Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to the debate on this motion about:

The need for Morrison-Joyce Government to stop blaming First Nations Australians and instead take responsibility for its bungled vaccine rollout, the dangerous situation in Western New South Wales and its failure to prepare and protect First Nations communities across Australia from the spread of COVID, including a failure to properly communicate and ensure access to health facilities, food security, adequate housing and isolation places.

I read that out specifically because this is also about years and years and years of neglect of First Nations communities, to the point where the government knew that First Nations communities were highly at risk from COVID; they knew that at the beginning of the pandemic. They knew it when they set the plan for the vaccination rollout, which is why First Nations peoples are in 1a and 1b—importantly, to make sure First Nations people got vaccinated early on. And yet here we are, with exactly what was feared and what Maari Ma warned the government about.

But the government knew, because they've known for years and years and years about this—not just in western New South Wales, but in my home state of Western Australia and in the Northern Territory and in South Australia. And I'm sure it's the same situation in Victoria and Tasmania. They knew this. They knew that our First Nations communities have a significant gap in life expectancy and a much higher burden of chronic disease than any other community in this country. And yet the stroll-out didn't even bother to really prioritise First Nations communities—the same as they didn't prioritise people in residential aged care and aged-care workers and disabled people. In New South Wales, the data shows a huge gap between First Nations and non-First-Nations vaccination rates in every region in the state. Why has it taken so long for the government not only to release this data but also to get these vaccinations into people's arms and to deal with the conditions that would lead to the situation that we find ourselves in now?

This situation is unacceptable, and don't blame delta. Don't blame delta for this. We knew with alpha that, if it got into communities, it would significantly impact on those communities. And don't say that we are taking advantage of this to push this point, because this is life and death for people, so of course we're going to raise it. Of course we're going to raise the point in this chamber that vaccinations are not getting in the arms of First Nations peoples and that they have been let down massively.