Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This week in this place it's felt like living in an alternative universe as we come in and hear government member after government member pat themselves on the back for the wonderful job they've done managing this crisis, yet what's really going on is we're heading into a lockdown. Today in question time we had the Prime Minister say these brief lockdowns don't really matter, they don't really affect anyone's lives. The Treasurer, a Victorian, instead of talking about what's going on in his home state took a dorothy dixer to talk about how wonderful his budget was and how he's really helping everyone. In fact, we've just heard from the member for Parkes who's implied that actually we've never had it so good in this country and he doesn't know what we're complaining about. It's a luxury, he says, that we're having this debate, and, while he has sympathy for people in Victoria, it's sympathy only. We don't want your sympathy. We want you to do your jobs.

There are two clear responsibilities that the government has failed on—quarantine and vaccines. Quarantine is a federal responsibility. This outbreak came from quarantine. It is clear the government has failed, and people in Melbourne, people in Victoria, are going to bear the consequences of those failures. So when those opposite talk about these brief lockdowns, when they say they have sympathy, let me tell you about what that means for people's lives. There are people in Melbourne now deciding who can come to the funeral of their loved one. They are making heartbreaking decisions about who they have to say, 'I'm so sorry, this is the toughest point in my life but you cannot come to that.' There are people in Melbourne right now, parents, who got stretched the very edge last year, who are, once again, looking at what it looks like to home-school and to try and work. There are kids who are only just getting back to the routine of school who will be back home again. I have been to school after school in my electorate. They have worked so hard to try to get those kids back into a state where they can be supported at school, where they can socialise again, where they are back on track. This is a setback, a major setback for them.

There are businesses in all of our electorates, in my electorate, who are facing another lockdown. They were not prepared for this. They have done their absolute best to get to this point through this lockdown. But every time they have to do this again, every time, they are left without support. They are left in a precarious position and they are left wondering: can they continue to keep going? Can they continue to employ people in our community? Can they continue to support our community? It should not be like this. There should be quarantine facilities that are fit for purpose. We know that hotel quarantine is not the solution here. Quarantine that is fit for purpose, that is safe, is what we need.

But of course, it is not just quarantine; it is vaccines. Last year, during the height of Melbourne's lockdowns, I had to make a number of very difficult calls to people in my electorate who had lost loved ones in aged care. Those were some of the hardest conversations I have had as a member and I don't ever want to do that sort of work again. But I am very, very afraid that I may have to, because elderly people in aged-care homes in my electorate are not yet fully vaccinated. They are still at risk. The aged-care workers in these homes are not fully vaccinated. In fact, many of them have been told that they need to arrange privately to get their vaccination. There is no scheme for them to be a priority and to get their vaccination.

Again, if we think about all of the experience of last year, about what we learned about how this virus spreads amongst vulnerable populations, amongst vulnerable people in our aged-care homes, what did we learn? Most of that spread happened because aged-care workers worked across a number of facilities and they took the virus across with them. Nothing has been done to prevent that happening again. The government have had over a year. They have failed to do your job, so we don't want their sympathy. We don't want to hear platitudes from the Prime Minister about how we will get through these brief lockdowns together. We don't want to hear the Treasurer pat himself on the back for the wonderful job he's done with the economy. We want the government to do its job, two jobs—quarantine, vaccine. Look after the vulnerable; get on with it.

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