Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] It gives me no joy to say that the opposition's predictions on the government's failures on the vaccine rollout have been borne out. This is one area where we would have much preferred to have been proven wrong, but, alas, that wasn't the case. It has been the case, ever since the Prime Minister said we were first in the queue, that the Prime Minister has been spinning, not delivering. He wasn't even at the starter's block. I was amazed to hear the honourable member say just then that the government was ahead of the curve. Nothing could be further from the truth—and they were warned about it.

On 28 July last year I wrote an op-ed in the Australian newspaper, pointing out it would be better if the government had more deals providing more options and getting access to more vaccines. At that point they had no deals, whereas the rest of the world was already moving. Even last July we were way behind the curve. If the government had done more deals, if the government had got access to different types of vaccines, Australian people would have better choices and more choices, and we wouldn't be dealing with some of the hesitancy that people are displaying at the moment to one particular type of vaccine.

The Prime Minister said during question time that the Labor Party should get more behind the vaccine rollout. This is an absolutely outrageous thing for him to say. Labor members across Western Sydney and elsewhere are encouraging people to take up the vaccines. I've done so consistently in my community, which is at the epicentre of the breakout. The members for Greenway, Blaxland and Chifley joined me on the weekend at a vaccination centre, encouraging people to get vaccinated. The members for Greenway and Chifley have called for more vaccination centres in their electorates. So it is completely and utterly offensive and wrong for the Prime Minister to make that claim, but it's what he always does. When things are going right he politicises it and puts the Liberal Party logo on the ads for getting vaccines, but when things are going wrong he says: 'We can't have politics. It's wrong to politicise this.' He verbals the Labor Party as saying something we have never said. The Prime Minister has failed at the vaccine rollout, and he is being dishonest about it.

I want to turn to some of the impacts of these failures, and I want to talk particularly about my own community. The people of Fairfield City, Cumberland and Blacktown City, in my electorate, have responded magnificently in recent weeks. They have been doing it tough and they have been doing the right thing. They have been coming out in big numbers to get tested and vaccinated. They have been dealing—and I say this not as a political point—with unclear rules and rapidly changing rules. The people of Fairfield were told they had to get tested every three days; that was announced with no warning. Then there was three days grace given. Then that rule was changed again to only particular workers. The rules about mask wearing outside the home are unclear. We're told we have to wear masks at all times outside the home but that there are certain exemptions, which are unclear. I say this not as a criticism of the New South Wales government but simply to point out that people are dealing with very complex situations and are doing so magnificently. I represent four local government areas, and at one point there were three different sets of rules across my electorate. I found it difficult to understand and explain, let alone people who are just going about their business and trying to get food on the table.

In relation to troops: the troops will be made welcome in my community, but rhetoric about boots on the ground and greater enforcement is misplaced. Troops being involved in humanitarian work and checking on COVID-positive cases is perfectly appropriate and welcome, but that is not what we were told would be happening. I want to pay tribute to the local area commands for the way they are implementing this policy, because it is being implemented in a way which is showing compassion and understanding.

I also want to pay tribute to some community leaders who have played a very, very important role in communicating to our community what is necessary to comply with the rules. I want to pay particular tribute to His Beatitude Mar Meelis Zaia, the head of the Assyrian Church of the East, and Archbishop Amel Nona, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Australia, who have been very proactive in talking with their churches about what needs to happen, and also of course to Carmen Lazar from the Assyrian Resource Centre.

I want to say something about tradies and construction workers. I speak as somebody who has always supported the health orders, but tradies and construction workers are being unfairly treated here. You can leave our local government area to work in a supermarket, where you'll have much more contact with other people than you will on a construction site. I call on the authorities to fix the situation for tradies and construction workers as a matter of urgency. We'll always comply with the health orders. The construction industry is willing to put arrangements in place to ensure it's safe. Construction workers will get tested as regularly as possible. They're losing out on work to tradies from other areas, and I believe that tradies in Western Sydney deserve better treatment. (Time expired)

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