Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] If there's one thing this country doesn't need right now it's this hokey jingoism and hypocrisy evidenced so far though this MPI by government MPs, like the one who just spoke, invoking the Olympics as a way to cover or distract people from the failings of this government over the course of this pandemic.

To be quite frank: when you have a situation where government MPs are calling for a 'team Australia' moment, after they spent months tearing at states who were trying to get the job done and using politicking themselves to undermine state responses to this pandemic, you should know straightaway that the 'team Australia' invocation that's been urged upon us is designed to distract from failures. People were, in the main, quite happy to cut governments slack early in the pandemic, understanding that people were scrambling to get things done, but at this point in time they've had ages, more than a year, to prepare for the vaccine rollout, prepare for national quarantine and prepare a public health campaign to bring people together to fight this. For more than a year now they've been saying they would prepare for mRNA manufacture onshore, and now we're being told it will take years. We don't need hokey jingoism; we need results right now.

I want to extend huge congratulations to my community out here in Western Sydney, from Mount Druitt to Blacktown, because they have stepped up. They are in eight local government areas that have been put into lockdown due to the Bondi cluster and they are going out now and getting tested, going out now and getting vaccinated. They are trying to follow the rules and do the right thing, and they absolutely deserve support and assistance at a time when they are trying to do the right thing. They deserve, for example, a comprehensive public health campaign mobilising community, sporting and religious groups in neighbourhoods to get the message out, encourage vaccination and take on vaccine hesitancy. That is simply not happening right now. It staggers me that neither the federal government nor the New South Wales government is working with community groups to get this happening; in fact, community groups are trying to do it themselves in the absence of leadership.

Communities such as mine deserve a quality vaccine rollout program, Mr Deputy Speaker, yet if you open the government's vaccine clinic finder, enter 'Mount Druitt' and look for the next available COVID shot for an eligible person you'll find that the pickings are scarce. There is a Pfizer vaccine hub in Rooty Hill that's been so heavily booked that it has stopped accepting appointments. I've had GPs in my local area point out that they don't know the rhyme or reason behind how the government is allocating vaccine doses. Pharmacists in my area say they'd love to be involved but are being neglected and overlooked.

My community deserve, too, financial support that doesn't require people to jump through hoops in the way that has happened and that encourages people to stay home instead of having to chase work because they're worried about how they'll make ends meet. And they deserve clear, easy, understandable rules and regulations that they can follow, which is certainly not happening. More than anything else, Mr Deputy Speaker, they deserve a health response, not a police and military response as has been witnessed in our part of Western Sydney.

The reality is that the federal coalition can't muster an effective public health campaign to take up the fight against the pandemic because for years they have campaigned against the Public Service. They have pushed out Public Service jobs. They have brought in consultants. Now they are outsourcing the Public Service role to the ADF. Basically, in many respects they have drained the Public Service. We have gone from consultants to khaki when what we need right now is public servants to lead this campaign and work with communities in our area.

We cannot have inconsistency, which we've seen from this Prime Minister on a regular basis. One minute he's arguing against lockdowns, then he's arguing for them. One minute he's saying it's not a race on vaccination, then he's saying it is. We need to have support in our communities, who are doing it tough and who are being let down by the federal and New South Wales Liberal governments, who are not doing the job that people want them to do.

See this speech in context