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

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

The impact on communities of the government's failures on vaccines and 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—

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'You're resilient until you're not.' That's what a mental health expert said in the last fortnight in one of my committee hearings into mental health and suicide prevention. You're resilient until you're not. No-one can accuse my community of the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury of being anything but resilient. This is a community that knows natural disasters like few others: the 2019 bushfires, the 2020 flood, COVID and the 2021 flood. People rose to the challenges they faced. They rallied, they cleaned up, they rebuilt, they pivoted. And then they did it again. They've done it since November 2019, when the smoke was so thick that people stayed away. They stayed away for months, yet businesses tried their best to keep workers on, or to get them back as soon as there were green shoots emerging in the bush and in the local economy. Even though the support that came didn't come fast, wasn't perfect, often had to be fought for and left many people out, there was still gratitude and a belief that soon it would get better and that they would survive and thrive. There was still a sense of hope.

But the mood has changed. With the latest lockdowns, retail and cafe owners have said to me in the last few days that they're at a critical tipping point, with decisions needing to be made within days about whether they can keep going. These are not decisions that they should be forced to make, but it's come to this because of the total failure of this government to protect its citizens by getting quarantine right and having a proper vaccination rollout. We wouldn't be in this situation were it not for that, and it's also compounded by the failure of the state to help distribute the partial federal funding and state funded packages to business and individuals.

The lack of coordination between the state and federal payments in the system that has been put up by the Prime Minister means that people are holding off applying through Centrelink in case their small business, their microbusiness, their sole trader, their partnership, is eligible for a business grant. That means many have received no income since the end of June; they're in their sixth week of no income. They laugh at the comment I heard the Prime Minister say in a media conference a few weeks ago: 'Businesses have built up a buffer.' The kindest response I have had from a small-business owner is, 'He's out of touch'; the rest would not be acceptable in this chamber.

I spent 25 years in business. I know what it was like in the recession of the nineties and what it was like in the GFC, and I've never seen anything like this—nor have long-running businesses, particularly tourism businesses in the Blue Mountains. The government's failure on vaccines and quarantine has led so many of them to the precipice. We're fortunate in Macquarie not to have had a large number of cases—and, thank God, no deaths. Our hearts go out to the families who have lost loved ones. I want to commend the member for Werriwa for her moving speech today about the losses her community is experiencing. But we can see it getting closer. And none of us should be in this situation. It is a direct consequence of the Morrison government's complacency.

As one owner of several popular businesses across the mountains for more than 20 years tells me: 'Over the last few years, because of fires, floods and lockdowns, we have as a family poured every last cent we have into keeping the business going. We have no more personal funds to inject. I've done all the paperwork for grants and funding. There's been no communication or funding provided. This week I have to make a decision about whether to continue trading or close down. If I close, it's forever.' The owner of another retail and cafe business, in Katoomba, warns that he's looking at voluntary administration if the money he applied for weeks ago, when the details were finally released, doesn't come in by Monday. He has spent hours holding on the phone to speak with someone at Service NSW. One time it was three hours and 20 minutes in a single go. This is how small businesses are being treated. They are paying a terrible price for the Prime Minister's vaccine and quarantine failures. This is the Morrison government's idea of supporting small business, and it is bringing them to the brink. There are scores of similar stories across the tourist areas of the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury and across a range of businesses—any businesses that need customers walking through the door.

Another flaw in the support the government belatedly stumped up in its stubbornness not to bring back an improved version of the model that everyone understood—that would be JobKeeper—is that the link between employer and employee is gone. For businesses that are still able to operate, that really hurts. It's compounded for some businesses, because government has failed to deliver a package to support the big attractions like Scenic World in the way that it has for zoos and aquariums. They've just been left out. You cannot maintain major attractions like cable cars and railways without some funds; it doesn't happen for free.

The hint of a tourism recovery campaign post bushfires, called for by the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury in January 2020, has never eventuated. By the time the very latest funded campaign hits, operators are worried they won't be around to benefit from it. And these business owners are locals. They live in our community. They employ locals. This is their home, and the effect is far reaching. It's the consequence of government not going fast enough or hard enough. We saw it in the wake of the fires and the floods, and we're seeing it now. It's time the Morrison government stepped up to help New South Wales make sure this financial support gets out the door. Even then, there are going to be many who fall through the big gaps of eligibility, of the available support, including people whose businesses were affected by the fires and who were told there would be exceptions for them. But in reality they're missing out. Businesses that are new and have grown are now just closed.

When I think about the Prime Minister's performance, I think about how he's helped small businesses. I can't help but contrast it to the amazing achievements we have all seen of our Olympians. It's like being in an Olympic heat and holding back your best effort for the final. But the problem is that you might miss that race; you might miss that final. But this Prime Minister always holds back. He does just enough to be able to tell people how good he is but never throws everything at it. We saw this in the bushfires. Good on paper, big announcements, less than impressive on the ground. You also need to have done the preparation just to be at the starting gate.

Our position was enviable last year. We had low deaths, outbreaks that were tough but managed well by the states, especially Victoria. But while that was happening, the government didn't do two jobs. It didn't shift from temporary hotel quarantine to secure, purpose-built quarantine, and it didn't plan how to get a jab in everyone's arm. Complacency, incompetence, a sense of being bulletproof, stubbornness or all four—who knows? All we know for sure is that the hard work getting a mix of vaccines and making sure there were different ways of getting them to different populations just didn't happen. It doesn't matter how many times you channel our Olympic victories and achievements at the Olympics, if you haven't done the hard yards, you won't even make the final.

That's where we are now with the vaccination rollout. In my area, there are hundreds of people trying to get an appointment and struggling to find one. There are people following the advice, 'Go and get vaccinated now.' They're trying; they are really trying. The first hurdle is to find availability. The cumbersome online system that the government set up means that many people are falling back into phoning around to GPs. That's just the extra load that GPs don't need. This is no reflection on our GPs, who have put up their hands and are doing all they can with the limited supply and capacity they have. The promise of pharmacies hasn't eventuated. There is no delivery through pharmacies. The booking system that they've created is as effective as their COVID tracking app. Remember that? People are turning to Facebook with appeals for somewhere that will vaccinate before October. Teachers are desperate to get vaccinated before they have to teach face to face in the hotspots. These are the people who want to do the right thing. But the problem is, of course, supply; we all know it. We have never had enough supply—no contingency, no room for error. What we are seeing in Sydney, on our worst day of COVID, is a failed vaccine rollout. We need mobile services in the mountains; we need our own hub. That's what will give people hope. Until then, we don't have any.

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

It's my great pleasure to be here again this week. If you were designing a system that was always watertight, you'd only have to look at the figures out of the hotel quarantine system that the members on the other side have criticised. There have been 409,095 arrivals since 3 August, of which 4,187 have tested positive for COVID. There was 0.01 per cent identified with COVID in the intake. That is a pretty good system. The vast majority of those were isolated, treated and effectively quarantined.

The Commonwealth resilience centre in the Northern Territory has been built up to take a capacity of 2,000 people. Just in the last month, there have been 10 or more facilitated commercial flights. That will ramp up to another 19 in August.

As the members on the other side would appreciate, the restrictions on arrivals—whilst we stamp the passport at a federal level, there is input via the states, and they have limited the numbers that have been able to arrive. Also, the commercial nature of flights means that there is never a full flight because they have to be socially distanced on the plane, which has led to very high costs for flights. That's why the Commonwealth government has stepped up to facilitate these commercial flights. But the quota has been reduced by the states by 50 per cent or so. That's only 1,505 per week into New South Wales, which has been carrying the biggest weight of incoming arrivals from overseas, and pro rata across the other states. I'm not saying it's perfect, but that is the result of our Commonwealth acting with the states.

In our Commonwealth, the constitutional powers for public health orders rest with the states. We haven't given them a whole new set of powers. As John Howard mentioned on the weekend:

The commonwealth cannot make public health orders for the states. The impression is that the premiers have taken up new powers. But that is not the case. The situation has always been that if something was required in public health, it had to be done by the states.

It's a rock solid fact of life in Australia that we in Canberra can't do everything. We rely on partnership with the state governments that run the hospitals and the health system, and we're partners with them together as a nation. We have initiated these regular national cabinet meetings for that very reason. What are those opposite suggesting? We don't meet with the premiers? No, we do it as a team.

I know it's been a big week for everyone. 'Thank god it's Thursday,' many on the other side must be thinking, because they have been obsessed with criticising the national vaccination campaign. I just want to reiterate some of the facts. We are ramping up our vaccination program. It's obvious to anyone except the people on the other side who won't accept the fact we have been ramping up the vaccination program. We have just hit 13 million vaccinations. That's 221,000 in the last 24 hours. They have been criticising us for something that the state of New South Wales decided to do, and there's a lot of logic in it. It was disappointing to see those vaccines retargeted into the pandemic hotspots in Sydney because we do realise that young people are good spreaders of this horrible disease. It is very infectious. It is different with delta. I can follow their logic, but it's their call. They have to make these big decisions, but the Commonwealth program has continued.

We haven't changed anything; in fact, we've ramped it up. There's another 183,000 doses we have redirected that are going into New South Wales out of the accelerated delivery by Pfizer. By 9 August and the week after, those doses will be back on track. The pharmacies have been brought on a month earlier than planned. We have got GPs around the nation delivering vaccines. They still have access to Pfizer and AstraZeneca. In fact, 80 per cent of those over 70 are vaccinated with their first dose and 44 per cent with their second. Because of the nature of the AstraZeneca vaccine, those figures will rapidly increase as they come around for their second dose. Two out of three over the age of 50 have had a vaccine. That is a really good outcome.

There were 280 million doses ordered by the Commonwealth. They criticise us for not having enough vaccines. Is not 280 million enough? The last time I looked, we don't need a census; there are 25 million people in Australia, so we have 10 times more vaccines. Apart from the AstraZeneca facility that CSL is making in Melbourne, and other researchers and developers, that is what we have had to deliver. The Pfizer supply out of the US stayed in the US. We tried to access them earlier, but they weren't available for sale. Similarly, they weren't available for sale in Europe. We ordered a protein subunit vaccine, a viral vector vaccine and messenger RNA vaccines. We have got more Moderna coming on. When more supplies of messenger RNA turn up we will have 3,600 pharmacies. That will increase the ramp up. It'll be even quicker than what is happening now.

In the first month there were 34,000 vaccines. In the last day we've had 221,000 vaccines injected into people's arms. That's an amazing increase. We will be on track for 1.4 million doses per week and that's before we have 500 pharmacies and more GPs signed up to vaccinate. A lot of the general practice systems have increased their efficiency and the amount that they are getting through each week. They are the predominant and the largest source of vaccination to this day—bigger than the jurisdiction system. We have had the whole health system with their shoulder to the wheel. Everyone has been under pressure. The state health ministers, the state hospital systems, the general practices, the pharmacists—everyone has been under pressure. The Commonwealth have had our shoulder to the wheel—$11 billion in direct spending for vaccines and pandemic support.

As you know, delta is different. Anyone would think that we have something unique. Even in vaccinated countries there's been a second wave of delta. Around the world—in America, in the UK, in Asia, in the Middle East—the same thing has happened.

In regional Australia we've been exceptionally efficient given the size and breadth of this land. In the Modified Monash Model categories 2 to 7—that's outside the capital cities—we've had at least 2.3 million first doses. If you count the second doses that's 3.4. Some of the highest rates of vaccination have been in regional Australia. In fact, it goes through to the Apple aisle of Tasmania with over 50 per cent. Here in the ACT they have similarly done that. But even on the North Coast, where I live, some of the highest rates were in that region compared to south-west Sydney. So regional Australia has been looked after very well.

As more supplies come online, both the state-run hubs and the Commonwealth vaccination centres—more GPs, more pharmacists and we've got the commercial operators mopping up the last residential aged-care facilities and the disability sector. We've had the flying doctor on the job. They visited 88 remote sites around the nation, including down in Kangaroo Island. Around the nation we've got systems in place. Sure, it was a slow start off because of those factors I've mentioned before. There would've been 3½ million more AstraZeneca in people's arms if the EU hadn't put an embargo on them leaving Europe. That was quite reasonable because we were victims of our own success. We had the disease under control. It is just a fallacy that we have failed in the vaccination system or the quarantine system.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today what we've heard from the government is excuses and excuses and excuses, attempts to deflect blame and, of course, the Prime Minister's trademark belligerence during question time when he was held up to scrutiny—something he absolutely dislikes, doesn't he? Today, as a nation, we are pretty worried. We've got delta ripping through communities. Just today we've had more announcements of lockdowns in some areas. My heart goes out to those people in Newcastle and around the Hunter who are going into lockdown pretty shortly after we finish this debate today. It's been a very, very difficult time.

It has also been a time where, as I said, the government has been attempting to deflect blame because as the coalition knows the Prime Minister had two jobs this year. He had to get the quarantine system right. He had to get the vaccine rollout right. He has absolutely botched those two jobs. He has comprehensively failed in relation to the vaccination rollout out and the quarantine system. We know that because we are seeing the consequence of that right now. We are seeing the consequences of the breaches of the hotel quarantine and the fact the COVID pandemic is now leaving people in lockdown. We've just had two states come out of lockdown. We've got people across New South Wales and my own state of Queensland, or at least the south-east corner of it, in lockdown. As I said, there are some more people going into lockdown in New South Wales today. We've really seen the consequences of these failures, particularly in relation to hotel quarantine. At the other end of that, if the vaccine rollout had been done properly, then this wouldn't be posing the substantial risk it is now posing to the communities affected.

I was really relieved, frankly, this morning when the deputy premier and the chief health officer of Queensland and the health minister of Queensland gave their press conference and made clear that there was only 16 locally acquired cases today. But, importantly, they were all directly linked to the Indooroopilly outbreak that the member for Ryan spoke about before. The other important thing about today's numbers is that of those people only three had been infectious in the community for one day and one had been infectious in the community for two days, so a very small proportion of those new locally acquired cases were infectious in the community. That's really because of the swift and sensible action of the Queensland Labor government in bringing in the lockdown at very short notice for Queenslanders very recently, on Saturday last weekend.

Queenslanders did what Queenslanders do: they sought to do the right thing. They sought to comply in vast numbers. People stayed home if they could. If they could stay safe at home, they did. And, if they had to go to work, they did that too. What we've also seen are Queenslanders really stepping up to do the testing. A Queensland record for number of tests done in a day was broken yesterday, with more than 52,000 tests done yesterday.

I want to pay tribute to everyone working in pathology, everyone working in the vaccine centres, everyone working in primary health, everyone who's doing everything they can to keep people safe. I also want to mention the pharmacists. It's really delightful to see that the Queensland government is providing doses of AstraZeneca to Queensland pharmacies with deliveries starting today—22,600 doses of AstraZeneca to 113 Queensland pharmacies. People should go to their community pharmacies. I want to thank those community pharmacies and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia for the work that they're doing too.

I also want to say something that I think probably goes without saying, but the fact is that there is a rivalry between Queensland and New South Wales, particularly at Origin time.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

I hear my mate the member for Shortland claiming that's not true, but there is a rivalry from time to time between our two states. But I'm absolutely confident that that rivalry is entirely the last thing on anyone's mind in Queensland. I know that Queenslanders' hearts are going out to our friends in New South Wales. Anyone who has listened to Susan Templeman speak today, to Anne Stanley speak today about the communities they represent really suffering, anyone who's heard any of those New South Wale's MPs speak today knows how devastating it is. Five deaths today—people in their sixties, seventies and eighties. And, of course, there have been a number of deaths across this outbreak, including yesterday one man in his twenties. So our hearts, as Queenslanders, go out to our friends in New South Wales. We want to see all of those people in New South Wales really come through this crisis, and we want to see the Prime Minister stepping up and representing the whole country, doing the right thing, improving the quarantine system and improving the vaccine rollout. The stuff-ups are not going to be fixed by defensiveness and by blame-shifting. They need to be fixed by leadership, and he needs to lead. (Time expired)

Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday we saw another record-breaking day with 221,859 vaccinations having been administered across Australia. We're now seeing a million doses administered every six days, and 1.2 million Australians are getting vaccinated each and every week, with over 13,030,000 vaccines having been administered since the rollout began. Eighty per cent of Australians over 70 have received their first dose and over 44 per cent are now fully vaccinated. Two-fifths of Australians over 16 have now had their first jab and a fifth are already fully vaccinated.

Let's put this in context. Globally, there have been over 200 million known cases of COVID-19 resulting in, sadly, four million known deaths. In Ireland, Israel and Germany their death rate is 20 times higher than Australia. In the UK, Italy and the US combined, they have faced over 860,000 known deaths from COVID-19, more than 50 times the death rate in Australia.

But no success is achieved without some setbacks along the way. We know that, and the Prime Minister has acknowledged that. We've had our problems. We have not hit the mark on the vaccine rollout that we aimed for. Not all calls the government has made have turned out as we hoped, and I respect the Prime Minister for acknowledging this. But one thing has not changed. We can be very proud of the health and economic response that Australian governments working with the Australian people have delivered in this country.

Decisions taken early in the pandemic have ensured that we didn't make calls under duress. Our early success allowed us to understand the evolving variants as they occurred, and our early success did impact on the vaccine rollout. It's true that, in the UK and the US, the vaccine rollout got underway more than two months before Australia's, and for very good reason. In December 2020, when both the UK and the US gave emergency approval for their vaccines, the UK was averaging 14,600 COVID cases a day and 452 deaths a day. The US was averaging 215,000 cases a day and, very sadly, 2,500 deaths daily. I recall seeing those terrible pictures of Bobcats placing pine coffins in mass graves in Brooklyn. But, at the same time that that emergency approval for those vaccinations was given in the UK and the US, in Australia, we had 74 new cases all in hotel quarantine and, sadly, one single death in the first week of December 2020. So I understand why emergency approvals for vaccines were given in the UK and the US, and I can understand that it didn't make sense to do so here in Australia. I understand that the Therapeutic Goods Administration's more cautious approach, which was supported by the government, was the right way forward. I accept that. I believe the Australian people accept that. But the question is: do those opposite accept that same rationale applied by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, supported by the government at the time? Obviously that is not the case.

The Labor Party has talked about an 'all eggs in one basket' strategy by this government, but it couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, that type of politics is completely consistent with their petty politics, with no solutions—just complaints. We know that the government entered into five different agreements for prospective vaccines and established a domestic vaccine manufacturing capability that was non-existent a year ago. Not only are we back on track with our vaccine rollout, we are making up ground very fast. I got my first dose of AstraZeneca from the GP. If you're not already vaccinated and if you're under 60, like I am, I encourage you to go and talk to your GP. If your GP recommends it, get vaccinated. I actually made my booking for my AstraZeneca vaccination only one day before receiving it. If you're over 60 and you haven't been vaccinated, please join the 74 per cent that have already had their first jab.

We cannot be complacent. Each of us has a part to play in beating this pandemic. It's time to roll up for Australia. It's time to ensure that we put behind us the petty politics of those opposite—those who want to talk Australia and Australians down. The government has acknowledged the issues that have occurred with the rollout of this vaccine. We have been able to support the state governments in ensuring that there is a rollout across the country, and now is the time to roll up for Australia.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I am speaking from Kogarah in the St George region in New South Wales in Sydney. It is one of the local government areas, the Georges River council, that is of great concern. The other local government area in the region that I represent, the seat of Barton, is the Canterbury Bankstown council. I listened carefully to the previous speaker who spoke about Labor entering into petty politics. You come and tell the people who live in Georges River council and come and tell the people who live in Canterbury Bankstown that this is petty politics. My office has been inundated with residents, business owners, workers and householders. They are anxious, they are fearful, they are upset and, in many instances, they're confused. They are finding it almost impossible to get the answers that they need. They are good people from very many different cultural backgrounds, as people would know.

I absolutely endorse the member for Griffith's comments and the member for Macquarie's comments: Sydney is in the grip of a terrible, terrible situation. Today was the worst day on record for not only the number of infections but also the number of people in the community who circulated whilst infected, and we're seeing the extension of lockdowns in New South Wales. People in the electorate that I represent are asking the government and this Prime Minister: 'Why do you always wait until something goes wrong before you take action? We saw that happen in the bushfires of course.

The Prime Minister didn't take the pandemic seriously. While medical experts, state and territory governments and Labor were calling for a national response, the Prime Minister was still attending football games. But, as the lines formed around Centrelink right across this country, there was the realisation: 'Oh, there might be a problem.' Well, let me tell you: there is a problem. We are now 18 months into this pandemic and we still do not have a national quarantine system—18 months and the Prime Minister is only considering incentives and other ways to accelerate the rollout. I hear the members of the government saying that the vaccine rollout is on track. Well, come and tell the people of Georges River and Canterbury Bankstown that things are on track. They are losing loved ones and they are being hospitalised. The Prime Minister is always playing catch-up. He never takes responsibility and just does enough to say, 'I'm a man of action.'

I also want to highlight the disparity in the number of First Nations people who are receiving a vaccine. Yesterday, I met with the Shire of Broome, the Shire of Derby and West Kimberley, the Shire of Halls Creek and the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley. They are terribly worried about the vaccine rollout. It is the responsibility of the federal government, not to pat themselves on the back saying, 'Haven't Indigenous communities done well'—that's because of Indigenous organisations—but to actually recognise that there is a problem with the vaccine rollout and the vaccine take-up. It has to be addressed; otherwise the good fortune and good luck will not continue.

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

Well, what an MPI debate point! Honestly? I think it's quite extraordinary that those opposite don't realise that this is a moment in our nation's history when it's about team Australia. We've just watched the Olympics. We've just watched how Olympians have dealt with a really tough COVID period and how they have pivoted and worked hard to deliver some fantastic outcomes that Australians can be proud of. Now is the moment for us to work together, to understand that this COVID pandemic has been extraordinary. I don't think anyone would question that the whole world has been dealing with a crisis. It's been a global pandemic, a global crisis.

We heard the previous member saying, 'Oh, not good enough.' It's very easy to be backseat drivers when you don't actually know what's going on. You are obviously not listening to what the Prime Minister has been saying day after day and in press conferences, and the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, has been out there. They've been listening to experts. They've been listening to evidence-informed advice. They're in meetings day after day, sweating the decisions that are leading us through the carnage and chaos that is this COVID global pandemic. And I would like to hear from those on that side—please, tell your supporters—'Go and get vaccinated,' because, honestly, you don't ask which flu vaccine brand you're looking at. As the Victorian vice-president of the AMA, Chris Moy, said: when there's an emergency you don't ask what brand the seatbelt is, or the brand of the emergency life belt; you just put it on. At this point in time, it's time for team Australia to stand up and get behind the vaccine rollout.

There is absolutely no question that there have been issues. In fact, I remember that in January Professor John Skerritt briefed the coalition members—he also briefed the opposition—and said, 'We know it's going to be messy.' That is because COVID is messy. That is because this is a new vaccine that no-one has had to deal with before. This is a new technology, and we need people to get behind it with their confidence, their certainty and their leadership. I implore those opposite: put aside your petty politics and get behind the vaccination rollout, because people are hesitant; there is no doubt about that. People are nervous. That is understandable, because in the first five months of this year there were no COVID deaths. I'll just say that again: in the first five months of this year, there were no COVID deaths. Now, that wasn't sheer luck. That was good, certain, stable, strategic decision-making by a calm, confident executive government—one that all Australians should feel proud of. That outcome was delivered by each and every Australian—doing the right thing, listening to the quarantining measures, following up through the contact tracing recommendations by the public health experts and then doing their bit with physical distancing, mask wearing and hand hygiene. Now the fourth layer of our safety measures has come online, at speed, and that is the vaccine rollout.

We need every Australian to get behind the vaccine rollout, and on both sides of this parliament we need people to get behind the vaccine rollout, so that there's not a concern such as: 'There's something going on. We don't know what it is, but people are playing politics, so we'll just leave it. We won't make that decision.' We want people to go and see their GP and work out whether they're eligible. Go to www. hotdoc, and that will let you know how you can find out which GP has a supply and understand that both Pfizer and AstraZeneca are helping to deliver a great outcome for Australia.

We know that the national plan, which has been agreed across political lines between the national, state and territory governments in national cabinet, is delivering a plan, which is that once we get 70 per cent of the adult Australian population double-jabbed with one of the vaccines then we will know that we are going to be able to put lockdowns into a different category. There won't need to be the suffering that everyone is having to deal with. It's a terrible situation with the delta variant, but we need to work together.

I just want to say something about quarantining. No-one opposite said that we should decommission hotel quarantining. I want to say that 350,000 people have successfully come back through hotel quarantining. There have been 3,500 positive COVID cases. We have continued, through federal government support of the states, to improve the quality of quarantining, which is something that's had to be stood up at speed. But there have been fewer than 20 outbreaks from quarantining. That is actually an incredible outcome when you consider how many positive cases there were. And I would say that some of the improvements have come through frequent rapid antigen testing. (Time expired)

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] If there's one thing this country doesn't need right now it's this hokey jingoism and hypocrisy evidenced so far though this MPI by government MPs, like the one who just spoke, invoking the Olympics as a way to cover or distract people from the failings of this government over the course of this pandemic.

To be quite frank: when you have a situation where government MPs are calling for a 'team Australia' moment, after they spent months tearing at states who were trying to get the job done and using politicking themselves to undermine state responses to this pandemic, you should know straightaway that the 'team Australia' invocation that's been urged upon us is designed to distract from failures. People were, in the main, quite happy to cut governments slack early in the pandemic, understanding that people were scrambling to get things done, but at this point in time they've had ages, more than a year, to prepare for the vaccine rollout, prepare for national quarantine and prepare a public health campaign to bring people together to fight this. For more than a year now they've been saying they would prepare for mRNA manufacture onshore, and now we're being told it will take years. We don't need hokey jingoism; we need results right now.

I want to extend huge congratulations to my community out here in Western Sydney, from Mount Druitt to Blacktown, because they have stepped up. They are in eight local government areas that have been put into lockdown due to the Bondi cluster and they are going out now and getting tested, going out now and getting vaccinated. They are trying to follow the rules and do the right thing, and they absolutely deserve support and assistance at a time when they are trying to do the right thing. They deserve, for example, a comprehensive public health campaign mobilising community, sporting and religious groups in neighbourhoods to get the message out, encourage vaccination and take on vaccine hesitancy. That is simply not happening right now. It staggers me that neither the federal government nor the New South Wales government is working with community groups to get this happening; in fact, community groups are trying to do it themselves in the absence of leadership.

Communities such as mine deserve a quality vaccine rollout program, Mr Deputy Speaker, yet if you open the government's vaccine clinic finder, enter 'Mount Druitt' and look for the next available COVID shot for an eligible person you'll find that the pickings are scarce. There is a Pfizer vaccine hub in Rooty Hill that's been so heavily booked that it has stopped accepting appointments. I've had GPs in my local area point out that they don't know the rhyme or reason behind how the government is allocating vaccine doses. Pharmacists in my area say they'd love to be involved but are being neglected and overlooked.

My community deserve, too, financial support that doesn't require people to jump through hoops in the way that has happened and that encourages people to stay home instead of having to chase work because they're worried about how they'll make ends meet. And they deserve clear, easy, understandable rules and regulations that they can follow, which is certainly not happening. More than anything else, Mr Deputy Speaker, they deserve a health response, not a police and military response as has been witnessed in our part of Western Sydney.

The reality is that the federal coalition can't muster an effective public health campaign to take up the fight against the pandemic because for years they have campaigned against the Public Service. They have pushed out Public Service jobs. They have brought in consultants. Now they are outsourcing the Public Service role to the ADF. Basically, in many respects they have drained the Public Service. We have gone from consultants to khaki when what we need right now is public servants to lead this campaign and work with communities in our area.

We cannot have inconsistency, which we've seen from this Prime Minister on a regular basis. One minute he's arguing against lockdowns, then he's arguing for them. One minute he's saying it's not a race on vaccination, then he's saying it is. We need to have support in our communities, who are doing it tough and who are being let down by the federal and New South Wales Liberal governments, who are not doing the job that people want them to do.

Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's always interesting when the opposition look at ways to try to take some political points off the coalition government. With the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been acknowledged right throughout the world that Australia's effort in looking after both the health of our people and the livelihoods of our people has probably not been surpassed by any other nation. So we now have the opposition trying to zero in and find some chinks where we have not done as well as we would have liked.

There's no problem with the Prime Minister acknowledging that we wish we had done better with our vaccine rollout, but, also, it's common knowledge that there's been so much hesitancy. There didn't seem to be a real panic in Australia and that has led to the lethargy and most Australians are not getting the vaccine. It's simply because we haven't been witnessing what we saw in the early stages of the virus in Italy, where the health system couldn't cope. As the assistant minister said earlier, we haven't seen the backhoes and the excavators building mass graves like we saw in New York. We haven't seen the incredible health failures that we've seen all around the world. We've seen the business community strengthened by JobKeeper and JobSeeker but then saw things rebound. It's as though some of the members that have spoken from Sydney have only just realised how damaging and how hurtful these lockdowns are. Unfortunately for us in Victoria, we've had a bit more experience than you have had in Sydney. We have a very strong understanding of the damage and the pain associated with lockdowns. We've been through five of them and we're about to go into our sixth. There's the whole concept about pain and damage to people's health, their mental health and their financial situation. We're well cross that in Victoria, because, even with the less contagious variant of COVID-19 that we had for the first seven or eight months, we had a state government in Victoria who refused to actually lock down the source of the virus, which was Melbourne. They simply just locked down the entire state. We then saw the reaction from New South Wales.

The other thing that's staggering with this debate is how many people love to use hindsight and then become incredibly smart with the use of hindsight. I'm sure that, if we all had hindsight in our back pocket and we could project what was going to happen into the future, we would have done a whole range of things slightly differently. Three months ago, the New South Wales' way of handling an outbreak was the gold standard. Everybody was envious of the New South Wales government's attitude and their practical way of chasing down these outbreaks: at the same time as closing down particular suburbs, they kept the rest of their state operational. They were held up as the gold standard on how to react to COVID. The new delta variant and the infectious nature of it, the way it is able to be passed on within 30 hours, has made the staying-open option one that doesn't seem to work. Again, we weren't to know this prior to the occasion. I would urge everybody who has a strong opinion, which is probably 70 per cent of Australians, to please understand that governments all around Australia are trying to work with the knowledge that they currently have at their disposal. Yes, they will be better educated into the future, but unfortunately we don't have that option in advance.

In relation to the quarantining, and Minister Gillespie spoke about this earlier, the federal government does have quarantining responsibilities, but what the states have captured and are never going to let go is the component around health orders. It's always the state imposed health orders that differentiate each state's performance. We need to be realistic about that as well.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take on a few points that some of the speakers on the government side have raised today and I'm going to do my best not to drop the F bomb. I had to apologise to my staff the other day for doing just that, having spent three days trying to get basic information on the business support grants. I phoned two federal ministers and two ministers at the state level and was not able to get basic answers about why those opposite said that JobSaver is based on maintaining your payroll when everything online said it's based on maintaining your employee headcount.

They're two different things. The confusion that's out there is because those on that side of this House do not know their own policies and are confusing people, whether it's about AstraZeneca, or whether it's changing the figures for the disaster payment every week so that businesses can't make rational decisions about how they do the best thing by their staff or whether it's standing up in this House and giving wrong advice to business about how JobSaver is being calculated every single day. Every single day, people on this side of the House are using every power we have on this. Nobody out there in my community has that power. I've got it, I can phone a minister, but I still can't get the answers.

I go to Services New South Wales to find out about JobSaver and hang on there for half an hour. When I finally get through they say, 'Oh, no, you have to go to Services Australia.' I go to Services Australia and it's not even listed—it's not even on the website. The Prime Minister gets up and says, 'Disaster payments are now tax free.' I spent three weeks telling people that they were taxable. I went to the ATO website and the Centrelink website, and they still say that they're taxable. Then I had to go out and tell everyone again, 'Oh, sorry, the decision you made last week about how best to support your staff, to keep your relationship going with your employees and to keep your business open and going as best you can is now wrong.'

For the fourth time: it was $500, $600, $750 and now it's not taxable. It's great that it's going up, but I know businesses, because I've been one. I have sat there with the algebra with some of my businesses, asking what their hourly rate is and what the best position is that they can get for them and their staff with the system that's in place. We've done the algebra—and it's really fun algebra, by the way, until it changes the next day. Both this government and the New South Wales government change their minds every day—'Don't go more than 10 kilometres.' On the next day, 'Oh, by the way, it's five.' Then, 'You have to shut your business down at 11 o'clock today,' but then tomorrow they change their minds and you don't. But the member of parliament has already told businesses that they have to close down and now can't contact them. Every single day it's changing.

The information we're getting from the government, whether it's on AstraZeneca or whether it's business support—no matter what it is—is not up to standard. We are suffering a crisis of leadership that I don't think this country has ever seen. This isn't just the guy who stands up and says, 'I don't hold a hose, because I'm too important.' I can tell him that my husband does hold a hose and that's what he heard: 'I'm too important to hold a hose. I'm the Prime Minister.' And we say: you've two jobs which, incidentally, is what he said in June last year. But now he's saying, 'Oh no, I'm far more important than just those two jobs; I've got lots of other jobs.' I'm telling him: they're the two that count!

The previous speaker got up and talked about hindsight. What does he mean? Chris Bowen was saying in June last year that we needed more vaccines. Every other country did it. If we look at it, in July last year the Americans bought 100 million doses of Pfizer and the British bought 90 million doses. We were offered 40 million doses and didn't take them in July last year, and then we put in an order in November and signed in December. It has cost us $5 billion so far to order these vaccines. How many weeks of lockdown is that? If we had better vaccinated now we'd probably still be in partial lockdown, but it wouldn't be as crippling as it is now. That $5 billion pales into insignificance and it doesn't take hindsight to know it, because every other country knew it. We were in one of the best positions in the world and we have blown it because this lot don't know how to lead and they don't know how to keep their messages straight. They're not paying attention to their own rules and they're putting out false advice every single day.

I'll say to the previous speaker, who got up and said, 'We all understand lockdown' that no, we don't. Nobody in this House knows what families in my community are going through. We all have a job, we haven't been sacked, our pay is going and we all live in reasonable places. We can actually get exemptions and we know the rules. We are not the people who are suffering from lockdown—we are not. There are families in my community at home with more people than rooms, no computers, no real NBN and trying to homeschool their kids when English is not their first language and they didn't finish high school. They know what lockdown is. They're out of work and they were out of work last year. They know what it is; this is ridiculous. (Time expired)

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

There being no further speakers, the discussion has concluded.