Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is really interesting. Both Senator Canavan and Senator Hughes have the Monty Python defence—always look on the bright side of life. The reality is the bright side of life is seeing the Australian community being economically crucified because the government has not got its act together. We have seen the lockdowns due to the quarantine failures in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. That's where responsibility should be taken by this government, saying, 'We are going to rectify this.' They should be coming in here, saying, 'We're going to fix these problems,' not saying how they're going to turn around and avoid taking responsibility for what has been going on in this country right now.

Unless they have been living under a rock, everyone in Australia knows that the Morrison government has botched the vaccine rollout. We have had one of the slowest vaccine rollouts of any developed country in the world. The Prime Minister says it's not a race. That's because it's a race we are losing because of his lack of desire to make sure we get the right outcomes. He took time off to go sightseeing in Cornwall, enjoying the benefits of a country which has actually vaccinated its citizens. The story is very different when it comes to residents in my state of New South Wales. What Australians don't know is just how badly the Morrison and Berejiklian governments have botched hotel quarantine in New South Wales. While the state government has introduced a hotel quarantine process for international arrivals, I have been informed today by multiple whistleblowers working in the airport quarantine system that the quarantine process for crew from international passenger or freight flights is a sham. It's a complete and utter sham.

I have been told directly by three different whistleblowers working in this process that buses which are used to transport international arrivals to hotel quarantine are cleaned comprehensively by cleaners in full PPE and between every single trip—a tick for that. That is best practice. The Australian Defence Force have been brought in to load luggage onto these buses in a COVID-safe manner—a tick for that. That's best practice as well. But, for international crew on passenger or freight flights, none of these systems are in place—none. The vehicles used to transport crew from the airport to the hotel are not cleaned between trips. In actual fact, you could go out to Sydney airport and see there's a cone between the passenger buses and the international flight crew buses. One gets cleaned; the other doesn't. Until Friday last week, those same people moving international crews also weren't wearing masks. So if a crew member with COVID sits in one of these minivans then every other crew member who sits in that vehicle for the rest of the day—or even days later—including the driver, is stepping into a viral bomb. And the Australian Defence Force isn't used to load bags into these vehicles. The drivers are forced to do it themselves, without PPE, except maybe a face mask—and that's only since last Friday. And it's one of these drivers who are driving vehicles that are not cleaned and who have to touch all the luggage themselves who has set off the cluster which is now spreading like wildfire across Sydney.

It isn't the first time. The Northern Beaches cluster just before Christmas was also started by one of those drivers who had not got the processes in place. So this government is failing to economically protect New South Wales and the rest of this country. How has the federal government allowed two entirely different COVID safety procedures to be put in at Sydney airport? There's one for big buses—maybe that's why they thought it was necessary—but none for any other buses, even though they're still transporting international crew around and exposing Australian crews and the Australian community. Once those drivers are infected, as we've seen with the New South Wales cluster, people are infected right across the community. The quarantine and transport hub at Sydney airport needs to be fixed. It needs to be rectified. And we need to make sure that we hold this government to account for what it's doing—wrecking our economy and exposing our people to an epidemic. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.