Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Birmingham) to a question without notice asked by Senator Watt today relating to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

My home state of New South Wales is now entering its ninth week of lockdown, with record case numbers and a population suffering from nine weeks of social isolation from friends, families and everyday activities. There was one person—one person—who could have stopped this had he been effective and had he kept his promises to the Australian people. But Mr Morrison has instead failed on all of those promises.

He promised to vaccinate all people living and working in residential aged care by Easter. What have Australians actually got? More than 40 per cent of aged-care staff still haven't had their first shot! Despite making vaccines mandatory in the aged-care sector by 17 September, the government's failed rollout means that the aged-care sector—a large section of the workforce—will see these workers sacked or the government will push back its deadline again due to its complete and utter failure.

Mr Morrison's second promise? To vaccinate all Australians with a disability and all disability care workers by Easter. What Australians actually got from Mr Morrison: 26.2 per cent of 267,526 National Disability Insurance Scheme participants aged 16 or older have been double dosed and 44 per cent partially vaccinated as of 19 August. That is another appalling failure to vaccinate our most at-risk citizens.

Mr Morrison's third promise? To vaccinate four million Australians by the end of March. But what Australians actually got was 850,000 doses—not full vaccines; doses—by 6 April, just over 10 per cent of where we should have been in April.

Mr Morrison's fourth promise? To fully vaccinate all over-70s by the onset of winter. What seniors actually got was fewer than 40 per cent of over-70s were fully vaccinated by the end of the second month of winter.

Mr Morrison's fifth promise to the Australian people? To vaccinate all Australians by October. What Australia actually got was one of the slowest rollouts in the developed world and chronic, crushing lockdowns. As at yesterday, only 24 per cent of our population is fully vaccinated.

These failures, these broken promises from Mr Morrison, have implications that have radically changed the lives of those in my home state. We will look back on this period of time—life before COVID and life after—at the endurance of the ongoing failure of this government during this profoundly challenging period of our country, where promises were made and Mr Morrison and his government failed to deliver, whether that's for the residents of south-west Sydney who are locked in their homes with soldiers patrolling their streets, whether it's the aged-care worker desperate to get a vaccine and an appointment and trying to get there in time so that they don't infect the beloved members of that community that they are serving, or whether it's the First Nations communities whose communal lives and culture is profoundly interrupted by the terrifying spread of virus, especially those communities in Dubbo for whom I advocated directly to the minister for health in April. He failed to respond, and we see the context in which the wild spread of that disease is happening right now.

I warned the government. Labor has continued to warn the government, particularly about rural health failures that would harm the lives of First Nations communities across this country, but particularly in the seat of Parkes in western New South Wales.

Mr Morrison's fingerprints are all over this enormous mess, from the botched negotiations with Pfizer due to his meanness—he was offered 40 million doses in June 2020 and he said 'No, thank you;' we are paying the price for that decision—to the lack of foresight throwing all of our eggs in to one vaccine basket and the inability to effectively coordinate the rollout. This Prime Minister has hobbled the Australian economy and prolonged the health crisis with his failure to attend to detail and to take necessary care. His sole interest is political future, not the nation he pretends to lead. This has left Australians in an enduring economic, emotional health crisis, the likes of which we have never seen. (Time expired)