Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will pick up where the last Labor speaker left off, because the Labor Party's idea of a constructive suggestion when it comes to the vaccine rollout is to offer cash payments to people who have already had the vaccine. It's ironic that we stand here today, at the Labor Party's urging, to talk about the costs and consequences of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout on the day after they announced a $6 billion policy to give cash payments to people, a good portion of whom are already vaccinated!

This is not the Australian way. It just goes to show that the Leader of the Opposition doesn't understand Australians. Australians don't need a bribe to do the right thing by their families, to do the right thing by their mates or to do the right thing by their communities. They're willing to do it because they know it's the right thing to do and they want to play their part in protecting their communities. That's why more than 1.2 million doses are going into arms every seven days at the moment.

The member for Macarthur stood up and talked about the lack of attention to people on the front line—which isn't true from this government, by the way—but he might want to turn to his own Leader of the Opposition and ask why the payments that he's proposing are not going to people on the front line. Or not just: they're also going to Twiggy Forrest, to Gina Rinehart and also to everybody in this chamber. This cash splash is not just a brain explosion by the Leader of the Opposition it is in fact his true colours. When he talks about putting public money towards incentivising people—$6 billion of it towards incentivising people to have their vaccinations—he's talking about your money and using that as a way to pay people who have already done the right thing, as I know that most Australians, over 70 per cent of Australians, are going to do.

The member for Macarthur also seemed, in his extraordinary speech, to talk down those military people who were involved on the front line of the COVID response. He seemed to dismiss them simply as—I think his words were along these lines—'people with medals on their chest'. It is something, in our community, to have earned those medals. It is something that we applaud amongst those service men and women, particularly in my electorate. Many of those service men and women have been on the front line of the COVID response for a long time. They've stood at hotel doors as part of hotel quarantine Some of them out of the Enoggera Barracks have now gone down to help New South Wales as well. So, when Labor tries to play cheap class warfare and talk down the military's involvement on the front line of the COVID response, it is an absolute embarrassment to them, an embarrassment to the member for Macarthur.

I feel sorry for the shadow Treasurer. I didn't think I'd ever have to say that. Not only has he been demoted—stripped of a vast chunk of his portfolio, which has been given to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—but now the Leader of the Opposition is spending $6 billion without even picking up the phone to him. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition, in announcing the $6 billion policy, didn't pick up the phone to any of the shadow cabinet and talk to them about whether they thought it was a good idea. The reason he didn't do that is that these are his true colours, like the Labor governments and the Labor leaders before him, when it came to giving out cheques to dead people or paying for pink batts that literally caused deaths, or paying for school halls that weren't needed, or cash for clunkers—and on and on we could go. The Labor Party have never met a problem that they couldn't solve with financial irresponsibility. That is, at the end of it, what it comes down to.

This government, on the other hand, trusts Australians to do the right thing. My community is in lockdown right now. It is a nervous time for them. But guess what? They are turning up in record numbers to be tested and to be vaccinated, because they understand that that's what they need to do for their community, to help their community out of lockdown. They don't need cheques or bribes from the Leader of the Opposition. They are getting vaccinated because it's the right thing to do for their family.

We have heard the Labor party continue to talk down the vaccination rollout. They should know that they are the ones sending mixed messages to Australians. This government will keep saying to all Australians: 'Go and get the jab, AstraZeneca or Pfizer; they're both good jabs. Get it for the good of your community and your family.' (Time expired)

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