I will always put people first (Covid Response Inquiry Bill)

Chamber: Senate on 22/08/2024
Item: BILLS – COVID-19 Response Commission of Inquiry Bill 2024 – Second Reading

Senator RENNICK (Queensland) (09:45): I rise today to speak to the COVID-19 Response Commission of Inquiry Bill 2024, which simply recommends a COVID-19 royal commission. The 15 minutes of diatribe and vitriol from Senator Ayres there was one of the most disgusting speeches—actually, it is probably the most disgusting speech—I’ve ever heard in this chamber. This is a genuine attempt at dealing with and looking at the way the COVID pandemic was handled. All we’re recommending here today and supporting is that we have a thorough inquiry to look at how the consequences of that pandemic can be dealt with—in particular, of course, the people who have been injured by the vaccine—and ways in which, going forward, we can also be better prepared for whatever may happen next.

I just want to point out the sheer and utter hypocrisy of the Labor Party. Under the government led by the former prime minister Scott Morrison, there was a select committee on COVID, and the recommendation of that select committee, led by none other than Senator Katy Gallagher and comprising Labor members Senators Murray Watt and Tony Sheldon, was that a royal commission into the handling of COVID be held. Yet, today, when we tried to move a bill that the Labor Party themselves supported—it was a recommendation by the Labor Party themselves when they were in opposition—we just copped some of the most outrageous accusations and slurs of antisemitism. Somehow we’re tied up with the horrendous murders that occurred in Chinchilla.

The Labor Party really needs to have a good look at the way it conducts itself in the chamber and in general. There has been an uplift in the last few weeks by the Labor Party members of calling anyone that disagrees with them ‘cookers’ and ‘conspiracy theorists’. And you know what? The general public is waking up to this. The general public don’t condone this sort of schoolyard bullying. That’s what it is. It’s a reflection of the low intelligence of the people that represent the Labor Party, who are incapable of actually (a) treating other people with respect, which is extremely important—we are serving the people here—and (b) being able to engage in a rational debate about the facts of the matter. That is what this chamber is about. It is about having rigorous debate, talking about different ideas and being able to find a middle ground, compromise or whatever. But, instead, what we have is just day after day of name-calling, deflection, censorship and propaganda.

I admit, when I first became a Senate candidate, I was bullied relentlessly by the ABC for four days. It rattled me. I’ll admit it rattled me. But I’ve grown a thicker skin. And Muz—I well remember my first TV interview with Senator Murray Watt and Tom Connell, where they had a go at me over my allegations about the Bureau of Meteorology homogenising data. I’ve gone back to Tom Connell many a time with the documentations. I’ll quote the paper. It’s Blair Trewin’s paper of 2017, which shows that homogenisation has lifted the weather records by 0.6 degrees. It’s all there, Senator Watt, so, if you ever want to debate me with Tom on Sky again, I’ve got the records to prove that what I said was exactly right. But, of course, they won’t actually engage in debate. They would rather hide in the shadows or hide behind thugs like Senator Ayres. We’ve just spent—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Allman-Payne ): Senator Rennick, can you resume your seat. That was a personal reflection. I’m going to ask you to withdraw.

Senator RENNICK: Sure. That behaviour we saw by Senator Ayres is the behaviour that the CFMEU goes on with. In this chamber we’ve just spent most of the last two weeks calling out bullying behaviour. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the workplace or on the building site or wherever—it also occurs in here. The fact that the Labor Party sit there and grin and smirk and Senator Ayres’s colleagues think that this is all a big joke is an absolute insult to the people that had their lives destroyed throughout the COVID pandemic.

For the Australian people, many are still suffering, and it’s not just vaccine injuries. There are people that didn’t get to see their loved ones. I’ve got a very good friend whose sister died in New South Wales—her younger sister, I might add—and she died prematurely. She died in her late 40s. My friend could not be there when her sister died. I copped heaps of stories, way before the vaccine injuries ever occurred, of people who were locked out of their homes, couldn’t afford the hotel bill, were worried about losing their jobs, couldn’t go to their loved ones’ funerals and couldn’t be there when their loved ones died. We know the story of the mother in New South Wales who wasn’t allowed into Queensland to give birth. These things deserve a voice. These issues deserve a voice.

We had thousands of Queenslanders locked out of Queensland, living in tents in Murwillumbah. Some of these people, ironically enough, were vaccinated and didn’t have COVID, but the Queensland Premier wouldn’t even let them back into the state. So these people were roughing it in the back of their cars or wherever they could find accommodation. Why does the Labor Party not take this seriously? Surely the biggest disruption to our lifestyle and country, outside of war, warrants a proper investigation.

Look, I’ll be honest here. I am not necessarily convinced we’ll get that from a royal commission because I’m not convinced the judges necessarily have their head around the biochemistry of a virus and things like that, but I’ll take it if I can get it. I’m also not convinced, if we were to get a royal commission up—we’ve just seen the motives and intentions of the Labor Party; they’re clearly not interested in being completely open and transparent about this—that the terms of reference would actually go to the heart of the issue.

The other thing that I think we really owe the Australian people is public hearings, the ability to hear from the people themselves who suffered as a result of government decisions. I get it; when COVID first came out, in March 2020, we didn’t know what it was and people were understandably concerned and cautious. I didn’t speak out in the first year at all. I was sceptical that it was being used for political purposes: ‘There’s COVID in the sewage. If you don’t line up to get a vaccine, you’re going to line up for a machine to help you breathe.’ There were all of these ridiculous, outrageous statements being made by the state premiers. But I admit we had to display caution early on.

But where I really want to start seeing accountability taken is for when it became apparent that those vaccines were causing injuries and when those people who were injured were being gaslighted—and the mandates as well. We were told for almost 18 months that you weren’t going to be mandated to take it, and then, bang, we were. Those mandates were being implemented at the same time that people were becoming injured, and the government just turned—all governments. I’ve been very impartial about this, and I did lose my Senate pre-selection because I withheld my vote from a party because Greg Hunt didn’t take my concerns about those vaccine injuries seriously. I’m happy to lose my position in this party over that because that’s what representing the Australian people is all about: putting the people first. Listen out for that phrase in the future: putting the people first. I make no apologies for doing that.

I come in here as a genuine, impartial person who cares deeply about the Australian people, and I would ask that the chamber support this, or some sort of Senate inquiry, so that we can give the people of Australia a chance to say how they suffered under COVID and the management of COVID and a say in how they want future pandemics—whatever they may be, government contrived or not—to be dealt with.