The Morrison government has resisted a push to slap down Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly after the outspoken MP supported calls from a Brazilian medical association to use unproven drugs to treat COVID-19.
The government used its numbers in Parliament on Tuesday to vote down a Labor motion calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to condemn Mr Kelly for his “dangerous and irresponsible” comments on health.
Craig Kelly has infuriated fellow Liberals over his support for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin even though Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has warned they are not proven as treatments for coronavirus.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
It came after Finance Minister Simon Birmingham urged Australians to heed official health advice from experts rather than opinions on Facebook but did not repudiate Mr Kelly by name.
The government moved in Parliament to silence Labor health spokesman Mark Butler when he sought to pass a motion asking Mr Morrison to condemn Mr Kelly, the member for Hughes in southern Sydney.
While the government won by 62 to 59 votes, it did not gain support from crossbenchers. Independents Helen Haines, Rebekha Sharkie, Zali Steggall and Andrew Wilkie as well as Greens leader Adam Bandt voted with Labor. Queensland MP Bob Katter did not vote.
“The member for Hughes is a dangerous fool and the Prime Minster should have dealt with him,” Labor MP Ged Kearney said in an attempt to support the Labor motion. The government used its numbers again to stop her from speaking further, with no speeches from Coalition MPs to defend their colleague.
Mr Kelly has infuriated fellow Liberals over his support for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin even though Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has warned they are not proven as treatments for coronavirus.
The anger within the party means Craig Kelly is likely to face a challenge at the Liberal preselection to choose candidates before the next election, with his opponents confident he will be dumped.
Mr Kelly’s posts include a recent call on the media to start “reporting the truth” because the Medical Association of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil had recommended chloroquine and ivermectin.
The association is not an arm of the Brazilian federal government nor the government of Rio Grande do Norte, a state in the north-east of the country with a population of about 3 million.
“We’ve been very clear to point out where you get your information from. You don’t get it from Facebook,” Mr Morrison told the National Press Club on Monday.
“You get it from official government websites, and that’s what I encourage everybody to do and that’s what we’re doing and that’s what we’re investing in. Don’t go to Facebook to find out about the vaccine. Go to official government websites.”
Asked whether people should go to Mr Kelly, the Prime Minister responded, “He’s not my doctor and he’s not yours. But he does a great job in Hughes.”
Mr Kelly stood in the Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday morning, the first gathering of Liberal and Nationals MPs this year, to argue he was right to air advice about other treatments for COVID-19.
But fellow Liberal Katie Allen, a paediatrician who won the Melbourne seat of Higgins at the last election, spoke up on the need for clear communications to support the mammoth vaccination program.
Dr Allen’s colleagues saw her remarks as a warning shot about Mr Kelly’s posts.
While Mr Kelly has his supporters on social media, the commonwealth Chief Medical Officer said last month there was “no evidence” to show hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin should be rolled out to Australians.
“He needs to decide what is the appropriate thing for a member of Parliament to be commenting on,” Professor Kelly said. “I’m not going to talk further about this because it just gives prominence to views that I just don’t agree with and are not scientifically based.”
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners rebuked Mr Kelly for appearing in an interview with celebrity chef Pete Evans, who was removed from Facebook last year after telling followers not to get tested for COVID-19.
“It is unacceptable that Craig Kelly is persisting in disseminating misinformation concerning COVID-19 and to appear on this podcast with a disgraced former celebrity chef is very unhelpful,” RACGP president Dr Karen Price said in a Tweet.
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said he got along “alright” with Mr Kelly but gave voters credit for making their own judgements.
“In Parliament you have a right to say what you like, even though at times it’s completely flawed and erroneous and incorrect,” Mr Joyce said. “If a professor of epidemiology says something to me, I think 99.9 per cent of us are probably going to listen to the professor.”
Asked if Mr Morrison should do anything to silence Mr Kelly, Mr Joyce said, “No, that would just be poking the bear. People are smart enough to make their own decisions, and Craig is not a doctor”.
Mr Kelly has not opposed COVID-19 vaccinations but Labor, the Greens and some Liberals believe his arguments on Facebook will weaken support for the vaccination program, one of the government’s top priorities for the year ahead.
Labor accused Mr Morrison of weakness for claiming Mr Kelly was doing a “great job” when the MP’s claims could undermine the $24 million federal advertising campaign to encourage people to take COVID-19 vaccines.
Mr Butler said Mr Morrison had offered a “glib” response on Monday about Mr Kelly doing a good job.
“Craig Kelly is a dangerous menace and a threat to the nation’s COVID response and it’s beyond time that the Prime Minister developed the backbone to pull him into line,” he said.
Labor assistant communications spokesman Tim Watts said Mr Kelly’s posts had been shared 10 times as much as Department of Health posts on Facebook.
“A real leader would have stepped in and said that they would have nothing to do with any MP who is spreading medical misinformation during a pandemic and would have demanded that Craig Kelly be dis-endorsed by the Liberal Party,” Mr Watts said.
David Crowe is chief political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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2021-02-01 23:33:00Z
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