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

I rise to thank the people of my electorate and the whole state of Queensland for their incredible work in containing COVID-19 and for their commitment to keeping themselves and their neighbours safe from the virus. Since June there have been 16 potential outbreaks in Queensland. Sixteen times, the people of Queensland have been faced with COVID-19, faced with the delta strain, and we did what it took to come out on top. But the people of Queensland are incredibly fortunate to have a premier and a state Labor government that they can trust to make the right decisions at the right time, even when the Prime Minister and the federal government try to stand in their way.

Last week, Premier Palaszczuk stepped into the enormous leadership vacuum created by the Prime Minister and announced that her government would build a regional quarantine facility at Wellcamp airport. Labor has repeatedly called on the federal government to build this facility. Back in July, Labor leader Anthony Albanese showed the leadership that should be coming from our Prime Minister and toured the site and listened to the people of Queensland. He then called on the Prime Minister to step up, do his job and build the facility that Queenslanders support. Quarantine is a federal responsibility, and we have a government that is determined to shift responsibility, like everything else, onto the state governments.

The Prime Minister had two jobs this year: to roll out the vaccine and establish a safe, alternative hotel quarantine. Both have been abject failures. It's clear that Queenslanders deserve a federal Labor government that's on their side.