Senate debates

Monday, 23 August 2021

Matters of Public Importance

COVID-19: Vaccination

6:58 pm

Photo of Nita GreenNita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] It is a pleasure to be joining the Senate from Cairns tonight to talk about this incredibly important issue. It is clear that we have been led down a path of complacency by the Prime Minister. 'This is not a race.' Those are the words the Prime Minister used and will be forever haunted by. In what has become the most important event of our times—at least in our lifetimes—where Australians have needed strong and effective leadership, we have been badly let down and we are all suffering the consequences. Half of the country is currently in lockdown. People are under immense stress. Workers are losing their jobs. Businesses that people have spent their entire lives building are closing their doors. Yet our Prime Minister said: 'It is not a race. It is not a competition.' He didn't just say it once; he said it repeatedly. Scott Morrison said the vaccine rollout was 'not a race' on 11 March this year, and he said it three times. He said it twice on 14 March and again on 31 March as well. Why is this phrase so important? Why did it mean so much to the Australian people? Because it led to the complacency that this government has allowed to occur, dropping our vaccine rollout down to the lowest level among OECD countries. We're now seeing, as a result, the highest daily COVID case numbers since the pandemic began, 18 months ago. We all saw those terrifying numbers in New South Wales, announced earlier today, of 818 cases. It is a dire and difficult situation for all of the residents, including my family, who live in south-west Sydney. People are dying. Children are getting sick. The burden on families and businesses is immeasurable. People are struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel, yet the government think that this is what they need to be talking about.

Scott Morrison says that he doesn't play politics with the pandemic. Yet time and time again we have seen this Prime Minister deem it unnecessary to support a lockdown in New South Wales but crucify other states for imposing restrictions in an effort to save their communities from ongoing pain. It was precisely that encouragement of the New South Wales Premier in her decision not to lock down this delta outbreak, which has caused so much damage to our economy and to our society.

The fact is that we're in this position because Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to do his job. He failed to do two things: fix quarantine and get the vaccine rollout right. This is, in fact, a race, and it has always been a race. It has been a race for survival for so many communities and for so many people. But the stark reality of the numbers that we have seen in the last couple of days shows that Scott Morrison has failed. You only need to look at the vaccination rates of some of our most vulnerable Australians to understand this. If you're an aged-care worker, a person with a disability or an Indigenous Australian, you have been let down by this Prime Minister. The data that was released recently shows that the vaccination rates for the two states with the largest First Nations populations—New South Wales and Queensland—are sitting at critically low levels. As of last week, both were sitting at around about eight per cent, and these people were priorities under this government.

Today, we're seeing startling figures around the number of staff working in aged-care homes who are yet to be vaccinated. We know that, during the Melbourne and Victorian lockdowns of last year, aged-care workers carrying viruses into homes was devastating for so many people and so many families. This government was fully warned about needing to vaccinate aged-care workers, and yet Scott Morrison said that it was 'not a race'. Today we have reports that, in some facilities in my home town of Cairns, we have vaccination rates of aged-care workers sitting at less than 10 per cent—less than 10 per cent—after six months of the vaccine rollout under Scott Morrison. If you're an NDIS participant, chances are you haven't even had your first dose yet. Just over a quarter of NDIS participants have been fully vaccinated. First doses have only reached 44 per cent. These people, the NDIS participants that we are talking about today, were in priority phase 1A under this government, yet Scott Morrison said that it was 'not a race'.

These are groups that the federal government says are the most vulnerable and the highest priority for vaccination; otherwise, we'll never be able to open up again. But—but—Scott Morrison continued to say that this was 'not a race'. The truth is that, in times of crisis, people need a leader—someone who stands up for us, faces the tough questions and makes big calls, someone who is decisive, someone who can offer hope. Yet what we got instead with this Prime Minister was: 'It's not my job. It's a matter for the states. I don't hold a hose.' We get a Prime Minister who sits back and lets members of his own government ranks spew irresponsible drivel and misinformation about COVID-19, masks and lockdowns. It is no wonder that there is hesitancy in the community when the Prime Minister has failed to stop these people saying that masks don't work, that lockdowns don't work and that you don't need to get the vaccine.

I'm not the only one who feels so bitterly disappointed about the position that Australians find themselves in. I'm lucky enough to live in one of the best parts of the world, Far North Queensland, but our town is hurting badly, and it is a devastating sight to see. Cafes which are normally full of tourists are near empty. At this time of year, the lagoon pool on our famous esplanade is usually bustling with people, but right now it is sparsely attended. The marina is full of boats, as there simply aren't enough people to take them out. North Queensland's tourism industry is on the brink, and there are widespread fears in the industry and the community that this is the end for many operators. They survived 2020, but now they will close their doors. A local tourism leader said recently, 'The tourism industry is on its knees.' Another, who closed their doors last week after operating for 30 years, said, 'I won't be the last one.' Further down, in the Whitsundays, operators are facing a similar situation. As one Airlie Beach business suggests, their struggles are far from over and the outlook is still pretty dismal.

This has always been a race, and the Morrison government must step up and provide certainty to North Queensland businesses as they continue to struggle with the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are at a crisis point now with these communities. The Prime Minister needs to face these businesses and give them a plan forward, not just a vaccination plan or a plan to end lockdowns—which we know will happen eventually, but not for some time to come. We need a plan for support, and that's what I have been calling for in Cairns and in these speeches in parliament: a wage subsidy scheme for these businesses. That is what they have been calling for.

Extraordinarily, today we've discovered that, instead of approaching the minister, the Treasurer or the Prime Minister directly for additional support, the local member, Warren Entsch, actually wrote to the state government to ask for support, saying that the support that had already been provided by the Commonwealth government was inadequate and that it hadn't gone far enough. It is pretty extraordinary when you've got a member of this government knowing that it would be better to approach the state government for support than to go and ask for it from the Treasurer or from Scott Morrison.

It is also pretty extraordinary that we're now in a situation where we know that people are going to lose their jobs yet the Morrison government has failed to deliver support for these businesses. These are people who have supported the coalition and the local member in the past, but they have been hung out to dry under this government. What these businesses and tourism operators need is a wage subsidy scheme. They need that now because of Scott Morrison's failures. They need that now because we are in lockdown and we're not going to be out of lockdown for quite some time to come. Vaccination rates are increasing, but not fast enough to save these businesses. We know how important it is for these businesses to get tourism support, yet the government has failed to deliver on wage subsidies that will actually protect jobs. The local member, Warren Entsch, said himself that the support so far from the Commonwealth government has been inadequate and falls short of what is required. So we are asking the federal government to finally step up. This is a race. It is a race to deliver support to businesses before they close their doors. It is a race to get people vaccinated.

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