12th Aug 2021, 10:13 AM – Senate Motions - Covid-19 - Unity in COVID response

The majority voted in favour of an amended motion, originally introduced by SA Senator Penny Wong (Labor) and then subsequently amended by SA Senator Simon Birmingham (Liberal), which means it succeeded. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own, but are politically influential because they represent the will of the Senate.

Amended motion text

That the Senate—

(a) applauds the sacrifices made by the Australian people to keep each other safe;

(b) thanks the heroes of the pandemic—our scientists, doctors, nurses, aged care and disability workers, cleaners and other essential workers;

(c) joins the House of Representatives in condemning the comments of the Member for Dawson prior to question time on Tuesday, 10 August 2021 designed to use our national Parliament to spread misinformation and undermine the actions of Australians to defeat COVID-19;

(d) condemns the use of public platforms to undermine confidence in public health responses, public health institutions, and the actions of Australians to defeat COVID-19;

(e) rejects statements that 'masks don't work', 'lockdowns don't work', that lockdowns are 'doing much more damage to our love of liberty and our political system, that's the real threat to us now', descriptions of our health professionals as 'dictatorial medical bureaucrats', and that spread misinformation about Therapeutic Goods Administration approved vaccines; and

(f) calls on all parliamentarians, public officials and candidates to refrain from making ill-informed comments at a time when the pandemic represents a serious threat to the health of Australians.