Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let's compare ourselves to what's happening overseas. What Senator Scarr didn't do was to compare us to overseas when it comes to the vaccine rollout. We're actually 36th out of 38 members of the OECD, so we're coming almost last when it comes to our vaccine rollout. There are two things that we learned in question time today, and one is that they still won't set a deadline for the vaccine rollout. We know why: because every time they have set one, they've missed it, so they've given up on it and they won't provide those incentives. We saw a pitiful display from the senior levels of this government today when Labor put forward a practical solution. They were happy to take pot shots at it without putting forward any practical solutions themselves. But they won't set a deadline, and we saw that in the answers given in question time today. We know why they won't set a deadline. It is because they originally said four million Australians would be vaccinated by the end of March, and they failed to meet that deadline. Mr Morrison has said that all Australians will be fully vaccinated by October. Obviously, we're going to miss that deadline. He said they would vaccinate the first priority group by Easter—and they've missed that deadline—and that they would vaccinate six million Australians by 10 May. When it comes to vaccines, they've actually given up. They aren't setting any deadlines because they know they can't meet them, and they aren't creating the incentives for Australians to go out and get vaccinated. Even when the Labor leader put forward a substantial suggestion today, the government have done nothing but take pot shots at that suggestion, which is so disappointing. They show no ability to adapt or to be nimble and actually deliver for the Australian people.

The second thing that we learned from question time today is that they still won't accept responsibility. Anyone who saw Four Corners last night would have seen that the program laid out that the government are responsible for the failure to deliver. As Kevin Rudd said, they wouldn't pick up the Alexander Graham Bell and talk to the head of Pfizer to try to get more vaccines delivered to this country. COVID-19 is having a devastating impact on South-East Queensland at the moment. We've seen what's happening in New South Wales, with 10 million Australians locked down. We've seen the damage these lockdowns have done economically as well. I think the RBA estimated that about $300 million a day is being taken from these economies because of what is going on in locked-down communities. These lockdowns are absolutely because of the failure of the vaccine rollout. We saw that in the release of the Doherty Institute's report today. It talks about what we could achieve if we actually had the vaccine rolled out, as compared to what is happening in other countries.

As Senator Watt said, it also goes to the quarantine facilities because they did have two responsibilities: one was around vaccines and the second one was around quarantine facilities. They also haven't delivered on those facilities. About a month ago the federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and I went to Toowoomba, where we met with the proponents of the Wellcamp proposal around the quarantine facility. They said they could be operating within 12 weeks. They could set up a purpose-built quarantine facility within 12 weeks, yet the government keep moving the goalposts and changing the rules to rule out doing some sort of deal with the proponents in Toowoomba. What they've instead said is that they will look at doing something at Damascus, near the Brisbane Airport, but that won't be operating until next year. We've seen all of these leaks out of hotel quarantine facilities—I think we're up to 28 now—yet we haven't had one leak out of Howard Springs, in the Northern Territory. The Toowoomba proposal would be similar to the Howard Springs facility, so it shows you that these facilities that are purpose built can work and deliver and, if we actually had that facility, we might not be having the lockdown that we have in South-East Queensland this week.

This question time is the first question time we've had for about six weeks, but we still had the same old excuses from the government. They won't set a deadline on getting Australians vaccinated and they still won't accept responsibility for the failure of the vaccine rollout. When you look at the devastation that this is causing across Australia, it is Australian families, Australian workers and, indeed, those kids who are now doing homeschooling who are paying the price for the incompetence of this government. So I would say to the government that they need to get their act together, they need to start setting deadlines that they will stick to and they need to ensure that the Australian people have confidence that the vaccine rollout is going to be available, that people will be able to get their shots and that they will then be able to avoid lockdowns so the economy can return, as much as possible, to normal. Again, there was a failure by this government to answer any of those questions today.