Transcript:
Thank you Mr President. I seek to make a statement in response to the Minister’s statement. We acknowledge that there is no manual for dealing with this virus, and we empathise with the government’s challenge.
That is though, all the more reason for the government to openly share data, future projections, and information with the people. As pressures mount regarding personal security, as well as emotionally and financially on people across our nation, any shortage of data is being seen as an absence of trust from the government in the people.
And, that will make it difficult for Australians to in turn, trust government and the parliament. Government trust in the people and honesty, will be met with trust from the people.
One Nation would also like at this time, to thank everyone who is caring for us, and keeping us safe, including healthcare workers, police, defence, emergency workers, and everyone serving others, including helping to supply and feed us, teach our children, electricity generation, garbage collection, cleaning, water supply, and many more.
People keeping services working for us all. COVID-19 Mr President, has exposed us as severely lacking in our current economic and industrial structures, the productive capacity and economic resilience, that were once part of Australian culture and history.
We need to take this opportunity to take stock, and then rebuild our society on the values, systems and cultures that ensure a return to personal enterprise, instead of the creeping dead hand and suffocating blanket of a large, and ever-growing central government.
History shows that the secret of human happiness and human progress is nothing new, and has been discovered, lost, and rediscovered for millennia, and more recently, lost in our country.
We need to bring back Australia’s economic sovereignty, productive capacity and economic resilience, based on restoring personal enterprise and compliance with our Constitution, that enshrines competitive Federalism and individual liberty.
We all need, as representatives of the people, and servants to the people, to ensure the people’s government is held accountable for what it does, and does not do during this emergency. We are giving the government a blank check, and rightly so, because there are many uncertainties in this.
There’s such a complex system that we are already trying to amend. But Ministers have the power to make these changes through regulations. And, that is given to ensure that cracks in the legislation are closed quickly, to ensure people are covered fairly, right across our country.
It is a blank check. But, we must do our jobs as Senators to make sure that we review that and the progress of it. What many Australians, looking beyond our health and financial safety want, is to make sure that we leave COVID-19 behind us with better freedoms and liberties, and a stronger, freer economy than before. Thank you, Mr President.
