Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) Australia's borders have been closed for over a year to both inbound and outbound travel as an emergency measure;

(b) the Government has not disclosed or provided any credible timeline or roadmap to reopen the borders;

(c) many Australian citizens are struggling with disconnection from family members, partners and loved ones overseas and unable to see one another;

(d) there has been no extension of travel exemptions to family members or visa holders despite repeated calls;

(e) many Australian business sectors, like tourism, entertainment, agriculture, universities and industry are pleading for a roadmap to safely reopen the borders; and

(f) communities and businesses are continually exposed to quarantine leakages and pay the price with lockdowns; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) double the capacity of national quarantine facilities using best practice purpose-built facilities such as Howard Springs;

(b) prioritise expenditure to accelerate the rollout of the vaccine with a goal of achieving vaccination of at least 80 per cent of the population before the end of the year; and

(c) establish a clear roadmap for safely reopening Australian borders and clearly communicate goals and timeframes by reporting back to this Parliament and the Australian people without delay.

When I filed this motion last week, ahead of any announcements from Victoria, I was, sadly, obviously feeling that COVID was not done with us yet and, in fact, that the lack of long-term planning by the government was going to rear its head in yet another way. I stand here today on behalf of the people of Warringah, because they're calling for a road map for how we are going to deal in the long term with COVID. We can't have this jerking and moving along from one incident of hotel quarantine leakage to another, with the hope that somehow this is all going to be okay because bubble Australia is keeping us safe, without too much stress or pressure to vaccinate as quickly as possible, while at the same time congratulating ourselves that we're doing okay compared to the rest of the world. We need to have a discussion about Australia's long-term plans. Variants of COVID could be with us for up to four to six years. So, even on our incredibly slow rollout of the vaccine on the current schedule, we will, by the time we get to it, need to deal with variants and booster shots. So what is the long-term plan or road map that the government has for how Australia is going to go into the future with this situation?

Australian borders have been closed since March 2020, as an emergency response to a growing health crisis. I stress the word 'emergency'. At the time, it was the right thing to do, but I don't think any of us believed this was a permanent or long-term solution. The borders have now been closed for over 14 months. We have the most restrictive constraints in the world when it comes to limiting the movement of our citizens, and it's important to note that a significant number of people are impacted.

Our country is proud of its multicultural heritage. Twenty-nine point eight per cent of Australians were born overseas, and more than one-third in my own electorate of Warringah. Many are struggling with separation from family or partners overseas. Businesses in my electorate, particularly tourism operators, are suffering because of the lack of workers. Across the economy, sectors such as tourism, universities and agriculture are struggling because of closed borders. As we've seen with the breakout of COVID again in Melbourne, we are not done with breakouts. We absolutely must put in a long-term plan.

Visa holders and dual citizens are considering leaving Australia, as the extended separation from family members is causing distress. I have asked the minister and the government to consider extending travel exemptions to family members, including parents, and to visa holders, but there's a deathly silence in terms of having a more compassionate approach. Prospective marriage visa holders have paid upwards of $10,000 for visas, and they have not been granted exemptions to join their fiances.

More compassion and flexibility has to be shown, and there are solutions available. Of course, first, we need a comprehensive vaccination rollout plan. This really should be the No. 1 priority the government should be focusing on. But the next bottleneck is our quarantine. I am a strong supporter of our quarantine. I believe it is absolutely the ring fence that has kept Australia safe. But we must make it fit for purpose. We need to have federal quarantine facilities in each state, not in hotels but in fit-for-purpose facilities without shared air conditioning. This has to be done. The reality is that living with COVID is going to mean some form of quarantine for the foreseeable future, so we must invest in that capacity, because we can't have a situation where Australia is indefinitely on pause. We need to reopen, not all at once but in a gradual reopening so that sectors can survive, from travel agents to agriculture—so many areas.

We have capacity to increase our quarantine. We know that the government has now agreed to extend the capacity of Howard Springs from 800 to 2,000 people, but Jane Halton's review indicated it could go to 3,000 people. We know about all of our breakouts and leaks. Hotel quarantine currently takes approximately 6,000 people nationally. We need to double or triple that capacity so that we have an opportunity for the Australian economy to recover and reopen.

Young people are facing a lost decade if we continue with a complete lack of road maps and planning for the future of Australia. We need to do it safely and smartly. At the moment, it's as if the government is just ignoring the long-term issues.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. In the dying minutes of tonight, I just want to support this motion and to give a blame-free account of what we're doing in quarantine, which means standing up for the work of state governments and recognising that, while always more can be done, there are three issues that are very germane to the motion that has been moved by the member for Warringah. The first one is that, to fix something like the uncertainty around COVID, particularly with new strains emerging, it's very hard to give a clear road map deep into the future. The only way you can make the road map slightly clearer is through more evidence and information, and with that comes science. To quote Matt Damon in my favourite movie, The Martian, this is about sciencing the heck out of this problem. I would argue there's not enough research being done in Australia, which is actually an ideal place to study the effects of hotel quarantine and the potential movement of infected cases. On 22 January we instigated antigen testing for everyone getting on a plane to come here, to make sure that we're not transporting infected returnees directly into hotel quarantine and overly stressing what the previous speaker said is already a suboptimal mechanism of quarantine.

Secondly, it is absolutely the right of the opposition to push for faster rollout, but I do want to note that, as of 26 May, approaching half a million of the most vulnerable people in New South Wales and Victoria have had at least their first jab. There are 345,000 people in aged-care facilities who have already had at least one jab, if not both jabs. The utilisation of vaccines, in excess of 80 per cent, by the major states is very impressive. It is a little low in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The third point I want to make is: if you really want to know whether someone is protected, there is no test, but we can do serology. It's currently available. Rapid lateral flow immunoassays can be used to show that someone has some level of immunity, either as a result of previous infection or one or two jabs. I'm simply asking this question. I wrote about this in the middle of last year in both Fairfax and The Australian. We've got to be creative about quarantine, not be paralysed. I got that sense from the previous speaker—where's this going to head? We can raise these caps if we can prove we can do it safely. The proof is not there yet. I don't yet think that exchange through air conditioning is the biggest concern we have. Certainly in South Australia, the potentially simultaneous or near simultaneous opening of doors is leading to aerosol spread. Let's take that at face value, if that's what the CHO says. The answer is: for goodness sake, in hotel quarantine, don't put an infected person on the same floor as someone who has no antibodies and hasn't even been vaccinated. There's simple stuff to do to reduce the appalling cost Victoria is facing. It is not a political comment. It's devastating that something that happened in South Australia has had such an impact in Victoria. We have a member right here in the chamber wearing a mask as a result of what has happened.

Let's start saying that, if you are going to return to Australia, and your booking is two weeks ahead, for goodness sake, go and get vaccinated. Why not turn up at the airport with serology, as evidence that your immunity is on track, that your IGG is at least there. Having antibodies to spike protein doesn't guarantee you will not be infected, but it's sure as hell better than having nothing at all. If someone has no immunity whatsoever, they are a clear and present danger, both where they are and of course on being thrown into hotel quarantine, where there might be an infected case. Let's use some common sense. Let's try and define a gold standard and let's try and achieve that.

There are 23 rapid lateral flow immunoassays available. These don't cost much to do. You could simply say: 'Get them before you get on the plane. If you work in an aged-care facility, let's prove that your jab actually led to an immunogenic response.' I appreciate you can have some innate response, but we're trying to prove that there is a response to a vaccine. Marylouise McLaws has said that, after full, double vaccination, between 13 and 20 of people are not adequately protected. I think those people have a right to know if they're a reservoir of potential reinfection. We don't know whether it's going to transmit the disease. But serology is a damn good start, and it's not happening at the moment.

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this motion moved by the member for Warringah. I want to start by saying that, the longer this pandemic has gone on, the less responsibility the Prime Minister has taken. In the early days, the Prime Minister and the Chief Medical Officer were the ones who actually did the announcements late at night. They were the ones who did the press conferences. They were the ones who did the decision-making on the restrictions that the country would have to undergo. Then, as the pandemic evolved—obviously Victoria had a second wave, which was devastating—the Prime Minister and Chief Medical Officer backed away. They backed away from all responsibility, and they basically handed all of the responsibility over to the states and territories. All of the different states and territories had different decision-making and different rules for different circumstances. The Prime Minister and the federal government took a completely hands-off approach when it came to managing our borders and this pandemic.

So the member for Warringah is 100 per cent right that we need a road map in order to get our borders open, but it has to start with the Prime Minister taking some responsibility for what goes on inside the country. It is completely unbelievable that John Howard would have allowed the states and territories to control the movement of people in this country. I just find it impossible to believe that John Howard would have completely relinquished all authority on that matter. But that's what Scott Morrison has done, because it was too politically inconvenient and difficult for him to be involved in that decision-making process.

When Victoria had a case a couple of weeks ago, I was speaking to a travel agent friend of mine who has had some of the most difficult times in his business. He runs a great business, but this pandemic has been devastating for it. He said he had someone leave Melbourne before the restrictions came in. They were in Brisbane for work. Then, returning, they had eight different sets of circumstances from all of the different states and territories about what they could do next and what the border rules would mean. One state had certain rules and another state had another rule, and the territories had another rule. There is no uniformity in our border restrictions and our border controls in this country. It comes back to the fact that the central government, the Commonwealth government, the federal government, has had a completely hands-off approach to this pandemic. That's where this problem lies.

If we are serious about having more robust protection against this virus, we cannot have that discussion without a serious vaccination program that has a sense of urgency, as if lives and livelihoods depended on it, because they do. We're seeing in Victoria right now the devastation from a lack of protection because of a lack of vaccination. There aren't enough people who are securely defended against this virus. I note that, over the last couple of hours in Victoria, another aged-care resident was reported to have contracted the virus. At this stage, they are asymptomatic. The good news is that they had had two vaccines, which goes to show that you can still catch the virus. But, if the difference is between catching the virus and going through a deadly second wave like the one we had in Victoria, with aged-care residents catching the virus, that's the ballgame. That's exactly what we need to focus on in order to ensure that our borders can stay open with confidence. But without a vaccination program that has urgency, without a federal government that is willing to take some of the political heat and make some of the political decisions, this is going to continue on.

Of course, the other big piece of the puzzle is quarantine. The states have done an admirable job, but they are all crying out for the federal government to come to the table and to assist with it. I genuinely hope that this isn't a political issue that we have to continue prosecuting over the next few months, I genuinely hope the federal government starts vaccinating people with urgency, I genuinely hope the federal government sorts out quarantine and I genuinely hope the federal government starts to take responsibility for this pandemic, because it is only then that we'll start to see the other side of it.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Warringah for moving this motion. We've all been inundated with phone calls from constituents asking when the borders are going to reopen, because they have loved ones that they can't get in contact with. Unfortunately, under this government that's not going to happen for a very long time, because we can't reopen the borders until we get those vaccination levels up to safely have a population that has some sort of immunity to this terrible virus. Labor's been calling for many, many months now for the government to get quarantine and vaccination right, and the government has bungled it. This is what Labor would do: we'd build dedicated quarantine facilities such as Howard Springs across the country now; we'd fix the vaccination rollout; we'd start a mass advertising and education campaign to encourage Australians to get vaccinated; and we'd also locally manufacture mRNA vaccines.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is interrupted, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. If the member's speech was interrupted—which it was—the member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:30