The Honorable Craig Kelly Interview

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The Australian Response to COVID-19: Policies, Politics & Political Economy. An Interview with the Honorable Craig Kelly, Member of Parliament, Australia

Welcome to this interview of the Honorable Craig Kelly from Australia, who was first elected to the House of Representatives for Hughes, in the vicinity of Sydney, in New South Wales, in 2010. He was since re-elected three times, in 2013, 2016 and 2019.

Mr Kelly is a backbencher for the Liberal party, which is currently in power, in a coalition with the National Party. He is serving or has served on various Committees, including on Law Enforcement, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Trade, Migration, Economics, Environment, Energy, Industry and Innovation. 

Prior to become a member of parliament, he worked many years in the private sector, as an export manager in his family business.

This interview covers a range of aspects of the Australian response to COVID-19. This includes:

  • the low level of fatalities so far, mostly concentrated in the State of Victoria
  • the high fatality rate in aged care facilities
  • the Australian zero case strategy and the “donut days”
  • the Stamford Plaza hotel scandal in Melbourne
  • quarantines and mandatory hotel stays presently mandated for international travellers
  • effects of lockdowns on the economy, on tourism, on educational institutions relying on foreign students
  • how small businesses are particularly affected by lockdowns
  • the domestic travel restrictions and their sometimes deadly consequences
  • the barriers set up by bureaucrats to the use of hcq 
  • the hcq initiative of businessman Clive Palmer
  • the incredible measures against hcq in the State of Queensland
  • the initiative of Professor Thomas Borody to treat for covid, especially in nursing homes
  • the role of cheap generic drugs and their apparent repression by the bureaucracy
  • the politicization of medicine and the threats to right to the prescribe and to the sanctity of the doctor/patient relationship

This interview was recorded on November 16. We experienced unanticipated weird problems with the Internet connection, towards the end of the interview. The last 5 minutes have not been included because of the resulting sound issues.