The Government is currently reviewing its ban on the use of Ivermectin in treating COVID-19, but the results will come far too late for something that should have never been banned in the first place.
Transcript
Senator ROBERTS: My question is to Senator Gallagher, the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Minister, I understand that the TGA is conducting a review of their ban on prescribing ivermectin for COVID. Can the minister confirm this review is underway, state the return date, and advise us of the current advice to medical professionals on the use of ivermectin for COVID-19?
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:29): I thank Senator Roberts for the question. I understand the TGA received an application from a doctor to amend the Poisons Standard in relation to ivermectin. I think that kicks off an automatic process. The application is to remove those restrictions that were placed on ivermectin when it began being prescribed to treat COVID-19. So the application is to enable GPs to prescribe it. I think that kicks off a process which is automatic in the TGA. The application is currently open for public consultation until the end of this month. Then it will be discussed by the ACMS at their next meeting on 9 November. An interim decision is expected by February 2023 and a final decision later in 2023. In terms of advice, whilst this process is underway separately there hasn’t been any change to the advice from the TGA that led them to put those restrictions on ivermectin as a prescription for COVID-19. That hasn’t changed.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts, first supplementary question.
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (14:31): On 31 August this year, the Brazilian University of Sao Paulo published a peer reviewed paper that showed regular use of ivermectin as a prophylaxis for COVID-19 lead to a 92 per cent reduction in COVID-19 mortality rates amongst their sample of 88,000 subjects. A 92 per cent reduction in mortality. Minister, how much more proof does this government need to overturn the ban on ivermectin today and stop costing lives?
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:31): I have full trust and faith in the processes that the TGA implement, in terms of making advice and recommendations, and, in this case, in placing restrictions on the use of ivermectin. There is a range of academic research, and not all of it would be putting the case as you put it. I’ve seen other studies that have been done that show there is no clinical benefit from using ivermectin. That is not unusual with some of these trials; it isn’t unusual to have a significant difference of opinion.
From my point of view, the TGA has served us very well through this pandemic. They have provided very good advice. Their processes are rigorous and thorough. This process that’s now underway will, I’m sure, look at the issues that have been raised by this doctor, but, as far as I can see, there’s no reason to change. (Time expired)
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts, second supplementary question.
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (14:32): Whether separate from or part of a royal commission, will you conduct an enquiry into the failure of medical advice on ivermectin and, specifically, on who made the decision to ban ivermectin and who is responsible for the harm that came from the decision? When will you apologise to the politicians and medical professionals who were right all along?
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:33): We have a fundamental disagreement here. I don’t accept the position you are putting here, Senator Roberts. I understand you have a particular view on this, but I believe that the Therapeutic Goods Administration have operated very well during this pandemic. The Prime Minister has made it clear that, at the right time—when we are through the pandemic—we will definitely have a review of some sort looking at our response to the pandemic.
But I do not accept the proposition that you are putting about the use of ivermectin. The evidence that’s before the TGA is that there did need to be restrictions placed on it. It’s not the only drug where there are restrictions placed. There are other medicines that cannot be prescribed by GPs, or they have to go through a process. Based on the information the TGA has provided, they see good reason to put those restrictions. That other process, which I spoke of in the first answer, will report back on those dates that I’ve outlined.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ivermectinQT.png?fit=821%2C424&ssl=1424821Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-09-26 13:50:002022-09-29 16:09:25Questioning the Australian Government over Ivermectin
I always speak up for what is right. Again today I will speak up for what is right. The Climate Change Bill 2022 seeks to exploit fear based on fraudulent science to enshrine in legislation the subjugation of everyday Australians.
It’s time to vote against a world where hunger and poverty will increase by design as a means of control.
Transcript
So it has come to this, Madame President.
The globalists’ 50 year ‘long march through the institutions’ has come to this.
50 years of bribery, coercion and censorship of the few remaining honest scientists has come to this.
And 50 years of inciting hatred and violence against anyone who opposes the climate change agenda of ‘fear-based control’ has come to this.
Our scientists, crony corporations, political parties and mouthpiece media have failed Australia.
As a servant to the people of Queensland I have never failed to speak up for what is right and I will speak up for what is right again today.
The Climate Change Bill 2022 seeks to use fear based on fraudulent science to enshrine in legislation the ‘subjugation of everyday Australians’.
On many occasions now I have sought to alert Australians to the nightmare being planned for them.
Those many speeches, motions and bills have made little headway in mainstream media due to dodgy journalists protecting the interests of their advertisers and billionaire owners.
The public have been deceived into thinking climate change is a product of human activity and this bill is necessary to save Australia.
The truth is Australia will need to be saved from this bill.
This is not conjecture, look at the ‘net zero’ chaos overseas resulting from the scientific fraud underlying net zero. Here is just some of that.
Greening the world and growing food
According to the NASA Goddard Space Centre one quarter of the increase in carbon dioxide in the last 30 years has been absorbed into plant life, leading to an increase in forest cover.[i]
This is a demonstration of the fertilizer effect of CO2[ii].
Removing CO2 from the atmosphere will reduce the health of native forests and vegetation.
Reducing CO2 will reduce crop yields, remove food from the tables of the world’s hungry, and require the increased use of chemical fertilizers that are made from … natural gas.
An irony lost on the proponents of this bill.
The world is finding out, as Sri Lanka has found, the trade-off here is between plant food and starvation. It is that simple.
Forestation levels around the world have been rising since the 1980s because of the increase in CO2.[iii]
Let me be clear for the disinformation media. Our continent is gaining trees, meaning the density of vegetation is improving thanks to CO2.
We are losing extent – much of that chopped down as part of green energy construction – building wind turbines, solar plants, access roads and transmission easements to take unreliable energy from where these things are being built, to where the power is needed.
13,000 hectares of native vegetation is planned for destruction just in North Queensland alone[v].
I remember when greenies hugged trees, now they chop them down.
Forests are being chopped down for biomass, also known as wood chips.
Apparently wood chips are renewable energy now[vi], spruiked on the BBC back in 2018 when the Drax coal plant was converted to burn trees imported from America in the name of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.[vii]
Burning trees produces more C02 than coal[viii], but warmers never let the facts get in the way of the feels.
One Nation has always supported preserving our old-growth forests because One Nation supports real environmentalism.
Ocean Health
According to NASA one half of the increase in carbon dioxide over the last 30 years has been absorbed in the ocean carbon cycle.[ix]
Carbon is sequestrated in silt and in biological sinks. Sea grasses, mangroves, tidal swamps and wetlands all sequester carbon and thrive.[x]
Providing habitat for fish breeding.
Carbon is also an ingredient in phytoplankton, the start of the marine food chain.
The more CO2 that is produced from all sources and then absorbed in the ocean carbon cycle, the more phytoplankton is produced, leading to an increase in marine life.
Increasing populations of fish support the continued harvesting of seafood as a cheap source of protein. Something oddly opposed over there in Greensland.
The marine carbon cycle also absorbs nitrogen and phosphates coming from natural and man-made sources.
Phytoplankton absorb these elements as part of their growth cycle, producing oxygen in the process. The less carbon dioxide available to be absorbed, the less oxygenation occurs and the less healthy our oceans become.
Coral is calcium carbonate CaCO3. Some of the carbon sequestrated in the ocean has helped coral growth, probably contributing to the record coral cover across the Great Barrier Reef announced just a few weeks ago.
That is an inconvenient truth if ever I heard one.
Greening the earth mitigates increasing temperatures[xi]
A new study reported on the NASA website shows increased vegetation during the current “Greening Earth period” – their words not mine – has a strong cooling effect on the land due to increased efficiency of water vapor transfer to the atmosphere.
Without this the world would be hotter.
Increasing CO2 – plant food – fertilizers our forests, increasing transpiration, leading to more water vapour transfer, which in turn cools the earth.
Increased temperature causes increased evaporation from the oceans and that water vapour transfer also cools the earth.[xii]
We have a beautiful, self-correcting ecosystem that has maintained the earth in a liveable temperature range for millennia.
This bill is based on self-interest, arrogance and hubris, risking a natural ecosystem that will protect us from any variability in atmospheric gasses.
And always has.
Renewable power is a fairy-tale.
Madame President wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could get all our energy from the ‘Sun and wind’ for free.
That is the extent of the thought process in many Green and Teal voters.
Missing the obvious problem – Solar panels, wind turbines, transmission lines through the middle of nowhere, battery backups and access roads are not free.
The direct loss of natural habitat from wind and solar is significantly greater than any other form of power.
Three megawatts of wind or solar generation is needed to replace one megawatt of coal, hydro or nuclear.
To explain that with an example, the NSW Government’s own webpage on wind power mentions their 850MW of wind turbines generate just 1941GW of power annually.[xiii]
850MW running 24/7, if it were a coal or nuclear plant of that sized, will generate 7440GW/h per annum. The actual wind turbine output of 1941GW/h represents just 26% of rated capacity. What a joke these things are.
Solar is worse.
Battery backup
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) recently assessed the battery requirement for net zero grid stability at 60GW/h.[xiv]
Power going into a battery loses 20% in resistance, meaning 72GW/h of generation will be needed to produce 60GW/h of output.
Batteries cost about $1.5m per MW/h, meaning batteries for short term grid stability will require an investment in excess of $100bn every 10 years which is as long as they last.
This is just the start. Germany experienced an 8% reduction in output from wind and solar in the first half of 2021 owing to poor weather.[xv]
No battery can keep the lights on during a sustained period of bad weather, such as Australia has had these last two years.
Blackouts will be normal.
Nuclear is the only way to do net zero
Other countries who descended into renewable hell ahead of us are being forced to rethink to save their economies.
South Korea has given up and announced a move away from wind and solar to nuclear.[xvi]
Germany will extend their last three nuclear power plants until baseload power can be restored from gas.[xvii]
Last week the UK government announced a huge new 3200MW nuclear power plant[xviii].
Nuclear power plants across the world will grow 26% through to 2050.[xix]
Green energy Madame President is very well named, it has become glow in the dark green!
Australia can supply the world with reliable, safe coal for a lifetime, instead the world is going nuclear simply because wind and solar can’t supply reliable baseload power, and coal has been demonised.
Australia will be forced to make this same hard decision if the Climate Change Bill passes.
Insane power bills will destroy the Australia we know
Last week in the UK the household energy cap increased from $2160 to $6020. Just in one year. How can people afford that.[xx]
A glance at the graph of UK GDP shows citizens of the UK are less wealthy now than they were in 2007.[xxii]
The correlation of GDP stagnation with the retirement of cheap baseload power and the switch to wind and solar is undeniable.
German households are so desperate for heating, firewood is being horded and woodchips are back in commercial use.
Seriously, what’s next – candles?
Despite $250bn spent on solar and wind so far, and $250bn still to come, Germany is planning for blackouts next winter.
10% of German industry is threatened with closure and 40% are under financial pressure.[xxiii]
No wonder Prime Minister Albanese is holding a jobs summit concurrent with the Climate Change Bill.
Here is One Nation’s submission to the jobs summit.
Stop destroying cheap, reliable, coal power.
The mouthpiece media are blaming the war in Ukraine for the gas shortage in Europe, deliberating avoiding the real question-
Which is how did energy-independent nations lose their energy independence, and become reliant on Russian gas in the first place?[xxiv]
Wind and solar did that.
Is this empirical proof wind and solar are unable to sustain baseload power or is it stupidity in shutting down baseload power before replacements were built?
The answer is both.
With unrealistic and unnecessary timelines now embedded in the Climate Change Bill, Australia is about to walk the same path that has brought the rest of the world, especially the UK and Germany nothing but misery.
Cost
Wind and solar is only cost-effective to build and operate if the cost is offset with taxpayer subsidies.
Australian subsidies for wind and solar currently total $13bn every year.[xxv]
Reuters reported last week Australia will need about 40 times the total generation capacity of today’s national electricity market to achieve net zero.
This includes 1,900 GW of solar and 174 GW of wind.[xxvi]
Not megawatts, gigawatts. How is that even possible.
As a comparison Liddell coal plant is 2GW and at full capacity can supply 5% of our current energy needs.
Charging electric vehicles is a large part of this huge increase in power generation needed to reach net zero.
The $20bn cost of re-wiring the national energy grid to allow for the charging of electric cars[xxvii] dwarfs the national electricity market, which is only $11bn.[xxviii]
What will that do to power prices?
There is no costing in the Climate Change Bill because the costings are coming out at insane amounts of money.
I have an amendment to this bill standing in my name to introduce a cost benefit analysis for every government decision taken. Surely that is just prudent economic management.
Blackouts
Last week AEMO announced its latest 10-year outlook for the national electricity market, which warned of reliability “gaps” affecting New South Wales from 2025 and affecting Victoria, Queensland and South Australia from 2030.[xxix]
Gaps in this context means structural blackouts – not enough generation to meet demand.
We know today there will be catastrophic blackouts in 2025 and even worse blackouts in 2030.
What is the Government’s plan to stop the blackouts coming from coal plant closures?
There is no plan because the Climate Change Bill is not about increasing energy output, it is about forcing a reduction in energy consumption.
The Climate Change Bill is about control
The only way to achieve long term stability under net zero is to use smart meters to restrict energy use.
The South Australian Government has also announced the rollout-out of smart meters[xxxi]
Smart meters allow the energy operator to go in and turn off any appliance in your home that is connected to the fuse box.
Air conditioners, hot water service, one or all of your light and power circuits can be switched off.
This is not intended as an emergency measure, it will be normal lie under net zero.
Big Brother will reach into your home and decide for you what appliances you can use and when.
That is terrifying in what used to be a free country.
To the Greens and Teal supporters who voted on the basis of feelings not facts can I say this.
You have been deceived.
The experience from countries ahead of us on the net zero slippery slope has been the destruction of small and medium business, the decimation of the middle class and intrusive government control.
You will have less and the elites behind this scam will have more.
We a paying for our own enslavement.
It is time to vote against creating a world where native vegetation, crop yields, the marine environment – the entire biosphere is being damaged through reducing carbon dioxide.
It is time to vote against a world where hunger and poverty will increase by design as a means of control – neo serfdom.
Have some decency.
Vote no to the Climate Change Bill 2022.
We have one flag, we are one community, we are One Nation and we are proud carbon-based life forms.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/DLUJNnIsubE/0.jpg360480Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-09-08 10:11:512022-10-11 14:38:25So it’s come to this – Globalist push on Climate Change
Data on births and deaths is 2 years and 9 months overdue. It should be delayed 6 weeks at the latest. How can we assess the impact of health policy without this vital data?
Transcript
Yesterday, in questions without notice, I asked Senator Gallagher, the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care, about the availability of birth data. Her response included a statement to the effect that this information is available from the states. Senator Gallagher needs to be aware that it used to be available. New South Wales, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory no longer publish this data. Queensland publishes data at the end of the year, meaning Queensland data is nine months out of date. Victorian data is already available for August 2022, so someone down there is doing their job.
Victorian births in August 2021 were 6,700. In August 2022, they were 5,900. Western Australia provides quarterly data for births: in the June quarter 2021, there were 8,750 births; in the same period this year, there were 8,060. That’s all the data we have. How can we make life-and-death decisions with insufficient information? These variations could just be the lockdown babies working through the system. They could be anything. We don’t know, and that is the problem.
When health policy has been as intrusive, expensive and controversial as Lib-Lab’s COVID response, wouldn’t this data be compulsory viewing for decision-makers? And yet the best the Commonwealth Bureau of Statistics can manage for births and cause of death is December 2020. That’s 20 months behind. What are they hiding, as I asked? Data for provisional mortality is four months behind, while Victoria can provide their data in five days. All the states use sophisticated reporting routines. The data delay is not with the states. I have submitted a document discovery for the latest data the ABS has on births, deaths and cause of mortality. As long as COVID is said to continue, this data should be provided monthly—one month behind, not two years and nine months behind. We have one flag. We are one community. We are one nation.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/QDTqYKq8v4g/mqdefault.jpg180320Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-09-07 13:20:232022-09-07 13:20:28Is birth and death data being hidden?
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (14:30): My question is for Senator Gallagher, for the Minister for Health and Aged Care. A peer reviewed paper last week in the establishment scientific journal Vaccine examined Pfizer’s COVID vaccine randomized phase 3 clinical trial data. It used the World Health Organization’s framework made for this purpose, the Brighton Collaboration on adverse events of special interest. Authors include virology and pharmacology experts from UCLA, Stanford, the University of Baltimore and Queensland’s Bond University. The paper concluded that the Pfizer’s vaccine was associated with a 36 per cent increase in serious adverse events. The most common were coagulation disorders and acute cardiac injury. In every 10,000 people injected, 18 will experience a life-threatening or life-altering medical complication. Serious adverse events from Pfizer’s COVID vaccine are four times higher than any benefit in reduced hospitalisation. Minister, is Pfizer’s vaccine safe, and do advise Australians to continue taking it?
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:31): I haven’t read the paper that Senator Roberts is citing, but, in answer to his question ‘Are the vaccines safe?’ yes, they are. The successful deployment of vaccinations across the world has prevented probably millions of deaths from COVID-19, particularly in those vulnerable populations such as older people, people who have a disability or people who are immunocompromised.
We’ve done very well here in Australia. We’ve got some more to do in terms of fourth doses, where it’s still only about 40 per cent of eligible people who have received their fourth dose. But the vaccine is safe. It’s been an incredibly effective health measure to manage the pandemic, to protect lives and to protect economic loss that would have otherwise occurred from such a serious global pandemic.
We have put our trust in the health experts in Australia from the beginning of this pandemic. Their advice hasn’t changed. ATAGI have considered all the matters, the scientific panel has looked at them and the TGA has approved the vaccines. They have been through rigorous processes to ensure that they are safe, and where there have been adverse events—and there have been, unfortunately, including serious adverse events and the loss of life—the advice has changed and the vaccine program was changed to deal with that. Where there have been adverse events, they have all been reported publicly on the TGA website, so that people are able to see the data and see the changing health advice around the vaccines. But, yes, they are safe and people should have their vaccine, including their fourth dose. (Time expired)
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts, your first supplementary question.
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (14:33): Sixty-three million COVID injections means up to 113,000 Australians suffered serious adverse events. Since the vaccine’s release, all-cause mortality, after allowing for COVID deaths, is at record highs. This paper proves COVID vaccines cause serious side effects—in 13 cases, fatal ones. ATAGI admits children are being given myocarditis and pericarditis. Where is the royal commission that your own COVID committee called for?
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:34): We didn’t call for a royal commission into vaccine safety; let’s be clear on that. As chair, there was a recommendation about looking at all aspects of the pandemic response. But it is different, and I don’t want to be involved in any conspiracy about vaccines, thanks very much. They are safe. The evidence has been provided and the data is available on the website. And I would say to Senator Roberts—because I do have time for you, Senator Roberts; we have good discussions, and have had through the pandemic—if you are concerned by this paper you’ve read, I would urge you to refer it to the TGA or to the AHPPC or to ATAGI, and get their considered opinion on it to see, and perhaps listen to, the other side from those experts who’ve been working on vaccines and vaccine safety.
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (14:35): The vaccines are causing coagulation disorders, and this will show in our reduction in live births. The Australian Bureau of Statistics receives live-birth data six weeks post-birth, so we should be seeing live-birth data to June 2022, yet the ABS data stops at December 2020. Minister, why is this government holding back 2½ years of live-birth data? What are you covering up?
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:35): For a start, just to answer your question directly, we’re not covering up anything. Secondly, on issues of births, live births, maternal deaths or deaths of babies, usually that data is reported, and it’s reported at a state and territory level, so I’m sure that data does exist, if you are interested in it. Where there have been side effects from the vaccine, and there have been some—I’m sure many in this chamber got them—like headaches, feeling a bit tired and escalating into more serious conditions, they have been appropriately managed, and advised on by all of those experts. When there were some concerns about blood clotting and myocarditis in young men, I think in teenage boys particularly, those issues were addressed and were managed, including by providing advice to anyone who is a vaccination provider, to keep an eye out for any conditions like that. And you’ll see from the data that the TGA— (Time expired)
The Jobs Summit last week was a wasted opportunity. A key decision from the Albanese government was to increase the immigration cap to 195,000 new immigrants a year. When there aren’t enough jobs for Australians right now how is importing another 195,000 hopeful employees going to help?
Transcript
President, two minutes is more than enough to review Labor’s Jobs and Skills Summit.
Allowing pensioners and student visa holders to earn more WILL help small businesses in the city and in the bush.
This has been One Nation policy for some time.
$40 billion in development funding through to 2030. $5 billion a year sounds good until we realise private investment spending in Australia in 2022/23 alone will be $143 billion.
$5 billion is a drop in the bucket. Just enough to provide the Labor with endless media photo ops.
This was the best opportunity in years to talk about growing our employment base – mining, agriculture, manufacturing, value adding. Creating breadwinner jobs.
Opportunity NOT taken.
25% of the delegates, one quarter, were union bosses. Yet there was no tangible job creation that may benefit union members. No wonder Red Unions are booming.
What did come out of the summit?
1. Additional vocational training places, for jobs that don’t exist;
2. Preferential employment schemes for women and Aboriginals, for jobs that don’t exist;
3. 195,000 new migrants every year, for jobs that don’t exist.
How will our crumbling health care system provide for all these new arrivals?
Victoria is treating patients in tents and Queensland in the back of ambulances.
Where will the housing come from? 100,000 Australians are homeless and that rate is rising. Rental prices are up 18% this year alone.
Inflation is 6% on the way to 10%. Life for everyday Australians is getting very hard, very quickly.
Labor will make all of these things worse with increased immigration adding more pressure on health and housing, while diluting the power of workers. That will reduce workers’ wages and living conditions even further.
Just who are Labor working for?
We have One flag. We are One Community. And One Nation is now the workers’ party.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/gP4gJkTc2bs/mqdefault.jpg180320Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-09-05 13:58:552022-09-05 13:58:59Labor’s Job Summit scores as a big flop
Feel like the grocery and fuel bill has gone up? Working just as hard and feel like you’re going backwards?
It’s because you are. The major parties are the cause.
Transcript
As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I speak to this matter of public importance—and it is a crucial and real matter of public importance. Well may a former assistant minister in the previous government debate the cost of living. This cost-of-living crisis now facing everyday Australian families and small businesses rests on the shoulders of both sides of this chamber. For more than two years, the Liberal and National government and the then Labor Party opposition were on a unity ticket to conjure money through electronic ledger entries and spend for short-term electoral benefit. They conjured up $500 billion and spent it on recurring government expenditure. These turned out to be handouts to Liberal, Labor and National party sponsors. Much of it went into corporate profits, not job support. Now we have runaway inflation. Who pays for the government’s mistakes, the Labor Party’s mistakes? The people, as always.
Let me be clear. It’s possible to conjure up money through electronic journal entries and not create inflation. It’s been done for centuries. In these cases, the spending must be on something that will grow the economy, grow our productive capacity and absorb the extra money—something like infrastructure. It’s impossible to get the tired old parties or the new climate mafia to talk about important infrastructure projects like the Bradfield Scheme, Copper String 2.0, Tully-Millstream hydro, Big Buffalo dam, the national rail circuit and the boomerang steel project, amongst other One Nation priorities. Meanwhile, the climate mafia are setting out to destroy our standard of living through many ill-conceived policies not based on science, contradicting the evidence.
Let me start with high electricity prices. Electricity prices are an input to business costs right through the production cycle, from the farmer running a cold room to the manufacturer running a factory to the wholesaler running a warehouse to supermarkets trying to keep their fridges cold and their lights on. When the cost of electricity rises, the cost of everything rises. Food, clothing, hardware, consumer goods, services, energy, and service sector examples such as optometrists, hairdressers, solicitors—pick a service, any service. All have electricity as a business expense. The cost of living is going up because the price of electricity is going up. Australian wholesale electricity prices are up 300 per cent in the last year. And what is the reason? It is unsustainable, unreliable wind and solar paying subsidies to billionaires in the Chinese Communist Party who are running these things. They’re the owners. The majority of large wind and solar complexes are owned by foreigners, including China and the Chinese Communist Party. Those who laugh are ignorant and condemned to suffer more.
This is combined with manipulation of the energy market by unscrupulous energy companies that should never have been allowed to buy important infrastructure. The National Electricity Market is actually a national electricity racket run by bureaucrats; it’s not a market at all.
The third element of higher electricity prices is the cost of transmission lines, poles and wires, to bring power from where the industrial solar and wind blight complexes are located to where the electricity is needed.
Our immigration rate affects prices. The more new Australians arrive, the more electricity, water, medical care and education they consume. These things are supply and demand. The more demand, the higher the price. Of course, governments can plan ahead and build out extra power generation, extra hospitals, extra dams and schools, but we don’t. Long-term planning in Australian politics means the next election, or nowadays, in the last decade or so, it means the next budget. This is no way to run a country. When One Nation talks about reducing immigration to net zero, we mean bringing in around 100,000 new arrivals each year to balance out the 100,000 who leave. Net zero is zero total immigration, easing the strain on infrastructure. This takes pressure off our economy, reducing demand and inflation, and making the essentials of life cheaper.
The climate mafia do not want to allow new dams and new electricity generation to be built, while at the same time wanting to bring in half the world as immigrants. Talk about inflation! You haven’t anything yet. Agriculture is under threat. A 43 per cent carbon dioxide reduction means culling livestock and shutting down cropping, returning that land to nature in a process called rewilding. What they call rewilding One Nation calls ‘starving people’. The less food that gets grown, the higher the price will be. One Nation will stop the madness and return Australia to good government.
The PM has made a mistake in giving the Agriculture ministry to an accountant and lawyer from the Gold Coast. Even so, the country still needs to be ready for the worst. Our agriculture and economy depends on it.
Transcript
In serving the people of Queensland and Australia, my intention in advancing this motion was to protect the people’s interests from the economic devastation that will result from foot-and-mouth disease if it enters Australia. There is no time to waste. It is a distinct possibility that, given the substandard response from this government, foot-and-mouth may be in Australia before the next sitting. Suspending standing orders to debate this matter today was essential, and I thank Senator Gallagher and the government for this.
Senator Whish-Wilson yesterday suggested that this matter could wait for discussion at the inquiry into the government’s foot-and-mouth response. No, it can’t. That’s weeks away. We need to act now to get these vaccines into Australia.
I know the minister appeared on radio earlier this week and alluded to the ‘scaremongering’ coming from some people around this issue. It is not scaremongering to want to save the life blood of hundreds of communities in rural Australia. It is not scaremongering to want to preserve $80 billion in exports. It is not scaremongering to want Australia to provide our beautiful red-meat protein into the international market to feed the world. It is not scaremongering to want to protect the thousands of jobs, including union jobs in transport, that the livestock industry supports.
Why on earth did the Prime Minister give the job of agriculture minister to an accountant and lawyer from the city? That decision was a gross insult to the Australian agriculture sector. The minister’s actions in his very first test show that the minister hasn’t a clue. The minister misleads and uses false slurs to cover up his own deficiencies and to divert attention from his deficiencies. The minister misled the Senate and the public when he answered my question on bringing vaccines to Australia just in case. The minister replied that this would cause Australia to be considered as ‘having foot-and-mouth disease’—rubbish! Having the vaccines here is not considered having foot-and-mouth. Using them is, and clearly these vaccines would not be used unless we had an actual outbreak. I’ve repeatedly called on the minister to correct his reply, and he continues to ignore that request. Truth doesn’t matter.
The minister misled the Senate when saying vaccine production had to wait until we knew the strain that had arrived in Australia. That specious reply ignores the likelihood that the strain we could have in Australia is going to be the same strain present now in Bali. If we’re making vaccines for Bali, make some more for us and store those vaccines in Australia, ready for any outbreak that comes here from Bali. Minister Watt’s answer ignores the simple question: if we need to know the strain before making a vaccine, what are the million doses of foot-and-mouth vaccine Australia is storing in the UK right now that he told us about?
The minister called into question my support for vaccines yesterday in another diversion. The minister was clearly not listening. In my question last Thursday, I did reassure the public that these vaccines are safe. The first thing I did in drafting my questions was to check that and to add the fact that it does look after people’s safety. I have never spoken against vaccination. I have spoken strongly against, and will continue to speak strongly against, experimental gene based treatments for humans, with grossly inadequate safety testing. Experimental vaccine injections have caused so many horrendous human injuries and deaths the government has had to implement a compensation scheme. In contrast, the foot-and-mouth vaccine is not an mRNA gene based vaccine. It is a normal vaccine, a real vaccine. According to New Zealand health authorities, it’s safe to consume meat and milk from a vaccinated animal.
So once again for clarity, before the minister misrepresents me again, I’m suggesting we get these one million doses of vaccine that we already own, and any others we need to produce for this strain, stored here in Australia, ready to vaccinate 48 hours after a foot-and-mouth outbreak occurs, should one occur. Taking this precaution will meet the procedure in the minister’s own manual. It’s on page 18 of the foot-and-mouth AUSVETPLAN edition 3 manual, in case the minister wants to look it up.
I asked the minister to explain why these vaccines are being stored in the UK rather than Australia. The minister has failed to explain this very strange decision, despite repeated requests. In the event of an outbreak, it will take seven days to get the vaccines here from the UK. Yet vaccination is supposed to start after 48 hours. After one week it will be too late. The livestock industry will be done for. He said he had tabled a response. He did, but it was scant and did not answer my basic questions. Was he really badly advised or did he lie? We need the truth. People need the truth. There are two issues now thanks to Senator Watt: foot-and-mouth and trust and truth, because of what he has done and not done and what he’s said and not said.
The minister’s briefing on foot-and-mouth last Tuesday appears to have made a factual error. It was in a casual reply, so I’m only going to mention this in passing. The comment was made that foot-and-mouth disease stays resident on hard surfaces for hours. The American College of Veterinary Pathologists briefing sheet on foot-and-mouth puts the residence period at one month. Between hours and one month, there is a hell of a difference—a huge difference. If it’s indeed one month then the protocols we’re following for foot-and-mouth need to be much stronger, more like the disinfectant protocols the government rushed to implement for COVID.
Some of these issues can be covered during the Senate inquiry. Vaccines, though, cannot wait. We must have them here now. We must have stronger airport screening now. How can it be that, after all these weeks the virus has been in Indonesia, we still have several international flights arriving directly from Indonesia all at the same time and then no flights for hours? If you do not have the staff to check every passenger from infected areas, Minister, here’s an idea: work with the airlines to stagger their arrivals so we can screen every single person.
I have no confidence that this minister, in being in charge of the department, is working from a set of protocols that are designed to stop foot-and-mouth. Rather, these protocols seem to be about looking as if government tried to stop foot-and-mouth. Perhaps this has something to do with the Left’s policy to reduce livestock to save on carbon dioxide production. A 43 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide output below 2005 levels by 2030 must include substantial reductions from agriculture. I’ll speak to this absolute nonsense, this garbage, on many occasions in the years ahead. For today, let me say that cows are not climate vandals. Graziers are wonderful custodians of the land, as Senator Nampijinpa Price just pointed out. The government is not a wonderful custodian of the land.
I’m aware there is work that suggests that foot-and-mouth will not spread amongst feral pigs and other feral animals that can get foot-and-mouth because of the sparse population. What utter rubbish! These researchers-for-hire clearly have not been to the national parks I’ve have been to. Nobody in the government seems to care that infestations of pests in national parks encroach on farmland, putting hardworking farmers under enormous strain, when all they want to do is grow food and fibre to feed and clothe the world. Why the political Left want to stop farmers feeding and clothing the world is beyond me—and it’s clearly beyond Senator Nampijinpa Price. I know your climate gods need the ritual sacrifice of farmers to reach a target that makes no scientific sense, no moral or ethical sense, no human sense. And, really, how can rewilding productive farmland be more desirable than feeding and clothing the world and the people on our planet?
This agenda dovetails very nicely with Premier Andrews’s recent agriculture bill, which allows the Premier to declare quarantine on part or all of rural Victoria based on the threat of a disease outbreak. Animals can be culled on the threat of getting a disease. Farmers can be told what they can and can’t produce. Lockdowns can be hard border lockdowns extending for years. Victoria is coming for their graziers in the name of sustainability. All it will take is one disease outbreak. What could that outbreak be? If every rural media outlet in the bush is not getting onto their local Labor member or Greens candidates and asking them, ‘What is the go here?’ then I don’t know why they’re not doing it.
There’s a story here. It’s a story that is so much more than an inexperienced minister with no knowledge of his portfolio tripping over the first hurdle. It’s more than a minister who refuses to accept he’s made a mistake and, as a result, refuses to fix it. That’s not honest. It’s more than Australian farmers being thrown under the sustainability bus by wealthy city dwellers anxious to make others pay for their climate religion. It is about the very future of our Australian agricultural sector, and that’s terrifying.
Minister Watt made this an issue by misleading the Senate. Quoting others about foot-and-mouth disease does not change a thing with what’s happening with the government. Continually derailing the discussion and diverting the discussion onto what other people are doing or not doing does not answer questions. It shows the man lacks accountability and responsibility. And I will continue to do my job for the people. I’ve been elected by the people—not the people that Senator Watt quoted. It’s easier to get a human being vaccinated in this country than to get a cow vaccinated. We have one flag above this parliament. We are one community and we are one nation. Labor, in its policy on foot-and-mouth disease, is a clear and present danger to agriculture.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/lsI_ddWTz_8/mqdefault.jpg180320Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-08-04 15:06:562022-08-04 15:07:01Minister Watt continues to duck and weave on Foot and Mouth Disease
Climate alarmists have continually claimed that the Great Barrier Reef is dying because of Climate Change. Unfortunately for them, record coral cover and growth over the last two years is shooting a hole in that narrative.
Transcript
The Australian Institute of Marine Science annual report has found that the Great Barrier Reef central section and northern section now have record coral cover. A natural event, a crown-of-thorns starfish outbreak, prevented the southern section reaching record coral cover too. For millennia the reef has witnessed natural events causing coral bleaching. Bleaching results when periods of high solar activity coincide with low tides, when the water cover is insufficient to protect the coral polyps and they die, meaning the reef bleaches. And then it recovers just as quickly, every time. Tropical cyclones bleach the reef and floods deliver fresh water plumes onto the reef, killing saltwater coral polyps. Once the plume dissipates, marine life consumes the nutrients in the floodwaters and the sediment turns into sand. The reef and the coastal environment are renewed.
Recently, in June 2008, record cold temperatures in Queensland caused coral bleaching. For millennia, natural solar, lunar and rain cycles have caused bleaching. What is new is the late 20th century environmental movement hijacking the perfectly normal climate cycle for their own political benefit. If your party’s real objective is to control every aspect of life on the reef and along the coast, then be honest and have that debate. The only argument the climate fraudsters can advance in favour of onerous reductions in farm output is ‘save the reef’. Well, the reef does not need saving and never has. The public has been deceived.
The left are seeking to shut down agriculture and transfer food production to near urban, intensive-food-production facilities manufacturing food-like substances. Who will own these facilities? Predatory billionaires, the same predatory billionaires who own and drive the environmental movement for their own benefit—not nature: predatory billionaires who own and drive the environmental movement. We have one flag, we are one community, we are one nation and we will continue to stand up for our farmers’ rights to feed and clothe the world.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/3OTh1hEFPos/mqdefault.jpg180320Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-08-04 14:33:482022-08-04 15:26:53The Great Barrier Reef is not dying!
Sustainable, regenerative forestry is the true renewable resource in Australia. It is ironic that the Greens try to ban timber from Parliament House which is covered in beautiful, durable hardwoods.
Transcript
Our Australian forestry industry is one of Australia’s largest manufacturers, employing around 80,000 hardworking people across the value chain and contributing more than $24 billion of economic turnover to our economy every year. A further 100,000 people are in jobs supported through flow-on economic activity. Yet now the people’s wealth is under threat. Green ideology working for globalist predators seeking to control people threatens all this wealth going into the pockets of everyday Australians and regional communities.
Timber—look around—is a natural material with great warmth and versatility. In this beautiful building, Australia’s seat of government, native hardwoods are used throughout the building, chosen for colour and durability. The Sydney Opera House uses timber in the public areas for the same reason. The use of timbers from all over Australia expresses our national identity. That’s probably why the globalist Greens are trying to destroy the Australian timber industry. Under globalist policies, there is no national identity—only unrelenting oppression of individual sovereignty and slavish adherence to a woke agenda that borders on evil. Regional forestry agreements preserve the important principle of competitive federalism and states’ rights. Regional forestry agreements protect our timber industry, and One Nation will defend the right of states to defend their timber industry.
One Nation strongly supports the Australian plantation industry and the workers, communities, regions, states and nation that it supports. Timber is the original renewable building product. We will hear about a circular economy in this parliament where the elites that own and use the green movement get to buy expensive new things while everyday Australians are left with second-hand and recycled goods to rent—supposedly in the name of sustainability. Like hell!
We are one community, we are one nation and plantation timber is an amazing, beautiful, durable building product that should be available to everyone.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/mV1DL06f2VM/mqdefault.jpg180320Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-08-04 08:53:222022-08-04 08:53:27Forestry is the real renewable industry
If Foot and Mouth disease enters Australia it will cost the industry an estimated $80 billion. Minister Watt’s response to foot-and-mouth disease has been half-baked and dangerous.
Transcript
I move:
That—
(a) the Senate requires the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to attend the Senate at 9.30 am on Thursday, 4 August 2022 to provide an explanation of not more than 10 minutes as to:
(i) answers provided to Senator Roberts after question time on Thursday, 28 July 2022 which appear to have misled the Senate, as detailed in Senator Roberts’ letter hand delivered to the Minister on Friday, 29 July 2022,
(ii) the failure by the Minister to bring foot and mouth disease vaccines to Australia ready for an outbreak should one occur, and
(iii) the failure by the Minister to provide suitable biosecurity precautions at Australian airports to prevent foot and mouth disease entering Australia;
(b) any senator may move to take note of the explanation required by paragraph (a); and
(c) any motion under paragraph (b) may be debated for no longer than one hour, shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 10 minutes each.
Motion moved by Senator Roberts 3 August 2022 and agreed to by the Senate
Foot-and-mouth disease is a clear and present danger to the Australian livestock industry. If foot-and-mouth disease enters Australia, our exports will be suspended for several years, which will cost the industry $80 billion. This will be devastating to rural communities. Farmers will not survive. Regions will be decimated. The country will suffer as a whole. The federal government will be on the hook for huge social security and assistance packages, as well as for compensation for culled animals. The animals would like to express their desire to not be shot and burned.
This will not only bankrupt farmers; it will negatively impact the affordability of meat protein. If you think meat is expensive now—once we destroy a large part of the Australian beef industry, prices will go beyond the means of everyday Australians to afford meat. This is not a rural issue. Foot-and-mouth disease will affect every Australian through the cost of meat and dairy and through the additional burdens on the taxpayers to meet compensation and social security expenses.
Minister Watt’s response to foot-and-mouth disease has been half-baked and, quite honestly, dangerous. He has also, I believe, misled the Senate. I gave the minister a chance to correct and clarify his remarks, in a letter hand delivered to the minister last Friday requesting an attendance by close of business last Monday. The minister ignored that letter. The minister must attend the Senate to explain answers that he has given to my question without notice; they could constitute a misleading of the Senate.
Last Wednesday, 27 July, in questions without notice, my first question was in respect to the foot-and-mouth disease vaccine being held in the UK and read, in part: ‘If foot-and-mouth disease arrives in Australia, the short-term response would be to start vaccination.’ The minister’s reply included the statement: ‘The reason you don’t vaccinate is that you are then deemed by the rest of the world as having foot-and-mouth disease.’
As a result of that misleading reply from Minister Watt, I have had to contend with suggestions on social media that I was advocating for a measure that would destroy our beef industry. I said no such thing. The minister was given an opportunity to correct the record, and he has not.
Minister Watt also stated that ‘what we are actually prioritising in relation to the supply of vaccines at the moment is providing them to Indonesia to keep the disease out, and that is why we want to support the vaccine rollout in Indonesia’. I of course support assisting Indonesia with their foot-and-mouth disease response. They’re neighbours of ours. We need to support them. We also need to support them for humanitarian reasons. However, I might make the observation that this response presupposes that we know the strain in Indonesia and can access that vaccine if suitable. If we know the Bali strain, then why are we not placing the same vaccine we are giving to Indonesia here in Australia right now, in case one of the travellers returning from Bali has brought foot-and-mouth disease with them?
Minister Watt went on and made the statement that ‘we don’t necessarily know what strain of disease we would have in Australia’ and that we need to know the strain before we order the vaccine. If we need to know the strain before ordering the vaccine, then what about the million doses we already have in the UK? What strain do they protect us against, and at what cost? I received a call from the minister’s office last Thursday advising that we would receiver an answer to the question the minister took on notice regarding how many vaccines Australia has stored in the UK, to which the minister gave an indicative answer of one million. That answer did not arrive, and it’s been a week now.
Why are these vaccines being stored in the UK? How much are we paying to store them in the UK, when they should be stored here in Australia? Page 18 of the foot-and-mouth disease AUSVETPLAN, edition 3, states that vaccination is recommended to start within 48 hours of the first detected case, and this may include protective vaccination of livestock in the area surrounding the infection. In question time Minister Watt suggested that the vaccines could be here from the UK in seven days and that this was sufficient. However, the government’s own manual indicates that vaccination would be an appropriate response after just 48 hours. Australia is currently holding tens of millions of vaccines for COVID in complete safety. If we are unable to hold foot-and-mouth vaccines in a similar way, then why not? It seems to be proving easier to get a human vaccinated in this country than a cow.
I’d just consider some other points as well. I note that the briefing last week by Minister Watt’s staff said that the virus stays for just hours on surfaces. Other sources in the United States reliably say that the virus stays on surfaces for a month. Therefore, if quarantine measures are not adequate—and it means they are not—then we need the protection of a vaccine. This is about food security for the people in this country—fellow Australians. It is about food prices and cost of living. It is about humanitarian support for the Indonesians. It is about support for our farmers, for our whole agricultural sector. As I said, if foot-and-mouth disease breaks out here it will cost us a suspension that is estimated to be around three years, costing $80 billion in lost exports. It also will gut our agricultural sector and tarnish our reputation—all because we are not being told the truth and we are being misled, and that compares with a few million dollars on a vaccine, which is the lowest-cost option for us to protect our farming industry and our farmers.
How much does it cost us to store these vaccines in the United Kingdom? This is about Minister Watt looking good, not doing good—all mouth and no substance.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/SkE4j44_wcw/mqdefault.jpg180320Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2022-08-03 14:58:372022-08-04 07:58:10Minister to front up and explain potentially misleading the Senate – Foot and Mouth Disease
