Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will tell the member a positive thing: it's Labor's plan to fix this pandemic in terms of what we need in this country. That's in terms of rolling out the vaccine and quarantine facilities. That's the only time you'll hear positive things, when they come from our side to fix the problems of this nation.

That's because this government have failed the nation in so many ways. Their sole focus is just upon themselves. In doing so, they show contempt for our nation and contempt for Australians. Here we are, in the middle of the pandemic, and the nation is plunged into another crisis as we speak, and this is all because the government have failed on their two major jobs. Their two main jobs were the vaccine rollout and having quarantine facilities. They have totally failed those. They've had more than 12 months to fix this and they just continue to stuff it up time after time. In doing so, they're putting lives at risk and putting our economy at risk. On both those fronts they're held in absolute contempt for their inaction. In fact, it's a disgrace. As many people say all the time, the government's handling of the pandemic has been a total mess.

Remember all those words that the Prime Minister said? That we were at the front of the queue and all those lines that he would throw away? It's none of them—it's rubbish. We have seen 25 leaks from hotel quarantine, so many lockdowns and families separated. This pandemic has been devastating for the nation and people have been calling out for leadership but they're not getting it. They're not getting it from this Prime Minister and they're not getting it from the Liberals or the Nationals. And the Prime Minister and this government refuse to take responsibility. 'Oh,' he said, 'I don't hold a hose,' and, 'It's not a race,' and, 'I'm not accountable for anything'. Well, you are, and it is a race and this government need to start acting like that. Their arrogance and stubbornness, again, are risking lives and hurting our economy.

Now I'd like to turn to the National Party. This week—my goodness!—totally consumed with themselves. There was massive in-fighting, resulting in a new leader and a new Deputy Prime Minister, the member for New England. Of course, it was an absolute circus as that happened—a total circus. With the new leader, they moved immediately to shred the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. And earlier today we had the bizarre spectacle of the member for Nicholls fighting against his own amendments. That's the National Party for you—total chaos!

A Deputy Prime Minister, and what policy did we see them discussing since they got their new leader? Nuclear power! That's it; they're back talking about it all the time. They're so obsessed with having nuclear power. In my electorate, my community is opposed to it and we'll keep fighting them on that.

Also, this new Deputy Prime Minister says investment in renewables is 'insane'. That's right. That's what he thinks. He thinks it's insane. I'll tell you, it is the way to go. Nuclear power is not. The Deputy Prime Minister has said previously that nuclear power plants should be built in the middle of towns, including in regional Australia. Which towns? Which regions?

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