Extract from The Guardian
Asked whether MP should not be rebuked for contradicting health advice during a pandemic, deputy PM replies: ‘That’s dead right’
Last modified on Thu 12 Aug 2021 11.14 AEST
Barnaby Joyce says he won’t demand George Christensen desist from contradicting public health advice because the Coalition governs with a “thin margin” and if you “start prodding the bear, you’re going to make the situation worse”.
The deputy prime minister told the ABC on Thursday he had different views to Christensen and had expressed them to the member for Dawson through “continual discussions”.
But he said “you don’t start telling another adult what to do” – particularly an adult who could imperil the government’s majority in the House of Representatives.
“What people want me to do is order him … and you can’t do that to another member of parliament, because it doesn’t work like that,” Joyce said. “Other people have their own minds.
“You might disagree with their views, and I disagree with some of George’s. But I’m not gonna start ordering people around. They’re adults. You’re an adult, and you can make your choice.”
When it was pointed out to Joyce that he was the leader of the National party, and MPs were routinely asked to toe the line on issues, Joyce said Christensen had been elected “by the people of Dawson – they are the ultimate authority”.
“And I know how George’s mind works. If you start prodding the bear, you’re gonna make the situation worse for us as a government, not better.
Asked whether he was seriously arguing Christensen should not be rebuked for contradicting health advice during a pandemic because of the delicate numbers in the House of Representatives, Joyce replied: “That’s dead right.”
Christensen was widely condemned, including by a motion in the House of Representatives, after telling parliament on Tuesday that masks and lockdowns did not work to stop the spread of the virus – claims that are rejected by Australian health authorities.
Facebook removed a video of Christensen’s anti-lockdown speech after finding it contained “harmful health information” in breach of its Covid misinformation policy.
The Doherty Institute has found that lockdowns will still be required to control the virus until Australia’s vaccination rate hits 70% of the adult population. Once the coverage reaches 70% and 80%, the rate of severe infections is reduced, but under an “uncontrolled outbreak” scenario, between 1,300 and 2,000 people would still die from 10,000 to 20,000 severe infections within six months.
On Thursday morning the Senate debated a motion condemning the Liberal National party senators Matt Canavan and Gerard Rennick for making similar comments that contradict public health advice and for spreading Covid misinformation.
Picking up Joyce’s comments about not poking bears, the Labor senator Murray Watt told the chamber that someone in the government had “finally” been honest about why Christensen could campaign against health measures without serious sanction.
Watt declared that the Coalition cared more about “hanging on to power” than about stopping misinformation imperilling human health during a pandemic. He said government MPs cared more about their own jobs than about protecting the jobs of people disrupted by lockdowns, like Queensland tourism operators.
But Canavan told the Senate it was important to allow debate about the measures governments were imposing during the crisis, and parliament was the place where that debate should be staged.
“We have not had accountability for the decisions that governments have made,” Canavan said. “Almost all the decisions that have been made on the public health orders have not gone through this place, there has not been legislation, there has not been a committee, there has not been disallowable instruments.
“So, all the businesses that have been shut down all the restrictions that have been put on people’s freedoms have happened without even a scintilla of parliamentary accountability.”
Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, noted that Canavan had been a guest on a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, the former adviser to Donald Trump, who had called for the beheading of Anthony Fauci.
“Mr Bannon was banned from Twitter as a result, but he still has a podcast and a recent guest on that podcast said coronavirus is doing more damage to our liberties [than to our health],” Wong said. “That guest was Senator Canavan.
“Senator Canavan, going on the podcast, hosted by someone who has called for the beheading of one of the world’s leading public health officials. There should be nothing easier than for Senator [Marise] Payne to rebuke Senator Canavan – and I invite her to do that today.”
Speaking in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the prime minister said: “Crazy rubbish conspiracies have no place when it comes to the public health of this country. This government will have no association with it, as we demonstrated [on Tuesday] in this House.”
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