One Nation party leader Senator Pauline Hanson will submit a petition signed by more than 41,000 Australians to the Senate calling on the federal government to establish a Royal Commission, or major public hearing, into the country’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Thank you to the tens of thousands of Australians who took the time to add their voices to mine.
“One Nation will continue to fight for transparency and honesty and we will do everything in our power to ensure those responsible for denying Australians their rights are freedoms are held responsible,” she said.
Further, the petition states that vast quantities of taxpayers’ money were “expended,” thousands lost their jobs, businesses were closed (some permanently), individual rights and freedoms were curtailed, military personnel were deployed, and “unelected bureaucrats have wielded extraordinary power.”
“Only a Royal Commission is likely to have the power necessary to compel the expert health advice Australian governments relied on to justify and implement pandemic measures—much of this advice has been hidden from the Australian people,” the petition reads.
“We need a Royal Commission because this inquiry must be completely transparent to the Australian public.
COVID-19 Under Question
The call for the Royal Commission comes as Australia seeks to recover from the impacts of almost two years of rolling lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions, with Queensland One Nation federal Senator Malcolm Roberts leading the charge to hold the federal and state governments accountable for their pandemic measures.On March 23, Roberts hosted a “non-political” cross-party inquiry with fellow parliamentarians in a bid to gather empirical data into the federal and state governments’ responses to the pandemic which he said the federal government failed to provide.
“We did not get the data. We have still not seen a comprehensive plan,” he said.
“We have seen people die needlessly.
“So when the government won’t provide the empirical data that we as MPs need to fulfil our roles serving the people, we'll [expletive]-well go out and get the data, and we will get it from the best independent, international and Australian experts that are free from conflicts of interest,” Roberts said.
He also compared Australia’s response to COVID-19 with Taiwan’s, which despite being on China’s doorstep, and closer to the epicentre of the pandemic, “never locked down.”
“[Taiwan] has done a spectacular job with managing the virus, whereas Australia has done a lousy job. Taiwan never locked down and they kept going normally at work. But they protected the vulnerable and the sick,” Roberts said.
The inquiry, which was not a formal parliamentary hearing, was attended by One Nation Queensland state MP Stephen Andrew, Nationals federal MP George Christensen, Liberal federal MP Gerard Rennick, Liberal federal Senator Alex Antic, and United Australia Party leader MP Craig Kelly.
The parliamentarians heard from a range of doctors, experts, economists and everyday people about how the governments’ response to COVID-19 has affected them.