Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] The Greens are supporting this MPI about the failure of the Prime Minister to deliver a speedy effective rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and safe national quarantine. This failure means 10 million Australians begin the week yet again languishing in lockdown. When it comes to getting out of COVID the government had a number of key tasks. Vaccines and quarantine were key, yet the Morrison government failed to secure enough vaccine or enough diversity of vaccines, they failed to provide clear messaging and advice, and they failed to provide us with an evidence based pathway out of this mess.

I welcome the release of the modelling from the Doherty Institute that was used to inform the government's national plan to reopen Australia, but this only prompts more questions. For example, why weren't the Doherty Institute asked to model the impact of reopening our borders? Under phase C of the government's plan, caps on returned Australians would be abolished and international travel restrictions would be lifted. So many Australians have felt the heartbreak impact of border closures. For many people life is on hold until our borders are open once more. Everyone deserves to know when the government is planning on reopening borders and the associated risks involved. It's a huge shortcoming, and I'm disappointed the government hasn't asked for this information. So many Australians are hanging out to see relatives and their loved ones, and so many Australians are hanging out to come home.

The Doherty Institute also looked at what would happen if we had partial or optimal effectiveness of testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine. We do not have optimal contact tracing and quarantine arrangements in Australia. This is abundantly clear from the 27 breaches of hotel quarantine which have sent us into so many lockdowns. If our contact tracing and quarantine continue to be only partially effective, the Doherty Institute predicts we will still continue to need lockdowns for 18 to 22 per cent of the time once 70 per cent of the population is vaccinated.

The government is gambling with our future by refusing to include children in its vaccination targets. Again, the Doherty Institute thinks that vaccinating children would only achieve modest reduction in transmission, yet we know that children aged zero to 19 account for more COVID cases in Australia than people aged 70 and over. Children can catch and transmit COVID, which has been evident throughout the current outbreaks in Queensland. Children can also catch COVID from their vaccinated parents. This is another reason why we need to understand exactly what the government asked the Doherty Institute to model. That is very unclear. While the government is making critical decisions about our way out of COVID, private consulting companies are continuing to make huge profits, yet we still have had significant troubles and mistakes made through the vaccine rollout. We have no idea about the qualities of the strategic planning they're supposed to have given and the advice and case studies they're supposed to have given, or whether they were even used in decision-making. These are all confidential reports.

On a personal note, I encourage people to get vaccinated. My mother and I have now had our second dose. We got vaccinated together, both being in phase 1b. Please, I urge Australians to get vaccinated. We need the government to come clean about what their targets are and when we will be able to open our borders. (Time expired)