Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I certainly am, and I know you want to be with your community, Deputy Speaker O'Brien, because that's what you're here for. But I wish that other members on that side of the chamber were in that same situation.

The vaccine rollout has been an absolute failure. There is no doubt about that. We have been out there day in, day out willing people on to get vaccines, but they can't, because the government can't keep its lines straight for two days. It was the Minister for Health who said, 'If you don't like the AstraZeneca one, don't worry. There'll be other vaccines in months,' and then sat down and said, 'Gee whiz, why aren't people getting a vaccine?' It's because this government is too busy focusing on itself, focusing on trying to keep away the political heat. We saw it yesterday with the rants and the raves from the ministers and the Prime Minister when questions were being asked about vaccines and quarantine. These lie fairly and squarely at the feet of those sitting opposite.

People in Victoria are now going to go through another lockdown because of the failure of the Morrison government to deliver two basic things: quarantine and vaccines. We're going to keep repeating it and repeating it and pray and hope that one day it will sink in and they'll get to understand it. In the meantime, all Victorians are going to be going through a very tough week. I'm proud to be going home to be with my community. I ask the Victorians over there: are you going to go home and be with your community? No, you're not. We know you'd rather spend a weekend up here than go and stand out there with the people who actually matter, the people who put us here. That's what I'll be doing, because that's the right thing to do. Rather than sit up here and pontificate like you do, get out there and actually be with the people who matter.

This MPI was brought on by the member for Hindmarsh because we actually care about people. We're on the side of Australians in this situation. The government is on the side of its photo ops and its press releases. If they rolled out vaccines as fast as they rolled out press releases, we would not be in this situation now. But when 1.4 million vaccines come in and the government is only distributing 450,000, you've got to sit there and say, 'Why are people missing out? Why are people not getting it?' It's all because of them.

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