Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That last contribution says so much about what's wrong with the Morrison government. You've got a government that is run by an advertising executive, and Senator Canavan, who represents the most reasonable-sounding of the maddest of the coalition backbench, is the voice in the back of their head: 'Don't worry about it. It's not a race. Vaccines could be dangerous.' That's what's wrong with this government.

As we speak today, the situation in New South Wales—far from being a panic—appears to be moving quickly, and the government in New South Wales is working its way through its response. There are multiple locations, and it's fair to say that New South Wales is in a more perilous position than it has been for many, many months. Indeed, the New South Wales parliament appears to have had a spread inside its own building. I want to commend two MPs in that place who have displayed remarkable leadership. Firstly, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Minns, immediately upon learning about this put the interests of the state before his own political interests and postponed his budget reply speech. Mr Minns has recently taken over the leadership of the New South Wales Labor Party, and it could reasonably have been expected that that opportunity to speak to the people of New South Wales would have been a significant milestone for him. But, without question, he put the interests of other people before his own political interests. I also want to commend the minister for agriculture in New South Wales, Mr Marshall, who has contracted the coronavirus himself and issued a very sensible statement. I wish him well, an important part of the process when political leaders contract the disease.

But I tell you what. While I don't want to pre-empt any of the decisions of the New South Wales government, and they will have to make some difficult decisions in the days ahead, the Premier of New South Wales has been very clear this week about the problem. She has pointed the finger directly at the Morrison government. Senator Canavan might think that the bungled vaccine rollout is not a problem, but Ms Berejiklian knows that just over three per cent of New South Wales residents are fully vaccinated, that the level of supply is nowhere near the level of demand and that New South Wales is a global laggard, just like the rest of Australia, because Mr Morrison couldn't run a bath. He can't manage his way through this problem. The country had the opportunity to seize this issue and actually approach a public health issue with the seriousness it deserved. Mr Morrison has entirely bungled the vaccine rollout. We couldn't be in a worse position than Mr Morrison has put Australia in. We are 100th in the queue. Other countries overseas with similar health systems—and even the Americans, whose health system is in a very poor state—are in the high 30s and mid-40s in terms of the amount of their populations vaccinated. And guess what? They'll be opening up. There will be opportunities for their citizens and their businesses because they've got the vaccine rollout right. Mr Morrison has bungled it for every Australian.

Then we turn to hotel quarantine—absolutely criticised by anybody who knows anything about quarantine. What have we had? Dozens of outbreaks from hotel quarantine. Fifteen months—Mr Morrison has had 15 months to prepare purpose-built quarantine facilities across Australia, and what has Mr Morrison achieved? Precisely nothing.

He has squandered the opportunity to fix vaccines and to fix quarantine, and he has left Australia in a vulnerable place, where we are less safe, where growth will be held back and Australia will be held back because of his failures and his incapacity to put the national interest ahead of his own narrow political interest.