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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