Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by saying that the behaviour of the Labor Party in response to aged-care deaths has been tawdry, to say the least. Instead of taking the high ground in seeking to find a solution, Labor has taken the well-worn path it always takes by grandstanding on other people's misfortunes. Does Labor really think that if it had been in government it could have handled the pandemic any better? Of course not. They're not interested in finding solutions; they're only interested in point scoring.

Take the words of Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth to the royal commission:

… the assertion that there was an attitude of futility towards deaths in residential aged care in Australia is frankly insulting to the entire Australian community who locked down to prevent deaths amongst our most vulnerable.

And:

… there were many words used in the royal commission witness statements today that perhaps don't reflect the totality of the Government's response, both at federal and state level to preventing deaths in aged care.

The fact is that coronavirus is a highly contagious retrovirus with elevated case fatality rates in the elderly and those who have comorbidities. The vast majority will get the virus mildly and get over it, and some may not even realise they had it at all. The containment measures put in place by the Morrison government have been some of the best in the world and have gone a long way to reducing the prevalence of the virus and surge impacts on our hospitals—not that you would know it if you listen to Labor. Their attacks on Senator Colbeck have been, frankly, despicable. No-one has worked harder than our Prime Minister and Senator Richard Colbeck in trying to keep Australians safe.

To quote Brendan Murphy, who was our chief medical officer:

Australia's overall COVID death rate as a proportion of cases is around 1.5% (compared to 15% in the UK and 5% in the USA). Our death rate in aged care across Australia as a proportion of total aged care residents is 0.1% (1 in 1000) compared to 5% in the UK where nearly 20,000 deaths have been seen.

He also said:

… no matter how prepared and resourced the aged care sector is, this outbreak will, unfortunately, only finally come under control with the suppression of community transmission. The best way to protect older persons is to suppress community transmission.

Labor needs to remember that no-one is doing a better job of that than the coalition's Gladys Berejiklian in New South Wales, who, despite having received over 50 per cent of cases in quarantine from international arrivals, has kept a lid on community transmission. Compare that to Labor's Daniel Andrews, whose mismanagement is the root of the community transmission in Victoria. Do we hear a word out of Labor about that? Of course not—complete and utter silence.

Did Daniel Andrews consult anyone before he pulled out over 100 staff from St Basil's before provisions were made to find replacement staff? Of course not. It was left to the federal government to come along and clean up the mess left by Daniel Andrews, and I should point out to Senator Gallagher that, while we might be responsible for aged care, we're not responsible for health. If Daniel Andrews had actually consulted the federal government, we might have been able to step in and help out the aged-care centre before leaving those people in a more vulnerable state. But that's Daniel Andrews for you. He's the Frank Sinatra of Australian politics; it's always his way or the highway. He never consults with anyone. Typical Labor—all command and control and no consultation. It's, 'I'll just do it my way.'

As a Queenslander, I want to apologise to other Australians, especially those in northern New South Wales, who have not been able to get access to proper health care because of the selfish actions of the Queensland Premier, Anna Palaszczuk, in shutting down the borders. There have been young children in northern New South Wales who have not been able to access medical resources in Brisbane. I have never felt so ashamed to be a Queenslander. What kind of a person puts her own self-interests in front of the health of young Australians? It's absolutely shameful, and it's worth pointing out that the Australian government in January— (Time expired)