First published at 06:42 UTC on May 25th, 2020.
When NSW Parliament sat last week the House rushed through Covid-19 legislation, some provisions relating to Covid-19 others not relating strictly and exclusively to Covid-19.
Mark Latham says, “It is an abiding parliamentary principle that the mat…
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When NSW Parliament sat last week the House rushed through Covid-19 legislation, some provisions relating to Covid-19 others not relating strictly and exclusively to Covid-19.
Mark Latham says, “It is an abiding parliamentary principle that the material in the bill should be related to its core purpose and title. To lob any old thing in under the cover of miscellaneous COVID-19 legislation is a denial of proper parliamentary scrutiny and process—the very purpose of this Chamber. I understand in the other place, where they might want to rush things through, they have command of the numbers—the tradition is they can push through whatever they like. But the whole purpose of this Chamber as a house of review is to scrutinise.”
Saying the word “pandemic” does not justify any authoritarian action of government.
Legislation cannot be made on the basis we are the same as Italy, Spain, USA, UK and Iran.
Mark Latham says, “The truth is there is a global pandemic, but not in Australia. Australia has had fewer than 100 deaths. Australia has 7,500 ventilators with 14 people using them. Yesterday New South Wales had no new infections. There are large tracts of our big country that have not had a single infection. We should be very grateful for that. We should not be alarmist and in the realm of hyperbole by calling this an Australian pandemic when clearly, by good fortune or good management, it is not.”
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