Pauline Hanson’s wild claim about Bali and Federal Government’s foot and mouth response

Pauline Hanson has sensationally claimed Australian tourists are coming home covered in s... from Balinese cows in a bizarre rant about the Government’s foot and mouth response.

“Cattle roam the streets, cattle s... on the ground, people walk in that s...,” the One Nation senator told parliament.

“That s... is then brought back in their clothing and on their person and back into this country.”

Despite being warned by department officials last week to not politicise the matter, the Nationals, Liberals and One Nation continued their crusade to nail Agriculture Minister Murray Watt.

They claim answers from the senator over sanitising foot mats at airports and vaccines were misleading.

For the second time in as many days, the minister fronted up to provide an explanation.

“We hold enough vaccine doses in the vaccine bank to cover at least the first four months of a disease response,” Senator Watt said.

Around $1.5m has been provided to Indonesia to assist in the purchase of one million doses of the vaccine.

“While I accept that this may not be the answer Senator (Malcolm) Roberts wants to hear, this information remains accurate as it was when I provided it to the chamber last week,” Senator Watt said.

He said the government would not be purchasing more vaccines for Australia until an outbreak occurred.

“For example, should we hold prepared vaccines which were effective against the strain of virus in Indonesia and a different strain of virus occurred in Australia, any prepared stocks may not be suitable,” Senator Watt said.

The government’s response was last week referred to a parliamentary inquiry and senators were briefed by department officials about the outbreak in Indonesia.

Industry has dismissed calls from the Coalition and One Nation to close the border to Indonesia, arguing it could risk trade relations.

But Senator Hanson asserted it was just another cog in Labor’s plan to kill off cows to reduce emissions.

“They want to see cows and the beef cattle destroyed in this nation. They want to see emissions reduced, whichever way it comes about because it‘s going to make them look good,” she said.

Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson slammed the opposition and One Nation for stoking fears for their own political advantage.

“It almost sounded like the opposition wanted some kind of foot and mouth outbreak so they can make political advantage out of it,” he told the Senate.

“I’m all for holding the government to account. The Senate is going to do that … We will look at this very closely but do not make this situation worse.”