Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to make a contribution on this MPI:

That after the Morrison-Joyce Government has failed to deliver on its promise to vaccinate four million Australians by the end of March 2021; vaccinate all of the first priority group by Easter 2021; and vaccinate six million Australians by 10 May 2021, last weekend Australia experienced its highest daily COVID case numbers since the pandemic began eighteen months ago.

I don't have to remind anyone in this chamber, as I don't have to remind anyone outside this chamber, of the serious nature of this pandemic and the impact of a hapless, unorganised, disorganised, chaotic government that's failed to secure the health and safety of its citizens. And that job rests solely with one man: the Prime Minister of this country, Scott Morrison. He's failed to meet the dates that he put in place to reassure Australians that he was on the job. I don't know how many times we've been in this chamber and reminded the Prime Minister that he has had two jobs during this pandemic—two crucial jobs. One was to roll out the vaccine in a timely way to protect the health of the Australian people and to protect the economy. The other was to provide adequate quarantine. He has failed at both of those tasks. But the consequence of his failures has seen too many Australians lose their lives. Too many vulnerable older Australians have died needlessly because of the failures of this man. When you're the Prime Minister of a country, you are expected to show leadership. This is the same man who said there isn't a race. He said, 'There is no race to roll out the vaccine; there's no race.' There is a race, and the race was always about ensuring Australians' health, ensuring that the Australian economy was protected and ensuring that Australians could feel secure in their jobs and secure in knowing that their Prime Minister was on the job. But he has failed on all counts. What we see now is that there are over 16 million Australians in lockdown around this country. Families are being locked down. Children are locked down at home and parents are having to resort to homeschooling. That has an impact on that family and it has an impact on the community.

If we look at the frontline workers in this country—the truckies, the people who work in retail, our healthcare workers, our schoolteachers, our aged-care workers, our disability carers—these are the people that should have been a priority for vaccination because they're keeping our economy moving and helping to ensure the health and safety of this country and our people. But we still don't have all aged-care workers in this country fully vaccinated. We still don't have all disability carers fully vaccinated. We still have not seen even a plan to address the vaccination of aged-care workers who go to the homes of our older Australians, our most vulnerable Australians. Many of those workers are not yet fully vaccinated. We have heard stories from upset people who call our offices. They're concerned about their loved ones because they can't access the vaccine or the vaccine that they choose. This is the government that failed to secure enough vaccines to ensure their communities, their residents, are kept safe.

We know that the Prime Minister never likes to accept responsibility for his own failings. We've seen that time and time again in what is a pretty sad reflection on his ministry. We've seen Senator Colbeck come into this chamber wanting to talk about the number of vaccines that have been rolled out over the last couple of weeks, as if that's something to be proud of. But that is just an acknowledgment of the fact that they have failed to meet the time lines that they set themselves. Those people on that side of the chamber may think: 'That's okay, we can get away with this. People are now lining up for five hours to get their vaccination, so all's good—nothing to see here.' This is after three years of this Prime Minister, who on every occasion wants to blame somebody else and accept no responsibility. What he's going to be remembered for is being the Prime Minister who was good only at slogans and trying to spin his way out of trouble. That's what Mr Morrison is going to be remembered as: the Prime Minister who always went missing in a crisis, just as he did through the 2019-20 bushfires. What we heard in those circumstances was, 'I don't hold a hose.' Then it was, 'I don't give jabs.' That is not good enough. This is a war against this pandemic. This is when a Prime Minister is supposed to stand up and be counted, and he's failing to do that.

In my home state of Tasmania, fortunately, we aren't in lockdown. But we are seeing the effect of New South Wales and Victoria and at times Queensland, WA and South Australia going into lockdowns. That has an impact on our community. It has an impact on our economy. It has an impact on our small businesses. But I never hear any of the Liberal senators from Tasmania come in here and speak up for the small businesses or for the schoolteachers who can't get a vaccine. We see them coming in defending their government on their pathetic attempts to secure the safety of Australians. What we don't see is a Prime Minister and his government taking responsibility.

We've had other senators make a contribution through the course of this week about our First Nations people, who have such a low vaccination rate. These are some of the most vulnerable people in our community. In Western Sydney and further west—in Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo—there are spikes in outbreaks. Teachers who are working with special needs children, and who should be a priority, have been told when they ring around doctors' surgeries and pharmacies that they will have to wait until next year to get a vaccine, because they don't want to have to have the AZ vaccine; they want to have Pfizer.

This government will be reminded about its failings every single day that we sit, and it must be held accountable for its failings, because our economy and the Australian citizens deserve nothing less. This shifting of blame, trying to say that we want people to stay in lockdown, is ridiculous. We want to see the Australian people going back to their old way of life. Of course that's what we want. But we wanted that to have happened because people had been vaccinated according to the Prime Minister's own time lines. First it was March and Easter this year. Then six million Australians were going to be vaccinated by 10 May 2021. Then it was that we were all going to be vaccinated by October. Those deadlines were not met, and I have no faith that this government will be able to meet even its own latest deadline of October or the end of this year. Other countries around the world are already looking at boosters for their residents, but we are so far behind.

How many more people are going to have to die? When the Prime Minister says that we are going to have to learn to live with this pandemic, it will be on his head. How are we going to live with the number of people that are going to die if we open up the borders before all Australians are vaccinated? How are we going to be dealing with those deaths? That will be the situation if he forces states to pull down their borders before the majority of Australians are vaccinated in this country. Enough is enough, Prime Minister. Get on and do your— (Time expired)