Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, it is not cheap; that is unkind. I withdraw. It is well beyond cheap; it is bargain basement derisory politics which does nothing to advance the sense of confidence that Victorians need right now. Because when they look at this chamber, what they should actually see is their parliament backing the people of Victoria and supporting them, and that is what the Morrison government is doing. If the Labor Party found a way to rise above it, they would come and continue to support the efforts that have been made by this government, by state governments, to make sure we can address the risks of this virus.

On 30 March, in the Goldstein electorate, I visited the Bluff Road medical clinic with the health minister, during one of the earliest stages of the vaccine rollout. There we saw local residents who were taking the opportunity to get a vaccine. That was in the early days, when there were only about a thousand clinics that were part of the build-up of the vaccination rollout. It was at the start of the curve, or at the precipice or the tipping point, where it went up to 4,000 by the end of that week. But there we saw Australians who wanted to get vaccinated, GPs who wanted to deliver the vaccine, and local health services, working with state and federal governments, to deliver the vaccine rollout, and they did so because they understood how critical it is to getting Australia back on its feet.

Thankfully, following that, the state governments rolled out major super-sites, so people could also get vaccinated there, not just through local GP centres. But it's very disappointing, because, for instance, just yesterday, as we knew we were on the precipice of a very serious potential outbreak in Victoria, people went to the Royal Exhibition Building centre in Melbourne—which is a site managed by the Victorian state government—and, at 4.30 in the afternoon, they were turned away. So there is definitely room for some improvement in some parts of the vaccine rollout, I agree. No-one should kid themselves. When city office-workers are leaving their offices at the end of the working day and going to state government vaccine sites and they're not getting admitted and nobody is there to support them, it kind of suggests there's room for improvement. We'll work with those governments to seek improvement—as we've continued to work on improving the hotel quarantine system and as we've doubled the size of the Howard Springs facility to enable more Australians to return to our country. In the same way, we are looking very confidently at the proposal put forward by the Victorian government.

But of course this requires an understanding of the nature of the virus. There's a reason our hotel quarantine system has almost perfect efficacy. That is because it's a system designed—

Ms Murphy interjecting—

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