Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Last Wednesday, I attended the Australia-Nepal Friendship Society charity gala dinner at the Canberra clubhouse, organised in association with the Australasian Nepalese Medical and Dental Association. The gala dinner, under the banner of 'Let's get united for Nepal to fight against COVID-19', was organised to raise funds to purchase oxygen concentrators, to be made available to remote Nepalese communities. I was there at the invitation of the President of the ANMDA, Dr Chandra Pokharel, a Melbourne based GP, a good friend and active member of the Melbourne Nepalese community, of which a large number live in my electorate of Calwell. A significant amount of money was raised on the evening.

But what interests me most is the dedication that our local Nepalese community in Australia have to their compatriots back home. Through their own initiative, they have taken it upon themselves to assist in identifying areas of need in Nepal, which is overwhelmed by COVID-19 and is in desperate need of oxygen, as well as access to PPE and, of course, vaccines. As a network of Nepalese-Australian medical and health professionals, the ANMDA has found direct ways of assisting the overworked and under-pressure nurses in Nepal by setting up an online buddy system.

Our diaspora communities especially are feeling added anxiety, with concerns about family and friends in their home countries. I know firsthand the anguish that my local Indian-Australian community has been going through, with so many Australian citizens unable to get home to Australia from India. This anguish is also shared by our local Sri Lankan community, who, along with the Nepalese community, have approached me seeking advice on whether Australia can consider exporting our locally-made AstraZeneca vaccine to Nepal and Sri Lanka. Both Sri Lanka and Nepal were relying on AstraZeneca vaccines to be made available to them from India, but the critical situation there means that India won't be exporting at this time.

This brings me to the current lockdown in Victoria. I can't find words to express the devastation we all feel—the devastation and collective anxiety that my local community feels. We enjoyed a period of relative freedom and ease, where we felt lucky to be living in Australia as the rest of the world continued to succumb to the devastating effects of this pandemic. Perhaps a false sense of security set in. But now, in Victoria, we see how quickly COVID can rear its ugly head.

Since the last long and debilitating lockdown in Victoria, we've introduced two vaccines in this country—AstraZeneca and Pfizer. AstraZeneca is manufactured here in Australia at CSL in Broadmeadows in my electorate. However, I'm concerned about the hesitation in the community regarding COVID vaccines, especially the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Unfortunately, the government has allowed this public hesitation and complacency to develop, through its less-than-robust public campaign, mixed signals and lack of clarity on what is available when and where. And this has created confusion. The inadequate pace of the vaccine rollout to even the most vulnerable—those in aged-care facilities—leaves a lot to be desired. The Commonwealth's mixed signals, their failure to enact built-for-purpose quarantine centres and the absence of a clear road map out of this pandemic have left Australians exposed.

The Victorian example shows how each day lost to delivering on Australia's vaccination program can turn into the potential for weeks of devastating lockdowns and restrictions in our bigger cities. We cannot ride out this pandemic on a wing and a prayer. While mass vaccinations are taking place systematically in the UK, Europe, the US and elsewhere, we are floundering. As comparable countries begin to move to travel and to open up, our borders remain shut. We need to begin preparing Australia to open up, and vaccinations are a key to this.

My appeal to the public is this: get protected—get vaccinated.

There are people around the world who are desperate for access to vaccines, and we shouldn't squander our good fortune here in this country. To my local health service, DPV Health and CEO Don Tidbury and his staff: I want especially to thank you for the work you are doing and the work you have done in setting up our vaccination hub in Broadmeadows. You're currently operating three very busy vaccination hubs and two large testing sites seven days a week. It is these local community engagement programs and the work of our healthcare workers on the front line which helped us through the pandemic last year and which will help us see it out this year. I wish to thank them all and give them my ongoing support and gratitude on behalf of my electorate and, of course, on behalf of the parliament.