Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've made a habit of thanking the opposition for the opportunity to speak on matters of public importance that they bring before this chamber, and this opportunity is no different. When they're writing them they must think that the wording is clever, they'll get a few runs on the board and somehow they'll embarrass the government. But in reality what they do is they expose themselves. They give us the opportunity, time after time, to come in here and talk about their lack of policy and how they've managed to go through this whole pandemic without making a single meaningful contribution to the public debate. They've come up with really clever campaign slogans about how we have two jobs, and that's much the same in how this MPI is worded. They've put a lot of time into developing that little campaign. Just think about how they've been writing all those talking points, getting them out to all the MPs and putting them on social media so that they can churn them out to anyone who will listen. They've taken months of preparation, months of saying the same thing over and over again because they're trying to get their message into people's minds. And this week they've managed to unwind it all. One policy announcement, and all of that effort has been wasted.

The Leader of the Opposition fronted the media and came out with his grand plan to get Australians vaccinated. 'Give them cash,' he said, '$300 to anyone, everyone, who gets the jab.' Firstly, it's a massive insult to the intelligence of Australians, and that's a whole debate to have in and of itself. But most significantly, by making this announcement Labor have finally come to the party and backed our vaccine plan. They've finally admitted that we actually are in a position to get between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of Australians vaccinated by Christmas, otherwise they wouldn't be out there saying that we should be giving them $300. They have confirmed what we on this side already know, and that is that we have the supply of vaccines for every Australian who wants one to have one by Christmas. And just like that they've undermined months—months—of their own scare campaigns.

Why are they advocating for the $300? It's true there are many in our community that do have some reluctance to get vaccinated. There's a lot of misinformation flowing about the vaccine strategy, and I must say that those opposite are actually doing little to deal with it, just like what they did with JobKeeper. They had to fight it every single step of the way. They had to try to undermine it, and when it wound down they were saying that it was going to cause mass unemployment. They said that the economic apocalypse would come. They claimed that it would come, but it never came. In fact, it was quite the opposite: we had the lowest unemployment rate in 10 years. Did we hear any retraction? Did we hear any admission that their predictions did not come true? Sadly, no.

I wonder if I can be surprised by those opposite. When we get to Christmas and we've achieved those targets set by the Prime Minister, which I know Australians will step up to, will those opposite acknowledge that their gloomy predictions were wrong? Will they bring themselves to the Senate for an hour, like we are doing with this MPI, and acknowledge that they got it wrong and celebrate Australia's success? Or will they yet again bring to the Senate some political pointscoring? With every policy response we've put in place to deal with the economic and health consequences of this pandemic, they've said it goes too far or doesn't go far enough, that it's too big or too small. You name it, they've brought up every single argument they can to undermine it. Yet here we are, having been able to deal with the response of the pandemic like no other nation in the world. You wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

This vaccine rollout will be no different. Already, more than 12.5 million doses have been administered. We are now hitting well over one million doses every week, or over 200,000 per week day. A total of 4.5 million vaccinations were given in July—more than double the number achieved in May, when 2.1 million doses were administered. Sure, there've been issues of supply. We've resolved those issues. The Prime Minister, working with his leadership, has dealt with those problems. Not all the calls we've made have gone out as we had hoped, but we've turned the corner.

Every time a news campaign hits the airwaves, particularly in relation to the vaccine rollout, where we have hesitancy in the community, more and more people second-guess the efficacy of the program. They are doing nothing to underscore the efficacy of the program; they are undermining it every step of the way. They are turning what should be a medical conversation into a political one. That should never be the case. We're seeing it here with the substance of this MPI, and it's absolutely despicable. There have been setbacks—of course there have. Never before has a nation had to deal with a rollout on the scale we're dealing with right now. This is what Australian families are dealing with.

Unlike those opposite, we are capable of wearing those setbacks. We are capable of owning them, correcting them and, importantly, moving on. The Prime Minister has done that, and we are on the home stretch. The next six months will be the definitive moment in our response. Every nation is racing to get people vaccinated. The world is opening up again. They won't be waiting for Australia, but we'll be ready for when that happens. We'll be ready because we are on track. We have an achievable time frame with the rate of vaccination that is occurring right now. With the pipeline of vaccines available, we know we can do it. We have fantastic health staff—GPs and pharmacists—and infrastructure in place to get the job done. We know Australians will step up. Australians are rolling up their sleeves and having that jab. This is a massive national effort unlike anything we have ever seen. That's a phrase that you hear often, but it's absolutely true. It requires everyone to get on board to either have the vaccine or to have conversations in the community with those who have concerns. And that's why I say it's a great national effort.

Labor needs to join the team. Labor needs to get in behind Australia, not seek to undermine it for political points. I know many of the senators on that side of the chamber. They are good people, and they are better than these cheap campaigns.

Senator Farrell interjecting—

There's a few, Senator Farrell. This isn't the time for cheap political points. We're coming up to an election soon, and there will be plenty of time for that during the election campaign. Between now and Christmas, this is about getting behind Australians, supporting those who need to go and get the vaccine—and supporting those who have got some hesitancy; we understand that. Now's the time to join us. Now's the time to join Australians as they make the decision to come forward and get vaccinated. Every day that you try to make vaccines political, you make those last few percentage points of people who haven't got the vaccine that little bit harder to reach. Now, I expect you to disagree with what I've just said, but you've got to step up.

In Victoria some of the statements by the Labor candidate for Higgins, no doubt, ought to disappoint every single person in this room. They were undermining the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine. I won't even repeat the things that were said because I don't want to give them any credence at all. I'm not a doctor—full disclosure—but I have as much information available to me as anyone else in this place and I can say that those statements that have been made are not grounded in fact. Yet we have candidates for the Labor Party out there spouting this stuff.

An opposition senator interjecting—

But those are the sorts of views that we're hearing from your side of politics—views put to Australians who may be deciding whether to come forward for a vaccine. The path for Australia is clear. Life after lockdowns, no restrictions and opening up to the rest of the world again means Australians getting vaccinated. This is what we need to do. Rather than scoring cheap political points, you should be dedicating yourselves to encouraging people to go out and get vaccinated. You're better than that. Let's work together. Let's work together before Christmas so that we have even more reason to celebrate at Christmas.