Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Sturt for his great contribution. It reminded us so well of the cold, dark hand that this government is putting out to Australians stuck overseas. Today there are 37,000 people feeling completely abandoned by their government—and this hasn't started today. It's a matter of public importance today because we need to ensure that the Australian public understand that the Prime Minister made a promise and the health minister made a promise to bring those Australians home. So the member for Sturt can give us as much of the weasel words as he likes and talk about negotiations with the states. As the member for Corio pointed out, so simply: borders are the federal government's responsibility. Quarantine is the federal government's responsibility. And this Prime Minister promised 30,000 Australians that they could come home.

From the outset, this has been a debacle. From the first days of the pandemic, members on this side of the chamber have supported locals in getting home from overseas. Our officers have worked just as hard as DFAT have worked to support people getting home. Every single person who works in my office has dealt with one of these cases. I want to share with the chamber one case study, an email I received this week. I want to contextualise that: remember that in the Northern Hemisphere winter is upon them. The third wave is upon those in Europe. There are still countless cases in the US, and countless cases in India and South Asia, where we have thousands and thousands of Australians.

When those countries decide that they're not renewing visas of Australians working overseas, when those countries decide—like this government decided that, if you're not a citizen and you're not a permanent resident and you're caught in Australia in a pandemic, you're on your own—that Australian citizens are on their own, which they are doing now, with companies in England now saying to workers, 'We're not going to renew your working visa; you need to get yourself home,' that is how the numbers are growing. People have lost their jobs.

I have one question I want to put to the Prime Minister: are we going to ask the British government to support the Australians stuck in the UK now without a job? How are we going to do that when we wouldn't support the UK citizens stuck here during the pandemic? This government needs to step up now to deliver on this promise. It's not just because Australians deserve to be home for Christmas. It's not just that there will be thousands—37,000—families without members at the Christmas table, at Christmas lunch, if this government doesn't get a move on. It's people like my constituent, who was planning to return to work in Sunshine Hospital's ICU. This is an Australian doctor needed in the western suburbs of Melbourne. To replace this doctor, who hasn't been able to get home, it's costing $200 an hour to get a locum in.

This person is stuck. They've had flights cancelled. They've now secured a flight, they think, to depart Heathrow on 12 January, after other flights had been cancelled. Meanwhile, Sunshine Hospital's ICU is a person down. So there's a cost to this that is more than just people who got stuck overseas because they chose not to be here. There is a cost here for Australia, and this government needs to really think about what it's going to put in place. We all know about their priorities. Their priorities throughout this pandemic have been to try and find ways to make everything someone else's problem. Prime Minister, this time you signed up. Your health minister signed you up. You made the promise. You both made the promise to get these Australians home.

On this side of the House, we're standing today to call you out on that promise and to say you've got three weeks. You've got three weeks to do something about this. You found the VIP flight for Cormann. That's the priority of this government: to have planes used for things other than bringing standard, abandoned Australians home, in the European winter, in the Northern Hemisphere winter, in a pandemic, with growing numbers every day. Shame on this government.

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