This is the third in a series of letters between the Prime Minister and I in regards to COVID-19. You can read my first letter and the Prime Minister’s reply below.
Noting that the government has put Australia’s parliament – and therefore democracy – into hibernation, I now raise questions that would in normal circumstances be asked of Ministers in the Senate or of their departments in Canberra.
Before doing so I acknowledge again that there is no manual on how to respond to the serious and dynamic health and security crisis now confronting all Australians. I note that although we disagree with some aspects of your government’s COVID-19 financial packages, in the interests of ensuring swift support to people whose lives have been jolted through loss of income we voted to support both packages in full. In doing so, and of necessity, we gave your government an open cheque.
As a Senator it is my duty to ensure accountability. Firstly, I note that your government and Australians generally can claim success in avoiding the scenario of overwhelmed health care services. Secondly, experience here and overseas is now such that the questions below need to be asked on behalf of the constituents I serve.
While I empathise with the government’s challenge, people need answers. People are feeling confused, afraid, concerned; some feel lost, grieving for those dying and for our country. Some feel angry. Many are still living in disbelief and plagued with uncertainty.
People want to know what has to be done. Why it has to be done. How long before it’s over. And, what will be the cost – financial, social, personal, mental and emotional? It is the people who have to repay these big bills of up to around $300 billion to which your government has committed Australian taxpayers.
People have a right to know the facts, yet your discussion of modelling lacked specifics on the duration of isolation nor the plan and triggers for releasing people.
A solid plan is fundamental for trust and hope. People expect governments to lead and expect leaders to have a plan based on solid data and facts.
These are questions that I ask on behalf of our constituents:
1. Modelling
a) What delayed your government so long before publicly discussing modelling as attempted in your media conference on Tuesday 7 April 2020?
b) Does your modelling, like that from NZ and the Imperial College of London, show that after the lockdown the virus will still exist in the community and that unrestrained release of people from isolation would lead to an epidemic, unless successful treatments or vaccines are released?
c) Why did your government not release the modelling at your conference?
d) Why did your government not discuss the underlying assumptions including infection, transmission and mortality rates?
e) Why did your government not discuss the variables modelled because without that people can make no meaningful conclusions?
f) Why did the modellers release the draft version separately from you and not release the model?
g) Why did your government not disclose and discuss the modellers’ result and various alternative future scenarios that could be the basis for a national plan?
h) Did your government use the modelling as the basis for its COVID-19 support packages legislation?
2. National Plan
a) What is the government’s plan for maintaining health and safety while restoring the economy, and what is the time frame?
b) On what medical or scientific data do you repeatedly state that people will be isolated in hibernation for six months?
c) Is the government considering the latest data and facts from nations like Taiwan, and to a lesser extent South Korea, that are highly successful in combatting COVID-19, and if so what is your government learning?
d) Is your government considering adopting their strategy of isolating the sick and the vulnerable, combined with wider screening of elevated body temperature and more widespread testing of the population for the virus, so that instead of isolating healthy people and destroying livelihoods we can isolate the sick and the vulnerable thereby allowing the healthy to get back to work and restore our economy while protecting lives and livelihoods?
e) Experts are saying the likelihood of a vaccine for COVID-19 is low because after 17 years no vaccine for SARS, a coronavirus, has been developed despite massive investment. Despite possibly one hundred years of effort no vaccine has been developed for the common cold, another coronavirus. What is your plan for releasing people from isolation before a vaccine is developed?
f) What is the government’s plan for treatment of people with the virus? Is it considering using hydroxy-chloro-quine, reportedly showing positive results in New York, and Ivermectin being 100% effective in Monash University’s laboratory tests?
g) What is the plan for mental health issues that experts warn will likely rise as the isolation continues? One of the worst things that can be done to a person is to take their job from them. Humanity needs security, connection, family, and friends. The government’s shutdown is a ticking time bomb.
3. Data
a) Some medical specialists have suggested COVID-19 attacks human vascular, blood circulation and oxygen absorption, while other experts claim it attacks the human respiratory system. What is the government’s conclusion?
b) Are casualties and deaths from influenza and pneumonia, both here and overseas, being reported as being due to COVID-19?
c) How many people die WITH the virus and how many die FROM the virus? In some nations is the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 inflated?
d) Data suggests Australia’s testing for the virus is narrowly focussed and well below the world’s best in terms of testing per capita. Why?
e) Will your government establish a website at which it will openly post the scientific data and basis for its plan and allow public scrutiny – a cornerstone of science? Will it openly post the modelling on which it depends?
f) To ensure a diversity of medical views and to prevent group-think, will your government establish a fully funded independent scientific team to question and hold accountable the government’s medical advisers?
When this is over, everyday Australians of all backgrounds expect to see – and deserve to be – a healthy secure people with a proud, independent Australia that reflects our lifestyle, culture, values, freedom, democracy and potential.
All people want is a fair go and governance that we can all trust to work for our country. What many Australians want, looking beyond our health and financial safety, is to make sure that we leave COVID-19 behind us with the same, or more, freedoms and liberties that we had before.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/COVID-Letters.png?fit=2300%2C1294&ssl=112942300Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-04-17 03:06:452020-04-18 05:59:28Letter to the PM: COVID-19 – What is your plan?
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts urges Australians to unite under our flag and buy Australian-made and Australian-owned.
“While the COVID 19 crisis reminds us of the importance of supporting Australian-made, it also shows we no longer make many essential goods here on our shores, which become a major security threat,” stated Senator Roberts.
Successive Australian governments have allowed, encouraged and at times driven our manufacturing industry to move off-shore leaving us dependent on overseas countries like China for basic goods.
In his senate speech on 8 April, Senator Roberts stated that Australia’s productive capacity has been smashed under Liberal-National and Labor-Green governments blindly adopting the globalist strategy of “interdependence” that has made us too heavily dependent on foreign sources.
One Nation calls on the Australian Government to immediately prioritise creating an environment where Australian businesses grow and thrive and are not hamstrung by a globalist agenda.
When Australia was in need of urgent medical supplies to treat people with COVID19 we were reliant on suppliers in China rather than having our own thriving manufacturing industry.
Australia’s manufacturing sector has deteriorated over the years with only 6% of GDP coming from manufacturing, down from 30% fifty years ago.
Senator Roberts implores the Federal Government to remove government-imposed regulations like the self-imposed Paris Agreement, pointless climate regulations, unnecessary over-regulation and other government hurdles and instead encourage our manufacturing industries.
Senator Roberts added, “Our manufacturers have endured a new high in 2019 for electricity input prices, which now averages over 90% higher, almost double, than the prices in 2010. Gas prices have increased nearly 50% over the same ten-year period.”
“Australian energy prices have gone from the cheapest to the most expensive in the world due to climate policies and that is making manufacturing unviable in Australia.”
When the COVID19 virus has passed and we are left to repair a broken economy, we will need to reassess the importance of previous spending commitments, such as billions of dollars wasted in subsidising intermittent wind and solar power to virtue signal to the United Nations.
This is the reply I received from the Prime Minister.
Dear Senator
Thank you for your letter of 25 March 2020 about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The priority for the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments is the health and wellbeing of Australians, their livelihoods, their jobs and ensuring that Australia is positioned to emerge strong and resilient.
We are working together as Australians do. We all have a part to play: employers, employees, governments, health workers and every one with social distancing. From the earliest days, Australia has understood the seriousness of COVID-19. We quickly established travel bans and scaled up screening on our borders. We evacuated Australians from virus hotspots and set up quarantine facilities.
We funded a $2.4 billion national health response plan to set up more than 100 pop-up clinics, and to provide extra support for those more at risk including the elderly, those with chronic conditions and Indigenous communities.
We have increased funding to public hospitals and aged care, boosted our National Medical Stockpile of essential medicines and masks, and have secured alternative supplies of vital personal protective equipment for our healthcare workers. At the same time, we are taking action to keep Australians in jobs and businesses in business.
Already we have announced $320 billion in measures across the forward estimates, representing 16.4 per cent of annual GDP.
We are focusing these efforts on those in the frontline – those who will be feeling the first blows of the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Our measures support households including casuals and sole traders, retirees and those on income support. They include doubling the JobSeeker Payment, through the introduction of a temporary coronavirus supplement.
We are providing a historic wage subsidy to around 6 million workers who will receive a flat payment of $1,500 per fortnight through their employer, before tax. The $130 billion temporary JobKeeper Payment scheme will help businesses significantly impacted by COVID-19 with the costs of their employees’ wages so more Australians can retain their jobs and businesses and can restart quickly when the crisis is over. Further detail is available at the Treasury website (www.treasury.gov.au/coronavirus).
We are working to ensure Australia can bounce back stronger than ever once the virus has run its course. As our economy bounces back, so will our Budget. We can take this action now because we have worked hard to bring the Budget back into balance, to maintain our AAA credit rating and work with State and Ten-itory Governments to provide a world-class health system.
As well, a National Cabinet has been formed with myself, Premiers and Chief Ministers. This is Australia’s first National Cabinet made up of all Australian governments. I have also publicly reiterated the role that all Australians play. By practising social distancing, maintaining good hygiene practices and looking out for one another we will be able to limit to spread of the virus.
I trust this information will be of use to you.
Yours Sincerely
Scott Morrison
P.S. I strongly disagree with your assessment of the Government’s approach and the comparison made to Italy. To the contrary our experience more closely follows that in South Korea.
I followed this response with a second letter, which you can read here:
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/COVID-Letters.png?fit=2300%2C1294&ssl=112942300Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-04-14 05:35:062020-04-18 05:49:15Letter to the PM: COVID-19 – The PM’s reply
Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I want to discuss our people’s health and safety, the security of our national economy and thirdly, our national economic recovery in the near future and the long term because no one is discussing the key issue, and One Nation has solutions.
I remind people of government’s three primary roles, protect life, protect property and protect freedom. Importantly, in democracies, those governing do so only with the permission of the people governed and those governing are responsible to the people.
I will in this speech discuss a former prime minister who I had respected until I did my research. I want 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, electricity generation, cleaners, garbage collection, water supply and many more.
Many of us feel gutted that this year will be the first time Anzac Day public commemorations have been called off. This illustrates the seriousness of the threat we face. Firstly, health and safety, this must be every government’s primary focus.
Now there is no manual on dealing with COVID-19. So while I empathise with government’s challenge, people want answers, people are feeling confused, afraid, concerned, some feel lost, grieving for those dying and grief for our country.
Some feel angry, many are still living in disbelief, why? Because people want to know what has to be done, why it has to be done and how long before it’s over and what will it cost, financial, social, personal, mental, emotional.
Remember, we have to pay these bills. People have a right to know the fair dinkum facts and right now, many people are, like me, in the dark or plagued with uncertainty. Two and a half weeks ago, in this place, I praised the success of East Asian nations in combating COVID-19, particularly Taiwan and South Korea.
Their focus is on people’s health and safety. Both are democracies and government provides strong, clear leadership. The people trust those governments because they used facts, instituted rigorous widespread testing of body temperature and virus infection, relied on sharing data and had solid processes and systems with medical supplies and facilities.
Both those nations quickly arrested the virus and instead of isolating everyone, they quickly and rigorously isolated the infected and the vulnerable, allowing the majority of healthy people to continue working.
This is their lesson to us, acting decisively to make health their first priority, minimised disturbance to their economies. Western nations though have tried to balance health and the economy and as a result, both have been compromised.
Australians are asking serious questions. Why did it take so long for the government to publicly discuss modelling, as it pretended to do so yesterday yet not release the modelling. Why did the modellers release the draught version separately yet not release the model?
Why did the government not discuss the underlying assumptions including infection, transmission and mortality rates? Why did the government not discuss the variables modelled? Without that we can make no conclusions.
Why did the government not disclose the model’s result? Did the government gather data and facts from successful nations like Taiwan and South Korea? And if so, what did it learn? Now modelling is often flawed yet in this case, isn’t failing to get the data or failing to model acceptance of needless deaths?
When did state and federal health ministers last get together to scenario plan the effects and management of a virus pandemic? Have they ever? Have they considered their interaction with border security and who to allow into our country from planes and ships?
Did they involve the hospitals and medical colleges? Data suggests Australia’s testing for the virus is narrow and well below the world’s best per capita. Why is the government’s data on number of cases continually revised with dramatic changes to its graph?
Are casualties and deaths from flu and pneumonia here and overseas being reported as from COVID-19? How many people will die with the virus compared with how many people die from the virus? In some nations, are deaths inflated?
What is the government’s plan for treatment using hydroxychloroquine showing amazing results in New York and elsewhere? And ivermectin being 100% effective in Monash University’s in-vitro tests? What is the plan for mental health issues?
Everyday Australians want to know, how long will I be working from home? When can we get back to work and school? When will we be safe from this virus? I now turn to the Chinese Communist government that harmed the Chinese people and people worldwide.
It hid the outbreak, suppressed the views of the virus and punished the doctors who wanted to inform and prepare the world. That meant the virus spread rapidly around the world. What will it do now to people in poorer countries, Africa, India?
Instead of it protecting its people, the Chinese Communist government neglected, controlled and punished them. Worse, in January, the United Nations’ World Health Organisation spread the communist government’s lies that there is no human to human transmission of the virus.
Then in March, the UN’s World Health Organisation said the time to act was two months earlier in January. The World Health Organisation, gutless, bumbling, incompetent, hopeless, dishonest, inherently corrupt just like the whole UN.
This virus needs to be renamed the Chinese Communist Party UN virus, the Chinese Communist Party and UN need to be held accountable. Compare the Chinese Communist government with that of Taiwan’s democratic government, Taiwan’s 24 million people responded freely and as of today, had just five deaths.
Freedom works, freedom works providing the government serves the people. With freedom comes responsibility and self control, always far superior to imposed control. The communists gave us the virus, democratic Taiwan gave us medical equipment.
Now let’s turn to our fragile economy. People expect government to lead and expect leaders to have a plan based on solid data and facts. Economies are living organisms comprised of families, economies depend on human interaction.
Isolate people and economies wither. So what is the plan for bringing back our economy? What are the government’s trigger points for changing strategy from isolating everyone to wider testing and then isolating only the sick and vulnerable so the healthy majority can return to interacting, producing, exchanging, getting back to work like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore?
The government shutdown is a ticking time bomb. It is necessary but it is a ticking time bomb. Humanity needs security, connection, family, friends. The worst thing we can do to a person after all is take their job off them.
I note now, for now rather that this bill needs to be structured as an open cheque to the government to ensure the flexibility to support people. Thirdly, this crisis has highlighted a huge gap in our country’s security.
Shortages of critical equipment like basic medical supplies, worse, an inability to manufacture medical equipment, cars, many goods that we once made ourselves are now imported, why? Because the Whitlam Labor government signed the UN’s Lima declaration in 1975 and the Fraser Liberal National’s government ratified it the very next year to transfer manufacturing to third world countries.
Worse still, an inability in Australia to grow our own food. We were exporters of basic food commodities like rice and wheat, now we cannot get enough rice and due to the virus, Vietnam has blocked exports for us to ensure supply for its own people.
Durum wheat for pasta is in shortage, why? Because the Howard government under the guidance of Liberal Senator Robert Hill, National’s Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Liberal Prime Minister John Howard in 1996 stole farmers inalienable rights to use the land they bought.
And to avoid paying compensation, colluded with Queensland Nationals’ premier Rob Burbidge and later Labour’s premier Peter BD and with New South Wales Labour’s state minister Bob Carr, why? For the Howard government to comply with the UN’s Kyoto Protocol.
The UN, let’s get it out and who buys our farms? The Chinese Communist government despite banning Australians from buying Chinese properties. Water, what about water?
Farmers lost their water as a result of the Turnbull Howard Water Act of 2007 that according to world renowned John Briscoe, took the world’s best national water policy under the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and made it the worst under the Turnbull Howard Murray-Darling Basin Authority. How?
Infecting it with politics, UN rules and regulations. The UN exit, this week, yet another farmer Tanya Ginns in New South Wales asked, please help us, help her against the government, the global corporates, the UN.
Our own farmers asking for help against the government so she and her family can produce food for our people. And then energy, never before have humans materially advanced so quickly as in the last 170 years and it was due to ever decreasing real prices of energy, electricity, oil and gas.
The miracle that raised living standards gave us independence from weather and eliminated famines. It gave us longer, healthier, safer, easier, more productive, more comfortable and secure lifestyles.
We are the world’s second largest exporter of coal and largest exporter of liquefied natural gas yet we now have high domestic energy costs. In just a few decades, we went from the world’s cheapest electricity, thanks to our clean high energy coal to the world’s most expensive electricity, thanks to the Howard government policies based on the UN lies and fraud.
Eight years after John Howard was booted from office, he admitted in Britain, that on climate science, he was agnostic. He had no science yet he destroyed all these industries. We now export our coal to China so it can produce cheap electricity because China sensibly uses hydro, coal and nuclear being the cheapest forms of electricity generation.
The Chinese already produce about eight times more coal than does Australia entirely and they’re rapidly increasing their production. India is furiously increasing its production, why? Because they know cheap energy is the key to productivity and productivity is the key to wealth generation and wealth generation is the key to raising everyone’s living standards.
At the same time, China exports wind turbines and solar panels to us that wreck our environment and steal our precious farmland. We subsidise Chinese companies to install these inefficient monstrosities that raise our electricity costs, destroy reliability of supply and drive our manufacturers and jobs overseas, why?
In our renewal plans, this must be reviewed and dumped. Mind you, it provides entertainment with Barnaby Joyce and Senator Canavan first speaking clearly as climate sceptics, then contorting and converting to speaking for the UN’s climate rort and now, now back-flipping to copy One Nation’s stance.
Yet although they now speak like us, they still vote like Trent Zimmerman, Zali Steggall and the Greens. Despite the recent droughts, Despite the recent drought, farmers with water could not afford to pay for electricity to pump irrigation water to grow fodder in a drought because of electricity prices.
China and the UN are doing this, exit the UN. Seafood, we have the world’s largest continental shellfishing zone yet import almost three quarters of the seafood we consume, why?
Because we have 36% of the world’s marine parks that previous ministers like Labor’s Mr. Tony Burke and Liberal Senator Robert Hill handed to the UN as World Heritage areas, all now managed under UN rules and who is our largest supply of seafood imported by?
China with its tiny coastline and 56 times more mouths to feed compared to ours, China and the UN, exit the UN. In Queensland, we have 31 major federal and state policies gutting farming and as Charleville farmer, Dan McDonald says, “With every farm input now completely under regulatory control, farming is nationalised.”
We have lost our food security, our manufacturing, our farmers’ land use, our water, our energy security. We have lost our productive capacity, our ability to produce, we have lost our economic resilience, our ability to rebound all to globalism in the name of interdependency.
The corporate elites benefiting from our bureaucrats’ gift of farming land and water and benefit from owning Chinese manufacturing. Interdependency is a con, it means we are dependent on others, we are dependent.
This virus crisis is exposing a huge gap in our security from face masks to food to loss of our independence. We voters have allowed our government since the formation of the UN, especially since 1996 to sacrifice our country’s productive capacity, our economic resilience, our economic independence and security.
Did you elect UN bureaucrats to be in charge? I didn’t, our national debt now is around 600 billion, Queensland’s around 90 billion before this package. Members of parliament and senior federal public servants need to share the burden, stop the perks like flying business class, cut our superannuation rate, reject or defer salary increases.
Let’s look to the future. What will the world look like after the Prime Minister’s quaintly named six-month hibernation? In just three to four months, what will people be doing? Will people emerge from hibernation?
When we look around, will we as a nation feel supported, excited or depleted, hungry and angry? We need two plans, one for now and one for bringing back our productive capacity and economic resilience.
One Nation will return with their detailed analysis. When this is over, though, everyday Australians of all backgrounds expect to see and deserve to be a healthy, secure people with a proud, independent Australia that reflects our lifestyle, culture, values, freedom, democracy and potential. All people want is a fair go and governance we can trust to work for our country. Thank you Madam Deputy President.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Screen-Shot-2020-04-09-at-3.00.31-pm.png?fit=557%2C304&ssl=1304557Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-04-09 05:07:412020-04-09 05:07:59Questions for the Prime Minister – COVID19
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.
Welcome back to Rural Queensland Today. 8th of April on a Wednesday morning, so much still going on with COVID-19. We know that the line is flattening, the curve is starting to flatten, but it’s still a long way to go. Senator of One Nation, Malcolm Roberts, joining us this morning on Rural Queensland Today. Malcolm, good morning. Thank you so much for being with us.
The federal government’s COVID-19 stimulus package needs to be addressed so more Australians can be more [inaudible 00:00:28] on food production. Now, One Nation has called for a guarantee of water for farmers to plant essential crops this month and this would go a long way to feeding the nation in very tough times.
Malcom Roberts:
Yes, and good morning Ben and thank you for the invitation to join your show. Yes, we have asked for that because farmers are needing a drink of water for their crops by April 15th, sorry, by May 15th so that they can get their winter crops in and going. That’s needed and that’s not going to be a subsidy or anything like that, Ben. That’s going to be pure wealth created just out of water that’s natural. It’s just been withheld from farmers mate and we need to give it back to them.
Ben:
Well, I mean there’s so much has changed. I mean Vietnam have banned exporting their own home grown rice to Australia and so we actually need to prioritise our food production for Australians because we’ve seen now what a risk to our health by letting anybody into this country. And I don’t want to in any way, I’m not trying to be racist, I’m not trying to be, but our biosecurity failed us and now is, more than any time, is where we need to shore up our food and shore up our buyer security, if ever there’s been a time. And this would go a long way to growing essential crops for the nation.
Malcom Roberts:
You’re exactly correct. We had a very strong rice production in Southern New South Wales and that has been decimated by the stupid and corrupt practises that have been going on with regard to water in the Murray-Darling basin. And that has been a fault of the Turnbull Howard government that brought in the 2007 water act and that has destroyed agriculture right across the Murray-Darling basin and it sent water to corporates and taking it away from family farmers.
And family farmers, Ben, are the guts of this country. They’re the core because they’re the ones who know that if you look after the land because you give it to your kids eventually or you retire or you sell it and use the retirement to go and live somewhere else. They’re being destroyed. And that’s what we need to bring back, family farming in this country because that’s where the communities are.
Corporates, global corporates, large Australian corporates don’t give a damn about communities. They don’t give a damn about rural Australia. They don’t give a damn about food security. It’s all a profit. And so what we need to do is restore our communities and their rural sector. There is an ideological assault on rural Australia and it starts with water policy, it continues with energy policy and it’s most of all, it’s about the stealing of the farmers rights to use the land they have bought. I don’t know if you know of Dan McDonalds-
Ben:
Yeah, sure.
Malcom Roberts:
I mean, Dan has said that every input, the farming these days is controlled by some bureaucrat. So farming has been nationalised. It’s no longer a private enterprise business. It’s been nationalised. It’s being destroyed and that’s what we need to protect because this Covid virus has exposed huge gaps in national security. We haven’t got enough face masks. We haven’t got enough ventilators. We haven’t got enough basic stuff. And yet we shifted all the production of this to overseas starting with the UN in 1975, the Lima Agreement signed by the Whitlam’s labour government and then ratified the following year in ’76 by Frazier’s liberal government.
The UN has just, we’ve taken it all off shore and we are now vulnerable. We don’t make masks, we don’t make ventilators, we don’t make cars. We make [inaudible 00:04:05] and we need to get that back into this country. We need to restore our economic productive capacity and their economic resilience. Mate, that’s really been highlighted by this.
Ben:
I agree with you. I mean we need to start building things back in Australia. There’s no two ways about it. Industry needs to happen here and for too long we’ve been relying on doing it cheaper from overseas and bring it in here.
But let’s just get back to what you’re talking about with the Murray-Darling basin. Now we know Queensland New South Wales, Victorian farmers received zero general security water allocation for irrigation over the last three years. That’s a fact. There’s no two ways about-.
They’re trying to get it under control, but big business and foreign owned companies have bought up all the allocation at different stages. They’ve sold it. It’s traded as a commodity. It’s been an absolute mess. Now how would you go about fixing it and can you get the numbers in the Senate to make some change?
Malcom Roberts:
Getting the numbers in the Senate is difficult because there are only two of us at the moment and that’s the big mess. [crosstalk 00:05:02].
Ben:
But there are people who are willing in the LNP and the national party to try and see farmers get more food secure and get more food security here in Queensland and New South Wales and Victoria.
Malcom Roberts:
There are also people in the LNP protecting the corporates and protecting the water act. And that’s what’s caused the disruption of farming in across the Murray-Darling basin, Ben. It’s not everyone in the liberal national party. It’s not for the land.
For example, have a look at Senator Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce. They were once the best speakers in parliament against this climate crap. And then they both got in the cabinet and their lips were sealed. And then even Senator Matt Canavan even spoke in favour of this climate nonsense.
And then now that One Nation is making inroads into their vote because we’re supporting coal, because we’re supporting land use being given back to farmers to control, Matt’s come out now he’s talking like one of us, but he still votes with the Trent Zimmermans and the Zali Steggles and the Graves, the same policies that are destroying land use, that are destroying farming, that are destroying [inaudible 00:06:12] in this country.
We’ve got farmers who have been told in North Queensland, I spoke to one personally, Central Queensland and Southern Queensland, who would not plant fodder during the drought because electricity prices were too damn high to pump water. I mean this is insane. That’s where we’ve got to with the policies that the liberal nationals have pushed. We’ve destroyed our farming sector [so] that John Howard [could] comply with the Kyoto protocol, which he proudly discussed, has stolen the land rights, the land use rights of farmers in this country. They’ve stolen the water through the water act, which was Turnbull and Howard, and then Howard complying to the Kyoto protocol and the liberal nationals complying with UN agreements, including the Paris Agreement, has wrecked our energy sector.
I mean there’s nothing more fundamental than being able for a farm to buy his or her land and then use it as they want. There’s nothing more fundamental than water. Then there’s nothing more fundamental than energy. Energy prices were decreasing for the last 170 years, relentlessly decreasing in real terms, Ben, and with the policies of the labour greens and liberal nationals party in the last 20 years, they’ve doubled. That’s the reverse of human progress. This is insane what’s going on in this country.
Ben:
Yeah, I think a lot of people are frustrated and clearly you are as well.
Malcom Roberts:
And angry.
Ben:
Yeah, and that’s the big thing. Do you think that they’ve offered enough the government as a stimulus package to try and get this back under control with COVID-19? Was it too little too late? I do know that now is not the time to politicise things, but do you think they’re doing enough?
Malcom Roberts:
Well, I think they are doing enough financially. They’re not doing enough health-wise. The countries that are leading the way and around the world are the East Asian countries of Taiwan and South Korea especially, and to a lesser extent, Singapore.
Now what’s happened is that in the West we’ve tried to balance health and the economics. That is not working. In East Asia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, they made health number one priority. They got it under control, had rapid testing, very widespread testing, not only tested for Covid virus in people but tested for temperature because they would basically say, you’re coming into work today, Ben. Here, take your temperature. Mate, you’ve got a hot temperature over here and then we’ll test you for Covid virus. If you have got no temperature, then you go to work.
When they test you for Covid virus, then they say, “Ben, you’ve got Covid virus. Isolated. Off, away you go.” Or if you’re free of Covid virus you get a little note saying Ben Dobbin has got a high temperature today. He’s free to go to work.
What they did was they isolated the sick and the vulnerable, the elderly, the people with chronic disease problems. They isolated them. And Taiwan has had hardly a blip in its economy. South Korea got off on the wrong foot to start with. It went down Italy’s track and then it quickly copied Taiwan and then they got the back and so got everyone back to work.
What we’ve done is we’ve isolated everyone. Instead what we need to do now that we’ve got it starting to get it under control, Ben, we need to see the triggers in the government’s plan for changing our strategy to isolate those with the virus, isolate those vulnerable to the virus and let everyone get back to work. That time could be coming soon, but the government has not focused on that.
What the government is focused on is compromising health and economic activity. And you can’t do that because you end up undermining the health. What we’ve got to do, Taiwan has got the same population of Australia. They’ve had five deaths and they’ve got it earlier than we did, and they hammered it. And that’s what we need, real leadership, real strength.
At the moment, yesterday, Prime Minister Morrison and his health advisor released the broad statement about their modelling, but they didn’t give us the model. They didn’t tell us what the projections were in the future. We need to know them. They need to stop hiding on that. That’s the other thing they did in Taiwan and South Korea, they gave people the truth, gave people the information. That gives people confidence. It also gives people the sense of responsibility because people who are free to make up their mind usually make it the right way. And that’s what they did in Taiwan. That’s what we need to get to.
Ben:
Fantastic. You said it well. Malcolm, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much for being with us on Rural Queensland Today.
Malcom Roberts:
Anytime, Ben.
Ben:
Good on you. Malcolm Roberts, Senator for One Nation. This is Rural Queensland Today across the Resonate Broadcast network.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG_0453.png?fit=2301%2C1534&ssl=115342301Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-04-08 05:19:462020-04-08 05:19:55Water Security for Farmers and Coronavirus – Rural Queensland Today with Ben Dobbin
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts calls on the Prime Minister to immediately release COVID-19 modelling upon which the government bases its planned six-month hibernation of Australia.
“We can’t let this debilitating economic slow-down go on one day longer than it needs to, yet right now the government refuses to share vital information with the Australian people,” said Senator Roberts.
He added, “The data continues to show that we are passing peak COVID-19 infections, yet rather than offering people and businesses an economic recovery plan, the Prime Minister simply repeats his chorus line saying Australia could be closed for six months.”
Strong leadership making the tough and unpopular decisions does not need to remove hope from people for when lives can return to some normality.
Senator Roberts urges the Prime Minister to ensure rigorous wide testing, with strict isolation of the sick and vulnerable, allowing the healthy to return to work as soon as possible.
The Government has instead chosen to isolate the huge majority of healthy people, when data strongly suggests that with effective testing, all we need do is isolate the sick and protect the vulnerable.
“We can’t have massive swathes of the economy hibernating without any idea of the indicators that will trigger a re-start.
Business owners and families need to make decisions around how long they can hold out and not be left in limbo.”
The Prime Minister has a duty of care to show the evidence to justify business closure for up to six months, and the indicators he will use to trigger a change in strategy.
“No other country is promising to close its economy down for six months and healthy Australians would rather go back to work than to receive partial wage subsidies.”
Taiwan’s approach to COVID-19 should be used as a template, to primarily focus on and avoid a health crisis, and in that way avoid an economic crisis.
Taiwan managed the virus with a clear priority on people’s health using rigorous temperature testing and hand hygiene practices, isolating those in danger and allowing the economy to keep running.
Senator Roberts added, “Taiwan with less than 260 people infected and only 5 deaths is a stunning example of how to manage the virus – putting people’s health as first priority – so that healthy people continued working and the economy barely blinked.”
Considering that about seventy-five percent of all COVID-19 cases in Australia are from people who travelled overseas or had direct contact with those travellers, the current arrangement of forced quarantine for overseas travellers should see a decline in cases within weeks.
Once we are assured of people’s health we can end this debilitating economic slow-down and give people what they need: real hope through a plan for the next step, economic recovery.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Press-Release.png?fit=2300%2C1294&ssl=112942300Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-04-03 01:48:222020-04-03 02:07:58Senator Roberts demands people see modelling for 6-month hibernation
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.
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.
