Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to address the Senate on this urgency motion. These are very serious matters, and I will seek to spare you the talking points as we try to address what is a serious and grave situation. I agree with Senator McCarthy: it's not appropriate to blame the people. This is not about blaming any Australian. I don't think it's a good look for politicians to blame people, and I don't think that is what is happening.

The issues here are acute. They are happening in the west of my state, in towns that I've visited and spent quite a bit of time in, like Brewarrina, Bourke, Walgett and Coonamble. They are towns that do not have ritzy facilities. They have, in many cases, quite reasonable medical facilities that are run by passionate people at the AMSs. The whole point of this was to try to keep COVID infections out of these communities for obvious direct health reasons but also because the facilities in these places are not what you would find in Sydney. It would be the same in any Australian state. It doesn't matter who you are, the facilities are not as good in the bush, in most cases, and the sort of treatment that is required for people who contract COVID-19, when it is a serious case, would stretch a basic medical service very heavily. So the objective right now in western New South Wales—and I've spoken to some people that have been there in the past few days—is to try and manage the people who have COVID, as well as can be achieved in those locations. When that is beyond the capacity of medical institutions in those parts of the state, they are taken by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Sydney or to a larger hospital.

The second part of the plan is, of course, to vaccinate people—to vaccinate all the people who live there, because that is the best protection. And what we are seeing across New South Wales is a real commitment to getting vaccinated. I think, today, we've hit 70 per cent for first doses in New South Wales, which is a real feat. I have spoken to people who are from Brewarrina. Their view is that in some ways we have been a victim of our own success and there's been a sense of complacency. There were AstraZeneca vaccines available in these towns, towns like Dubbo, from 25 March this year. They were available, and perhaps there wasn't a sense of urgency. Perhaps that's because the country had done very well. I would argue, given how many remote Indigenous communities there are in Australia, the country is still doing very well at keeping COVID-19 out of these communities. There is COVID-19 in western New South Wales; there is also COVID-19 in the town that I grew up in, in northern Victoria—in Shepparton. Those are two communities which are dealing with COVID, but there are many, many more remote communities that are not having to deal with COVID. That is one of the reasons that have been put to me that we have not had the level of vaccination take-up that we would have liked. As it stands today, about 35 per cent of Indigenous people have had a first dose. That is not high enough, and that is something that we need to turn around quickly, particularly if there are likely to be further outbreaks, which we want to prevent at all costs.

The other point to make is that, beyond the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the vax hubs that have been set up in these towns, there are the AUSMAT teams. These are Commonwealth government teams, aided by the ADF, and they are going round to people's houses, to their premises, and offering them a vaccination. If you are living in Walgett, which is a lovely little town, you can go along to the mass vax hub—which I'm told is at the local footy oval—or you can be visited by an AUSMAT team or an ADF team to receive a vaccination in your front yard or in your house. That is really now the focus.

Of course, having these communities in lockdown presents the same issues that people have to consider in urban areas. It's only that they are more pronounced, because the technology is not as good. I was talking this morning to another person familiar with the situation, who made the point that homeschooling there is very, very different. Homeschooling is difficult because there is a low level of good internet penetration and there is, of course, in many cases, a lack of technology resources in the form of computers and iPads and the like, which are required to do homeschooling. Anyone who has become familiar with this concept of homeschooling would know that, in public schools, it often does rely upon having some access to the internet and having some access to an iPad or some other sort of tablet in order to facilitate that.

The issues in that part of the state are acute from a health point of view and these very significant other consequences have arisen. Vaccinations are happening now in Dubbo. They're looking at basically 18 sites in the Dubbo LGA. They are providing about 7,000 doses a week, which is a lot of doses in a town like Dubbo. I'm not sure what the exact population is, but it would be around 40,000 or 50,000. I'm expecting to see the vaccination rate go very quickly from 34 per cent on average—and I'm not exactly sure if it's the same in western New South Wales—to the overall populationwide average, which in New South Wales is hitting 70 per cent. These are serious issues. The only way we can manage this is through putting in a lot of resources through the military, through AUSMAT and through the vax hubs and having the additional home support and care that is required in these areas.

I would argue that the objective of keeping COVID-19 out of Indigenous communities has overall largely been met. There has been a high degree of Indigenous input into the management of this pandemic. We have had, sadly, one Indigenous death, but overall it has been a strong performance. We are dealing with this outbreak in western New South Wales. It is in a number of very small towns. I emphasise again for the Senate that Brewarrina and Bourke are really small towns. They were never going to have the capacity to deal with these things on their own. Now that there has been an outbreak we have moved resources into those places. My hope is that we can get on top of these outbreaks pretty quickly. We can't get on top of them without vaccinations, which is why Pfizer shots are now available there. In a bigger town like Dubbo, which has more resources, I'm sure it is a bit easier, but again we do need these shots to go into arms. We are expecting 6,850 doses a week in the Dubbo LGA. It's really important that those go in, because we don't want to lose any more people. Losing one person is more than we should have.