Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the Christmas new year period, my community was locked down, and I want to thank them for their sacrifice. Because of them, Australians were not locked down and Sydney was not locked down. To the family that had to cancel for the fifth time their trip to Lord Howe Island, we thank you. To the 77-year-old grandmother who couldn't see her children and grandchildren on Christmas Day, we thank you. To the daughter who was not able to see her father who had just came out of emergency surgery, we thank you as well. To the hospital administrators that were able to scramble resources to the point where they could test 70,000 people in a day, we thank you. To the RFS, the SES and the Surf Life Saving members who were able to provide water and shade to people who were waiting in line for two or three hours, we thank you. To the business owners who missed out on their most critical period of trading, we thank you. As a former small-business owner, I want to assure you that I will continue to fight for you to get proper compensation for the losses that you suffered due to no fault of your own.

My community's sacrifice demands answers from Brad Hazzard. How did this outbreak occur? It is not good enough to turn up and say that you don't have confirmed information; we need to know what you know and how it happened. We also must revisit this idea of the megacouncil that saw Manly close down when it is 27 kilometres away from Avalon but only— (Time expired)