Coronavirus Speech

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Coronavirus and Australian Economic Stimulus

Transcript

Thank you mister acting deputy president. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I advise that One Nation will support the government’s measures tackling COVID-19, Coronavirus.

We don’t agree with them all, yet now is when the government that the people elected must be allowed to govern. I will raise serious questions about the government’s approach to fulfilling its three core responsibilities.

Protecting life, protecting property and protecting freedom. All three are relevant tonight. We are well aware of the devastating effects and the human tragedy that this virus is leaving in its wake around the world.

Now it is taking a hold and its attack on Australia and on Australians. Many people have died, and unfortunately, many more will die or be scarred. The World Health Organisation says that of the people who contract the virus, 3.4% will die, yet there are many factors, including transmission rate and whether or not a nations health care system is overwhelmed.

Experts tell us that everyone will eventually get Coronavirus. Using these figures simplistically means that 850,000 Australians would die. That’s staggering, yet we must remain calm though, because such broad figures cannot be applied so simply, and we can do much better when we are committed.

Italy’s early figures show a fatality rate much higher than this 3.4%. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, much, much lower around one tenth. The first step is to protect people, to prevent deaths.

That means stopping or reducing the transmission, and that means in part stopping human interaction. This virus easily transmits itself from human to human. Secondly, preventing overwhelming of our health care system, so that everyone can get effective treatment.

Thirdly, identifying economic impacts, serious economic challenges, because without human interactions, economies contract. Fourth, identifying which industries, sectors and individuals will need assistance.

Fifth, what are the sources of funding and the areas for reducing peoples expenses. And finally, we need to consider how to restore our economy afterwards. That involves short term and long term factors to restore our nation’s productive capacity and economic resilience.

Let’s return to the first step. Some foreign governments acted swiftly to stop the virus. They immediately closed borders and sent people home to protect them and to help isolate and stop the virus.

They proactively quarantined, including closing schools while infection numbers were low. They took immediate action to help curb the spread of this killer. We may or may not know who shares this deadly virus with us, a friend, a relative who does not know they even have the virus themselves, yet the death rate isn’t the only determining factor regarding how deadly a pandemic can be.

It will be the impact on our families, our businesses, on the economy, and on our way of life. Who knows what life will be like after this storm passes. Minister, every day Australians are more and more concerned, and we rely on our governments to protect us, yet in Canberra yesterday we saw shoppers mingling normally, the same in Brisbane restaurants.

It’s time for decisive action to protect our health, our children, our jobs and their countries future. The sooner we act to stop transmitting the virus and isolate it, the safer Australians will be, and the fewer will die.

The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic was the deadliest flu season we know, killing around 50 million people. The Coronavirus, COVID-19 is no less a killer, and it is easier for humans to catch than 1918 Spanish flu.

Now I base my facts, my data on reports from Taiwan, South Korea, China and Singapore, and from the western countries that are currently floundering like Italy, the UK, the USA and more.

I have become very concerned that we need decisive action, and that we need a stronger, broader, deeper response now. The question is which is more important, peoples lives or the economy?

It’s not appropriate to try a balancing act. The high priority is to protect peoples health, and I commend the government for acting, yet we have to be both dynamic and aggressive in attacking this enemy, and base decisions on data.

From a strategic point of view, our choices in combating this deadly virus are either mitigation or suppression, yet what does this mean? Mitigation involves voluntary isolation and trying to reduce the impact like Italy, France, Spain, Britain and the USA, yet this has the potential that very soon we will see overwhelm of our healthcare system, destroy the economy and needlessly cost Australian lives.

Mitigation takes time, and experience overseas, as in Italy, says it is killing more people. Suppression though is preferred, and is the enforced isolation of the population as in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea.

It involves aggressive testing and then managed treatments. Suppression could cut this horrendous mortality rate from five percent in Italy to point six of a percent in South Korea.

The harsh enforcement of suppression is against our democratic ideals, and our friendly outdoors lifestyle, yet doing it will save potentially hundreds of thousands of Australian lives, and this does not include the collateral damage, where people in need are not able to get into intensive care units.

We should not assume that there is a hospital bed waiting for us if we get sick or injured. The data suggests that using mitigation strategies, only one in 30 infected people will be able to get into an ICU bed in Australia.

That means that intensive care units and the health care system will be completely overwhelmed. Patients will be lying in hospital corridors. Nurses and doctors will decide who survives and who dies, and that’s a terrible, scary responsibility for professionals who care.

Media reports from Italy say that people over 80 years of age are now not treated. Some victims of Coronavirus, and there could likely be many, will need intensive care units, because COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, and many people will need intubation.

What is going to happen to those who would normally be referred to an ICU unit for other causes, like major trauma, or severe burns, respiratory failure, organ transplant, car accidents?

Sick or injured Australians may not find a bed that does not already have a Coronavirus patient in it, and that means more deaths. According to the experts and overseas data, suppression is best, but we’re not doing it.

After that, it’s going to take an effective vaccine, which is up to a year away, and then herd immunity, which blocks out the virus when we become immune from already having had COVID-19.

The overseas data seems to show that right now, we need a suppression strategy until we develop a vaccine. Our government isn’t there yet, and complacency kills. Reportedly in South Korea, comprehensive testing for body temperature is followed with testing high temperature people for COVID-19.

Those with the virus are isolated, as are those with weaker immunity. The majority of people stay at work and keep going, that means much less economic disruption to the economy.

Until the government takes stronger action, we’re all going to need to practise social distancing to help minimise the number of people who contract the virus. In simple terms, we all need to keep our distance from others, practise good hygiene, including regular hand washing and surface cleaning, eating well, resting and being considerate of others.

We’ll need to work together to limit exposure to one another, especially with older adults and people with underlying illnesses who have the greatest risk of developing severe symptoms.

Though we do need to take action to contain the spread, and to protect our most vulnerable Australians, we all have to take responsibility for the health and welfare of ourselves and others.

It is time to be care and be kind. We have every reason to stay calm and make decisions based on data and facts.

Minister, a matter of importance is that every day Australians are calling now for detailed and regular information and updates, and people want information when and where we need it, often.

Australians deserve to know the data and the facts about what the government is doing, and what is happening to us here and overseas. Television and the internet may not be available or enough.

The government must engage effectively to keep us all up to date with facts. I especially want to express Australia’s thanks and best wishes to all of our health care professionals, our heroes, for what they are doing, and for what they are going to do in the tough months ahead.

Some have talked about bringing health professionals out of retirement. This may be a good idea, provided the older professionals themselves are not in a high risk group to get this sinister virus.

To all those who step up to the challenge, and to those who support our health care heroes, we thank you. Who knows what Australia and indeed the world will look like after this menace is overcome.

I just hope that the actions that our national and state governments are taking today will be quick and decisive, and ensure that we are saving as many Australian lives as possible. The sooner we are through this event, the sooner we can all get back to normal.

One Nation has scrutinised the bill, and in the interest of speedy action and support for people across our country, will vote in favour. I do those want to address two measures we appose strongly.

Firstly the business growth front. Recently the cross bench came together to appose this legislation. We raised many, many problems with how this terrible legislation would work in practise.

We pointed out that there is already a patient capital industry in this country. This legislation will eliminate it. That will reduce competition for the major banks. That will increase returns for the banks.

We pointed out that Australian tax payers would now subsidise the local arm of foreign corporations to the detriment of Australian owned businesses. We said that the government has no place trying to pick winners in the venture capital space, no place eliminating competition for the banks.

All these objections and more have been ignored. Now I find the bill has been included in the rescue package, so we can no longer appose it. The Liberals, Nationals and Labour worked on this together.

The Liberal, Labour duopoly will do whatever it takes to transfer wealth from everyday Australians to their mates in the banks, even at the cost of wiping out our entire venture capital industry.

I thought this was a rescue package, not a wipe out the banks, wipe out the competition to the banks package. I do find one thing interesting, mister acting deputy president, one of the suggestions by Senator Patrick was to turn this fund into an underwriting fund.

That would allow the existing venture capital market to make loans the government underwrites. This is a much safer bet for the tax payers. Our risk ends as soon as the loan is made.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the rescue package and saw the guarantee of lending to small and medium enterprises bill, a 20 billion dollar fund, not an underwriting fund, a guarantee fund.

The tax payers will be guaranteed 20 billion dollars worth of loans. My first thought was, doesn’t this fund make the business growth fund moot? What has the venture capital industry done to bring the wrath of the banks down on them?

The Liberal Labour banking cheer squad have moved the risk for 20 billion dollars worth of small business loans from the banks to tax payers, yet risk is what the banks deal in. If the government is now picking up the banking sector risk, is that government becoming a bank?

So let me take that a step further, it is One Nation policy to create a peoples bank, to give the big four banks some real competition in the areas in which they are complete failures. Failures in talking about honesty and integrity and accountability.

A peoples bank would be really handy right now, at least we would be propping up a bank we own. The second area that causes us alarm is the 115 billion dollars this government and the reserve bank is about to spend on securitized mortgages.

At senate estimates earlier this month, I asked the reserve bank if they had actually checked the 300 billion dollars they’re already holding in securitized mortgages. By checked, I mean picked a trench at random, cracked it open, made sure the paperwork was in order, the properties were correctly valued, and the mortgaging income and assets were correct.

The reserve bank admitted to me that it has never opened any of these trenches. Now I know from banking victims, cases that flood my office, that mortgages are being altered after being issued.

The scam is to make a mortgage look better so it can be securitized. This government must check these things before it buys them with tax payer money. Now let me turn to the one thing that is missing from this package, and that is simply the future.

Can this government really only think a few months ahead? Where is the vision in this rescue package? Why are we not getting cracking today on nation building schemes to create new productive capacity to power this nation to a future?

To create fresh wealth for every day Australians. Where is the Bradfield scheme? Where are the dams, the power stations, the ports and airports? Where are the railways to places that need them?

We’re selling off our farms, shrinking rural Australia, shredding jobs and sending the profits from this new corporate agriculture to the Cayman Islands. Where are the governments measures to save rural Australia?

Wait, Liberal Labour governments are the ones killing rural Australia for 30 years. Where is the billion dollars for South Australia’s South East drainage project? To turn the drains around and send 400 gigaliters a year of fresh water back into the Coorong.

This will save our Ramsar listed wetland, with all the tourism and commerce that brings. It will save the Menindee Lakes wetland from being drained again. It will free up hundreds of gigaliters of water for irrigation, to grow billions of dollars of food and fibre for the world and earn us exports.

Where is the government’s response to the PFAS contamination? Yes that will be expensive to fix, yet it will inject billions into regions right across Australia, as we move effected residents out into like for like properties, and remediate the environmental damage. What a perfect time to be doing that.

What about restoring land rights, land use rights to farmers who bought them, yet the Howard Liberal government and many state Labour governments since have stolen without compensation.

If not under our constitution, farmers, if not restored under our constitution, farmers need to be compensated. Restoration or compensation, so our farmers can get on with the job. What about stopping the waste of billions on subsidies for expensive, intermittent solar and wind power?

Bring jobs back to Australia with affordable energy using our abundance of energy currently exported to our competitors for cheap energy. The minister of age care today told us that a major global source of personal protective equipment for healthcare and age care workers is, wait for it, Wuhan, the virus epicentre.

This virus has taught us about the stupidity and the cost of the globalist elites in United Nations preaching interdependence. This virus shows that interdependence is really dependency.

We need to restore our productive capacity, our economic resilience and our economic independence. One Nation would build for our future and put people to work, not just put the entire nation onto unemployment benefits.

For this, we rely on our government to protect us, to help protect our health, our economy, our jobs and our way of life. In all respects, we need decisive action and we need it now. People need reassurance, confidence, hope, support and care.

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Disgraceful Comments from Greens Senator Larissa Waters

I’m no fan of ‘Scotty From Marketing’, but this comment from Green’s Larissa Waters is a disgrace.

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Farm Household Assistance

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The Farm Household Allowance Bill was on today’s agenda as a matter of importance.

Transcript

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I support this bill. The reform to make the farm household allowance a flat rate paid on current income, helps to reduce the regulatory burden on farms, who already work long hours for decreasing rewards.

These income audits were a massive distraction, so this is a good move from the government, a welcome move, the extension of time for conducting an assessment helps farms involve their accountants, or bookkeepers, in a process that was previously an ordeal.

My concern in light of current events, is that COVID-19 assistance is targeted at urban, and not rural areas. Our farmers have come through the worst drought in 100 years and the drought may or may not be ending.

What we do know is that the rivers are full, but the damns are empty. Farmers are watching this water, this bounty of water, running down rivers and out to sea. General-security water licence holders are still on zero allocation, they have no confidence that irrigation licences will be honoured.

If international trade is being disrupted, we need to grow food, we need to allow more water to be taken for irrigation. The environment has had a drink, a bellyful, from recent rains, it’s now the farmer’s turn.

What good is farm assistance if farmers go broke, because we took too much water for the environment and not enough for food and fibre? And I’d like to talk about the productive capacity of our country, especially the rural productive capacity.

We have destroyed it in the last 20 years. Farmers have had their ability, their right, to use the land taken from them, stolen from them, to comply with international agreements starting with the UN’s Kyoto protocol.

We need that back, or farmers paid compensation for the loss of their rights. Secondly, water, I’ve just touched on water, but we need to have investment in water infrastructure, and make sure that farmers have that water, because its essential for food. And we need energy prices to be lowered.

We have the world’s biggest exports of natural gas and coal, and yet we have among the highest prices of electricity in this country. We have farmers not able to irrigate, because they can’t afford the electricity to pump water in a country that’s blessed with energy.

What is going on? We have to restore the productive capacity of our country, which means getting back to sensible electricity policies, energy policies, so that we have, once again the lowest prices in the world, the best policies, we’ve got now, the worst.

Restoring the productive capacity will involve, also, other sectors, including education, but it starts with land use, the right to use the land that farmers have bought, the right to access water at sensible prices, free of corruption, and the right to electricity at reasonable prices.

I also want to talk about one other aspect, and that is we have fallen for the globalist trap, of interdependence, inter-dependence, and what that really is, is dependence, because when we’re in interdependent on someone else, with around the globe, and they shut down, we’re suddenly dependent on them.

Australia has got abundant minerals, abundant energies, abundant agricultural resources. We’re not using these resources. Australia has enormous potential with its people, with its resources and its opportunities, and we need to rekindle these, and get back to putting Australia first.

No more interdependence, because that is simply dependence We need to become independent, as we were and we were independent we thrived. And that, when we restore our independence, we will restore our economic resilience and we’ll also restore our productive capacity.

So we compliment the government on this initiative, but we need to go much much further to restore the productive capacity, and economic resilience of our country. Thank you, Mr. President.

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Question Time – COVID 19

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Today I asked the government questions about why they have chosen to use the Mitigation strategy to deal with the Corona Virus rather than the Suppression method

Mitigation, involves voluntary isolation and trying to reduce the impact like Italy and the USA, yet this has the potential that very soon we will overwhelm our healthcare system.

Suppression, is the enforced isolation of the population like in Taiwan recently. It involves aggressive testing and then managed treatment – not only has significantly lower fatalities, it has much, much less impact on economy.

Senator Cash’s first answer showed no understanding of the two vastly different strategies available to national governments.

Second answer: reportedly South Koreans test everyone’s temperature when entering buildings/workplaces and if high temp they get tested for CV. Then if fail the test, isolated. If pass the test go to work with a note saying high temp is not due to CV.

Additionally I asked why Australia’s hospital beds: in the 55 years from 1961 to 2015, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people in Australia fell from 12 to 3.8, a decrease of two-thirds.

In Italy, the number fell from nine to 3.5. In South Korea, though, it has risen from less than one to almost 12. In Japan it increased from nine to 13. What will be the impact of high immigration numbers on coronavirus’s potential for overwhelming our hospital system?

The signs are that a senior minister does not understand the core issues that are in play. She parrots the stock answers from the Department.

There is data now that shows we need to question everything and get the data that is now becoming available around the world.

Transcript

  • Thank you, Mr. President, my question is to the minister representing the Minister for Health. Has the minister gathered data to compare the two different virus management approaches being mitigation, used in Italy, France, and U.S.A. and elsewhere, or suppression, practised successfully in Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore? In asking this question, I note that South Korea first let things get out of hand like Italy, and then, through rigorous testing, specific isolation and treatment, the South Koreans quickly brought it under control at minimal cost and with minimal disruption to their economy. Has the minister gathered data to compare the two different virus management approaches, being mitigation, that has failed, and suppression that is proving to be so effective and successful?
  • [President] The minister representing the Minister for Health, Senator Cash.
  • Thank you, Mr. President, and I thank Senator Roberts for his question. In relation to the gathering of data itself, I will take that on notice, but in terms of the Australian Government’s approach, Senator Roberts, I’ll reconfirm what the Minister for Finance, the Leader of the Government, has stated. This is an unprecedented challenge and it has required an unprecedented response. In terms of the Australian Government’s response, you’d be aware, Australia is well-placed with a world-class health system. We also have a health system and health emergency responses that are flexible, they are scalable, and they are able to respond effectively to the evolving situation. Australia has been responding to rapid changes in the epidemiology of COVID-19 and activated and is implementing the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response plan for Novel Coronavirus, which as you now know, is known as the COVID-19 Plan. Australia, because of the response that we have taken, is well-placed to respond to ill travellers and those at risk of contracting infection with border isolation, surveillance, and contact tracing mechanisms already in place. You’ll also be aware that a 24/7 national coronavirus health information line is available. for the benefit of Hansard, on 1800 020 080, and what this health line actually does is provides health and situation information on the COVID-19 outbreak. Senator Roberts, I would also point out, this is very, very important, the Australian Government is also aware of COVID-19 disinformation, misinformation, and scams–
  • Order, Senator Cash.
  • Targeting Australians.
  • [President] Time for the answer has expired. Senator Roberts, a supplementary question.
  • Thank you, Mr. President. Minister, if the Government adopted rigorous testing, combined with strict isolation for people with the virus, and for vulnerable people, then most every day Australians could return to work with minimal disruption to them or our economy. Has the minister modelled this, and will you consider changing Australia’s mitigation strategy that is failing disastrously in Italy and wherever it is used, and instead adopt a rigorous testing and suppression strategy, reportedly highly successful in South Korea and elsewhere?
  • [President] Senator Cash.
  • Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Roberts, to confront the threat of Coronavirus the Australian Government is ensuring, we know who has it, and where they are. Australia actually, as the Minister for Health has said often, has one of the highest Coronavirus testing rates in the world. I’ll just repeat that, one of the highest Coronavirus testing rates in the world with over 135,000 tests, they have been completed so far. In terms of the outcome of those tests, for every 100 tests completed, 99 have returned a negative result. I’ll say that again, for every 100 tests completed, 99 have returned a negative result. And that is why it is important that testing is only undertaken where the patient meets the national guidelines for testing.
  • [President] Order, Senator Cash. Senator Roberts, a final supplementary question.
  • Minister, a second associated factor, hospital beds. In the 55 years from 1961 to 2015, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people in Australia fell from 12 to 3.8, a decrease of two-thirds. In Italy, the number fell from nine to 3.5. In South Korea, though, it has risen from less than one to almost 12. Japan increased from nine to 13. What would be the impact of high immigration numbers on coronavirus’ potential for overwhelming of our hospital system?
  • [President] Senator Cash.
  • Well again, Senator Roberts, the Australian Government has put in place incredibly strict procedures at the border. You will actually be aware that we have taken a number of decisions in relation to those who are now able to enter Australia, and in fact, a number of the states themselves, and Queensland being the most recent, have also now put in place very, very strict procedures in relation to who is able to enter the particular state, and if they do, in terms of the self-isolation that they are now required to undertake. So, Senator Roberts, in answer to your question, the Australian Government has taken a comprehensive response to the issues that you have raised.
  • [President] Senator Antic.
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Kick Labor out of Bundamba

Let’s kick Labor out of Bundamba at this Saturday’s by-election.

Here’s why.

Transcript

There’s a by-election for the state, Queensland state seat of Bundamba this coming Saturday, the 28th of March. And there’ll be pre-poll every day leading up to that at five particular booths.

For those who don’t know in Bundamba, the Labor Party has a commitment to make Ipswich into Tipswich, with massive, new incinerators, massive new dumps, super dumps.

One Nation’s Sharon Bell, candidate, opposes that. Labor’s electricity gouging has really hurt Queensland families and individuals and businesses.

It’s exported jobs overseas to foreign countries which burn our coal at a far cheaper rate because they don’t have the government impost and the subsidies for stupid intermittent energies like solar and wind.

So you’re paying for this green fantasy that Annastacia Palaszczuk is driving and taking money out of family wallets, taking jobs out of Ipswich and Bundamba. Sharon Bell will fight to reverse that.

And then the corruption. Everyone knows about the corruption in Ipswich. Labour Council for many years and Jo-Ann Miller was the previous member of Bundamba and she fought very hard to remove that corruption, to expose it.

She spent 16 years and they bullied her and intimidated her. So Labour, is the bulliers. Make sure that people in Bundamba vote to end the corruption in Queensland that extends from Ipswich right through to the Queensland state parliament.

Jo-Ann Miller did her best. She’s fiesty, she’s strong, she’s honest, she’s courageous. But they belted at her. And now, to replace Jo-Ann Miller, Labour is putting up a candidate that is a blow in from Melbourne.

He’s only arrived in the state a few months ago and he was put onto a job, paid more than $200,000 a year on a government agency. How’s that? He’s in favour of the dumps.

He’s not gonna be doing anything about the corruption because he won’t know where to start. And he’s not gonna stop electricity price gouging. Sharon, though, Sharon is just like Jo-Ann.

Fiesty, honest, strong. She listens and like Jo-Ann, she will expose the corruption and she will get stuck into the basic issues for Bundamba. She’ll make sure that we don’t have any more privatisation on her watch.

She’ll make sure that privatisation, by the way from both Liberal and Labour. She’ll make sure, as a mother of three, that she pursues basic education, restoring education standards.

No more political correctness with Sharon Bell. A basic down-to-earth person. So on Saturday and in the pre-polling, make your vote count. Sharon Bell, number one for Bundamba.

And make sure to make your vote count, that it’s formal, that you put two, three, and four in the other boxes. Put ’em in any order you like because you’re the owner of the preferences.

So if you liked Jo-Ann Miller, vote Sharon Bell, number one for Bundamba. If you like Bundamba and its people, vote Sharon Bell for Bundamba. She lives there. She knows the issues. And if you love Australia, vote Sharon Bell, one for Bundamba.

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Letter to the PM: COVID-19 Strategy

Dear Prime Minister

RE: COVID-19

Your Treasury staff are commended for the Coronavirus legislation package your government presented to the Senate on Monday 23 March 2020. 

With the enormity of the challenge our country faces and the urgency to present your government’s COVID-19 package we anticipated written legislation may have had a few ragged edges yet our office is impressed with your product’s quality. 

Although we disagree with some aspects of your Coronavirus support package, in the interests of ensuring swift support to the people of Australia whose lives have been jolted through loss of income we voted to support it in full. 

We acknowledge that there is no manual on how to respond to the serious health and security crisis now confronting all Australians. The situation is dynamic and initially you needed to act promptly based on minimal data. 

Fourthly and most importantly, overseas experience has now produced a large and growing yet still incomplete body of data, evidence and experience. Countries like Italy, France, Spain and possibly the USA and UK are floundering with healthcare systems either overwhelmed or facing overwhelm. They seem to have focussed on balancing human health against economic impact and in doing so have seriously compromised both. 

Countries such as Italy aiming to mitigate the virus’ impact and to “flatten the curve” are floundering and their people dying needlessly in droves. 

It seems that South Korea started on Italy’s path to disaster yet reportedly quickly learned from initial experience. It instituted massive body temperature testing of its people as a front-line filter to testing for COVID-19 that in turn led to isolation of people with the virus. People vulnerable to the virus were isolated as well. That apparently meant that the bulk of South Korea’s workforce could return to work safely. Page 2 of 3 

As expected countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore that are focussing their efforts on ensuring people’s health and security are succeeding at protecting their people. A second benefit to protecting people is that through quickly getting people safely back to work these countries are suffering much less economic impact. 

Having taken some time to appreciate your government’s package and actions to date I am left wondering what strategy our country is following: the Italian and western strategy of mitigation or the South Korean and East Asian strategy of virus suppression? 

It seems that your government has chosen a path similar to that of Italy that will soon lead to our health system being overwhelmed and in turn possibly lead to tens of thousands of needless and otherwise avoidable Australian deaths. 

My experience across many fields shows accurate data is the key to making sound decisions and while we acknowledge the initial lack of data, we understand that data is now becoming available. 

My son is a layperson and without medical qualifications yet his basic research alerted me to the dangers we face. Although I was initially blasé, my conversations with him prodded me to investigate further. The emerging data then swung me into realising that my initial response was wrong and that we must prioritise public health and safety as our primary goal. 

I offer you the following articles that illustrate the concepts involved, the lessons that can be learned and provide empirical data. 

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56

Further, I strongly support mobilising our defence forces, and especially its well-trained medics and relocatable hospitals to strengthen virus hot-spots with front-line health care and triage that could ease the coming pressure on hospital emergency departments and Intensive Care Units. 

Finally, I take this opportunity to stress that our country’s future depends on restoring our national productive capacity and economic resilience that have been weakened severely over the last three decades. A second unfortunate result of the political mantra preaching globalisation and interdependence since World War Two has been dependence on foreign nations and corporations. 

I believe that dependency and weakness need to be reversed. We must address this urgently and I am willing to assist in implementing policies based on solid data that will restore the fundamentals that people need to be productive, resilient and secure. 

We remain ready to assist in the immediate and medium terms to bring back Australia. 

Everyday Australians expect our governments to protect us and our economy.

I implore you to change strategy if required based on evaluating the emerging data and to make the hard and possibly initially unpopular decisions. If you do so I am confident that within months the people will appreciate what will come to be seen as you demonstrating strength, leadership and care. 

Yours Faithfully 

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

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COVID 19 (Coronavirus) Special Sitting of the Senate

I spoke in this special sitting of the Senate dealing with the Corona Virus (COVID19).

Transcript

We applaud Senator Cormann’s opening comments and also Senator Keneally’s opening comments. This is, as Senator Cormann said, a new threat to our nation, our health, people’s health and security and our economics.

COVID-19, as Senator Cormann said, is moving so quickly and on so many fronts. Yet Senator Cormann, through you, Mister President, when we went shopping yesterday to get some food in Canberra, I saw business as usual.

People are not aware of what is happening, not aware of the threats of this so we need to work on that. We will, One Nation, will work with the government to serve the people but what we want to do is to not just slow down the virus but to shut it down to save lives and to minimise economic impact.

Saving jobs will require restoring the productive capacity of our country. This, as many people have said around the world, is now a war and we’re on war footing and that’s why it’s so important to have our productive capacity restored.

Italy had an excuse for the mess in which it finds itself. Open borders and ignorance in dealing with a very new threat, yet South Korea made the same mistake initially but it has rebounded remarkably through rigorous testing, isolating key people and then getting back to normal.

They’ve had minimal disruptions, so is reported. We need, as Senator Cormann said, to heed the advice of the top medical people. Could I ask everyone in this chamber to look at the data, look at the facts around the world.

We now have that data and facts that Italy and South Korea initially didn’t have and that South Korea is now showing us as is Taiwan, Singapore and even mainland China, are showing how to deal with this.

A third point I’d just like to make is that history shows that some entities during such crises and challenging times take advantage of others. We will make sure, in One Nation, to protect our taxpayers, to protect people’s health. We will join with the government in doing that.

We need though, to remember that we look at the future to restore the productive capacity of our country after 20 years of neglect. We need to restore freedoms as soon as possible because economics depends on interaction of people.

Once we cut that interaction, there is a minimal economic trading. So I ask everyone in Australia to cooperate with the government. We elected the government, whether you voted for it or not it is the government and we need to go beyond that to ensure the virus is stopped and everyone in Australia has a role in stopping this virus. Thank you Mister President.

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Why I’m going to Canberra this week

I’ve made the decision to attend Senate sitting tomorrow in Canberra.

I have driven from home and camped at Myall Lakes last night in NSW on the way down to limit contact with others.

It will be a shortened sitting week to pass essential Bills and the stimulus package.

While I could have not attended, I have chosen to keep an eye on the Liberals and Labor to make sure they don’t try any funny business.

That is what you voted me to do.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. We’re on our way to Canberra by road. We’re driving down from Brisbane for a sitting of Parliament, Lower House, House of Representatives and the Senate, with vastly reduced numbers.

We’re doing that for health reasons, because of the health risk of coronavirus. We need to meet to pass essential legislation for keeping the government running, the country running, and especially to pass the stimulus package.

We’re having minimal staff in Canberra with us, because we wanna minimise the health risk. Why am I going to Canberra? Very simple. I don’t trust either of the tired old parties, the Labour Party and Liberal Party.

I wanna make sure that the legislation they pass, doesn’t include some sneaky little hook for the Australian people. On our way down yesterday, I camped out at the Myall Lakes, which is been a favourite spot of mine since I was a child.

And, I made sure I stayed in isolation from people. It’s very, very important to stay safe, be hygienic, keep isolated, keep a safe distance from people, because this really is serious. Very challenging times.

We need to co-operate with each other, and care for each other. We also need to rely on the government, but to not let them get away with anything. We’ve gotta keep, we’ve elected them, they need to get on with the job.

They need some authority to get on with the job, and protecting the people, which is their number one responsibility. But, we need to make sure that we keep an eye on them, to make sure that we hold them accountable.

We need to provide oversight. So, during this whole time, rely on the government, let it go, let it do it’s job, but hold them accountable.

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One Nation Murray Darling Basin Update

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The recent bushfires, some rains and now the CoronaVirus has taken attention away from farmers still struggling with drought or the Murray Darling Basin plan which is still failing to deliver water to farmers.

One Nation has not forgotten about our farmers and is still fighting for a fair and equitable allocation of water.

In this video I give a quick summary of my investigation so far and then an update on what we are continuing to do behind the scenes to restore the productive capacity of regional Australia.

TRANSCRIPT

Some people recently have asked us for an update on what we’re doing in the Murray-Darling Basin. It’s still a very very important issue. Just because some rains have come does not mean it’s over yet. There’s a long way to go. So I’ll just first of all, remind people of what we’ve done. Back in 2017 in February, I listened to people in the Ballone Shire Council, in their chambers in St. George and they told us about the devastation due to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the plan in Southern Queensland around the border and Northern New South Wales.

We listened to those people and we saw that they were right. Then we went as a result of that. Pauline and I went down the whole Murray River, right down to the barrages and the river mouth and we learned quite a bit from irrigators and farmers in northern Victoria, Southern New South Wales and South Australia. Then I got knocked out of the Senate and we were about to continue doing a lot more. When I came back in, the first thing we did, was start to understand the Murray-Darling Basin again.

So, we first of all did an overflight. We took off from Albury went right down the Murray River, down around the lower lakes, the Coorong and then up to Mildura, then up the entire Darling and then flew to the north of the basin above Charleville and then came back to Goondiwindi and then over the Clarence River catchment area, and then down the centre of the basin and actually back to Mungundi and then down the centre and then to Albury. We got a good overview of the whole lot. Wasn’t much water anyway, because it was so dry.

Then we went on the ground and we went to Southern Queensland, Northern New South Wales listening to people; irrigators, communities, businesses. We then went down, flew down to Adelaide and went down the lower lakes, the Coorong, then back up through the irrigated areas and non irrigated areas of South Australia, then along the Murray listening to people in southern New South Wales, Northern Victoria. And then we went along the Murrumbidgee.

And we went down the Murrumbidgee and partly under the Murray again, then up the Darling and ended up at Broken Hill. We’ve got a little bit more travelling to do, a little bit more listening with people on the ground in Central and New South Wales. And we’ve also got a few issues that we want resolved. But most importantly, we want to listen now to some experts. These are not technical experts as such, not because they’ve got, they’re not experts because they’ve got initials after their name or they’ve got a title.

These are experts, like former people in the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. Highly regarded. People who’ve done a lot of research, a lot of experience in the area. We want to listen to them, and then we pull it all together. But just now I just want to bring you up to date with a few things. First of all, the need for trust. There’s very little trust. Why? Because there’s so little data, there’s so little openness, there’s so little listening from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.

And as a result, people are blaming each other between the regions. The flood harvesters in Northern New South Wales and Southern Queensland are blaming South Australia. South Australians are blaming everyone. Southerners in New South Wales and Victoria are blaming the Northerners and South Australia. And we’ve been told that we will get a water registry. Well, the federal government has had eight years to do that and still hasn’t got a water registry.

So what we’re doing is, we’re calling on the federal government to put in place a water registry in 12 months over the next 12 months. You should should be able to do that in a year. The data is largely there. But it needs to be part of a larger watering reporting system comprising the whole basin so we know where the water is coming in, we know where the water is being stored and we know where it’s flowing out. That’s essential. So that people have an understanding, a transparent understanding of the water flows.

The second thing. We want irrigation water to be treated somewhat as environmental water. The losses in irrigation water flow into the environment. Some of the irrigation water itself flows into the environment. So what we’re calling for, is carriage losses in irrigation water to be treated as environmental water because it ends up in the environment. Third thing as part of that by the way, we want farmers to be recognised that they are protecting the environment.

Their experience, their own livelihoods and the future value of their land depends upon them taking care of it. These people are the guardians of the land. Instead of being seen, treated as villains, they need to be treated as guardians of the land. The fourth thing we want is integrity. We want to restore integrity to the Basin. There is corruption.

We know that! Some of the irrigation authorities have a lot at stake and some of the people are telling us around the Basin that some irrigation authorities are corrupt. And with the amount of money involved, it’s easy to see how that could happen. And we know that some people have become very very wealthy as a result. So what we’re calling for is a Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission. Now what we’ve got to do, I just told you, we’ve still got a little bit more to do.

And then what we’ll do is we’ll put a plan out to the whole community. We’ve already released based upon our early understandings at the water convoy. Last year we released our basic plan. It was just a discussion paper, to get people’s feedback. That will become the basis of a policy. It is not our policy yet, but we will, we’ve got a little bit more work to do and then we will restore water to the farmers through a policy that we’ll be releasing to everyone. The plan ultimately is to restore water to the farmers and have a solid sustainable Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

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Fishing industry under threat

Transcript

Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts and I’m in Rockhampton with David Swindells and Rob Pie. They’re both fishermen, they’ve been fishing for many years. And I am absolutely stunned and shocked with the stories I’ve heard in the last hour and a half. So we’re just gonna pick a couple of really startling stories. Can you tell us what’s involved when you catch Black Jewfish?

Well, just for me to go and catch a Black Jewfish, which has a quota on of 20 tonne for the commercial sector.

So that’s for a year, the whole commercial sector gets 20 tonnes of Jewfish. Just 20 tonnes for the whole year. I think this year it took 48 days to catch that quota. After that, we were not allowed to go and catch any more. But, while I could got and catch ’em, just to go and catch this fish, I had to ring up fisheries every morning before I left the boat ramp.

Were they in Brisbane?

Oh, gotta ring up Brisbane, on an automated system, which isn’t real good. Then, once I go out there fishing, or I catch a fish, when I come home I’ve got to ring ’em before I get to the boat ramp, let ’em know how many fish I’ve got. I’ve got to the boat ramp, then I have to take ’em to the wholesaler. And when I go to the wholesaler, all this period of time I cannot let that fish outta my sight.

So you can’t even have a leak?

Oh, I wouldn’t want it to be for too long. But anyway, then I can’t let it outta me sight. Then, once I’ve sold it to the wholesaler, I then have to do what they call a CDR, docket to the wholesaler. Then he can have it. Then I have to ring up Brisbane once again and tell them who I’ve sold it to and the weight and the number of fish. And I thought that would be enough. Then I go home again, I then have to put it into my normal logbooks, to send that to Brisbane again. And I have to send that to Brisbane within seven days of entering it in of catching the fish. Now, these regulations are over the top. Now, the State Government has to come and do something for the fishermen. I’m sick and tired of the fishermen being the lower class. It happens all the time. We are not to be stood on. It’s about time the public and the State Government got up and stood up for us.

Now, fishing is one of the biggest, I think it’s the world’s biggest recreational sport, maybe apart from golf. So, you’re not opposed to recreational fishermen. But, if a recreational fisherman catches a Black Jewfish, does he have to do this?

No, if a recreational fisherman catches a Black Jewfish, all he has to do is bring it in whole. He is not allowed to gut it or anything, same as we’re not allowed to gut ’em.

Doesn’t have to report it?

He doesn’t have to report it.

So, just one thing, before we move off your topic and go onto one of Rob’s. The 48 days of catching Black Jewfish for the whole industry, 20 tonnes, last year it was 48 days. So the rest, the other ten and a half months, there’s no Black Jewfish caught?

There’s no Black Jewfish caught commercially, so the public doesn’t get any fresh fish, once again. Like the net free zones, when they brought them in, they stopped 36% of the wild caught Barramundi being fed to the Queensland consumer. Now, don’t our Queensland consumers have some rights? Or is it only the recreational fishermen that they’re looking after? And as far as I’m concerned, they’re only there to get votes. Votes do not put feeds on the table.

Rob, can you tell us quickly about the costs involved? You’ve got what I would call a dinghy, it’s a big more than that, but it’s a dinghy. We’ll get some photos of it. And it costs a recreational fisherman or anyone who wants to buy that same boat with the outboard motor about $25,000. What do you have to pay for it?

Well, if I was to tear the backside out of it now, and to replace that boat it would cost me upwards of $70,000, without me putting equipment on it to shoot away and retrieve trawl nets, as they class the net with fisheries.

And even though the fish take notice of the moon and the tides and what have you, and the weather and the climate, they don’t pay attention to whether it’s weekend or not as far as I know.

No, no.

But you can’t fish on the weekend, even if the tides are suitable and the moon’s suitable.

I can fish in certain parts of the river, but with the net free zones, when there was nets in the river allowed, that was classed as weekend closure, which allowed the commercial fishermen only to work until 6 p.m. Friday night. It was closed from 6 p.m. Friday night to 6 p.m. Sunday afternoon. And then that was open again on 6 p.m. Sunday night for the commercial to set their nets. So, on the weekend, if you called it weekenders and pros clashing, they saw that weekend clash as a way of softening the blow on it and avoiding the fights or whatever may be. Now the net free zones have been declared, the net free zones still have the trawl areas. The big trawl area here is still closed for weekenders for no apparent reason.

No data, nothing.

No.

A lot of these regulations are not based on data, they go against the data. We haven’t got time now, but you’ve given me phenomenal examples of how this is actually hurting the fish that they’re supposedly trying to protect.

Yes.

It’s making it worse for the Barramundi and other fishes.

Yeah, well not only the Barramundi. Like, the Barramundi, they have problems, they eat their own young. And up to a fair size, actually, I’ve caught fish years ago, like probably a 30 pound Barra, probably had three fish up to 10 inches long in it.

So, you’ve actually noticed

Yes.

That there are fewer fish now with the restrictions that you’ve got on you, with fewer fish now than before when there were no restrictions because what you did was keep the balance.

Yeah, well what we used to do, we’re allowed to keep, until the new logbooks came in, and they threw the logbook from the offshore fishery at us for the trawl fishery and out of about 20 different species that you can catch in the offshore trawl fishery, we only catch about five here. So, it’s a useless piece of gear that we’ve gotta fill in that doesn’t reflect what we can catch. What we can catch is prawns, we catch different varieties of prawns. We catch small mullet, herrings, gar and similar fish. If we catch the prawns, we can keep them. But if we catch herrings or gar or small mullet, we’ve gotta return them to the water.

The people are being heard here. Not only the fishermen, but everyone who eats seafood in Queensland, because we’re bringing in more imported seafood because the locals can’t catch it. And it’s just absolutely insane.

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