Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Rankin proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government’s failure on quarantine and vaccinations risks squandering the economic recovery.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The people of Sydney—and, before that, the people of Melbourne and indeed people right around our country—in the last year and a bit have had to make sacrifices to limit the spread of this diabolical virus. I know that the thoughts of the whole parliament—certainly this side of the parliament—are with the people of Sydney as they deal with an uncertain period made necessary by our collective efforts to do what we can to limit the spread of COVID-19.

I suspect that one of the reasons why those opposite, in question after question and motion after motion, are so desperate to talk about the Labor Party—so desperate to point the finger or so desperate to change the subject—is that in their heart of hearts those opposite actually understand that the Prime Minister's bungling of vaccinations and quarantine are one reason why we're having lockdown after lockdown after lockdown. Even those opposite, who are not the sharpest tools in the shed, understand that for as long as those opposite to continue to make an absolute mess of those two important tasks then we will continue to be asking the people of this country to make the kinds of sacrifices that the people of Sydney are making as we speak.

The Premier of New South Wales said today—and she's right—that we'll continue to have these lockdowns until we deploy the vaccinations broadly, and that those vaccinations and the vaccination process are the responsibility of the federal government. It is time that this Prime Minister, at long last, took proper responsibility for those two important things which are jeopardising the recovery and jeopardising our communities, making life hard for people in Sydney now and in Melbourne before that, and in different parts of the country for much of the last year and a bit.

Those opposite talk about the jobs numbers that came out last week, and we have said that those numbers were welcome and pleasing; we've said all throughout that we want to see people employed and people back to work. It's why we proposed the wage subsidy and why we've been constructive throughout. But what those opposite don't understand is that the secret to Australia's relative success has been the efforts of our people, despite the efforts of their government. This country would be performing much, much better if those opposite got their act together when it comes to vaccinations and quarantine. Just because the recession could have been worse doesn't mean that the recovery couldn't be better. The foundation that the Australian people have built together—this remarkable foundation that they've built together when it comes to this recovery—is put at risk and held hostage by the bungling of vaccinations and quarantine, as we have said repeatedly. Even in the Treasurer's own budget is a forecast, an estimate—there's an expectation—that there will be a lockdown every month in a major capital city for the rest of the year. Those opposite have actually budgeted for failure. Their own budget says that they will continue to get this wrong and that the people of this country will continue to be locked down as a consequence of their incompetence.

There are two ways that we can squander the foundation that the Australian people have built throughout this recession and into the recovery. The first one is to continue to get those two important tasks wrong. The second is to continue to play the kind of short-term politics that we saw in the budget that was handed down not that long ago. In that budget, we saw a deficit of vision. We saw generational debt without a generational dividend. We didn't see the kind of long-term thinking which is necessary to ensure that we can do justice to that foundation which Australians have built together in the immediate aftermath of the recession, to what Australians have done for each other—to actually build on that with a long-term plan to make sure the economy grows, and not just grows but grows in an inclusive and sustainable way into the future. That's so working people in this country can actually get a slice of the action—so we have a recovery where people actually feel the benefit of that recovery.

And it's so we can deal with some of the challenges that we have as a country, whether those be China, cybersecurity, supply-chain risk or the scramble for talent. All of these issues are more or less ignored because of the short-term political thinking of those opposite. The Intergenerational report, which will be released on Monday by the Treasurer, is an opportunity for those opposite to finally inject some long-term thinking into this recovery—the long-term thinking that was so absent from the budget that was handed down not that long ago.

For the second time in a decade, this country risks overachieving in a crisis and underachieving in the aftermath. We know that from what the Productivity Commission said in the last couple of weeks. They said that in terms of living standards, this has been the worst decade in the last 60 years. Of course, those opposite have been in charge for eight of those 10 years where living standards have stagnated.

It's not a recovery if working people don't get a slice of the action. It's not a recovery if those opposite—and the Treasurer is the worst offender here—continue to ignore the 1.7 million Australians who can't find a job or who can't find enough work. And it's not a recovery if the working people of this country go backwards. The government's own budget says that, after a horrific period of wage stagnation, those opposite actually expect real wages to go backwards over the next four years.

The McKell Institute in Sydney has done some important research, which says that the difference between the wages outcomes under the last Labor government and the wages outcomes under this government, under those opposite—the difference between the performance under us and the performance under them—means $254 a week. Australian working people have gone backwards under those opposite by $254 a week. That is the price that ordinary working people in this country are asked to pay for the deliberate attacks on wages and conditions that we see time and time again from those opposite. Two hundred and fifty-four dollars a week is the price of that deliberate design feature of the government's economic policy which sees them come back time and time again attacking wages, attacking jobs security and attacking conditions in this country. So we won't be taking a lecture from those opposite about aspiration, when they have spent every day of the last eight long years trying to work out how they can screw down people's wages. Unfortunately, they have been successful to the tune of something like $254 a week on average.

And we won't be taking a lecture from those opposite about debt and deficit. Those opposite ran around the country saying that the debt and deficit—a tiny fraction of what it is now—was a disaster. One of the worst offenders they have just re-elevated to the Deputy Prime Ministership of this country. We won't forget that when Commonwealth government debt was $116 billion, the Deputy Prime Minister said that that risked 'economic Armageddon' and a 'real financial crisis'. Now that debt is over $1 trillion and rising, he has gone a little bit quiet about 'economic Armageddon'. If it was 'economic Armageddon' at $116 billion, I shudder to think how he would describe this debt, which is well over $1 trillion, accumulated by those opposite. So we won't be taking a lecture on debt and deficit. And we won't be taking a lecture on economic management from the party which has delivered, as I said before, according to the Productivity Commission, the worst living standards over the last 10 years compared to the 50 years before it.

Once again in question time we heard the same old rubbish about tax from those opposite. What they don't like to admit, what they don't like to concede—but you can see it in their own budget papers—is that the two highest-taxing governments have been Howard and Morrison—Howard, of all time, and Morrison. In the last 30 years, the highest-taxing governments have been Liberal governments. So spare us this complete rubbish about levels of tax. Those opposite, twice now in our political lifetime, have been the two highest-taxing governments in the history of the Commonwealth. So spare us all of that.

Those opposite have a record of economic mismanagement which is defined, in my view, by those outcomes on wages and job security. The most important part of the economy is the people-facing part of the economy—the part that determines whether people can actually provide for their loved ones and whether, if they work hard, they can get ahead. The big risk for the Australian people is not just that we've had these eight years of wage stagnation and not just that we have had eight years of job insecurity—getting worse and worse as this government has badly aged. The bigger risk for the Australian people is if those opposite are re-elected at the next opportunity—whether it is October or November or February or March; whenever it is, we will be ready—because we will have more of the wage stagnation if those opposite turn eight or nine years into 12.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to speak on this motion moved by the member for Rankin for a simple reason, and that is that it is a chance to acknowledge the work of all Australians in saving lives and livelihoods across this country during the course of the greatest global pandemic in 100 years, the greatest global pandemic since the Spanish flu. To put all of this in context, as I mentioned in question time, there were over 400,000 cases worldwide yesterday, over 9,600 lives lost—souls lost—in one 24-hour period, over 2,080,000 lives lost just in the course of this year and 96 million cases reported. In Australia we are blessed with the fact that no person has caught COVID in this country this year and passed from it. Every day, of course, is a risk. Every day is a challenge. But that fact alone is perhaps the most human and, at the same time, the most graphic demonstration of that which this nation has achieved over the course of the last 18 months. In the midst of a global pandemic, from which we are not immune, as the opposition would somehow have us believe, where in one day over 9,600 souls perished and in one half year over two million souls have been lost officially, with the World Health Organization indicating it is perhaps two to three types greater than that or the equivalent of five million lives, no-one has caught COVID in Australia so far in 2021 and lost their lives to it.

Every day we focus on trying to minimise the cases. But every day we realise that this is a global pandemic that has stopped the world. At the same time as having achieved these immense unimaginable health and human outcomes, we've also achieved the extraordinary economic outcome of having seen growth of 8.7 per cent over the last three quarters. We've seen unemployment drop in what has been a V-shaped recovery, as the Prime Minister predicted, to 5.1 per cent, with more people in employment now than prior to the pandemic. It is an almost inconceivable national achievement, arguably one of our nation's greatest, if not our greatest, peacetime achievement. We have done it with a very clear and concerted plan, a plan which has been built around rings of containment that began with our borders. This motion was ostensibly in part about our borders, and yet that was almost completely unaddressed by the member for Rankin.

What is it that we have seen? We have seen a quarantine and containment system almost unparalleled anywhere in the world. There is this easy belief, this casual passing belief, that somehow Australia could be immune from recording 400,000 cases a day and almost 10,000 lives lost a day. We're not immune, but we've been better protected by our actions than almost any other country in the world: in the state run quarantine systems, over 99 per cent protection; in the Commonwealth run quarantine system, 100 per cent protection. I understand that those opposite are saying they may not trust some of their colleagues in WA, Queensland or Victoria and they want to move that program to the Commonwealth. We do trust them. We actually do stand by them. These are the systems that they have operated and, where there have been transmissions, we fight every day to continue to improve.

So far the Howard Springs system, because of the clinical governance that has been in place, has seen no cases transmitted. I recognise that in Victoria, in Queensland and in Western Australia, despite their best efforts, there have been cases transmitted. But we have faith and confidence in those governments. I am surprised that the member for Macnamara apparently does not have faith in the Victorian government to operate their system. We do. But, having said that, the very notion of this motion implies that any nation could be immune. We have seen that that first line of defence has protected Australia in a way that almost no other country of comparable size can claim to be protected in terms of lives and therefore livelihoods. If we look at the United States today, they have a seven-day rolling average of 300 lives lost each day. In the UK, their seven-day rolling average of cases is 10,000 a day. So vaccination plays a role but it is only one part of the rings of containment. All of these matters have been airbrushed—Australia's achievements and the challenges that other nations are facing. Vaccination is a critical part but it's not the first line of defence; it becomes a fundamental line of defence. If we look at 300 lives lost every day in the United States and 10,000 cases every day, on average, over the last seven days in the UK, we recognise the truth of that.

Had we not put in place in Australia the rings of containment, beginning with a border decision which was contested and challenged by many, which was rejected by the World Health Organization, we would have faced a catastrophically different outcome. Potentially 30,000 lives have been saved by comparison with the developed world, and 45,000 lives have been saved by comparison with the per capita loss of life in the UK and the US—nations which seem to be a point of comparison for those opposite. We will take our outcomes in Australia. Even though each life lost is an agony and a tragedy, the lives saved are to be rejoiced upon and celebrated.

Then we look in particular to the fact that our testing and our tracing have saved lives. In terms of what we have done there, at the height of a pandemic, whether it was PPE or tests we were able to secure those and to protect Australia. In terms of our vaccination program, we have now passed 27 per cent of Australians who have been vaccinated. On these figures that the opposition have put about: 27 per cent is the reality, with 6.8 million vaccinations in Australia, 140,000 in the last 24 hours, over a million vaccinations in the last 10 days and 990,000 in the last nine days. This is the reality of what's actually occurring in Australia.

In the aged-care facility in Victoria where three residents contracted the virus, we know all three had been vaccinated. All three are in hospital. Two, I'm told, are preparing to come home. Had they not been vaccinated it could have been a very different outcome, as we saw during the Victorian second wave. So these vaccinations are critical. One hundred per cent of aged-care facilities have had first doses. Approximately 99 per cent have had second doses.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rubbish!

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All of these things come together—and I hear the member for McEwen say 'rubbish'. Those are the facts in terms of the number of facilities which have been vaccinated. So, when we bring all of these things together, we know that Australia is in a situation that the vast bulk of countries in the world can only wish they were in—that is, of having achieved the twin goals of saving lives and protecting livelihoods. We've done that through all the elements that have allowed us as a nation to achieve things which the rest of the world looks upon with a degree of amazement and, in so many cases, with a desire to be in a similar place.

I go back to where I began. Only yesterday, around the world 406,000 people officially contracted COVID-19 and, agonisingly, over 9,600 lives were lost. Over the course of this year, over 2,080,000 lives have been lost. Yet, as a nation, we are in a position where no person has lost their life to COVID caught in Australia this year. That is one of the most extraordinary national achievements in our peacetime history. At the same time we are also seeing the recovery of jobs, with 8.7 per cent growth in GDP over the last three quarters, unemployment down to 5.1 per cent and more people in employment now than were in employment prior to the pandemic. So this nation, together, has achieved outcomes that have saved lives and saved livelihoods. We thank all Australians for playing their part.

Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a bit rich hearing about economic recovery from those economic vandals on the other side of this chamber who have denied the fact that the Australian economy has seen unemployment fall, in the seventh consequent month, to 5.1 per cent. Today we have the highest female workforce participation ever and Australia's AAA credit rating has been reaffirmed. We are one of only nine countries in the world to have a AAA credit rating.

We've been working closely with businesses and with Australians to get our economy back on track. But what have those opposite been doing? They have been frustrating important economic reforms in this parliament. There is one that we are in the middle of debating now: reforms to ensure that we can improve environmental outcomes but reduce red tape and duplication, which is costing projects. Today a contingent of Western Australia industry associations—the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, and the Pastoralists and Graziers Association—has written to the Leader of the Opposition, calling on the opposition to get on and support urgently the bills that are in this House to ensure that the $140 billion worth of projects that are in Western Australia now can get on and we can secure the jobs that Australians need.

It costs over a million dollars a day for every day a project is delayed. But it is not just resource companies and business representative companies in Western Australia calling for this. In fact, it was Premier Mark McGowan in 2019 who said that reforms to the EPBC Act to allow for bilateral approval agreements would slash approval times for major projects and unleash jobs. He said:

This plan ensures we maintain the highest environmental standards, but don't get bogged down in bureaucracy.

He's called more recently for the Labor Party to support these reforms, but the Labor Party are not even listening to their state counterpart, Premier Mark McGowan. I would've thought that if there was somebody Anthony Albanese would listen to it would be Mark McGowan, but it's not. They're going there next week. They're going to try to don their high-vis and their hats. They're going to pretend that they support Western Australian industry while they're demonstrating the opposite. Mark McGowan has said this week:

We support this legislation and WA continues to work with the Commonwealth to progress a bilateral agreement for approvals which will maintain environmental standards and reduce red tape …

Now, if you can't support Premier McGowan on the week before your shadow cabinet goes on a holiday to Western Australia, I tell you what, there's something seriously wrong with the Labor Party in Australia.

I'm not the only person who thinks that there is a sickness in the Labor Party in this country. In fact, the member for Hunter published an opinion piece titled 'Approvals reform can protect natural assets & boost economy' in the West Australian only yesterday. What is he encouraging his colleagues to do? He is encouraging them to do the right thing, which is to get on and reduce regulation, red tape and duplication to make sure that we can protect the environment. He said:

It's time to get on with reforms to better protect natural assets and deliver a needed boost for our economy.

You see, those opposite like to say something on the east coast and do something completely different here in parliament. They're heading over to my state of Western Australia. They're going to pretend that they support and understand the resources industry in this country. They're going to pretend that they are supporting our economic recovery, when their actions in this place are the opposite.

This afternoon we'll be considering amendments from the Senate for a reform to the recognition of occupational licences. This is something that's gone through the Senate and will come through this House. It is something that has passed the parliament in New South Wales, and we will consider it in this chamber. And why will we consider it today? It is because the Victorian government is putting this legislation in their parliament tomorrow, and the people sitting opposite, the Labor Party, voted against it in this chamber and voted with the Greens in the other chamber. They can't even support legislation supported by the Victorian Labor government. Shame!

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find it so interesting when the Prime Minister says in question time that Labor is trying to politicise a pandemic. We are not. What we are doing is protecting the Australian people from this inept government—a government that is so laissez-faire about everything it can't be bothered to order enough vaccines, it can't be bothered to build quarantine facilities and it can't be bothered to efficiently and properly support Australian business and Australian workers who, let me guarantee you, are still hurting as a result of what they've been going through for now well over 14 months. It is really an abomination that this government would stand here and pride itself on what a brilliant job it is doing. Let me tell you: the brilliant job has been done by the people of Australia and by the premiers of Australia. The Prime Minister has been lacking through this pandemic and is still lacking as we speak.

My electorate of Paterson has an incredibly strong tourism sector. People come from all over New South Wales—although, they are not coming from Sydney right now, because, as the Premier of New South Wales has said, this has not been handled well by the Commonwealth, and she meant vaccines and quarantine—in particular to see the magnificent whales on the whale highway as they make their way up north for the migratory season to have their young. People come from all over the world normally as well—but, of course, at the moment they can't. Due to COVID restrictions, my tourism operators, my whale-watch operators, have had to take boats—with a capacity normally of about 130 people—out with as few people as 13. They've survived due to JobKeeper. But, with that finishing up, I struggle to see how they can continue without more job losses—without staff losing their jobs.

It's really easy to become complacent when the country has a low number of cases. It's easy for the Prime Minister to boast, 'It's not a race.' Of course it's a race. It's a race to get people vaccinated, to save lives, to save livelihoods, to save our country from becoming a pariah and an outlier in a very global world. Just today the Premier of New South Wales came out and stated:

We don't have any control over the number of doses we receive and what those doses are. That is the responsibility of the Commonwealth.

They are just the facts. Everyone else gets it, the Liberal premiers get it, but the Prime Minister and his band of, frankly, incompetent ministers continue to fail to take any responsibility.

In my electorate, a GP clinic was getting prepared for the vaccination rollout. They rented the premises next door, knocked out a wall and bought new vaccine fridges in the belief that they'd need the space to house incoming vaccines. But those fridges never filled up. The vaccines did not come as they were needed and the jabs haven't gone into the arms, because of the Morrison government. In the month since February, New South Wales has seen under two million doses administered. That may seem like a lot, but the reality is that only 243,000 people have been fully vaccinated in Australia. Let me repeat that: as of today, only 243,000 people have been fully vaccinated in Australia. It is not good enough. That is under three per cent of the state's population—just three per cent. Comparatively, the US and the UK have managed to vaccinate just under half of their population. So, in the global race, to get people vaccinated, we have well and truly fallen behind. If this government continues with this failure of a rollout, our businesses won't be able to compete, our tourism sector will choke and our economy will suffer until 2023. Australians just simply can't afford this, on top of the debt that has been loaded onto them by this government.

To compound the issue, in the past couple of weeks, people in my electorate and across Australia have been bombarded by misinformation from the likes of Clive Palmer. Well, let me say this: if the Prime Minister were half the ad man he makes out to be, he'd do better than Clive Palmer.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm happy to rise to speak on this matter of public importance, and I thank the member for Rankin for putting it forward. I also thank the member for Rankin for acknowledging the work that the government has done and how far we have come during the pandemic. There's certainly an inference in the way the matter of public importance is written that we're at risk of losing that gain that we've made over the past 12 months. So it's good to hear that Labor is actually acknowledging that.

Of course there's no handbook for this pandemic. We haven't seen something like this for over a hundred years. I do acknowledge the words of the last speaker, who acknowledged all people around Australia for the hard work that they have done. When we shut down the borders on 24 February last year—earlier than any other country—we shut them down hard, and we did it for the health benefit and the economic benefit of our nation. We took those early steps knowing—having taken advice from the chief medical officers—that if we didn't take those actions, if we didn't take those steps, then, in comparison with the developed nations, we were looking at somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 deaths and, in the developing countries, somewhere in the vicinity of 45,000 deaths. But we didn't see that because of what our people did. People in our electorates, across the board, listened to the government, listened to the health officers and made huge sacrifices—none more so than the people in Victoria. In my electorate, we were lucky. I think we had two or three cases and, sadly, one death of a 94-year-old. The country made massive sacrifices to ensure that we are where we are now.

I try and remain as balanced as I possibly can. I'm happy to call my government out when they're not doing the right thing or when they haven't done the right thing, and I think I've proven that in the two short years that I've been here. But we can't ignore the economic facts. Unemployment is at 5.1 per cent. More people are in work than were in work prior to the pandemic. You can't ignore those facts. You can't ignore the fact that, only yesterday, 400,000 people around the world contracted COVID. You can't ignore the fact that 9,600 people around the world, sadly, passed away. You can't ignore the fact that, in the last six months, two million people around the world have passed away because of COVID—none of whom have died in Australia. Those facts are there in black and white. So to say that the government has not succeeded economically is simply not true. Certainly there were disruptions in supply affecting the vaccine rollout, and that's because countries jealously withheld those vaccines because they were seeing 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 deaths a day. The fact remains that the vaccine rollout is accelerating every single day. Indeed, there have been 700,000 vaccinations over the last seven days. More than 65 per cent of people over 70 are now protected and 45 per cent of people over 50. So we are making good inroads. Our economy is strong. Standard & Poor's agree with us. We've kept our AAA credit rating. There were 987,000 jobs created in the past quarter. I think we're doing well.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a very important MPI because it actually talks about what's been happening. I appreciate the previous member wanting to quote selected facts, but let's look at some other important facts. There were 700,000 vaccines in a week, but 1.4 million have been delivered—where have they gone? Why is it that only 15 per cent of aged-care workers have been fully vaccinated? Why are these things happening? These things are happening because this government took a suck-it-and-see approach. At the start of this pandemic it was Labor that was saying: 'You need to get on the front foot and get vaccines. You need to shut the borders. You need to do these things to protect Australian workers, Australian businesses and Australian lives,' but the government refused.

When we first started talking about a wage subsidy program it was Labor that was at the forefront of that, saying, 'People need security as they're losing jobs and businesses are being shut down.' But the government said it was a stupid idea. Eventually they were forced, dragged kicking and screaming, to bring in JobKeeper. Labor supported JobKeeper because it was our idea. We're the ones at the forefront that said, 'This needs to happen.' It saved a lot of people's livelihoods and a lot of businesses. But the government callously withdrew that, and people are now unemployed and are not able to go to work whenever there's a lockdown—forced to go with nothing.

The Prime Minister hoped that this pandemic would just come and go. He's been dragged kicking and screaming every single step of the way. That's why, as we get to the two-year mark of the pandemic, we still don't have national quarantine. We still only have three per cent of the population fully vaccinated. There is nothing that they can say on the other side that could actually stand up to justify that, apart from the fact that they have failed each and every Australian in this country.

I know, through a local aged-care facility, 20 people died and there were 170 cases of COVID. The minister came into this place and said, 'They've all been fully vaccinated.' That was absolutely, 100 per cent, incorrect. In fact, only 60 per cent of the staff have been vaccinated as of today. The minister, if he had any decency, would resign, because this is an absolute failure for these families. He didn't have the courage to walk in there and look at the room where people's whole entire lives have been stacked in boxes, because they have passed away and the home couldn't give the people's belongings back to the families. That's something that stands very sharply burnt in my mind, how much this government should be held directly responsible for the failure.

As I said, it's been a failure on every single thing the government has done. Not what we've done; we've been at the forefront. We said: 'National quarantine facilities.' We said, 'Get a range of vaccines in.' But the government—no. It went out and said that it'd done a deal with AstraZeneca when it hadn't. The only thing this government has succeeded on is failing at every single target and every single major outcome it set. It has been the Australian people that've had to stand up and fight for it. It has been the Australian people in small businesses that've had to struggle through lockdowns and the pandemic, because the government is not on their side. The government's quite happy to support Gerry Harvey but not happy to support the cafes and small shops in our strips right across our regional towns and in our outer suburban areas. It's left them behind. It's left them with insecure work and an insecure future while the Prime Minister sits back and goes on a publicly funded journey to trace his ancestors. It's not fair and it's not right.

Another big problem we see in vaccines is that when we look, for example, through the Mitchell shire you can't get access to doctors. People who work shift work, people who work in the military, can't get access to doctors to get vaccines or to go and see doctors when they've got people that are sick in their families. These are all things that've happened that have contributed to what we've seen, where the government has failed. The Prime Minister shouldn't be gaslighting the rest of the world; he should stand up and take responsibility. The two jobs he had were: roll out a vaccine and deliver safe quarantine for people, and he's failed on both of them. Those across the way might say: 'We shut the borders to China,' but the US is actually where this came from. Let's not forget two words that describe this government when it comes to COVID: Ruby Princess.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to offer my remarks about today's matter of public importance. I want to thank the member for Rankin for putting on the parliament's agenda the failure of the government to properly deal with the two issues that they had to focus on this year: delivering vaccinations and ensuring an adequate and efficient quarantine system for this country. What that failure has meant is an impact on our economic recovery.

We haven't heard too much about what not delivering vaccines or quarantine means, and I'll focus on a real-life example of that impact in my own community, in an important industry that I am supporting. But I first want to pick up on what the Minister for Health and Aged Care was talking about today. He somehow wanted to be congratulated. Members of this parliament on the other side want to be congratulated for their appalling record—the appalling record of what they've promised and what they've delivered.

There are four issues that I want to focus on. We were promised four million vaccinations by the end of March. We were promised six million vaccinations by 10 May. We were promised that all aged-care and disability care workers were to be vaccinated by Easter and that every Australian would be vaccinated by October. The aged-care minister today confirmed, in this parliament, that four per cent of home-care workers in aged care have been fully vaccinated and 15 per cent of all aged-care workers have been fully vaccinated. So I don't want any more word salad from the health minister or any other rubbish from those opposite. The facts are that we have botched the rollout of vaccinations in this country. Whether you like it or not, despite all the spin and bluster, we are back of the queue. I repeat: there were to be four million vaccinations by the end of March and six million vaccinations by 10 May, and all aged-care and disability care workers were to be vaccinated by Easter. This government have failed, failed, failed on their own commitments. Every worker in 1a was to be vaccinated. It has not happened. So do not get up here and ask to be congratulated for the way that you've handled vaccinations and their rollout in this country.

This government has failed to protect Australians, it's failed to roll out the vaccine effectively and efficiently and it's failed to introduce a regional quarantine system. Just this morning, the Queensland Premier called out the government on their stubborn refusal to cooperate with our Queensland government to establish a regional quarantine hub. Today we have had a 25th COVID outbreak from hotel quarantine. In Queensland we are seeing guests being infected in quarantine. We are seeing room-to-room transmission. We are seeing transmission across floors. People are coming to Australia without COVID-19—I'll say that again: they're arriving in Australia without COVID-19 and they are catching it in hotel rooms, because this government is choosing to be utterly blind to reality. Hotels are made for tourists, not quarantine. What we're dealing with is a far more contagious strain of this virus. A year ago, health experts advised the virus was transmitted with about 15 minutes of contact. Now, with the delta strain, it looks like we are seeing transmission in as little as five to 10 seconds.

Australians have worked hard to contain COVID, and we are all enjoying the benefits of their hard work. But this government has utterly let down Australians by stubbornly refusing to deal with the issue of national regional quarantine. Let me say to this parliament: Queenslanders support a regional quarantine hub. We know that. And Australians will not achieve growth without fewer lockdowns. The Wellcamp site will cost the Australian taxpayer zero dollars. It can be up and running in six months. This government refuses, in its pig-headed stubbornness, to actually listen to what Queenslanders want. We will continue to fight to make sure Queenslanders have safety, just as our Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has done. We will continue to speak out and call this government out for failing to deliver regional quarantine. It is an absolute disgrace and they should hang their heads in shame.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm absolutely delighted to be discussing the topics of quarantine, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and the fact that Australia has done better than almost any other country with regard to aggressive suppression of the COVID pandemic right here in Australia. It's something we know we can be proud of because the federal, state and territory governments have been working together. Let's be very clear about this: from the very start we've had to deal with this issue at speed and each and every time the federal government, working hand in glove with states and territories, has made a magnificent set of decisions. The first one was to close the borders to international arrivals. Other countries didn't make this swift decision and so other countries haven't benefited from this. It is also very clear that the quarantine facilities that have been stood up in this country have delivered incredible outcomes. We have seen more than 350,000 people come through quarantine. I have been on the board of a local hospital and I know that when you work in a human services environment there are always issues of perfection. Some members sitting in the chamber are nodding in agreement with me, and that is because we as doctors, nurses and social workers understand that when you're working with people there is always the possibility of human error.

Added to that, we know COVID is changing as we speak. There are variants of concern, and we know that COVID is becoming sneakier. Another thing about our COVID response is that the federal government, hand in glove with states and territories, is responding as COVID is changing. We know that quarantining has been stood up at great speed. It was stood up within 48 hours, and what has resulted is that we've had 4,000 positive cases of COVID coming through that system. Despite this, there have been just a handful of breaches through that quarantining process, and we know it's because it is very difficult to capture every case. We know that there's a period when COVID is asymptomatic, when people are positive for COVID but they don't have symptoms. That is just a medical fact of life. It is actually quite incredible that there haven't been more cases of COVID. For instance, we know the COVID incubation period can be longer than 14 days, so one in 100 cases will become positive after people leave quarantine. What we've found is the quarantining facilities have stepped up with daily testing of both the workers and those who are in quarantine, so people can know if they're becoming positive sooner rather than later and therefore not spread COVID into the community. There have also been changes to things like ventilation. We know that people are increasing the ventilation in hotel quarantine.

I do believe that there needs to be increased capacity for quarantining, and we are seeing a step up for some of those facilities, which I support because we want to be able to bring more Australians home safely. Let's be aware that, as we increase quarantining capacity, there will be more capacity for outbreaks, so we will always have to have good contact tracing, the second line of defence. It's like fortress Australia, with the walls around Australia ensuring the arrows of COVID are being shot across the parapets. We need to have the crack teams picking up the wildfires and little outbreaks that are occurring in Australia. When those outbreaks are not contained, unfortunately we go to hotspot lockdowns and, if they're then not contained, we go to statewide lockdowns. There have been issues, and different states have dealt with them differently. But I would say that, for the greater good, the federal government has worked to develop the national cabinet with the AHPPC to make sure that Australia has had a consistent standardised way of working with this COVID pandemic, which has not been easy. This has resulted in an outcome where Australians can hold their heads high and show that there have not been nearly as many deaths per capita as there have been almost anywhere else in the world. That's something that Labor consistently talks down.

They consistently talk down our response as all Australians. But all Australians can feel incredibly proud of the work that we on this side have done, while from what's said by those on that side you would think that we were in a terrible place. In fact, I think we can be very confident that being able to deal with the health consequences of this pandemic has resulted in a rebound in our economic outcomes, and we are seeing some of the lowest unemployment rates for many years. We can see women returning to work in massive numbers and we know that the economic consequence is that Australia is bounding back. We are very, very lucky that this is because of the good health decisions made on this side of the parliament. I'm very proud to be sitting on this side of the chamber to make sure that we're delivering a great and strong economy for the rest of Australia.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has now concluded.