Andrew McLachlan (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take a very differing view. I, like the leader of the government, have a very firm view that our quarantine policy and implementation have been exceptional and recognised around the world for achieving great success in fighting COVID and its encroachment on our lives in this country. The government has supported over 60,000 Australians to return, including 32,000 on 212 facilitated flights that brought 32,000 people. We worked in partnership with every state across the political divide to deliver quarantine facilities so that Australians can return to the arms of their families.

As the COVID impacts have evolved, so have the government responses. The government has invested $513.5 million into Howard Springs, with the capacity for 2,000 returned travellers. That is the language and action of success. The Centres for National Resilience are under construction in Melbourne, with a capacity of 1,000; in Brisbane, a capacity of 500; and in Perth, a capacity of 500. The government's response to the COVID crisis evolves, as it should. The government is flexible in its response and committed to ensuring that Australians remain safe and also that Australians overseas can return home through a process that keeps everyone in the community safe and healthy.

The Centres for National Resilience will have an ongoing role as part of the government's national response. There is a need for purpose-built quarantine for people who are travelling to Australia from high-risk locations or who are unable to quarantine at home. These centres will provide adequate, enduring capability that will assist the Commonwealth now and into the future with health and other crises. The centres will be built and owned by the Commonwealth, and they'll be operated by the state governments. Implicit in my honourable friend's contribution, prior to mine, was a criticism of state governments. The state governments have worked in partnership with the Commonwealth. My honourable friend from the opposite side implicitly has been criticising his own state Labor governments; I do not do so.

The government is working quickly to ensure that construction of the centres is completed as soon as possible. In Victoria, we expect construction of the first 250 beds will be completed by the end of 2021 and the next 250 in mid-January, with the last 500 of a thousand beds completed in the first quarter of 2022. In Western Australia and Queensland, we are working towards construction of the first 500 beds at each site being completed by the first quarter of 2022. This capacity is in addition to the existing capacity of up to 2,000 beds at Howard Springs. The government will make further decisions, if it is necessary, as circumstances unfold.

I would like to take this opportunity, in response to the contribution of my honourable friend Senator Ayres, to say that the leadership shown by the Prime Minister has been unwavering in its commitment to the health and safety of all Australians. He has created a national cabinet, which has enabled us, as a government, to work in partnership with the states to deliver the services required—including the vaccines, as my honourable friend mentioned—to those that need them. There is an easy opportunity—well, an opportunity, for many in the community, as is their right, to criticise the government's response, but I think people need to appreciate that this government has, each and every day, to look upon new circumstances and adjust its response to meet the same. I congratulate the Prime Minister on his leadership during this time, and I look forward to it continuing into the new year as the government works extraordinarily hard to ensure that we have, and continue to have, the lowest fatality rates, the highest vaccination rates and, importantly, the strongest economy. (Time expired)