Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

We also have some concerning numbers of people dropping out of the workforce; they aren't looking any further. I would suggest that there are some significant dangers out there. I know that the housing issues are very complicated, but I called into one of my poorer suburbs, Acacia Ridge, in the last few weeks and the rosy vision being trotted out by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer is not what's happening on the ground, with insecure work and the limited number of working hours for people. Concerning stories are coming out of Acacia Ridge, where people were talking about pooling their money together to feed their pets. I have never, ever seen that in modern Australia—a place where they say that every child is winning a prize. That is not the Australia that I see on the streets of Acacia Ridge or hearing about from people.

People are worried about their housing and housing opportunities, and they're worried about being able to go out. So many people aren't spending and not going to local businesses because they can't get a rapid antigen detection test. I know that personally myself. When my son had COVID at the beginning of January we could not take him out because there was a three- to four-hour wait to be tested, and we could not find a rapid antigen test—in Toowoomba, Dalby, Chinchilla, Brisbane, Gympie or the Gold Coast. I had every family member I could find looking for a rapid antigen test and we could not find any. Thankfully, it has started to improve.

But we've got a government that is obsessed with fighting each other and is not doing its job. We can't have that combination of circumstances. We have people who are worried about their kids going back to school because they haven't been able to be vaccinated—the younger kids particularly. We have parents who are worried about their aged relatives. As we've heard from the member for Hotham, there are horrific circumstances in our aged-care facilities. This is an area that we know the government failed to get right two years ago and then said, 'No-one could've seen this coming.' We've got a minister who says, 'There is no problem.' The Prime Minister slips up and says 'crisis'. Next minute we've got the armed forces in our aged-care facilities in 2022. Who would have thought that this nation would come to that?

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