Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's a bit unfair today that we're hearing the government try to blame the opposition for trying to raise what I think is a very valid point, which is: why did the government go out publicly and make the promise that they would be bringing all these Aussies home? Then they tried to, quite frankly, slur and put words in Senator Keneally's mouth that somehow it was her fault for raising this as a matter of importance today. I mean, come on! If we want to start to talk about the facts, Senator Keneally has been right from day one in setting the record straight. Why was it that the Prime Minister promised families and gave them hope that they would have their loved ones in Australia around the kitchen table by Christmas? That's not going to happen for 40,000 Australians, and we know that. The attitude from government senators today has been quite disappointing—in fact, it's been very dismissive and has lacked any acknowledgement that there is a problem. Is this the standard we have to accept going into Christmas and the year 2021?

Senator Antic earlier on talked about facts. The fact is that DFAT released the details of 2,700 Aussies, but you don't hear that fact coming across from the government side, do you? I know that DFAT staff are doing a great job and trying their best to get everyone back home, but the reality is that there are stuff-ups on the other side, and those opposite need to acknowledge them. They can't come into this place, or into the other place, and promise that they will bring Aussies home by Christmas. I'll give you another fact: to bring all the Aussies back home by Christmas—so by Friday, so they can have their 14-day quarantine—we need 82 A380s. Unfortunately, Qantas has only 12 of them, but I'm sure the Prime Minister could pick up the phone, ring up the CEO of Qantas and say, 'Let's get at least 12 of those out right now.' Instead of sacking 2,000 workers, we could give more than 2,000 workers—thousands of other people—their jobs back. Pick up the phone to Virgin. Pick up the phone to other international carriers. I'm sure we'd get a good rate, a good discount.

This is the type of attitude we have to expect from the government. It's their attitude whether it's JobKeeper, JobSeeker or other government policies leading up to Christmas, and, quite frankly, it stinks. All we want is for this government to do the right thing by Australians. That's what Australians expect. I had the personal circumstance of a constituent reaching out to me. His daughter had been stuck in Scandinavia. She finally returned to Sydney only a few days ago. The point he raised with me was that she'd tried 12 times to get back to Australia. It's cost them tens of thousands of dollars. As Senator Keneally pointed out, people are having to raid their savings; in fact, I think some have even had to take money out of their superannuation accounts. This is not the type of attitude that we would expect from any government. Governments are there to help their citizens abroad in times of great need. It is why we all pay our taxes—to make sure that we have services, whether here in Australia or abroad—yet the government do not seem to care. They would rather attack Senator Keneally and others on this side for somehow wasting the Senate's time. Again, it's a very dismissive attitude.

In the one minute I have left I'll say that, from my point of view, we have to make sure, going forward, that there are mechanisms in place for how we go about handling the pandemic. Senator Scarr mentioned the hotel quarantine situation in my home state of Victoria. We had two passengers come off a plane in Sydney and make their way to Victoria. It sounds like the Ruby Princess all over again. Those opposite are happy to blame the states, because somehow it is the states that look after the borders! If that's the case, what's the point of federation? What's the point of us being in this place? This is the federal parliament. In the Constitution it is crystal clear that the federal government has responsibility for our borders. Those guys opposite have lost all control.

Question agreed to.