Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can sense the frustration of every MP who has constituents overseas—Australian citizens hoping to return. But I'm somewhat disappointed by the candour of this debate. We've focused on Australian citizens trying to get home. We've forgotten equally important inputs into the Australian economy. There are the 10,000 skilled visa holders every month, the overseas residents who commit to supporting Australia's economy in the workforce in places where we can't provide Australians. Our economy has lost those arrivals as a result of COVID. Then there's the entire international education sector, around 900,000 students who come from overseas—because Australia is not just the food bowl, not just the provider of resources, but the educator of South-East Asia. All these things are in suspended animation through COVID.

I want to inject a little bit of fact. The House needs to know that, on 6 July, not one, not two, but all state premiers, in a concerted message, came to national cabinet and informed the Prime Minister there would have to be caps. This was because Tullamarine, with 27 per cent of Australia's inbound traffic, was closed due to the second wave. And what did other state premiers do? Did they say, 'We will support a mate; we will increase the number of arrivals through our airports to do our part to support this great federation'? No. The conversation was completely the opposite. Premiers of all backgrounds effectively mugged the economy, because COVID was too important in their states. They chose not to take a heavier load and support their Victorian friend but to cap arrivals.

The merits of that will be discussed in future histories. What I'm saying today is that those incredible arrivals into Sydney of 4,000 a month through those darkest weeks was utterly commendable. Gladys Berejiklian gets 10 out of 10 for that. But I've been extremely critical of Queensland's and WA's Labor premiers for taking barely 300 to 500 people a week, which is barely a third of a plane, into those states—Queensland, the great state, with 2,000 hotels, using just 12 of them for quarantine! Queensland and WA walked away from the federation. Now those numbers are slowly coming up, and it's due to the cajoling, the pushing, by the Prime Minister in the national cabinet.

Anyone on the other side who doesn't like the numbers and the caps can easily pick up the phone to their pal Anna. She'll take your call! Pick up the phone to your mate Mark in WA. He'll take your call! And pick up the phone to 'Disaster Dan', responsible for the 800 deaths in Victoria's second wave because as a premier he never figured out how to say yes to the ADF assisting. The Commonwealth has assisted, at every step, states to raise their caps, and it was Daniel Andrews who—bravely!—fought off that assistance by shredding the correspondence, ignoring it and then letting out that disease, which was let into other states directly from Victoria. Those deaths are not all the deaths there are. The Australian Bureau of Statistics will report that. When doctor-reported cases and cases that went off to the coroner are reported, we will find many more deaths that are not directly related to COVID but are related to the quarantine and the shutdown.

We need to raise these cap numbers. You've never ever, not once, heard the Prime Minister not say, 'Please raise your state caps.' You've never ever, not once, heard a state premier say, 'We'd like to raise our cap, but the Commonwealth's stopping us.' Some of our Labor friends, on the other side, have been saying, 'We need to set up some arrangement in the desert somewhere and make the Commonwealth responsible.' You need a quarantine centre where there are staff to man it. I noted that our friends on the other side didn't support Christmas Island. You didn't support Christmas Island opening up! That would have been a bright idea—and another failed one.

You've got state Labor premiers in Queensland and WA. I commend the Northern Territory for taking those first steps to bringing in not only citizens from other states but international students. You're happy to put Mike Gunner, the Chief Minister, into that position and let that state cop COVID in quarantine while he helps other states and territories. South Australia is trying to resuscitate the international student economy—doing the right thing as well. The ACT will be bringing in 360 before Christmas, and Tasmania, 450, but Queensland and WA have made gutless contributions to the federation.

MPs on that side have got the direct phone numbers to the premiers of those states but—oh no—no courage to phone them to say, 'Raise those caps.' They'll never do that, because they'd rather natter away to their constituents that they're doing all they can and try and blame a prime minister and a coalition government that have done everything they can to raise those caps. In finishing I say these caps could have been far higher. It's sad that we had a second wave, because the rest of the nation had this under control by April. The price we pay is predominantly due to Labor premiers.

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