Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens acknowledge that the Australian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including access to vaccination, saved the lives of many people and ensured that our communities were protected from the very worst of the COVID-19 related illnesses. We saw in other countries where they did not have the same access to vaccines that many, many more people died from a preventable disease. This was a tragedy and it needs to be recognised in this debate that vaccines save lives. Access to safe and affordable vaccines is especially important for the health and safety of immunocompromised people, disabled people, people living in residential aged care and First Nations people.

The Australian Greens also acknowledge that the experience during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the wellbeing and mental health of many people in different ways, and some people continue to experience harm as a result. I am eagerly awaiting the report detailing the findings of the Commonwealth Government COVID-19 Response Inquiry. It is my hope that this report will provide clear, tangible recommendations for improvements for future pandemics. We must ensure that our governance frameworks for future pandemics are created and formulated in such a way that people are not left in vulnerable situations nor left to experience discrimination.

In the context of the COVID-19 Vaccination Status (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2022, there are a few areas that I want to reflect on, which relate to improvements I'd like to see following the COVID-19 pandemic. The first area of priority for reviewing our response is the treatment of disabled people. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted disabled people. Many people experienced, and some are still experiencing, extended periods of being locked in their homes, shielded from the world to protect themselves. Many people experienced discrimination in hospital wards, where doctors were forced to make policy decisions that saw disabled people's lives valued less than abled people's lives.

Just think about that, as a person going into your local hospital. Maybe, through the course of your life, you've had other negative experiences with being in medical settings. You've said, 'I'm in pain,' and you haven't been believed, and you've said, 'I need help,' and help hasn't come. In a moment of real, serious fear, you go to that space in need of help, and you are made to feel as though there is, or you are proactively informed of, a policy which, regardless of the intent, has the end effect of treating your life, health and safety as less valuable than that of a non-disabled member of the community. It was a truly terrifying time. There are countless more examples of how state and territory and federal government policies can be improved to uphold the rights of disabled people in a pandemic.

The second matter that I'd like to raise in my contribution today is the impact of ongoing poor health. I'd like to reaffirm that vaccinations saved lives through the pandemic, and I would also like to acknowledge that, for some people who received a vaccination, they did experience injury from that vaccination. The Australian Greens have heard from the community that the government's response to vaccine injury, particularly the vaccine injury inquiry, has been inadequate. There have been insufficient commitments to long-term research into support for people experiencing vaccine injury, and the compensation program has been too narrow in its criteria to support people.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme, which provides compensation for people who experience vaccine injury, is due to conclude on 30 September. The Australian Greens believe that this scheme should be extended beyond this date as there are still people receiving COVID-19 vaccinations right now, and there should be a review into the program to understand how the eligibility criteria could be improved.

The pandemic caused a decline in many people's mental health, and many people are still experiencing poor mental health as a result. Too many people are still not able to access the mental health supports that they urgently need. This is because, in a cost-of-living crisis, appointments with counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists and GPs are simply too expensive. Cost should never be a barrier for people accessing health care in this country. This government could be doing so much more to invest in the wellbeing of our community. The Greens priority is for far more mental health services to be available under Medicare, with a return to 20 sessions available under the Better Access scheme, and for investment in the peer support workforce.

In closing, the Australian Greens believe that we need a comprehensive review of policy settings of state, territory and federal governments. Implementing this bill without taking a panoramic approach, driven by a panoramic view, to adjusting policy settings is not the way to best support our community right now or into future pandemics.

Lastly, the Australian Greens are calling on the Australian government to hurry up and meet their election promise of funding a national centre for disease control. We need a coordinated and comprehensive approach to managing future pandemics, and a fully funded CDC is a key milestone in achieving that goal.