Senator Pauline Hanson has called for a broad Royal Commission into the Australian governments’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The One Nation leader said in a Sunday press release, an honest and thorough examination of how Federal, state, and territory governments managed the pandemic is absolutely critical and necessary.
“This pandemic, and governments’ attempts to manage it, has affected every Australian in some way,” Senator Hanson said.
“People have died. The economy was shut down. Schools were shut down. Entire cities were effectively shut down. Borders were closed. Vast quantities of taxpayers’ money have been expended. Military personnel have been deployed. Thousands of people have lost their job. Businesses have closed, in many cases permanently. Individual rights and freedoms have been curtailed or discarded. Unelected bureaucrats have wielded extraordinary power.”
Senator Hanson said the need for a Royal Commission is not to lay blame or find scapegoats, as “the buck will always stop with the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders, as it must in a representative democracy.”
Rather, the purpose would be to primarily learn which measures worked and which did not, to better prepare for inevitable future pandemics.
“The lessons learned from this pandemic must inform how we manage the next one,” she said. Adding, “Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.”
The Senator also said 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,” most of which has been hidden from the Australian public.
“I’m not going to pretend this will be an easy exercise,” she said. “It will be a difficult examination and it will take a long time, but it is absolutely necessary.”
Senator Hanson said the Australian people deserve a comprehensive account of the decisions made by their governments to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
