Ben Small (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think that today we've seen some of the hypocrisy that we've come to expect on this from the Labor Party. Louise Pratt, a fellow senator from Western Australia, has proposed a matter, supposedly of public importance, calling attention to the dire state of our health system in Western Australia. But, in doing so, she has completely failed to front up here today and put that case; she has also left out the true story. The true story, if we look back over the period from 2012-13 through to this financial year, is that coalition federal governments have increased federal funding for the health system in WA by an incredible 72.8 per cent. Over the same period of time, the state government has increased funding by 18.4 per cent. That's right, the federal government has increased health funding to Western Australia at four times the rate of the state government for the health system that the Labor Party, Premier Mark McGowan and Senator Pratt hypocritically accuse us of neglecting.

Indeed, Premier Mark McGowan and Minister Cook went so far as to blame older Western Australians and NDIS recipients for the overrun of our state's emergency departments. Although that's shameful in itself, it takes place in the context of not a single case of COVID community transmission in Western Australia. For that, I know I and my colleague from Western Australia Senator O' Sullivan do commend the McGowan government for their effective management of the evolving situation with the pandemic. However, I think we can be rightly critical of the abject failure to prepare the health system for the pandemic, despite us being some 18 months down the line. The health system exists to protect us. We mustn't manage our economy to protect the health system they have neglected. We're not asking for anyone to open up on a whim; we are asking the Labor Party to level with the Australian people and be honest with the facts, and that would start with acknowledging that in Western Australia the state Labor government has chronically underfunded our health system to the point that ambulances can't get into hospital car parks, let alone get their patients into the emergency department. That takes place in the same context of the federal government pouring four times more money than the state's own Labor government into that health system.

If we're going to level with the Australian people, I think we should also be honest around a few other home truths. Despite the fact that this government was the first to close its international border to the world, that this government declared COVID-19 a pandemic a full 14 days before the WHO did so and that Australia's vaccination rollout is occurring faster on a per capita basis than either the UK's or the US's, the Labor Party do nothing but continue to snipe and undermine the success of our economic and health management of this pandemic. I've heard nothing from those opposite to celebrate the fact that our vaccination rate here in Australia now outstrips not only the United States' but also Israel's, which has been lauded for its high vaccination rates. Those opposite totally neglect the fact that here in Australia, due to our effective management of the pandemic, the death rate has been one-fortieth of those countries the Labor Party senators would like to compare us with. Not only have we outstripped the US in terms of the speed of our vaccination rate; we've suffered a death toll less than one-fortieth of that experienced in the United States.

The reason we put our vaccination through a normal approval process by ATAGI and the TGA was that we didn't have dead bodies piling up in the streets. Instead, due to Australia's effective health and economic management, this government, protecting lives and livelihoods from the onset of the disease, was able to take a slow, considered and ultimately very, very successful approach to this pandemic where we have not only saved the lives of those Australians who are still here today and who would have died in any other circumstance, such as we've seen in other advanced economies in the OECD; we've also seen the success of the Australian economy in being able to thrive with economic support from the government.

Whilst those opposite snipe, undermine and seek to underhandedly detract from the success we've seen here in Australia, we on the government side are levelling with the Australian people: once you get vaccinated, in accordance with the national plan, we will safely reopen to the world. Our health system is robust. Our health system has been adequately resourced by the federal government, and we're asking for that same commitment from the states. Indeed, when we look at the assessment of the ICU capacity here in Australia and feed that into the Doherty modelling—which the national cabinet accepted as the appropriate way to assess our readiness—the premiers and the Prime Minister together reached an assurance that the surge capacity in Australia's hospital system was sufficient to deal with the small number of cases we can expect in a vaccinated nation. That is the key point that seems lost on those opposite.

The discussion has continued to evolve in the course of the pandemic because the information in front of us has changed. Back in February and March, not only did we not have vaccines; we didn't even know if vaccines would ever be developed for this disease. Of course, the actions taken by the government were cautious, considered and appropriate in the circumstances that that decision was taken. Now, 18 months later, we find ourselves at the tail end of a successful vaccination rollout, with an economy poised for a strong economic recovery in the fourth quarter as, particularly, the eastern seaboard reopens and businesses reopen. Employees have unfortunately suffered the impacts of being stood down, but they received support from this government through things like initially the JobKeeper program and later the COVID-19 disaster payments. As they go back to work and as people continue to spend and get ready for the Christmas we will all enjoy hopefully as a reunited country, I think that is when we level with the Australian people that this was a Team Australia moment, despite the wrecking, sniping and undermining we heard from across the chamber. That is what we need to take away from this when we look back on COVID-19—that this government was bold in its policy-making at times of national crisis. That bold policy-making has ultimately been so incredibly successful on both the health and economic fronts.

So, again, I question why my fellow senator from Western Australia, Senator Pratt, would fail to come to the Senate today having submitted such an outrageously baseless MPI that seeks to blame the federal government when in fact the responsibility for the situation with the Western Australian health system lies squarely at the feet of the McGowan state government and completely ignores the fact that this government, together with our state and territory leaders through the national cabinet process, has agreed to a safe plan for reopening. It's not on a whim. It's not incautious, but it is appropriate and it is necessary. That is why I am so proud to be part of this government that has delivered such effective management of the pandemic.