Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

CHESTERS () (): Yes, there is a new variant and it is causing concern, as it should, but I guess that a lot of Australians were with me this morning when I was shaking my head at the Prime Minister's comments that this isn't new and was to be expected. Where are our quarantine facilities? Where are they? Instead, the Prime Minister is expecting the hotels to kick back in and for the state premiers to pick up the job, even though it says quite clearly in the Constitution that it is a federal responsibility. This Prime Minister has known about this problem since early 2020. He says that this isn't new, that it was to be expected, so why hasn't he done his job and funded purpose-built quarantine facilities, instead of relying on our hotels and our hotel workers. Hotels were not built for quarantine. They were built for tourists. They were built for travellers. Those workers in those hotels have stepped up and tried to keep the rest of us safe, to keep the virus out of our communities. We've now been hit by a new variant, which has mutated. It is more transmissible and could see all of us plunged back into semi-lockdowns, part lockdowns—maybe not, but it will see more people get sick. If only we had purpose-built, federal funded quarantine facilities! If the Prime Minister had started back at the beginning of the pandemic, we'd have them built by now. We'd be facing this summer with confidence. Instead, people are now worried about this new concern. When will the Prime Minister of this country do his job?