Hello Everyone,
I am incredibly disappointed with the Senate’s decision today to vote down my bill to establish a Covid-19 Commission of Inquiry (10 ayes-26 noes).
The Senate has overwhelmingly voted to protect Covid era secrets, to protect incompetence and protect those who inflicted human rights abuses on their fellow citizens.
Australians deserve to know the truth about what went on behind closed doors during the pandemic.
Civil liberties were trashed, businesses were destroyed, children’s education was ruined, sports were banned, people died alone, lives were lost and families were broken up.
That our political class – not least the leader of the Liberals in the Senate, Simon Birmingham – would deny the Australian public a full account of what went on is weak.
I thank Senators Roberts, Hanson, Canavan, Rennick, Cadell, Pocock, O’Sullivan, McLachlan and Colbeck for their support.
The Greens abstained from voting and the Labor Party despite previously calling for a Royal Commission voted against the bill.
Two additional Senators (Henderson and Paterson) from the Liberal party voted against holding a commission of inquiry into the pandemic.
Is it too much for Australians to ask for governments and the bureaucrats advising them to be held to account for the advice and actions they took during the pandemic?
To simply move on, as if nothing ever happened, is an outrage greater than the multiple outrages perpetrated during the pandemic itself.
