Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hope is a powerful thing. For nearly two years now the people of Reid have remained resilient. They have followed the public health orders, they have helped one another, they have made sacrifices. We all know it has not been easy and that to be resilient does not mean you cannot and do not struggle. I know that many people in my community are doing it incredibly hard right now. Many small businesses are just holding on. Families are fatigued. Kids want and need to get back to school. We know that even the strongest amongst us are not superhuman. Right now a storm is howling around us, but we cannot lose hope. We must stay the course and stick to our national plan for opening up safely at 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates, a national plan that was agreed to by all the states and territories a month ago, a plan that was developed using world-leading experts at the Doherty institute and is based on the best possible scientific, medical and economic advice.

It has made me despair in recent weeks to see the premiers of Western Australia and Queensland make remarks about not sticking to the national plan. They cannot pull the rug out from underneath Australians. They cannot give the community hope and then backtrack. The premiers and chief ministers agreed to the national plan and they must stick to it. To continue to peddle a COVID-zero strategy is unsustainable. The elimination of the delta variant is a fallacy. Vaccines are the only answer. We have not fought COVID-19 as members of this state or that state; we have fought it as Australians and we will continue to fight it as Australians. Just as we went into this battle together, we must come out of it together. We cannot allow some premiers to pull the handbrake when we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As the Treasurer has stated, we cannot have a situation where it is easier for an Australian to get to Canada than it is to get to Perth. If the premiers of Western Australia and Queensland won't open when four out of five Australians have had a double dose, then when will they open?

The truth is that to walk away from a national plan would be to withdraw certainty and hope. It would leave businesses uncertain about their futures. It would keep people in the loop of not planning for tomorrow, not booking that flight to spend Christmas with loved ones. We must learn to live with COVID-19. We cannot continue to pause our lives and allow a few chest-beating premiers to put in jeopardy our way forward. We cannot continue to devastate businesses with harsh lockdowns, to keep kids studying at the kitchen table, to stop Australians from travelling around the country freely. This summer I want people of my community in Reid to be able to be surrounded by their loved ones, to be able to have those barbecues with friends and family, to attend those weddings, to open up their businesses fully. Yes, there may be some restrictions that linger, but we cannot have this uncertainty that certain premiers continue to propagate. Australians are doing their part by getting vaccinated in record numbers. Those premiers need to do their part and stick to the national plan that was agreed.