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

I have received a letter from the honourable Leader of the Opposition proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The failure of the Government to do its two jobs, rolling out vaccines and establishing purpose built national quarantine.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The fact is that this Prime Minister went to the National Press Club at the beginning of this year, and it was he who said his job this year was to fix the COVID issue, to fix the pandemic. He said that was his job. Indeed, he did have two jobs—the effective rollout of the vaccine and appropriate fit-for-purpose national quarantine facilities—and he failed in both.

Earlier today, he had the hide to stand up and say at his press conference that this was an enviable success. Well, I would hate to see failure. There are two states in lockdown today: New South Wales and South-East Queensland. Victoria and South Australia have just emerged from lockdowns. There have been 15 deaths. There are 59 people in ICU. There are 314 Australians in hospital. We've had the lowest vaccine rollout in the advanced world and we're struggling to get into the top 80. And this Prime Minister stands up, like he did last year, saying we're at the front of the queue, full of hubris, all the arrogance on display for all to see, and thinks that people won't notice the failure which is there.

The fact is that this Prime Minister has been as slow as a wet week when it comes to actually delivering. He said repeatedly that it wasn't a race. It's not a competition. Today he thinks people are goldfish. He's apparently unaware that when you say things in parliament and at press conferences it's recorded. It's there, the record. He's a Prime Minister who objects to the tabling of his own words in this parliament because he doesn't want to be held to account. The fact is that he said it wasn't a race well after TGA approval, and he had received his vaccine already. He had received it, I had received it, but Australians couldn't get it.

He continued to say, 'We're at the front of the queue,' when we were way, way, way behind. He said that four million Australians would be fully vaccinated by March. He missed that target by 3.4 million. Missed it by that much! He then said that people in category 1a, aged-care residents, disability care residents and aged-care workers were going to get vaccinated by Easter. We know that now, in August, more than half of aged-care workers have not been fully vaccinated yet. We know the consequences of that. I'm feeling it in my electorate at the moment, at Summer Hill, in the aged-care facility that has a major outbreak as a result of this government's failure.

The fact is that this government could have, should have done better. Pfizer approached this government last July, but there had been deals done for more than one billion doses with 34 nations before we actually got our act together to do a deal. They didn't do enough deals with enough companies for enough vaccines soon enough. That's the truth of the matter. And they still continue to prevaricate over that. It's not a matter of hindsight. Chris Bowen was standing up in this parliament and in press conferences with myself and with other members of the Labor Party saying this last year, pointing towards international best practice. But, of course, they always reject anything that anyone other than the Prime Minister, who thinks he knows everything, comes up with.

The fact is they were against wage subsidies before they were for them. They said it was a dangerous idea. They were against increasing JobSeeker before they were in favour of it. They were against lockdowns. They were praising Premier Berejiklian: 'Good on you, Premier Berejiklian. New South Wales is staying open.' Remember that? They were the gold standard. We've seen the consequences of their hubris. Now they're against economic incentives. Well, we'll see where that goes. When Australians need leadership, this Prime Minister goes missing. He literally goes missing for days on end. For this Prime Minister, every job is too big and every response is too small. Promises are never delivered and targets are never reached. Now we have horizons, which we know are never reached.

Today we've put forward a constructive idea, as we did with wage subsidies. Again it was dismissed instantly by the government, like they did when they dismissed wage subsidies as an idea. This is the same Prime Minister who literally was the minister that brought in No Jab, No Pay in 2016. This essentially pays people who are vaccinated and withholds payments from people who are not. It literally is the same economic incentive. When he introduced it, his second sentence in the second reading speech was:

From 1 January 2016, the bill will ensure children fully meet immunisation requirements before their families can access the childcare benefit, childcare rebate or the family tax benefit part A supplement.

He said:

This is an important initiative aimed at boosting childhood immunisation rates.

That's what he said. It's a legal document. This is the basis of it. A second reading speech is a legal document that can be used in a court of law about the purpose of the legislation, and yet he stood at the press conference just before question time and said, 'No, it's got nothing to do with boosting immunisation rates—nothing to do with it at all. Nothing to do with it. No, it wasn't done necessarily as an incentive; it was done as a protection for the children who enter those childcare facilities.' 'As the person who put that in place, I can tell you why we did it,' he said. Seriously! That person, who is now the Prime Minister, who was the minister who introduced No Jab, No Pay, a direct economic incentive, was deliberately designed, as he said in the second reading speech, from the same motivation—the same economics 1A, which is that economic incentives work. They work, and that's what the studies have shown. That's why the Biden administration is doing it, that's why they're doing it in Europe, and that's why there are all sorts of incentives in the States. But, of course, the government are against it now.

I mean, this mob goes into shock when someone suggests spreading funding evenly instead of using it to pork-barrel Liberal and National Party marginal seats. That's essentially the problem here. If only we had got out a colour-coded map so that it only went to designated marginal seats, perhaps they would have got on board and adopted it and pretended, like they do with JobKeeper, that it was their idea. Perhaps they would have done that. They are the party of sports rorts, the party of regional rorts, the party of 'pork and ride'—commuter car parking where there's no train station. They have us believe that they're worried about those issues. The fact is that Australians responded magnificently to this pandemic, as they always do. They look after each other. They look after their families, their neighbours, their community, their nation. Because of a whole range of factors, not least of which is that we are an island continent with no land borders, we were in a very strong position, and that strong position has been squandered. At the same time as we see people attending Wimbledon, going to the Louvre and going about their lives and travelling internationally, what we see in Australia is that position being squandered.

In recent times, there's been a focus on the Olympics. The person who said it wasn't a race now keeps trying to speak about gold medals and running. This is what Cate Campbell had to say on Sunday:

... you find out what you're made of when things don't go your way; not when things are working well for you.

That's what she had to say.

We find out that this Prime Minister never accepts responsibility, always blames someone else, says something different from day to day and thinks that people won't remember, never wants to be held to account, never wants to provide transparency and never wants to provide leadership. Well, if he's not prepared to show leadership, there are people on this side of the chamber who are ready to show leadership—ready to show the leadership that is needed for this country. (Time expired)

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am reminded of perhaps the most infamous of the opposition leader's speeches to the National Press Club, when he said that these are serious times, and these need serious people—except for the fact that he was plagiarising a fictional American president who never existed. Having been caught out with that, I am reminded that these are serious times, but this was not a serious intervention today, in policy or in other terms.

The idea is that, instead of the reason for people to be vaccinated in Australia being to save their lives and the lives of their friends and family and to protect others in the community, we would retrospectively pay the eight million people who have been vaccinated in Australia to date, we would retrospectively pay the wealthiest Australians, we would retrospectively pay for that which has already been done and we would risk undermining the vaccine program. This isn't just a bad idea, as Professor Peter Collignon said; it's an irresponsible idea and it's a dangerous idea. The reason it is an irresponsible idea is not only that it is paying people for what's been done; it is paying people for what they were going to do in any event. I can disclose to the House today that our latest COVID Shield research is that 79 per cent of people are intending on being vaccinated. That number has gone up again.

In addition to that, very significantly, what we see is that we also have a situation where those opposite risk undermining confidence in vaccination. Let me quote the Journal of the American Medical Association:

… considerable research shows that payments in some contexts can send the signal that an action is undesirable, unpleasant, or even dangerous and not worth taking based purely on personal benefit. Financial incentives are likely to discourage vaccination (particularly among those most concerned about adverse effects); instead, contingent nonfinancial incentives are the desired approach.

Or perhaps I could just quote the health minister here in the ACT, Rachel Stephen-Smith, only a few hours ago, when asked about the opposition leader's proposal: 'For my money, this is probably not the most cost-effective way to do incentives for people. I think a number of your listeners on the text line have indicated that it's actually what you're allowed to do when you're vaccinated that's going to give people the incentive, and that's the conversation that you know is occurring at the national cabinet at the moment.' Professor Peter Collignon said: 'This is bad idea. Currently, judging by long vaccine lines, not enough vaccine is the main issue, not hesitancy.' I'm happy to accept his comments. We accept that, as more vaccine comes in, more is delivered. Further, he said, 'Plus, this may make some needlessly defer getting vaccinated, because they may think if they defer for a few months they're more likely get $300.' Professor Mary-Louise McLaws said: 'Australians are very good at uptaking vaccines—they really are. They reach about 94 per cent'—actually, it's 95.2 per cent—'for children's vaccines.' That is for the zero to five-year-olds. She said: 'I don't think we need it yet. I actually don't think Australians are that hesitant.' Jane Halton said: 'If you look at the US, say, they didn't think about these kinds of incentives until right at the end. So I don't think we should lead with that. Let's call on people's better instincts to do the right things.'

The strongest possible reason to be vaccinated is to save your life. It's to save the life of your friends and family. It's to save the life of your community. It's to protect others. To imply in some way, shape or form that this is not worth doing, that it might be unpleasant or dangerous and therefore you need cash is a very dangerous path. Will the opposition be paying for the booster next year? Will they be adding an extra $3 billion for the booster next year? It's a simple question. There's no simple answer. As is potentially likely and as all the medical advice suggests—will they be paying for a booster in 2023? Because, on their logic, once they've established this principle, the moment they stop, the incentive to be vaccinated evaporates, so therefore they are locking in a COVID vaccine payment forever—or maybe they're not, but what is the logic with that?

I see the Manager of Opposition Business. I quite like him; I think there's a certain degree of integrity underneath. We go back a long way. He gave one of the most half-hearted interviews of his life today in relation to this. I know his heart is not behind what they are doing, and I commend him for that. He was honest through his intention.

Here's what we've done. In the last month, there have been 4½ million vaccinations. Since this parliament met, there have been over 5½ million vaccinations. In the last week, there have been almost 1.2 million vaccinations. In the last 24 hours, there have been 200,000 vaccinations. If that were the United States, that would be the equivalent of over 2½ million vaccines in one day! Then, when we look at that progress, across Australia four million people today are fully vaccinated and over eight million people have had at least one dose—in particular, 41.4 per cent have had that first vaccination dose so far. Then, as we go forward, what we see is that for the over 50s, it's at 66.1 per cent; for the over 60s, it's 73.1 per cent; and, for the over 70s, it's 79.6 per cent. Within a matter of days we will have hit 80 per cent in that age group alone. And all of these things are being done for the right reasons, through the right way, without risking undermining a vaccination program, without calling into account its fundamental purpose, which is to save lives and to protect lives. The opposition are the people who gave us cash for clunkers, and they have learnt nothing since that time.

Now we'll look at where Australia is in comparison to the rest of the world. We see a world where, as I mentioned earlier today, there has been 631,000 cases in the last 24 hours, and there has been 11,000 lives lost. To date, well over four million lives have been lost, each one of them a tragedy, including every one of them in Australia. If, at the outset of this pandemic a year ago, it had been said that the world would have reached almost 200 million cases by now, that there would have been 4.2 million lives lost worldwide officially—but according to the World Health Organization it's likely to be two to three times that, so close to 10 million lives lost. In Australia, tragically, we have lost 925 souls. But, in a world where a likely 10 million souls have been lost, 925 is an almost inconceivable national achievement. And every Australian has played their part; everyone has done that.

Our health workers are at the top of the list: our pathologists, our doctors, our nurses, our pharmacists—all of the people who have played their role. To do that, it's involved not just one action but multiple: the borders, the testing, the tracing, the distancing—and I do commend New South Wales on, arguably, the most outstanding tracing system in the world. What that has done is help prevent, along with what they have also done with their distancing measures, what could have been thousands of cases on a daily basis. Then, of course, there is the vaccination program. All of these things have come together.

Australia's achievements in saving lives and livelihoods are almost unparalleled around the world. At the same time, there have been 4.5 million vaccinations in the last month. There have been 5.5 million vaccinations since this parliament last met, with 200,000 vaccinations in the last 24 hours. These are the real outcomes for this nation, and it's every Australian that is stepping forward. I thank them and I honour them.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister loves a photo op but the problem for him is that, when the cameras are on, often the voice is being recorded as well. Today we've seen time and again his comments catch up with him. I might add that one of my colleagues just sent me an article from 9 July: 'Prime Minister backs a pub offering free beer for vaccination'. So free beer for vaccination, the Prime Minister backs. Only minutes before question time, when Kieran Gilbert was asking the Prime Minister about no jab, no pay and about the incentives involved there, the Prime Minister claimed that that proposal which he had introduced—true—used his full authority of being the minister at the time, saying, 'Ít wasn't about increasing the rate.' He just referred to the child immunisation rate, and next sentence, 'It wasn't about increasing the rate.' When he introduced the no jab, no pay bill, what was the second sentence? It was: 'This is an important initiative aimed at boosting childhood immunisation rates.' What are you meant to do with a Prime Minister who just doesn't care about the truth at a time when we need public trust more than ever?

At a time when people believing and following what governments say matters, what do we get from this Prime Minister? We get things that are demonstrably untrue. Today, with passion, he says, 'Anyone who thinks that the Prime Minister only has two jobs is not up for the job', and all of his side went, 'Oh yes; hear, hear.' On 24 June, when he was there as the hologram in the corner, what did the Prime Minister say? He said:

The fact remains that the two jobs of this government are…

They were his own words on 24 June—'Here are the two jobs.' Today he says, 'Oh, if you think it's just that, you're not fit for office.' As far as he is concerned, about himself, he is absolutely right. He's not fit for office. He's failed on purpose-built quarantine and he's failed on the vaccination rollout.

I can tell you that the people I represent in this House are going through a hell of a time because of the failures of this government. We've got people right now home-schooling until they don't know when it will end. Home-schooling is hard enough at the best of times for any of us. Think about what home-schooling is like in a part of Sydney where 75 per cent of people speak a language other than English at home. Think about what home-schooling is like in a household where you've got more people than you've got rooms. Think about what home-schooling is like for some people more recently arrived under the refugee program who weren't trained in literacy in their own language. They are now going through this with no end in sight because of the failures of this government. If this government thinks they can just change the facts, side-step and pretend things didn't happen, well just know that they are being watched and people are suffering because of their failures.

What's been happening is the community have just moved to pick up the pieces themselves. When the government weren't running vaccination programs, our local doctors just went ahead and did it. My personal doc, my GP, Dr Jamal Rifi, gave up his front yard and the car park underneath his own surgery and just started doing testing and started doing vaccinations because this government wouldn't. A disability provider runs three centres in my electorate—in Lakemba, in Belmore and in Ashfield. All three had positive cases, and he rang me saying, 'I can't get the government to vaccinate the staff; can you organise it?' So my office did. The Exodus Foundation have gone with pop-up clinics as have the Lebanese Muslim Association, the Orion Centre and the Bankstown Sports Club, and we're organising it for Perry Park. People are being vaccinated now, but no thanks to those opposite. Those opposite have failed and the people in Sydney are paying the price for it. In my part of Sydney we are the home of essential workers. They don't have jobs where you can just get a laptop and do it from home. Try stacking shelves from a laptop. Try working in aged care from a laptop. Try working in any of these essential roles from a laptop—you can't. They have to turn up to work. They are turning up—most of them are not yet vaccinated, not because of hesitancy on their part, but because of a failure in messaging from the government and a failure in supply, which this government still doesn't seem to understand.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This MPI goes to the heart of the biggest issue facing the nation. The vaccine rollout has been ramping up exponentially. As the Minister for Health outlined, we were ahead of the curve in getting agreements in place. Mr Deputy Speaker, do you realise we had 280 million doses of vaccines on order? That's 280 million people. That's about 10 shots for every Australian person. But the best-laid plans were put awry by the European Union blocking delivery of 3.7 million vaccines from AstraZeneca in Europe.

Many people have criticised us for not getting more Pfizer. The whole American production was left for America. We had deals with Pfizer, with Novavax, with Moderna. Once we got the supply we delivered. Twelve point six million doses have been delivered. As you can remember, the start of the rollout was full of these supply problems. In the first half month there were only 34,000 doses. But in the last two weeks we have had exponentially increasing doses. There were over a million doses the last month—going up to 1.2 million. It's now nudging 1.4 million in the same period. It is absolutely exponentially expanding.

In regional Australia we've had 2,261,000 doses delivered. We've got 1,079 general practices and 108 Aboriginal community controlled health organisations. We've got 59 Commonwealth vaccination centres. We're rolling out in pharmacies much quicker than was originally outlined. Another ramp-up will be seen once we get the community pharmacies. There are state-based systems that are doing megacentres—even in my electorate. The moral of the story is: we have delivered in spades.

The $300 incentive cash payment is a thought bubble. It is not a good policy in any shape or form. The main incentive is for people to know that they are going to get—$300 cash giveaways are sort of like the Pink Batts in vaccine land. It's counter-productive. Are you going to give a cash bonus for measles and mumps and for tetanus? For goodness sake, this is an absolute thought bubble.

They're criticising us about our quarantine system. We have delivered exponential growth in quarantine accommodation in the Northern Territory. We're entering into MOUs with Victoria. We're looking at a new centre in Queensland and in New South Wales. All these things are underway. We have had a hotel quarantine system that has had less than one per cent of the cases identified. It has worked very well. When you consider over 409,000 people have been through hotel quarantine our quarantine system has only had small breakouts. It is exponentially increasing.

If it wasn't for general practices, for pharmacies and for hospital systems with dedicated workers with their shoulders to the wheel, doing this day in, day out—we've even had the flying doctor delivering vaccines. We've had contractors going into aged-care facilities. We've had all sorts of delivery mechanisms. You can see that exponential ramp-up in the delivery of vaccines. I think the plan of getting to 70 per cent and then to 80 per cent will happen a lot quicker, because as more of the GPs who have been enrolled—there are 5,000 eligible and there are over 3,600 pharmacies. You'll see it go through the roof, and that's before we even have Moderna and more vaccines delivered to this country. (Time expired)

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] It gives me no joy to say that the opposition's predictions on the government's failures on the vaccine rollout have been borne out. This is one area where we would have much preferred to have been proven wrong, but, alas, that wasn't the case. It has been the case, ever since the Prime Minister said we were first in the queue, that the Prime Minister has been spinning, not delivering. He wasn't even at the starter's block. I was amazed to hear the honourable member say just then that the government was ahead of the curve. Nothing could be further from the truth—and they were warned about it.

On 28 July last year I wrote an op-ed in the Australian newspaper, pointing out it would be better if the government had more deals providing more options and getting access to more vaccines. At that point they had no deals, whereas the rest of the world was already moving. Even last July we were way behind the curve. If the government had done more deals, if the government had got access to different types of vaccines, Australian people would have better choices and more choices, and we wouldn't be dealing with some of the hesitancy that people are displaying at the moment to one particular type of vaccine.

The Prime Minister said during question time that the Labor Party should get more behind the vaccine rollout. This is an absolutely outrageous thing for him to say. Labor members across Western Sydney and elsewhere are encouraging people to take up the vaccines. I've done so consistently in my community, which is at the epicentre of the breakout. The members for Greenway, Blaxland and Chifley joined me on the weekend at a vaccination centre, encouraging people to get vaccinated. The members for Greenway and Chifley have called for more vaccination centres in their electorates. So it is completely and utterly offensive and wrong for the Prime Minister to make that claim, but it's what he always does. When things are going right he politicises it and puts the Liberal Party logo on the ads for getting vaccines, but when things are going wrong he says: 'We can't have politics. It's wrong to politicise this.' He verbals the Labor Party as saying something we have never said. The Prime Minister has failed at the vaccine rollout, and he is being dishonest about it.

I want to turn to some of the impacts of these failures, and I want to talk particularly about my own community. The people of Fairfield City, Cumberland and Blacktown City, in my electorate, have responded magnificently in recent weeks. They have been doing it tough and they have been doing the right thing. They have been coming out in big numbers to get tested and vaccinated. They have been dealing—and I say this not as a political point—with unclear rules and rapidly changing rules. The people of Fairfield were told they had to get tested every three days; that was announced with no warning. Then there was three days grace given. Then that rule was changed again to only particular workers. The rules about mask wearing outside the home are unclear. We're told we have to wear masks at all times outside the home but that there are certain exemptions, which are unclear. I say this not as a criticism of the New South Wales government but simply to point out that people are dealing with very complex situations and are doing so magnificently. I represent four local government areas, and at one point there were three different sets of rules across my electorate. I found it difficult to understand and explain, let alone people who are just going about their business and trying to get food on the table.

In relation to troops: the troops will be made welcome in my community, but rhetoric about boots on the ground and greater enforcement is misplaced. Troops being involved in humanitarian work and checking on COVID-positive cases is perfectly appropriate and welcome, but that is not what we were told would be happening. I want to pay tribute to the local area commands for the way they are implementing this policy, because it is being implemented in a way which is showing compassion and understanding.

I also want to pay tribute to some community leaders who have played a very, very important role in communicating to our community what is necessary to comply with the rules. I want to pay particular tribute to His Beatitude Mar Meelis Zaia, the head of the Assyrian Church of the East, and Archbishop Amel Nona, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Australia, who have been very proactive in talking with their churches about what needs to happen, and also of course to Carmen Lazar from the Assyrian Resource Centre.

I want to say something about tradies and construction workers. I speak as somebody who has always supported the health orders, but tradies and construction workers are being unfairly treated here. You can leave our local government area to work in a supermarket, where you'll have much more contact with other people than you will on a construction site. I call on the authorities to fix the situation for tradies and construction workers as a matter of urgency. We'll always comply with the health orders. The construction industry is willing to put arrangements in place to ensure it's safe. Construction workers will get tested as regularly as possible. They're losing out on work to tradies from other areas, and I believe that tradies in Western Sydney deserve better treatment. (Time expired)

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd just like to start by saying that this government has been a strong and certain government that has delivered outcomes for all Australians. The government has been very clear through this COVID pandemic that it's about saving lives and livelihoods. And, as the previous member has just said, the COVID global pandemic has been an incredibly complex, fast-moving, changing situation. I'm very proud of the fact that the Morrison government, in dealing with something as complex and uncertain as this, has delivered certainty and has been able to pivot when pivoting has been required—and we know that pivoting has occurred all around the world.

Let's start with the alpha variant last year. We could see that the Australian government had the right approach. We understood from the very start that Australia needed to close its borders, first to hotspots in January and February and then to the world. We knew that that was the right public health action to undertake to save lives and to save livelihoods. We've also been very clear from the commencement of this COVID pandemic that it is about getting the balance right between those two issues. As we've seen with the delta variant this year, we've had to move to a different way of dealing with this virus.

When we look at the issue of quarantining, for instance, we know that the world is changing the way it's dealing with international travellers. We know that, as the COVID vaccination coverage increases in countries like the US and the UK, those countries are changing their returning travellers requirements, and we know that that is likely to happen, too, here in Australia. But the first thing to say is that closing our international borders was a strong public health measure that was undertaken, quickly followed by good quarantining measures and contact tracing, then by the move to physical distancing, and then, most recently, by the COVID vaccination rollout.

I know which leadership I would prefer to have on this side of the House. I know that the Morrison government is committed to delivering for each and every Australian. To those on the other side, hindsight can be a wonderful thing, but let's talk about what this government has been doing with regard to saving lives and saving livelihoods. We've delivered PPE and COVID testing. We are now delivering a COVID vaccination program that is ramping up at enormous speed. But we haven't done it by taking shortcuts. We've understood that, to bring the Australian people with us, we need to make sure that this COVID vaccine has been through appropriate testing. We know that our Therapeutic Goods Administration, the TGA, is absolutely world-class. We've methodically assessed each COVID vaccine as it has come online, and we've made sure that we've made it available in the right, targeted way, which is ensuring that the most vulnerable in our community are protected.

When we look at the UK, we see that the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine rollout is working. For instance, there have been three waves of COVID outbreak in the UK. The second wave had its peak on 1 January 2021. Unfortunately, at that time, before the COVID vaccine rollout in the UK, there were roughly 50,000 cases of COVID—that was before the delta variant—and 1,500 deaths each day. The AstraZeneca vaccine rollout was done with great urgency. Emergency approval was given, understandably; there were approximately 1,500 deaths every day in the UK. If that had happened here in Australia, a country a bit under half the size of the UK, you cannot even imagine how many deaths there would have been. In the third wave that the UK has recently seen, they had a peak of around 30,000 cases of COVID a day. But what they are seeing is a peak that's less than 100 deaths a day. That's terrible, each and every death is terrible, but they've been able to disconnect the cases from the fatality rate. And they've had to do that, because they didn't have the aggressive suppression outcome that we have had here in Australia. So this third wave in the UK has seen a success. We've seen that the vaccine rollout in the UK is working to suppress fatalities in the UK, and that is something Australians should take heart from. We need each and every Australian to go and see their GP, work out which vaccine is right for them, put their arm forward and support the Australian government and its rollout of the COVID vaccine, because that is what is going to get us to the other side of this COVID pandemic. That is what is going to get us out of lockdown. That is what is going to get us back to our normal way of living. I would like to see those on the other side not talk down the government's response, but support and back in AstraZeneca, because it is a vaccine that's TGA approved and that is safe. Go and see your GP, get your vaccine and get the one that's right for you.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Colleagues, I ask you: who would have thought, after 18 months of being in this pandemic, that we would still be experiencing harsh snap lockdowns? This might have been something you would have expected at the start, as the government tried to suppress the virus, but we're experiencing it now. My community in south-western Sydney is now subject to a harsh lockdown. It's been made very clear that the government has really had two fundamental jobs during the pandemic. I know there might be other things that governments do, but there are two fundamental jobs: it has to have a proper quarantine system and a properly rolled out vaccine. On those two assessments it has failed. It has failed miserably. So they should have a third responsibility: they should be apologising to the Australian public.

Like many, I was in lockdown last week, and I was certainly glued to my television set. I was thrilled to see the performance of our Australian athletes. Emma McKeon has now become the most decorated Australian Olympian. All the efforts of the Australian team have really made us all proud. It's something that we've seen and something we can celebrate—an uplifting part, particularly during this pandemic. But, I've got to say, when you compare the success of our Olympic team with the race against this virus, it would be like what Malcolm Fraser did previously when he called for a royal commission into the poor performance of the Australian Olympic team. You would have a royal commission into this government, based on their efforts for the pandemic.

It's very difficult in my community in Western Sydney, and I know the member for Werriwa, the member for McMahon, the member for Blaxland and other are all going through this out there as well. It's very, very difficult in our communities. This virus escaped from Bondi, when the Prime Minister didn't want to close down the eastern suburbs, and got to Western Sydney. Unlike Bondi, our communities have larger family units, certainly with more people living under one roof. Ours is the most multicultural area of the country, where we receive the majority of refugees who come into our nation, and English is not a first language there. In terms of our workforce, it's basically trades and blue collar. The idea that people can just work from home—we will give you an edict that you will work from home—well, you can't work from home if you are in the construction industry. I know you would know that, Deputy Speaker Wallace, given your background. For tradesmen in our areas, we have little employment opportunity in Fowler. People go somewhere else to work. Tradesmen go from jobs to jobs, construction sites to project sites, et cetera. So simply saying, 'Work from home,' doesn't really work. And if you extrapolate that to educating kids with home schooling—I know my daughter who is a teacher finds that difficult, even with her own kids, let alone doing her year 12 tutorials. But doing that from a background where English is not your first language, and trying to keep your kids up to speed and all the rest of it, is very, very difficult in communities like those I represent in south-west Sydney.

The other aspect is that the feeling of anger that's out there is extraordinary. It's not that they're not doing their part to suppress the virus; they are doing that. But family interaction in our community is certainly based on not only the social and the cultural but also the spiritual. Our churches are doing a wonderful job with their communities in looking after not only their spiritual wellbeing but also their mental wellbeing. But we have this feeling of anger because of the way the people of south-west Sydney are being treated in comparison to the way that the people of Bondi were treated and are currently being treated. You only have to look at your TV screen at night to see the difference in policing or, at least, what appears to be a difference in policing in Bondi Beach. Down in our electorates of Liverpool or Fairfield or in my particular area of Cabramatta, it is vastly different. I don't actually see the horses walking along Bondi Beach. I don't see people walking in black riot gear and all the rest of it. Our community is feeling that it has been singled out and that it has been singled out because of a virus that escaped the eastern suburbs because the government failed to close it down early enough.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Morrison government has acted swiftly, first and foremost to safeguard the health and wellbeing of Australians in our communities by implementing a vaccination program as we set about rebuilding our national economy by restoring jobs, promoting confidence and, eventually, re-engaging with the rest of the world. As at midnight on 1 August, a total of 12,393,893 doses of the vaccine had been administered, with 76,166 Australians being vaccinated in a single day. In terms of aged care, residents in all 2,566 Commonwealth residential aged-care facilities have received their first and second doses. Similarly, in the disability sector, 16,700 of the 27,236 NDIS participants in residential accommodation have received at least one dose. This represents 61.3 per cent of residents. And 79.11 per cent of Australians aged over 70 years are protected with a first dose, whilst 41.98 per cent have received a second dose. More than 65 per cent of Australians aged over 50 are protected with a first dose, and 26.67 per cent have received a second dose. More than four in 10 Australians in the population aged over 16 are protected with a first dose, whilst 19.23 per cent have received a second dose. The rollout is ramping up significantly. It took 45 days to reach the first million doses but only six days to achieve the last million doses. Vaccine hesitancy remains a concern, as a great deal of misinformation is circulating within the community and on social media. Whilst not a hundred per cent effective against the virus, it is true to say that vaccination is the most effective tool that we currently have scientifically and medically to control the virus and manage the pandemic. Complications caused by adverse reactions to the vaccine are statistically minimal and do not justify hesitancy in becoming vaccinated, as the benefits, arguably, far outweigh the risks.

Another risk that the federal government is committed to mitigating for the Australian people is quarantining international arrivals. Current quarantine measures include hotel quarantine and have been agreed to by national cabinet, with the Prime Minister and state premiers around the table in agreement. A total of 409,095 Australians have returned through existing hotel quarantine facilities, with 4,187 COVID-positive cases identified during quarantine. Managed quarantine has been Australia's first line of defence against COVID-19. The Northern Territory's Howard Springs quarantine facility has been expanded to accept 2,000 returned Australians a fortnight—up from 850—at a cost of approximately $500 million.

The federal government has supported state governments to construct purpose-built quarantine facilities around the country. In my home state of Western Australia, a thousand-bed facility is being built on a site near Jandakot Airport. The facility, which it is estimated will cost up to $400 million to build, can be operational by next year. Careful consideration was given to selecting the site for a facility of suitable size, with access to an international airport taking regularly scheduled, international commercial passenger flights, in close proximity to a major hospital. The Morrison government is committed to providing this protection for all Australians. In the face of the pandemic, our government, through the vaccine program and quarantine measures, has kept Australians safe and the Australian economy strong.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the last two months, most of Australia has been plunged into uncertainty, disruption and crisis as a result of the failures of the Morrison government. That is particularly true of my electorate and the electorate of McMahon. The Prime Minister had two jobs during the pandemic—to vaccinate the population quickly and efficiently and to provide an effective quarantine system. He's failed on both counts, and our community in south-west Sydney has been the hardest hit. Once again, we're fighting a COVID outbreak. With it, businesses are on the brink of closing, workers don't know if they have a job in the next month, and families are scraping by to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head. I've spoken to them, and they are desperate and distraught. Unfortunately, in New South Wales, we've seen delays and unsurprising hesitancy as a result of mixed messaging, leading to devastating consequences.

Last year, the Prime Minister said, 'The best protection against the virus is to live with the virus, to live alongside the virus and to open up your economy.' More recently, just days before the New South Wales Premier called the lockdown, he commended the Premier on her resistance to doing just that. Well, look how well that's worked out for Sydney, New South Wales and our country. As with so many inconvenient facts, there is always a new set of talking points from the Prime Minister to spin his way out of a jail of his own making. Yesterday, in the Australian, the Prime Minister was reported as saying, 'The idea that you can just let this rip and ignore it is just not an option. It's fanciful, foolish and dangerous.' At a time of national emergency, when we need genuine leadership, all we get from this Prime Minister are days of long disappearing acts, with occasional spurts of spin, followed by further hiding. This is a prime minister who is out of his depth, and Australians are paying the price.

As we've seen time and time again, both here and abroad, COVID-19 and the delta variant will not be eradicated by politics. What will stop the virus is vaccination. But we have a government obsessed with scoring political points, and, as a result, we have bungled the vaccine rollout. We are last in the developed world when it comes to having our population vaccinated, and the delta variant is racing through Sydney and the country. Recent media reports have revealed that the Morrison government met with Pfizer in July last year and was offered as many doses as it needed in January this year. There is still no explanation from the government about why the offer was rejected. The government decided the vaccine rollout was not a race and, as a result, we simply don't have enough supply of vaccines now. The latest outbreak was preventable, but, due to government incompetence, here we are—lives lost, businesses ruined, and people struggling to make ends meet.

My electorate is ground zero as evidence of this bungled vaccine rollout. Five weeks ago, a family in my electorate booked their vaccine appointments with their local GP, who'd advertised they were administering Pfizer. Two days before the appointment, they received a text message advising them that the vaccine hadn't arrived. Their appointment has since been rescheduled to later in August. Several members of the household work in retail; another is a school teacher. One of their workplaces was recently listed as an exposure site. They say they feel like sitting ducks. They worry that, without access to the vaccine, it's only a matter of time before they are infected. The government put all their eggs in one basket and now Australians like this hardworking family are paying the price.

As Australian borders are effectively closed and Australians are locked down, the world is opening up. Music festivals, art shows and sporting events around the world are returning with huge crowds—a view into a post-COVID world. However, we can't get the vaccine rollout on track. Labor is calling on the government to pay $300 to Australians to be vaccinated by 1 December. Give them some hope. Allow them to be paid so that they can get vaccinated without losing a day's pay. Despite the Prime Minister's recent comments, this is a race. It is a race to stop another lockdown by fixing the vaccination rollout and establishing purpose-built quarantine. Hotels are for tourists, not for quarantine. We've had 28 leaks from hotel quarantine. We are 18 months into this pandemic, and the government still doesn't have a safe national quarantine system. Quarantine is a federal responsibility. We need a network of purpose-built facilities now. It is time that we stepped up. My community needs it, and it needs it now before more people die and more people get sick.

Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia has turned a corner. It's fair to say that we have had our challenges over the past few months, but now our vaccine program is really hitting its stride. We are administering a million COVID-19 vaccine doses every six days. The latest figures show that one in five Australians aged over 16, including myself, are now fully vaccinated and two in three aged over 50 have had their first dose. In July we increased the percentage of Australians aged over 16 who are fully vaccinated by 11.1 percentage points to 19 percentage points. That is more than double the increase we achieved in June. If we keep this going we will hit the target we have set ourselves. We will move to the next phases under our national plan to chart our way out of COVID-19 and back to normal life. We are getting this done, and it is pleasing to see that the rates of vaccination are increasing all the time. Meanwhile, the government is keeping in place the strict border and quarantine measures that are protecting the health of the Australian community from COVID-19. These arrangements are constantly reviewed, and I have every confidence that Australia's hardworking public servants and health professionals will continue to make improvements on them in the months ahead.

The opposition may have short memories but the Australian people do not. They know that it was Prime Minister Scott Morrison's decision in early 2020 to close our borders to China that shielded Australia from the devastation felt by so many other countries around the world. The Labor Party also know this, but they would rather attack and undermine than support the vaccine rollout and support Australians. At a time when Australians need unity from governments at all levels, this morning we were instead treated to the half-baked musings of the opposition leader. He proposed, seemingly off the top of his head, that the government spend $6 billion to pay all Australians, including the billionaire Gina Rinehart, to get vaccinated. I mean, I've heard of middle-class welfare but it's quite rare to see upper-class welfare in action, and from those supposed champions of working people on the other side of the House no less.

Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister has expressed his faith that Australians will continue to step up, do the right thing and get vaccinated. This is a faith that I and all of us on this side of the House share. Australians don't need a payoff. Australia's billionaires certainly don't need one. Australians know it is the right thing to do to protect themselves, protect their families, support the community and support the country. I call on the opposition to get on 'Team Australia' now, to support the rollout, back in the health advice and stop playing on frustration and fear. There is a long road ahead, but Australia's record in saving lives and livelihoods has been working and is world leading. That's what really matters, and Australians should be immensely proud of their efforts.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has concluded.