Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Faruqi for reading out the accounts of some of the many thousands of Australians who are in that position. There are many people in this building who are in very similar positions. Of course, the debate about this bill occurs as my home state of New South Wales is teetering on the edge of a much broader set of public health responses. Hundreds and hundreds of people are now in isolation, with scores of infections. In the New South Wales parliament itself, a senior minister in the Berejiklian government has a COVID-19 infection. Many ministers and MPs and their staff are now in isolation. I want to send a message of solidarity and support to them, as that parliament works its way through how it should respond.

I particularly want to pay tribute to Chris Minns, the new Labor leader. He saw the responsibility, early and clearly, to act in the public interest, and he has cancelled the budget reply speech, which he was due to deliver today. That was going to be an important moment for Mr Minns to set out his vision for the future of New South Wales, as new Labor leader. It shows that he has his priorities right and the interests of the people of New South Wales in his heart, rather than being concerned with the narrow political interest. I think he is to be commended for taking that approach. In contrast, I don't believe that the Morrison government has ever really grasped its responsibility in this crisis—in public health terms, in economic terms or in social terms. Like Mr Minns, Mr Albanese and federal Labor took a constructive approach to the coronavirus crisis over the course of last year. But all the way through last year you could see that the seeds of the government's failure in 2021 were being sown by the inaction and incapacity of the Morrison government to do the things necessary to put Australia in the right position now.

Why is it, 15 months later, that there is no system of quarantine in each of the states and territories that is credible? Why is it that we are still relying upon hotel quarantine, which is a stop-gap solution? Hotels are not hospitals. There have been 24 outbreaks in hotel quarantine. Why is it that, 12 months ago, when representatives of the government met with Pfizer they lost the opportunity to secure sufficient doses to make sure that Australians had a choice of vaccines? In the United States and the United Kingdom, where variously 35 and 45 per cent are vaccinated—and it's north of that in some of the European countries—they have a series of vaccine options. The Morrison government squandered that and bet the house on one product, essentially—AstraZeneca. Pfizer was an afterthought. Now the vaccine rollout is absolutely mired in failure and unable to get past the starting gate. Still just a little bit over three per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated.

Australians deserve much credit for our progress through the coronavirus pandemic so far. The state governments, businesses and trade unions have been working together to solve problems, looking after each other, but the Morrison government itself has been entirely absent in terms of a position of public leadership. Of course, there is an alternative plan. These kind of stop-gap measures are necessary, but they are necessary because the government hasn't executed its proper responsibility. There is an alternative plan. Anthony Albanese set it out very clearly.

Senator Abetz interjecting—

'Albo' to me, Senator Abetz. Firstly, get the vaccine rollout right. Get it right. Get needles into the arms of Australians across the country, make sure that we have a population that is resilient and safe, and execute the vaccine rollout safely and sensibly, like every other country. Why are we 100th in the queue? Why is Australia a global laggard instead of at the front of the queue? Let's get quarantine right, build quarantine in every state and territory and make sure that Australians can return safely. The problems that were outlined earlier this morning can be resolved by getting those two basic Commonwealth responsibilities right.

Next, let's effectively manufacture safe vaccines in Australia, build the relationship with our research facilities and make Australia a leader. Finally, let's get a public health campaign that's actually convincing. This is a Prime Minister who only understands one thing: self-promotion and advertising. That's all he understands. He has not been able to bring his instinct for advertising to advertising for public health for the safety of Australians. Have a look at the French campaign. The French campaign is about opening France up and encouraging French citizens to get vaccinated. There is no Australian equivalent. Why? It's become clear why there isn't a campaign. Despite the Prime Minister's overwhelming instinct for advertising, the reason there isn't a campaign is that it would lay bare the lack of supply of vaccines. The public officials finally told the truth earlier this week. Senator Abetz would have been listening. There will be no public advertising campaign until the government's vaccine supply failures are finally resolved. They know that, if they advertise, people will line up for vaccines, and, when they line up for vaccines, there will be no vaccines available.

Debate interrupted.