Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Summer: seeing family and friends, watching some cricket, reintroducing myself to my children and maybe catching up on a bit of extra reading—that's what I would normally do over the Christmas holidays. But I don't think anybody experienced this summer like that. Now in the third year of the pandemic, we expect the Morrison government to make decisions based on the expert advice that they receive. But Australians are asking if they can trust this Prime Minister to lead this nation through the remaining years of the pandemic. Can the conservatives get any better? Surely they can't get any worse.

This is my report card for the Morrison government on their management of the pandemic so far. Vaccine roll-out: way too slow. Building quarantine: didn't happen. Creating a tracing app: didn't work, money wasted. Rapid antigen tests: they didn't buy enough. Reopening borders: they didn't plan adequately. Preparing our hospitals: they didn't prepare.

The Moreton team has been hearing from local residents who want the Morrison government to know how its poor decisions have impacted on their lives. Here is some of what they said:

Carla said food and rent prices have skyrocketed overnight. In her neighbourhood, the dogs are getting skinnier because people can't afford to feed them. Carla asks, 'How can people who are on a $250-a-week Centrelink payment pay $500 a week in rent?' The rise in living costs has stopped her from travelling to see her daughter, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Her daughter needs a procedure but can't be admitted to a hospital because her doctor is worried she might contract COVID.

Dolly's daughter works in aged care. Last month her daughter contracted COVID and carried the virus home to Dolly and her grandchildren. They couldn't get tested and they couldn't get any rapid antigen tests, so they stayed home for three weeks with no income until they thought were clear of the virus. Dolly said: what else could they do?

Senna said that when her husband caught COVID they had no wages coming in for three weeks. They have five children to feed. She couldn't find any rapid antigen tests so her husband could be cleared to go back to work. 'The government is supposed to look after people', she said. But they haven't looked after her family.

Lin, a local pharmacist, says he 'can't believe how the government has mismanaged the pandemic'. He says: 'You don't even have to plan. You can see what has happened in other countries and just cut and paste.' Older residents talk of staying home because they don't want to get sick. They are there, lonely and afraid of ending up a statistic, because that is what living with COVID means to them.

Not getting the health outcomes right leads to poor economic outcomes. Just ask Carla, Dolly, Senna, Lin and so many others. Prime Minister Morrison, I know, will blame everyone else, but Australians won't forget the summer they lost to COVID because of his government's mismanagement and poor planning.

On a separate note, Deputy Speaker Zimmerman, I thank you particularly for your fine words and fine deeds yesterday or this morning—whenever it was!