Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this MPI today, for there isn't a more important issue at the moment that affects all of Australia than opening up safely from the COVID-19 lockdowns that have plagued, in particular, the south-eastern parts of Australia since June and July this year.

Senator Ayres has raised this matter of public importance because we are worried that, as the opening-up is happening, the government are being less than transparent with the information they have available to them about what will happen as part of the opening-up. How many cases of COVID-19 will occur in the community, how many of those will be serious, how many of those will end up in hospital and, indeed, what is the capacity or the preparedness of the hospital system to deal with those cases?

I've been following this pretty closely for a number of reasons; one of them is as the chair of the Select Committee on COVID-19. We have been following the reluctance of the Morrison government to make information available as early as possible to keep Australians' trust and to thank them for the sacrifices they've made over the last 20 months. We've all stayed home, we haven't seen family, we haven't gone to social occasions, we haven't celebrated birthdays, we've been apart from our loved ones when they've passed away and we haven't been able to attend funerals, and we haven't been able to travel. All of those things don't sound like much, but they have taken their toll on everybody.

Part of the trust engagement between a government and its citizens, particularly in times like these, when we are subjecting ourselves voluntarily to some really harsh restrictions on the way that we would normally live our lives, is that that trust is repaid by the provision of information about why we're doing it and what happens when those restrictions change. The Australian community have played their part in this bargain. We have done what was asked of us and we are happy for the opening-up to happen and we want it to happen safely. But the other side of the deal is that we should be advised what that means. We have stayed home to make sure our hospital system was there to care for people—not just people with COVID, but people with other conditions who required hospital resources. We have done it willingly and for the greater good. That's been a really tremendous sign that we're all in this together.

The reason we had the lockdown was to make sure those resources were available to care for those who needed it. That is still the same as we open up. As we open up and get more cases and the virus gets transmitted, what is the preparedness of the healthcare system to deal with that? We know that the government has that information. The Department of Health was commissioned in August—pretty late in the piece, if you ask me—to go around and have a look at how the hospitals were preparing for the opening up as part of the national plan. I was surprised it was that late. I read about it in the paper. I heard the health minister say that this work had been commissioned and the Commonwealth was engaging with the states and territories about what that would look like. We know they have had that document; we know that Professor Brendan Murphy has briefed national cabinet on it. We know that they know exactly what the healthcare system will look like under the various scenarios. But do we know? No. Because that information has not been shared. There may be a reason for this. But I'm suspicious because when we have sought other information we've been told it's cabinet in confidence and we can't have it.

Surely on a matter like this, where we have made so many sacrifices, we should be given the information about what our hospital system looks like now and what it will look like as we come out of the lockdown—and that means in Sydney and Melbourne, in Perth and Queensland, in regional and rural hospitals, in remote locations. We heard at the Senate committee last week that there are some places in Australia where vaccination rates remain extremely low. It is anywhere between 25 and 30 per cent below the national average in some communities—in particular, First Nations communities. And we don't have any idea what the allocation of resources is going to be in those communities or in hospitals. We know that the AMA is worried. They have released a report. They are really concerned. They have appeared before the committee really concerned about what this means. It is their members who work in the hospitals. They are seeing firsthand what is happening in hospitals. And we know right now that, even in the non-COVID states, the hospitals are pushed to their limits. We know that, in the COVID states and territories, the hospitals are operating at their limits. This is a busy time of year for any hospital, in any year, let alone when you are managing a global pandemic as well. We know that the states and territories are worried. They have tried to engage the Commonwealth on this: 'How are we going to meet this demand?'

We know that the AMA is calling for extra help in the community. I mean, most people with COVID are going to be looked after at home. I've just been through that; I know what it means. It's hard work; people are sick. Don't trivialise the virus; don't say it's nothing; don't say it's a little virus and most people get mild symptoms. People are running mini-hospitals in their homes, often with very little support. I've just been there; I've done it; it's hard. Unless you can engage your GP and have a GP come—unless you have a fabulous GP like mine, who actually helped me twice a day, every day, for 14 days as I got my family members through the worst of that virus—you are largely on your own.

So what is happening in the community? What is going to happen for primary healthcare? The Commonwealth is responsible for it. Are they doing anything? Are they supporting GPs? We heard the AMA, in evidence before my committee, say, 'They haven't spoken to us about it, and we would like them to.' That was only a month ago. We are 20 months into the pandemic and we don't have a plan for primary healthcare provision around COVID-19. Yet the Prime Minister tells us it's all fine to open up. Well, if it's all fine to open up, tell us what it's going to look like. How many people are going to be operating mini home hospitals, isolated and looking after sick people on their own? It is not normal for young, otherwise healthy people to die in their homes. That has been happening in New South Wales. I'm not trying to scaremonger here: I am just saying what is happening. We do not live in a country where we can have 30 to 40 people, otherwise healthy, die at home. We have had 500 Australians die in this third wave of the outbreak. People might try to write that off and say, 'Well, it's good; look overseas,' but that's irrelevant. Look at our experience and look at what it means as we open up. Everyone tells us there will be more cases. It will rip through the schools and the places where we have large gatherings.

It's great that we are vaccinated to the levels we are. It's absolutely fantastic. It will provide protection. But our hospitals are under enormous pressure. Why is it that we are not being told what that means? We in this country are not used to having health care rationed or not having health care available if we need it. I hope the Commonwealth has a plan to make sure that doesn't happen, but I'm not given the confidence that I need, with the knowledge that I have and the experience that I've just come through, when the Commonwealth hides this information. They will not tell us what the hospitals will look like. They will not tell us what they are doing and will do to keep people safe. They're not telling us how they're going to keep health services going.

We know people are not accessing health services as they normally would. We know cancer diagnoses are down. Screening programs are down. This is all explainable in a global pandemic sense, but what is going to happen? What is the national plan on this, and why is the Prime Minister hiding this information? It does make one believe that the only reason he's hiding this information and not providing it is that he doesn't want people to know, and that's an even more serious abrogation of responsibility. We're used to that, in a sense, but, honestly, it's the least this Prime Minister can do to pay back the work that we have all done.