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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I note that government mismanagement of COVID has fuelled rampant inflation, has created a debt blowout, has destroyed jobs, businesses and families and has created a two-tier society. Louis Pasteur, the famed 19th century microbiologist, said that individuals, communities and nations expect governments to use all the available tools of science and public policy to combat the threat of infectious disease. And where such tools are lacking or poorly used, responsible leaders are expected to take action, plugging the gaps and enhancing execution. Australia's COVID-19 response, as we reeled from failure to disaster, was neither enhancing nor focused on plugging gaps.

As our cost of living and mortgage costs spiral, we must ensure that the poor planning, failures and uncontrolled government spending never happen again—we must. Labor went through COVID-19 and meekly agreed with the Liberals and Nationals. Instead of standing up for Australia, Labor hid behind their state health bureaucrats' decisions. When state government decisions, based on poor research and unproven vaccines, steamrolled our freedoms and rights, Labor and the unions did nothing to protect us or our freedom of choice. Labor states are not fixing ambulance waiting times or ramping. Australians are now unsure if they can trust their healthcare system to protect them when and where they need help.

We must have a detailed forensic analysis of what went right and what went wrong. We must show the people we have learned from the COVID mismanagement. Early on we were told there was no need for masks. Later we heard this was because the government did not have enough masks in stock for us. Then the injections that were forced upon us still left the aged and the vulnerable at risk, and injected people are now dying. There was no real COVID plan; there still is no real COVID plan. The politicians and bureaucrats just had a template for forming layers of committees to protect themselves from accountability. Look at the fake national cabinet and its secret decisions.

Madam Acting Deputy President O'Neill, I refer you to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 report and recommendation 17:

The committee recommends that a Royal Commission be established to examine Australia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic to inform preparedness for future COVID-19 waves and future pandemics.

What happened? Why do we need a royal commission? It is because only a royal commission is likely to have the power necessary to compel the expert health advice Australian governments relied on to justify and implement pandemic measures. Much of this advice has been hidden from the Australian people, and we're starting to find out why it's been hidden. We need a royal commission because this inquiry must be completely transparent to the Australian public. Failing to learn from our mistakes means that Australia will be just as unprepared next time as we were this time and more people will die—needlessly die.

There have been so many errors of judgement during COVID—for example, government taking recommendations from medical bureaucrats without considering the economic impact on jobs and businesses, which cost more lives; lockdowns, border closures and business failures; rampant conflicts of interest with big pharma; putting pressure on doctors to comply instead of caring for patients; school closures and the impact on our mental health; cancer and cardiac patients being barred from hospital, and treatments that led to a rise in mortality; people being denied treatment; the mismanagement of hotel quarantine and the construction of expensive facilities far too late to be used for COVID; regulations that introduced a terrible and devastating new 'no jab, no job' society; and more.

The question of whether a person died of or with COVID is meaningless to a grieving family. If we had protected our aged and vulnerable better, fewer would have died and the rest of us could have got back to work sooner. Australians want to know that we will never have another COVID debacle. We cannot afford the cost in dollars, jobs or human lives. Australians must come together as one community, as one nation, to tell Labor we want the royal commission the Senate committee inquiry recommended and that Labor chaired.

Today we need safe jobs, affordable housing and rentals. We need tax reform, we need a less complex industrial relations system and we need cheap sustainable energy. COVID-19 mismanagement must not become Labor's excuse for letting Australians down on these other important issues. I call on all present in the Senate to support our request for a royal commission on behalf of the Australian people.

Debate adjourned.