Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] Today Australia is experiencing the third wave of the COVID pandemic. Prime Minister Morrison is saying that he couldn't possibly have seen it coming, that hindsight is a wonderful thing. 'There's many wise in hindsight', he says to anyone who's trying to hold him to account. The problem is that when it comes to the COVID crisis the Prime Minister already had the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, because in 2020 we already knew that vaccines were the way out, in 2020 we already knew to lock down hard and fast and in 2020 we knew that we needed to find financial support for people and get it to them so they could stay home and stay safe. But even though we knew all of this all of last year, even though Victorians had to learn these lessons the hard way and even though the lessons were there for all to see, today we have a prime minister who says that he couldn't see them and says to his critics that hindsight is a wonderful thing.

But the Prime Minister didn't need a crystal ball. He just needed to pay attention. He needed to pay attention and get the vaccines that we needed, pay attention and support the states to go hard and go early, and pay attention and provide the critical ongoing financial support that people need. Instead, today we are in the middle of this third wave. Today businesses are shutting their doors. Today people are out of work. Today children are missing school again.

Australians need a prime minister who will actually act, a prime minister who doesn't shy away from the hard decisions but takes responsibility. They need a prime minister who will work as hard at his job as every single Australian is working at theirs right now. (Time expired)