Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I have four children. When they were young they all played basketball, and I was given the job that many parents dread but do. I was given the job of organising 400 kids to get to two lots of training every week, dozens of games on a Saturday over maybe half a dozen venues. This was a logistical nightmare but it was my job and I did it. I did it well and I made sure that every kid got to every game that they had to get to and that every game was played with the full number of children needed. Lots of parents all around the country do that, all around the world, because they know when they have a job that people rely on them for, they do it. Now those parents, those families—lots of people who have a job to do—are looking at this government and thinking, 'You had a job—a job to keep us and our kids safe during the pandemic—and you have failed. Not only did we rely on you to stay safe—our lives depended on you—but our livelihoods depended on this government to do that one job: keep us safe.' The whole community of Australia is scratching their heads as to why our Prime Minister has failed in that job.

Last year, 655 Victorians died tragically in my state in aged care. I know a lot of Victorians are asking today not only why have they not done their job but did they not learn anything from not doing their job properly last time? Well, they haven't learned anything. Just today, we saw just how shambolic the vaccine rollout is. Let's step through it. Minister Colbeck, the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, told us that he is 'comfortable' with the pace of the vaccine rollout—comfortable! Well, I would like to tell you that the residents in aged care are not comfortable with the vaccine rollout; many of them are fearful. No aged-care worker is comfortable with the pace of the vaccine rollout; they are fearful. And definitely no family who has a loved one in aged care is feeling comfortable right this minute, particularly in Victoria; they are fearful.

The Prime Minister has neglected aged-care residents and workers, particularly in Victoria. It was the government's job to protect them. We also learned that the government thought that they might have to just survey aged-care staff to find out if they had been vaccinated. Not only did they opt out of their promise to have all workers in aged care vaccinated but they didn't collect any records at all to see how the rollout was going. 'Oh,' they said to the workers, and this is bad enough, 'we're not going to vaccinate you. You go off and do it yourself, find a GP who can do it for you.' They neglected to keep records. That is unacceptable.

I heard the previous speaker say, 'Oh, there's hesitancy out there about getting the vaccine.' Well, where is the public health campaign? Where is it—another job the government has not done. There should be a public health campaign. We have Dolly Parton in the United States and Elton John the UK out there, saying, 'Get your vaccine.' Singapore is running a brilliant campaign about getting people vaccinated. They know hesitancy is a thing. They are doing their job. This government is letting this country down.

We heard from the shadow health minister that they can't get their stories straight. The inconsistencies around the vaccine rollout are absolutely outstanding. Is it 21 facilities to get their doses? Is it six facilities? Is it 70,000 aged-care workers that have been vaccinated? Oh wait, no it's only 32,000. Who knows? It seems that asking this government who knew what, where and when are questions they can never answer. This is unacceptable.

We know the policy to prevent aged-care workers working across facilities was ended by this government in November before a single vaccination had been given. Have they learnt nothing? This was a major issue with the last outbreak. We would not be in this position—and I definitely understand this—if those workers had been protected. There's no point just saying you can work in one facility. We heard the minister say, 'The Fair Work Commission had this ruling here and there.' Why would you work in one facility if you're only going to get two shifts? You can't afford that. That is not going to give you a living.

Quarantine is a monumental failure. I haven't got time to go into what a monumental failure it is, but we would not be in this position if the Prime Minister did his job.

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