does; it beggars belief. We are still having this debate right now, in August 2024, long after the perceived threat of COVID has passed and well after the vaccine has been exposed as being less safe and, of course, less effective than what was originally pitched by those in positions of great power.

We hear senators stand up in this place all the time and rail against discrimination of all kinds—on a regular basis, I might add. Discrimination in this place—you all consider it a dirty, obscene, hateful thing. You all say that don't you? Except on this one issue. Except on the issue of a novel COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. And do you know what? All those senators, shocked at any kind of discrimination, suddenly transform themselves into serious rule makers and strict regulation enforcers. Let's be real: in my opinion they transform into authoritarian human rights abusers.

If we were discussing abortion, as an example, I wouldn't be able to count to 10 before the outraged mob would demand that I be cancelled. They have demanded that, by the way, but they haven't succeeded because I'm built different and I don't care what the outraged mob thinks. I'm sure that many in this place would stand and eloquently present the sacred principle of bodily autonomy if I were talking about abortion. They would defend a woman's right to kill her baby—kill her baby—which is what abortion is. Tell me this: what kind of society applauds the murder, cheers it on, cheers on the murder of their own children? That is a society in decline. That is a sick society that will soon cease to exist.

When it comes to the matter of whether people should be forced or not forced to take a COVID-19 vaccine on threat of losing their job, bodily autonomy is suddenly about as popular as bat soup in Wuhan. That's what it is, bat soup in Wuhan. I've been calling it a vaccine but let's be honest, it's not a vaccine. It is a product. It is a product that does not give you lifelong immunity. Do you know what it does instead? It turns you into a big pharma client for the rest of your life. It turns you into a pincushion. That's what it does. A lot of people think that big pharma is here to help. Maybe they are sometimes, but what does big pharma love most? Big pharma loves repeat business. They love repeat business, and through this novel mRNA COVID technology they have just that. They have customers for life. It's something that needs to be talked about and it's something we don't talk about enough in this place and everywhere else in society.

Why would the Victorian health system continue to penalise people for not having had the COVID jab when we know that the COVID jab does not stop you from catching or transmitting COVID? It doesn't stop you from catching it. It doesn't stop you from transmitting it. Why are we mandating this garbage? Why would so many job advertisements continue to insist that they want people who have had this COVID jab when we know that the COVID jab is also not entirely safe or free of serious side effects—including death, which I'm sure you would agree is pretty darn serious as a side effect, right?

You don't have to be jabbed to be in this chamber and thank God for that because I'm not and I never will be, but you do have to be jabbed to fight fires in Victoria. How does that make any sense at all? How does that make sense? You have to be jabbed to go and fight a fire. Come on, it's 2024! Maybe we can forgive the hysteria back in 2020 because the mainstream media, big pharma, the globalists at the WHO and all these jabronis were pushing this issue hard. Maybe we can forgive what happened in 2020, but we can't forgive it now. It's time for change.

Talking about Victoria, it's silly to expect anything in my home state to make sense after so many years of Labor mismanagement. Do you know what we have in Victoria, in my opinion? Labor has been in power for far too long and when you're in power for far too long, what happens? You get stale. You put all your apparatchiks in the important positions. That's what happens. We're at a point now where we really don't have any more competition. They've kind of wiped out the Libs in Victoria. They've wiped them into irrelevance. That's good for Labor and their socialist agenda, but it's bad for the Libs. Hopefully, they can pull their finger out and do a bit better than what they're doing at the moment, bring forth some good policy and start standing up against these people. But I digress.

Why would we continue to penalise people for not having had the COVID jab when it is now accepted by almost everyone, apart from the hypochondriacs, of course, and the people whose X bios still have those little syringes in them, along with the Ukraine flag and the LGBTQIA2S+ flag and all the other garbage, or who have photos of themselves on their social media still wearing masks to this day? Ridiculous. COVID is not a serious illness. It's just not. I'm sure you all know someone in here who has had COVID and has been just fine. Of course, sure, COVID can be fatal. Sure, it can, if you've got serious comorbidities—okay, fair enough—or if you're 85 years of age. But so can the flu. So can the regular flu. Did we shut down the nation for the flu? Did we impose mandates? Did we lock you in your house? Did we do what Victoria did and say, 'You can't go five kays from your house, because, if you go five kays from your house, the virus will get you; if you go one kay, no worries'? Back in Victoria, if you went to a restaurant: 'You can't stand up. If you stand up—trust the science!—the virus will get you. It's going to get you. If you sit down though, no problem. You're safe.' Absolutely ridiculous.

Do we insist that people are vaccinated against the flu before we employ them? Of course not. So why on this issue? As I said, it doesn't make any sense at all. But not only is it senseless; it's hypocritical, and it is morally wrong. The only reason that I can see for continuing COVID vaccine mandates in certain industries is pigheadedness. That's it. I get it; having enforced mandates to now drop them out of the blue—to just drop them—is something of an admission of error. And who wants to admit error? But, on this point, I give credit to one man, the former New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet, who in his valedictory speech admitted that the COVID-19 mandates were in fact a mistake. His admission, sadly, comes a little late for those who were already forced to take the vaccine against their will under his government, which I might add was a Liberal government. Liberal Party, have you read your 'we believe' statement lately? It might be time for you to jump on your website and read your 'we believe' statement because, let's face it, you're being wiped into obscurity very slowly because you don't stand up for your own principles. You know what, Liberal Party? If you want to win elections, if you want to take back the states from the socialists, just stick to your principles. You don't need to do anything else. Read your 'we believe' statement. Read the speeches by that great man, Menzies. Have a look at it, and just do what he said. You don't need to reinvent anything. Just do that because, if you don't, you're going to continue to slide into the nothingness that you are becoming. And you're going to embolden the crossbench. And you know what? My time will come. It may not be today, but my time will come.

Now, Perrottet—at least Perrottet admitted publicly that his policy was wrong. At least that. This should have never been enforced in the first place, but at least he admitted it. The reluctance to admit to error I think is just stubbornness. That's what it is. It's stubbornness. Are we pushing people today not for medical reasons, not for scientific reasons, but for reasons of pride? Are we pushing them to have the mandates on them still because of reasons of pride? Is that what's going on? I think maybe it is. Certain senators, bureaucrats and employers still simply don't want to admit that they potentially got it wrong. But I want to admit: pride does not make for good public policy or the fair treatment of citizens. It just does not. Vaccine mandates, in 2024, for an illness that in the vast majority of people is nothing but a cold do not make sense, and they will never make sense in any context whatsoever. They'll never make sense in any context whatsoever.

I wholeheartedly support Senator Hanson's bill. I urge my fellow senators to do the same. I don't know if they will. They will probably not, because you know what? You don't have a backbone. You can't stand on your own. You can't just say no to the apparatchiks in the background—the bureaucrats that influence your decision making. Stand on your own two feet! Be a man, have some cojones and do what's right for your country. Do what's right for your people. Don't do what the little insects in the bureaucracy want you to do. To all the ministers in this place, I can't stand you guys. You don't make decisions for yourself. You always defer back to the bureaucracy. Am I right? I know you do. Stop referring to the bureaucracy. Make the decisions; take accountability. You were elected to basically run the show. Don't let the bureaucrats tell you what to do, those insects. That's what they are. They are insects. You know what I would do if I were ever in government? The very first thing that I would do is sack half of these bureaucrats. I'd put them out on their butts and I'd say: 'You're never working for the public service again, you bums. Get out of here!'