Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians during this COVID pandemic expected two things from this Prime Minister and this government: quarantine and vaccinations. On both of those counts, there has been an abject failure by this government to deliver on the most important thing, which is fixing the health crisis that has created this economic crisis. Day after day we've seen the mendacious claims by the government about what they're doing. Four million people were to be vaccinated by March. It didn't even get to 12 per cent. They couldn't even get that right. We're getting 1.4 million doses of vaccine a week, but they're only distributing 450,000. You have to ask: why is this government failing in the most fundamental thing, which is protecting Australians? In Sunbury, Victoria, in one of our aged-care facilities, 20 people lost their lives and 170 people went through COVID. It was horrific to go down there and see what the staff were putting up with, what they were doing—to walk in that room and see a roomful of personal belongings of people who had passed away, belongings that couldn't be given out. And what has this incompetent, useless government done? It's knocked back the aged-care workers—the people who were in there for 60 days, putting their lives on the line—from vaccines. The government's response? 'Just go and get a vaccine at your local doctor.' It is an absolute disgrace that the Prime Minister and the health minister come here and spout for their photo opportunities, while meanwhile real Australians, real Australian businesses and real Australian healthcare workers are being punished because of the incompetence of these two.