Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That the House:

(1) notes:

(a) the Prime Minister had two jobs this year, to get the vaccine rollout right and to create a safe, national quarantine system, and the Victorian outbreak has shown he has failed at both;

(b) the Prime Minister announced these aged care residents and staff would be vaccinated by Easter but has failed to deliver, leaving them vulnerable;

(c) shockingly, when asked this morning, the Aged Care Minister could not even say how many aged care residents in Victoria had been fully vaccinated;

(d) in November last year, the Government ceased its efforts to prevent aged care workers working in multiple facilities in Australia; and

(e) this Government has failed its basic duty to protect older and vulnerable Australians; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Prime Minister to attend the Chamber and make a statement of no more than 30 minutes in length accounting for these failures.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Hindmarsh from moving the following motion immediately:

That the House:

(1) notes:

(a) the Prime Minister had two jobs this year, to get the vaccine rollout right and to create a safe, national quarantine system, and the Victorian outbreak has shown he has failed at both;

(b) the Prime Minister announced these aged care residents and staff would be vaccinated by Easter but has failed to deliver, leaving them vulnerable;

(c) shockingly, when asked this morning, the Aged Care Minister could not even say how many aged care residents in Victoria had been fully vaccinated;

(d) in November last year, the Government ceased its efforts to prevent aged care workers working in multiple facilities in Australia; and

(e) this Government has failed its basic duty to protect older and vulnerable Australians; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Prime Minister to attend the Chamber and make a statement of no more than 30 minutes in length accounting for these failures.

The Prime Minister had two jobs this year, a speedy effective vaccine rollout and safe national quarantine facilities.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Member be no longer heard.

A division having been called and the bells being rung—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just for the information of the minister and the House, I appreciate that the motion is moving and that standing order, as I've said, is brutal, but I am allowing a sentence or two before I call him to the dispatch box because to move someone can be no further heard requires that they have at least been heard even for a few seconds.

The question is that the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business be no longer heard.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second it. The Prime Minister has failed to do his job, putting older people at risk, and they are terrified for their lives.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Member be no longer heard.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the member be no longer heard.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question now is the that motion moved by the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business be disagreed to. In accordance with standing order 133, the division is deferred until after the discussion of the matter of public importance. The debate on this item is therefore adjourned until that time.