Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Last November, Scott Morrison said that he would place Australia at the front of the queue for a safe and effective rollout. Yet this time last year, in August, the United States had six supply agreements in place; the UK, five; Japan, three; and Argentina, one. This time last year, Australia had none, because this time last year the Prime Minister and his government were too busy doing a victory lap. Yet, when it came to the step which would actually see Australia defeat COVID-19—Australians receiving both jabs—that is a step that the Prime Minister said was not a race. Because of that, on this day, 15 million Australians are in lockdown. On this day, only 18 per cent of Australians have had both jabs. So, on this day, Australia languishes at almost the bottom of the OECD table. On this day, businesses across the country are losing tens of thousands of dollars every week because of lockdowns, and those in Sydney have no sense of when the end is in sight for their lockdown. On this day, it's completely clear that the Prime Minister and his government have absolutely no proper plan for dealing with COVID-19. If they don't have a plan for that, when the day comes that we are actually on the other side of COVID-19, what confidence can we possibly have that the Prime Minister will have a plan for our country's future?