I am Senator Malcolm Roberts and welcome to Our Nation Today.

Senator Malcolm Roberts speaks with Jacintha Geia. Jacintha an Indigenous woman, born in Rockhampton and raised in Townsville in a family of seven siblings. Home life was not always nurturing, and she often moved to live in other remote communities throughout Queensland. Jacintha visited Malcolm in Canberra last year and was impressed with her strong belief in self-responsibility and determination, not only for herself, but also for her people.

Jacintha is a proud mother to three daughters, and she is deeply committed to supporting her children be able to move successfully in both worlds and reminds them every day that they make their own futures.

Jacintha’s childhood was far from ideal, so she knows first-hand the attitudes and determination required to make your own successful future. She has faced the demons of alcoholism, drug addiction, welfare dependency, homelessness, domestic violence, childhood poverty and trauma, and if that wasn’t enough, suicidal tendencies and sole parenting.

Still only 33 years old, and in the face of so many setbacks, she has been steadfast in her commitment to breaking the cycle of despair and dysfunction in her life.

The realisation that the oppressor in her life was not the white man, which is so often the default excuse, rather the oppressor was only herself. That realisation literally set her free from victimhood and onto a new path for her and her family. Jacintha has recently graduated from a Diploma in Government and has a Certificate 5 in Performing Arts and Procurement and Contracting.

Our debt of gratitude to our Australian health care workers over the past two years is impossible to quantify. Doing what they love, thousands of nurses and doctors have been at our beck and call taking care of people who have become ill. The mandatory introduction of the COVID vaccine has wreaked havoc in many sectors, with large numbers of staff having to leave their jobs to exercise their bodily autonomy to not have the vaccination.

It is our doctors and nurse who are seeing first-hand some of the concerning adverse effects from this vaccination and, perhaps not surprisingly, these stories are not finding their way into mainstream media. Doctors and nurses who try to advocate for their patient’s rightful access to informed consent and bodily autonomy are threatened with disciplinary hearings and dismissal.

Others, like 'Cathy', refuse to stay silent and have already resigned from their job that is their passion, so they are free to speak out about what they have experienced. Cathy is a registered nurse and a registered mental health nurse. She joins me on Our Nation Today to share her experiences over the past eighteen months, including adverse reactions from the vaccinations and the adverse outcomes for the mental health of our health care workers.

There is no one size fits all for dealing with a virus like COVID-19. Australians have a right to choose how they medicate themselves when ill. The blatant removal of our individual freedoms regarding our chosen medical responses to COVID is unprecedented and should concern every Australian. We have been corralled like cattle into a yard and forced to plunge into the dip.

The mental health consequences for the government’s stubborn refusal to consider complementary treatments for COVID-19 is leaving an ugly legacy for families, and the government is ignoring. Our governments have a preference that it is more palatable to die from mental health issues such as suicide and suffer debilitating adverse effects from the vaccination, or even death, than it is to die from COVID or give people medical options.

Adverse reactions are real. The vaccination is not for everyone. People should not be corralled and made to choose between vaccination or livelihoods.

Our freedom to choose our medical treatments is a fundamental aspect of a democratic society.

Senator Malcolm Roberts has written to the Prime Minster Scott Morrison and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk demanding answers to numerous important questions. They are issues the Senator’s constituents are very concerned about however all citizens have been affected by the mismanagement of the pandemic by the Federal Government and all the states in Australia. As noted by Senator Roberts, Australians are concerned about critical matters on current and future health policies, erosion of our basic human rights, the failure of Federal Government leadership and exactly what parliament’s role is in protecting Australian citizens when Governments become unaccountable.

Senator Robert’s letter notes the wide acknowledgement that government actions and inaction have torn apart businesses, employment and the economy, as well as marriages, families and communities. Our health systems, aged-care facilities, police forces, education systems, the legacy media, social media, governments and parliaments have all been affected.

Senator Roberts notes that responses so far from the Prime Minister and the Premier have lacked data. Very poor justification has been provided for draconian restrictions and dangerous actions such as the mass coerced injection of people of a provisionally approved “vaccine” Health Minister Greg Hunt said himself was “The world’s largest clinical vaccination trial."

Australia is now a divided country and the Federal Government, and all State Premiers need to account for their actions and reverse course immediately. Covid-19 is no longer an excuse to wreck a nation.

Under Australian law there is an overarching principle – that our right to freedom is a basic inalienable right around which our body of law has been formed.

Over the last 18 months we have had a good look at what freedom looks like, through the prism of freedoms and human rights being removed. Many Australians are waking up to the fact that we have taken our freedom for granted.

Our country’s response to COVID sees fit to lock people up for the crime of being healthy, censoring media, using scaremongering tactics on the population and forcing small businesses to close.

Each new restriction, although met with rightful public opposition, has not led to a re-evaluation. Instead it has led the government to crack down even further. Everyday Australians are being deliberately demoralised to extract a higher degree of compliance. Crushing resistance crushes hope, and without hope we have no future.

One of the more draconian outcomes from COVID has been the stream rolling of the population into mandatory vaccinations. Our rights over our bodies has been annihilated and we have been swept up into the world’s largest clinical trial without consent. Many are standing in defiance of the mandatory vaccinations, even those people double vaxxed. We are now on the very cusp of a two-tiered society – the vaccinated versus unvaccinated. The government rhetoric is flaming the division, pitting citizen against citizen and workplaces are pitting employee against employee.

One of those people who have taken a stand is Graham Hood, the now famous Australian Qantas pilot. Graham is a 53 year veteran of the aviation industry and pilot with Qantas for 32 years. He has over 35,000 hours of flying and 20,000 take off and landings.

Qantas charges him and his crew with the lives of thousands of people every year to fly and arrive safely at their destinations, yet they are unable to make their own decisions around the COVID vaccination. As with so many other industries, this vaccine has been mandated.

Graham embodies the spirit of Australia and a champion for our freedoms. His voice is one of the many that remind us what it is to be an Australian, something many of us have forgotten.

For this podcast we are heading west to Charleville, which knows a lot about droughts and flooding rains. Back in 1902 in the midst of a crippling drought, ingenuity and desperation came up with the idea of a vortex gun that would shoot at the clouds to bring about rain, unfortunately without success. Charleville has seen many floods since and in 1990 over 1000 homes were flooded and most of the town evacuated.

Charleville is situated on the Warrego River and positioned on a natural stock route between NSW and QLD. It became an important stopover in the day of Cobb and Co and was eventually settled by pastoralists in the 1860s.

Today Charleville is a vibrant regional town with a population of around 3,500 and boasts Bilbies, black skies and the longest bar, when constructed, in the Southern Hemisphere, at the Corones Hotel.

Charleville is a must visit in outback Queensland and to tell us more about all Charleville has to offer, Malcolm talks with the Murweh Mayor, Shaun Radnedge, or Zoro as he is known locally in Charleville.

Stephen Andrew is One Nation’s state member for Mirani and this is his second term. He is a 5th generation decedent from the South Sea Islander “Kanakas” and has deep roots in the Mirani district.

Since the last 1800s Steve’s family have been in the communities from Rockhampton to Mackay with both of Steve’s grandfathers born within the boundaries of Mirani. One of Steve’s relatives was born on the banks of Sandy Creek in a hessian Hut and Cedric lived to a ripe age of 101. His maternal grandfather serviced in the 43rd Battalion in France during the Great War.

Steve has a background in both electrical and mechanical trades, largely within the mining industry. His decision to represent the people of Mirani comes from a long family commitment to community values and seeing firsthand how poor legislation brings about unnecessary family hardship and damages the local economy.

Steve’s passion is to work towards strengthening the local community and the economy and to ensure people are free to live dignified lives.

Small business and sole traders have done it the toughest during COVID. Big business is better equipped to pivot during the lockdowns and restrictions while small businesses in shopping strips and in shopping centres continue to suffer the most.

The state and federal governments announced a jointly-funded support package of $600m for the week-long in early August. 25,000 Queensland businesses have applied for the funding life-line, yet only 6,353 businesses have actually received money. That lock down was a month ago, yet only a quarter of businesses have received financial support.

Government can hand out money, yet what business really needs is the confidence to open doors to customers without the worry of when doors will again be closed. Small business need’s assurance that liquidators are not on their doorstep ready to wind them up. Small business needs time to recover.

And it is never as simple as just opening the doors. COVID restrictions have been global and global supply chains have been affected. Small Australian businesses are being faced with shortages of product, including electronics, balloons, books, bikes, hair products, toys, game consoles and textiles. With Christmas on the horizon, and the best chance of significant spending to lift the retail sector, we’re now faced with a significant global supply chain crunch.

Before COVID much of the air freight arrived with passenger flights, which are no longer an option for retailers who are now waiting months for stock to arrive on boat, because air freight is either too expensive or non-existent. Some larger retailers are ordering excess stock to just get it here, then warehousing it, yet this is not an option for small business who cannot afford that work around. Many small businesses have pivoted to online shopping, which has been a saviour. In spite of admirable small business resilience, tenacity and determination, the QLD Chief Health Officer in August decided to wade into the retail sector with reckless advice against online shopping. Hers is an ill-conceived attempt to limit the movement of delivery workers to limit the spread of COVID.

Australia needs to get back to work. Our communities need their social cohesion restored and families need certainty. I encourage all Australians to support local small businesses and help them to recover.

In the words of former US vice president Hubert Humphrey in the 70s, “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of their life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly...”

Governments and governance in this country during COVID have failed this moral test, and mental health in this country, especially for our children, is declining.

Human beings are gregarious in nature and our primal need to socialise sustains our very breath. Therefore the consequences of persistent and externally imposed social isolation tears at the fabric of what makes us human, physically well and literally sane.

The nation’s plan for re-opening is increasingly looking shaky, with some Premiers deciding to go their own way. After 18 months we still do not have the certainty we need. Business doesn’t have the certainty it needs. All of our children are not yet at school, or even allowed to play in the playgrounds.

Today I am joined by Matt Fox, who runs a fitness business on the Sunshine Coast.

Our children, are perhaps the victims of the greatest deprivations, not only of liberty, but of education and normal development; deprivation of swings, slippery slides and rides on the bike, swims at the beach and local sport; deprivation of crucial friendship supports and separated parents. It is a matter of extreme urgency that children be allowed to return to the anchors that sustain them. Mental health professionals around the country are campaigning for the mental health needs of our children and it is overdue that we hear their voices loudly.

So many business have gone beyond the point of return. So many employees are faced with gut wrenching decisions around their freedoms and the removal of informed consent on the vaccination.

The Australian people have been cornered into complying with demands that strip them of their right to make choices for their health, their families and their livelihoods. It is entirely reasonable that many of us feel lost for words and lost for direction.

There is hope, with sentiment is now turning. More and more people are demanding that we get back to work and get our kids back to school. Increasing numbers of people are far more worried about their work and livelihoods than about catching COVID.

Australia, we need to get moving again.