Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this urgency motion this afternoon because the Prime Minister of our country issued a statement of false hope to the thousands of stranded Australians when he said he would get them home before Christmas. This promise was made to the 26,800 Australians who at the time were registered with DFAT as stranded. That was back in September. The number of stranded Australians who want to come home now stands at some 37,000 and it is quite likely that that number will grow. We have seen 35,000 Australians come home since the start of the pandemic. I think it's a bit rich to say 'we've already got 35,000 people home'. Many of those people came home quickly, as they were instructed to, under their own steam—no thanks to the government's assistance. Of those 26,800 who were registered with DFAT back in September, 14,000 have been able to come home. I know the great joy and the ending of stress and suffering that comes when families are able to be reunited. I have seen firsthand among close friends and family what a difficult and stressful time this has been, with dozens of tickets booked and dozens of tickets cancelled by airlines and with people being bumped from flight after flight after flight.

The government has tried to cast some blame on the state governments for needing to be rational about the number of people they can afford to let into each state in terms of safely managing the quarantine provisions. I do understand that some limits have been needed in order that quarantine can be safely managed; but the government said it was organising to prioritise Australians over other people wanting to enter Australia, and our inquiries at estimates demonstrated that there was no such plan to ensure Australians had priority over other people for whom who the Department of Home Affairs has issued a visa. Over 70 international students arrived into Darwin this week, and I know that universities made their own private arrangements to do that so they could be safely quarantined. But I fail to see how the government can use as an excuse the lack of suitable options for quarantine provision around the country—and they failed to make provision for that—when universities, in this case, have been able to make accommodation for those 70 international students to be able to quarantine.

Three hundred foreigners—which should have been 300 Australians—were allowed into the country and allowed to take up a place in quarantine by this government when visa holders under the Business, Innovation and Investment Program were issued visas. When we asked in estimates how this was possible, they said that, once they have been issued a visa, it was up to returning Australians—and anyone else who had been issued a visa—to get a spot on a plane and make their way here. Those spots on planes are very, very limited. In fact, the government had no process or procedure for prioritising Australians being able to take those flights. Anyone with a valid visa to Australia was able to hop on those flights. So, when they said that stranded Australians would be at the front of the queue, this was a falsehood. I think many Australians would see it as an absolute slap in the face.

It's all very well for this government to blame the states for their caps. With the lack of support—the complete nonsupport—that the Commonwealth has given to creating Commonwealth places, our nation has had to instead rely entirely on the places created by the states. As Jane Halton revealed in her report: 'Travelers can be quarantined under either Commonwealth or State/Territory legislation.' It was highlighted in her report that it is, indeed, a viable option for this government to be setting up Commonwealth quarantine facilities. I simply do not take at face value what those opposite have said: that they've tried and they've looked hard enough at doing that. I know those opposite have raised the fact that Christmas Island is full with its legitimate immigration uses. That may well be the case, but why not move people who don't need quarantining for COVID purposes? There are any number of different options that you could potentially look at in order to get Australians home. There are any number of locations around the country that I think could be viable places in which to conduct quarantine under Commonwealth legislation. And yet, this Christmas—(Time expired)