Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today my thoughts are all with the people in my community, who are in their last day of what has been a very long and a very difficult lockdown. Because of all of their efforts we have officially hit 70 per cent fully vaccinated in Victoria. Because of everything they have done we are able to get back to being with friends and family. I am so thankful and I am so proud of everyone in our community who has helped us to achieve this. Thank you to everyone for doing your part to get vaccinated. Thank you to all our health professionals who've delivered those vaccinations at Austin Health, at Banyule Community Health, at our GPs and at our pharmacies. Thanks to our small businesses. I know you have pivoted so many times, but you have kept us caffeinated, you've kept us fed, you've kept us going. Thanks to all the remote learners, the parents, the teachers and the early educators. It has been so hard. It has been so difficult in so many ways, and we have got through this by coming together, by sticking it out together and by together making the sacrifices that have kept our community safe.

That's why it's particularly galling for me to sit in this place and hear the Prime Minister for Sydney—who was not there for this effort by Melburnians, by Victorians—pat himself on the back for what he apparently thinks was his effort to get us through this pandemic. The Prime Minister who was not there at the start of the year when COVID started circulating again and we had to once again worry about older people in our community, and in our aged care homes, who hadn't yet been vaccinated. The Prime Minister who wasn't there when the delta strain came to Melbourne via Sydney, when we were not vaccinated, because he hadn't ordered the vaccines early enough. He'd told us it wasn't a race and then diverted vaccines to Sydney. The Prime Minister whose government was slow to provide COVID disaster relief payments to Victoria when we needed them because we had to lock down because we weren't vaccinated. The Prime Minister who, even now, oversees concerningly low rates of vaccination in the disability community and for First Nations people. Prime Minister, don't turn up now with your self-praise and your op-ed in our papers.

You weren't there when it counted. There are absolutely lessons we have to learn from what's happened in Victoria. It's a global pandemic. We haven't been through anything like this in our lifetimes. We need to learn those lessons, but the Victorian government showed up every day and showed the leadership that kept us safe.

Congratulations, again, to everyone in my community, to everyone in Melbourne. I am so proud. Get a haircut, hug a loved one, go to a restaurant. And go gently on yourself and on others. It will be different. Remember the doctors and nurses and others still on the front line. Keep safe and thank you.

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