Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Assistant Minister to the Minister for the Public Service, I move:

That, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Committee Act 1969, and by reason of the urgent nature of the works, it is expedient that the following work be carried out without having been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works: new quarantine facilities in Queensland and Western Australia.

The government, in partnership with the Western Australian and Queensland governments, wishes to proceed urgently with construction of new quarantine facilities in Perth and Brisbane respectively. The Commonwealth is working with both governments to progress the development of these projects, which includes consideration of Commonwealth processes, agreeing design requirements, procurement, contracting and a build program to completion.

I note that a proposal to proceed with the construction project without referral to the Public Works Committee is not common. The government very much supports the work of the Public Works Committee and has not taken the decision lightly. The government has decided that given the urgency of the projects it is not feasible to refer these works to the Public Works Committee. This is consistent with the approach taken for the Victorian quarantine facility. Subject to parliamentary approval, the projects will commence as soon as possible. I commend the motion to the House.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, we're at August 2021 in a pandemic that began at the beginning of 2020 here in Australia, which, of course, is called COVID-19 for a reason, for the year 2019. What we have before the parliament right now is a motion, which the opposition will certainly be supporting, to bring forward public works without an appropriate committee process which would normally occur, because of the circumstances whereby the government has once again been complacent, once again failed to act and once again shown its incompetence, with real consequences for real people right now around the country.

This proposition comes forward to the parliament at a time when half of Australia is in lockdown and parts of New Zealand are in lockdown. This government consistently said that purpose-built quarantine facilities weren't required. The Prime Minister consistently rejected Labor's call for purpose-built quarantine. We have said consistently that this Prime Minister had two big jobs this year: quarantine and vaccines, and he failed at both. He failed with the ultimate responsibility that he had.

He went to the National Press Club, prior to parliament sitting at the beginning of this year, and said that he didn't have a big reform agenda for the parliament, because his priority was fixing the response to the pandemic. That was a right priority, except that he failed to follow it through. When we argued for purpose-built quarantine, this is what he had to say, repeatedly: 'A system that is achieving 99.99 per cent effectiveness'—that was in April. He went on to say:

If I was to tell you…that would achieve a 99.99 per cent success rate, you wouldn't have believed me. No-one in this country would have believed me. I would have found that hard to believe.

The praise for himself went on for months and months. In May, he said:

... 99.99 per cent effectiveness rate. If there any other country that has a more secure system than that, I would like you to tell me who it is.

In June, it went on: 'We'll get a 99.9 per cent success rate.' In July, it was still going. He said:

... would have prevented transmission ... and probably over 99 per cent of cases, you would have laughed at me. You would have said that was impossible.

The truth is that there have been at least 27 breaches of quarantine, going back as far as the Duxton Hotel in WA in April 2020; the Pan Pacific in WA in May 2020; Rydges on Swanston, in Melbourne, in May 2020; Stamford Plaza, in Victoria, in June 2020; a breach in New South Wales in July 2020; the Marriott in New South Wales in August 2020; the Peppers Waymouth Hotel in South Australia, in November 2020; the Novotel at Darling Harbour, in New South Wales, in December 2020. That was all last year. You would think that would have prompted some action, but every one of those quotes that I read into the Hansard occurred after the breaches.

They kept happening. In January: at the Grand Chancellor in Queensland; and at the PARKROYAL, at Tullamarine, in Victoria. In February: at the Grand Hyatt in Victoria, in Melbourne; the Sheraton Four Points in WA; the Holiday Inn in Melbourne; and the Sofitel in New South Wales. In March: at the Grand Chancellor in Queensland. In April: at the Mercure, in Perth; the Adina Apartment Hotel in Sydney; and the Mercure in Sydney. It went on. In May: at the Pan Pacific again, in WA; and at the Playford in South Australia. In June: the Pan Pacific in WA again; the Holiday Inn, Flinders Lane, in Victoria; the Radisson Blu in New South Wales; Four Points in Brisbane; Novotel, Brisbane Airport, twice. And in July: at the Amora Hotel Brisbane.

On top of that, of course, there was the limo driver in Sydney who took a foreign air crew to hotel quarantine, unvaccinated and without a mask. And guess what? That limo driver didn't breach any rules—not a single one. That was all okay. That is what has led to the national lockdown right now. The previous lockdowns in Victoria arose because someone came back from India and hotel quarantined in Adelaide. They survived India without catching COVID, but they got it in a hotel in Adelaide.

What we have before you is a resolution, on 25 August 2021, to say:

That, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Committee Act 1969, and by reason of the urgent nature of the works ...

It'll go forward without being referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works. The minister just said, in his opening remarks, that this was unusual, and indeed it is. We support this work going forward, but the Queensland Premier put forward a proposition in October last year for purpose-built facilities at Wellcamp, next to Toowoomba airport, that could have been operating within weeks, by the end of last year, in 2020. I've met with the proponents of that proposal. They're happy to put their own money in as well. All they require is Commonwealth support, but the Commonwealth of course rejected it. That's an appalling circumstance. I visited the site and met with the proponents, who have a history of being able to build things in Queensland, yet that was rejected and is not the subject of the referral before us. Instead, the site that is the subject of the referral has issues with asbestos, and there is a range of other issues as well, which means that we will not get purpose-built facilities as a result of this resolution up and running for some period of time.

There's a reason why so many people have gone through Howard Springs: because it is a labour camp that doesn't share ventilation facilities. It hasn't led to people spreading the disease and hasn't led to outbreaks, even though more people have been through that facility than through any hotel facility. Hotels were built for tourists! They weren't build as quasi-medical facilities; they share ventilation. In her report to the government last year, Jane Halton put forward propositions about the need to deal with the issue of ventilation spreading this disease—from overseas experience as well as here. And the government still don't have in place an overall mechanism to keep people safe. They have not responded to Jane Halton's report.

If there's anything that defines this Prime Minister, it is two phrases. The first is, 'I don't hold a hose, mate.' You know, 'It's not my responsibility,' even though quarantine is the responsibility of the Commonwealth in that little document called the Constitution. It is, even though he has rejected his responsibility. And the second phrase that will stick with this Prime Minister is, 'It's not a race.' Well, doesn't this define him? Here we are, 20 months into a pandemic, and we have before this parliament an urgent motion to circumvent proper processes because those opposite have sat on their hands for so long that they can't even have a proper examination of the proposals.

Well, it was a race. It was always a race to fix purpose-built quarantine and it was always a race to get enough supply of vaccines. It is a failure on them and the reason why half of Australia is locked down, and this resolution exemplifies the failure of this government to put in place the right mechanisms at the right time to keep Australians safe.

Question agreed to.