Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over recent weeks, my office and I have been working with many Australian citizens and Fraser residents who, through no fault of their own, have been stranded overseas. They've engaged in good faith with this government, only to have their hopes dashed time and time again. It should not be beyond the capacity of the national government to use its resources to get Australians home and to communicate with them clearly and to treat them with respect. Instead, we've got the unedifying spectacle of a glass jaw Prime Minister misrepresenting Kevin Rudd and misleading this House, rather than getting the job done. It's just another instance of marketing and spin over delivery.

This government has palmed off so much of its responsibility for Australia's borders onto state governments. It's a bizarre approach given that it has been the Commonwealth government's role since 1901. The national cabinet seems to have been established so that this government can deflect blame whenever something goes wrong in its own area of responsibility. It's been less eager to heed the advice of the Halton report to establish federally run surge capacities and to safely expand quarantine or to work more closely with airlines to run a coordinated system. Instead, we have well over 30,000 stranded Australians still overseas left to deal with airlines cancelling flights, bumping passengers off flights and charging exorbitant fares. Hundreds of these people are Fraser residents. The Prime Minister is running out of time to deliver on his promise that he will get all Australians home for Christmas.