Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

NE (—) (): It is interesting to listen to the contributions this evening by senators in this place. For the past two years Australians have come together to get through this pandemic. Essentially that's been the core message from the motion of Senator Chisholm: how many Australians are coming together, and have come together, to get through these very difficult and unprecedented times. However, by respecting one another and receiving advice from leaders and experts, we have kept safe our friends and families and many other loved ones throughout our various communities, which are represented in this place.

Of course there have been rules that have been difficult to follow, and there have been different rules in different parts of the country. While some directions might not have been intuitive to some of us, the vast majority of Australians have understood that defeating COVID is the core goal here. Defeating COVID is important, because if we don't then there will be other consequences that we will face. What we have seen around the world is that for those that have not been at the front of the curve there have been thousands upon thousands upon thousands of deaths every single week.

Despite the Morrison-Joyce government completely bungling the vaccine rollout, most Australians turned up to get their jab as soon as they could. That was because of many decisions that were taken by state governments, rather than by the federal government. Many of these Australians—in fact, over 90 per cent of these Australians, the vast majority of Australians—have trusted the science. They've trusted their doctors. They have trusted the many experts in the healthcare professions and they got vaccinated not just to protect themselves but to protect their loved ones. This trust is the very foundation of our society. None of us can be an expert on everything, and I don't think anyone in this place claims to be, but we do trust in others to provide us with advice and guidance on very complicated and complex issues. That's why we have departments. That's why we listen to experts. I know there are many individuals in this place and in the other place who are very sceptical about some of the advice that they receive, but, thankfully, the vast majority of us do take on advice from scientists.

Certain members of the government—and many have been outlined in Senator Chisholm's motion—have consistently undermined and attacked the information that Australians are relying on to keep them safe, and that is core to our debate today. Members of this government have used their platforms as elected representatives to spread mistruths and disinformation about vaccines and about other important public health measures. It's interesting to listen to those opposite who claim that we somehow are lecturing them. If you listened to the contributions that were made then one might have to say that it is a bit of a lecture from others to tell us that we are wrong when we point out that health experts should be taken seriously. Yes, they can be critiqued, and, yes, we should be able to question their advice, but at the end of the day, when you have multiple health experts around the country in very different jurisdictions saying the same thing, one has to ask: how can they be wrong?

These members of the government have stoked the flames of division in our communities, feeding the worst of our instincts. They have done their best to turn Australians against each other rather than unite them. Thanks to those members, some Australians now no longer trust their family doctor. If you believe some of their harmful ideas, our hardworking nurses and paramedics are all part of a worldwide conspiracy instead of being the selfless heroes most of us know they are. Instead of focusing on creating jobs and cutting bills, members of this government are detracting from the efforts of all Australians to beat this virus and get on with their lives.