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Tuesday, 9 May 2023
Page: 2825

Mr BROADBENT (Monash) (13:42): Deputy Speaker, I seek leave of the House to table two letters, one from Professor Ian Brighthope to the minister for health and the other from the department of health to Ms Elizabeth Hart.

Leave not granted.

Mr BROADBENT: Professor Brighthope, who practised and taught medicine for 45 years, is scathing in his assessment of Australia's management of the COVID pandemic, saying the vaccine is killing and maiming too many Australians and that he is completely disgusted that prevention and early treatments had been deliberately cast aside by medical bureaucrats in 2020. Even Channel 7 ran a story last night with the headline 'COVID nightmare: the crippling side-effects'. If I were a doctor, in light of current litigation overseas, I'd be checking right now whether the government's 2021 assurance that doctors would not be liable was a hollow gesture because, unlike the vaccine manufacturers who are indemnified by our government, the letter to Elizabeth Hart states that no such indemnity scheme was established for medical professionals administering the COVID vaccines.

I note the TGA is no longer interfering with doctors' rights to prescribe ivermectin off label, and that the AstraZeneca vaccine, which caused blood clots and was associated with unprecedented notifications to the TGA, has been quietly discontinued. I was especially pleased to hear two former colleagues, Peter Costello and John Anderson, speaking up last week that Australia had gone way too far during the pandemic. Deputy Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to address the House.