David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

With the Governor-General's address yesterday we heard a long speech and a lot of words, but so far we've seen a government that is low on action—if any. It's taken them over two months to recall parliament, and it's only going to sit for eight weeks this year. To anyone, that shows a government that is just not prepared to govern, except in very few circumstances. But the Labor Party is now in government and they have been charged with governing Australia and being a government for the people.

The Labor Party's true colours are already beginning to show, and it is clear that, with this government, you have to look not at what they say but what they do. The Labor Party say one thing but do another. Prime Minister Albanese said recently he wants to lead a government that does things. However, the only thing this government has done so far is backflip on policy and support their vested interests. Since the Labor Party has to power, we have seen backflip after backflip. In fact, I think this government should be heading to the Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games to compete in gymnastics, with the number of backflips they have already done in such a short period of time.

Look at their approach to COVID-19. As we are in the midst of an outbreak, one of the worst since the pandemic began, I think it is important to revisit the Labor Party's plan to beat COVID-19. It is interesting that this government has been so silent on their four-point plan. For two years, we had them carping on from the side of the chamber about the handling of COVID. Yet, here we are; they are now on those benches, and they have nothing to say. Given their silence, I will remind them of their four-point plan. First, 'We're going to fix the vaccine rollout'—despite over 95 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over being fully vaccinated. Their second point: build dedicated quarantine facilities. No wonder they have backflipped on that one, seeing how the Queensland Labor government are currently paying $300,000 a day to a medical company to provide healthcare services at its almost empty Wellcamp quarantine facility.