TIME TO END ‘EMERGENCY POWERS’ IN QUEENSLAND – “WE CAN’T GO ON LIVING THIS WAY”
The Health Minister, Yvette D’Ath, tabled a new Bill last week that seeks to extend the Queensland’s Emergency laws a further six months.
Under the Public Health and Other Legislation (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022, Queensland’s ‘state of emergency’ laws will be extended from 30 April 2022 to 31 October 2022.
By that date, Queenslanders will have been living under a ‘state of emergency’ for nearly three years.
We were the first State to declare an emergency on 29 January 2020.
The Premier said at the time: “Queensland acted early and strengthened the laws because public safety is paramount”.
Since then, we have seen our economy smashed, small businesses decimated, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost and people’s lives turned upside down.
All sacrificed on the altar of “public safety” – along with free speech, the right to peaceful assembly, the right to work, freedom of conscience, bodily autonomy, government transparency and public trust in our institutions.
Even worse, has been the fundamental change in our relations with each other, a change clouded by suspicion and distrust.
This new Bill seeks to prolong all this.
It is also important to note that the Government’s transitional regulation-making powers under Part 9 of the original Emergency Response Act 2020, will remain in place for a FURTHER TWO YEARS AFTER the “expiry date”.
That means until near the end of 2024.
Presuming of course, that the government doesn’t extend the date again for a fifth time!
When the Minister said in her speech last Tuesday, that Queensland must move from “an elimination strategy to a suppression strategy and eventually into learning to live with Covid-19”, her words had an ominous ring.
I suspect she didn’t mean it the way you or I might hope.
In fact, this new mantra of “learning to live with Covid-19” is starting to sound a lot like “learning to live with the New Normal”.
Either way, we can’t afford to let this charade to go on one day longer.
Click here to watch the Minister’s Speech
HAVE YOUR SAY
Submissions are now open for the inquiry into the Public Health and Other Legislation (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022
Have your say by Friday 4 March!
Public Health and Other Legislation (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The committee invites submissions addressing any aspect of the Bill, from all interested parties. Guidelines for making a submission to a parliamentary committee are available here: Guide to making a submission. Please ensure your submission meets these requirements.
The closing date for written submissions 12:00pm on Friday, 4 March 2022.
| Submissions should be sent to:
Email: cssc@parliament.qld.gov.au Committee Secretary |
Submissions should include:
Please ensure your submission includes the above or it may not be considered by the committee. |
PUBLIC HEARINGS
Further details will be published on this webpage in due course.
COMMITTEE’S REPORT
The committee is due to table its report on 25 March 2022. The report will be published to this webpage.
Once the committee’s report has been tabled, the Government has three months to respond to the report’s recommendations (if any). At that time, the Government Response will be published here.
TIMELINE
| Submissions close: | 12:00pm on Friday, 4 March 2022 |
| Public briefing: | 4 March 2022 – Time TBC |
| Public hearing(s): | TBC |
| Report due date: | 25 March 2022 |
Public Health and Other Legislations ( Extensions of Expiring Provisions ) Amendment Bill 2022
Is NOT to be Extended
This woman is delusional
End the State of Emergency
I think this legislation to extend the emergency powers of the premier is crippling for the economy and our freedoms. You may as well call us a communist state and all this for a vaccine that is not ready a vaccine at all.
There is absolutely no need for an extension of emergency powers for the QLD Premier. This madness must stop. People can handle their own affairs and this Government must stop the unnecessary overreach. The people of this State have had enough!
The government has to stop this crisis and let everyone get back to normal the labour party will never win another election in QLD again the way they have done everything to the people I used to be a strong supporter of labour but never again
In light of the recent ABS statistics, extending this would be a violation of the ‘Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’ to which Australia is a signatory. This was never only a public health issue though it has been treated as such with unelected public health officers calling the shots locally while subservient to the WHO by legal liability to its International Health Regulations 2005. It’s time for an enquiry into the massive collusion (incl. the star chamber national cabinet), conflicts of interest, misuse of taxes incl. media manipulation, and .the role Australia is playing in the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset.