Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm just worried about them. One of their offices is next to mine. The lights are on, but nobody is home. The question is: are they in witness protection, or are they voluntarily not attending? I'll leave senators to reflect on that question. Senator McMahon and Senator Canavan, the other two rebel senators, the vaccine senators—at least they've got the courage to be in here.

What I am really here to talk about is the government's failure to deal with the COVID pandemic and the government's failure to manage its quarantine responsibilities. In the face of a national crisis, some governments rise to the occasion and some governments wilt. Former Prime Minister Menzies wilted in the face of Australia's existential crisis in the Second World War. Prime Ministers Curtin and then Chifley rose to the occasion, united Australia, got the strategy right and built a postwar Australia that was the foundation for the second half of the 20th century. The Morrison government's approach to the COVID pandemic looks a lot more like Menzies's approach—and failure—to the Second World War than it does to a government that really grasps its responsibilities. In the face of the COVID pandemic, Mr Morrison has been incapable of taking action when it's required. He's certainly been incapable of taking responsibility, and he's been incapable of grasping his own role in a time of national crisis.

The failures on quarantine are of course not the only failure of the Morrison government. Its failure on delivering vaccines for Australia at the promised time, in time to avoid the Southern Hemisphere winter, have been described as the biggest public policy failure in Australian history. Mr Morrison failed to purchase the vaccines in time, and when everything went wrong—