China must be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic.
STATEMENT
When the dust settles, Australia needs a serious rethink of how we progress the growth of our nation and pay back what will likely be one trillion dollars of debt.
The coronavirus may well be the excuse for a global economic collapse, but the course set by consecutive governments and a host of Prime Ministers here in Australia left us teetering on the verge of a recession years ago.
Coronavirus is the final push that has seen Australian markets crash and panic buying begin in our supermarkets.
Australia’s economy is exposed as a result of an over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing and dependence on China as a destination for our food and mineral exports.
Now, it is safe to say, the lives of our citizens are exposed.
By refusing to take the appropriate steps required to prevent the evolution and spread of COVID19 coronavirus, China has put all human life, worldwide at risk.
China must be called out and any attempts to attack or criticise people for referring to COVID19 as a “Chinese virus” should be pushed back on.
In recent history, it has been common to refer to viruses with reference to the area it originated.
For example, MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. To the best of my knowledge, no one was ever called a racist for saying MERS.
And the Spanish Flu was responsible for a global pandemic in 1918, but no one ever suggested the Spanish Flu was an offensive name.
Attempts to hide the fact that COVID19 originated in China, shield China from criticism they rightfully deserve.
The threat of virus transmission from animals to humans caused by Chinese wet markets has been well documented for decades.
Despite this, China has wilfully continued to allow unhygienic practices, known to promote the evolution and spread of deadly diseases and put the lives of billions at risk.
Australia has sanctions against many foreign nations for engaging in activities deemed to be inappropriate. North Korea, Iran, Libya, Syria, Zimbabwe, Russia, and Myanmar are just a few we have taken autonomous sanctions against, let alone those UNSC sanctions we also support.
If a country were actively pursuing the development of a biological weapon that had all the same characteristics of the COVID19 coronavirus, then Australia would likely consider sanctions against this nation.
The same would be true if a nation was knowingly allowing private groups or companies to develop biological weapons of this nature.
As a result of this latest pandemic, it can no longer be argued that China, by allowing deadly viruses to evolve and transmit within its borders, is unaware of the dangers they are subjecting the rest of the world to.
Australia should, therefore, consider strong action against a country actively developing, or assisting in the development of deadly biological viruses.
