House debates

Thursday, 17 June 2021

Statements by Members

Covid-19

1:51 pm

Photo of Mark DreyfusMark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | | Hansard source

Once again, we are seeing the consequences of the Morrison government's failures on quarantine and the COVID vaccination rollout. In Sydney, a single person driving a flight crew from the airport to hotel quarantine has tested positive and started yet another outbreak. Once again businesses are being shut, staff are being sent home and thousands of people are having their lives disrupted. This comes as Victoria emerges from yet another lockdown caused by the Morrison government's failure to take charge of hotel quarantine and vaccinate the population.

We've been in this pandemic for more than a year. The Prime Minister still can't get quarantine right and he still can't get vaccines right. Just six million of the required 40 million vaccines have been delivered. At the current rate, we won't be fully vaccinated until June next year. That's 12 months away. How many more quarantine breaches will we see in that time? How many more outbreaks will we see in that time? How many more lives and businesses will be disrupted? As Dr Teena Chopra from the Detroit Medical Centre told the New York Times yesterday, getting people vaccinated is the only way to end the pandemic. It is a race, Prime Minister, and Australians are paying a very, very heavy price for your failure.