Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to bring to the Senate's attention the tragedy occurring in West Africa with the outbreak of the Ebola crisis. In doing so I recognise that yet another day has passed with more Ebola infections in West Africa, another day of more deaths due to Ebola in West Africa, and yet another day of the Abbott government sitting on its hands and failing to take the advice of the medical experts and provide the assistance on the ground to support those in West Africa.

I also bring to the attention of the Senate the important work that is being done by a small group of dedicated members of the Sierra Leonean community in Australia, many of them based in my home state of Tasmania, responding to the worsening Ebola crisis in West Africa. Whilst in the midst of this humanitarian and medical emergency facing the world, there has been this widespread concern about the Australian government being slow to take action and to respond to the crisis with the seriousness that it very much deserves, one group has not been slow to react, and that is SEAGA, the Salone Ebola Action Group Australia. SEAGA has been formed by concerned and active members of the Sierra Leonean community. It has chapters throughout the states and territories. Through their networks of family and friends in West Africa, these are the people who have been most aware of what is happening on the ground and they have decided that they themselves must take action to address the terrible developments they have been hearing about.

The depths of the losses felt in Sierra Leone and their impact on the community here cannot be overstated. Many individuals have had loved ones who have fallen victim to the epidemic. One particularly tragic example of this is Isaiah Lahai, a member of the community in Hobart. Four months ago his nephew in Sierra Leone contracted Ebola after visiting a hospital to help victims of the disease. He died soon after. Since then, the outbreak has spread more widely and has claimed a further seven members of his family. The impact on Mr Lahai, and on his wife and five children is understandably very deep. He is in constant contact with his relatives to monitor their situation, fearing their loss. Despite these shocks Isaiah has responded to the crisis not by retreating into grief—I am sure, though, that he is suffering grief—or by being dispirited by the inaction of Australian government authorities. Instead, with his fellow members of SEAGA, he has been taking constructive and concrete action to assist the Sierra Leonean government and its health workers to combat the spread of the epidemic and care for its victims.

On Wednesday, 22 October, I met with Isaiah and with the national coordinator of SEAGA, Mr Ansumana Usman Koroma, in my office in Hobart to hear about the work the association is undertaking and what they need from the Commonwealth to assist them in helping the effort over there.

The Ebola outbreak has reached a point that is beyond the capacity of the government of Sierra Leone to contain on its own. The weakness in the current health infrastructure is made worse by the shortage of medical staff and basic protective gear like gloves, aprons, face masks and so on to control the disease, as well as equipment like IV fluids and cannulas.

Sierra Leone's chief medical officer, Dr Brima Kargbo, has provided SEAGA with a list of medical equipment and supplies that are needed for the set-up of treatment centres and to support the ones already in existence in the virus epicentre districts of Kailahun and Kenema. Working off this list—which I saw—and engaging with international donors, SEAGA has filled a shipping container with supplies and equipment that has now, as we speak, been sent off across to Freetown, the capital, by sea. With more assistance from the Australian government they may have been able to send all of this equipment via air to get the supplies there faster and to meet the urgent need for them. The national medical associations like the Australian Medical Association and the Public Health Association of Australia, as well as international ones like Medecins Sans Frontieres, have called for the Australian government to do more to assist in this crisis—and rightly so. The United States Security Council and President Obama have called explicitly for personnel to go to West Africa. Labor has written to the Abbott government to give its backing to the AMA's request for support for the recruitment and deployment of volunteer doctors and other health professionals to West Africa, and to provide ongoing practical support such as the provision of medical equipment and supplies, and transport and accommodation.

We already have Australians volunteering on the ground, and we need to both ensure that they are properly looked after and to expand their numbers by giving other prospective volunteers the assurance that they will also receive appropriate assistance. Labor has also supported the AMA's call to deploy the Australian Medical Assistance Teams—AUSMAT—that include doctors, nurses, paramedics, fire fighters and allied health staff who can rapidly respond to crises like this one. The government, however, has still not taken action in response to these calls. Instead it is falling to the community and to groups like SEAGA to step into the breach and to provide the sort of help that the people and the governments of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea desperately need. We cannot simply sit back and wait for the Ebola crisis to resolve itself without intervention and assistance from Australia and the international community. The idea that it is acceptable to hold back until it comes to our region is both dangerous and unrealistic.

I very much pay homage to the hard work of Mr Isaiah Lahai, Ansumana Koroma and SEAGA in their organisation to give aid to Sierra Leone, and I also offer my condolences to Mr Lahai for the losses in his family. After fundraising $7,000 for the first container, they are now working on the next one. And until the Abbott government steps up and starts fulfilling its international obligations to address this global crisis, it is small dedicated community groups like the Salone Ebola Action Group Australia that we must rely on to undertake essential tasks and to provide an important part of our contribution to the international effort. Certainly though, it is not good enough—especially when the Abbott government did, in fact, support the resolution stating that it would indeed provide more assistance. In that I very much support my parliamentary colleagues—the deputy opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek; and the shadow minister for health, Catherine King—who have been calling for more substantial Australian involvement for several months. They have written to the Abbott government requesting immediate arrangements to deploy Australian Medical Assistance Teams to West Africa and to support other specialist Australian personnel such as doctors and nurses who are willing and able to assist in preventing the spread of Ebola.

It is through the work that these shadow ministers have done that it was revealed at Senate estimates that the US and the UK, two of Australia's most important international allies, had asked Australia to give greater assistance over a month ago, and yet we have still done nothing. While the British are reportedly sending 750 people to help in Sierra Leone and the US has dispatched 3,000 people to Sierra Leone, as well as personnel from South Africa, China and Cuba, the Abbott government is still ignoring advice to assist in putting people on the ground. So tonight I urge the Abbott government to put people on the ground, to join with its international partners, like it does on so many other issues, and to give the necessary support and help that is needed to end this Ebola crisis before it becomes even worse, but, more importantly, to give the support necessary to the people in West Africa who are suffering and who continue to suffer every day as they continue to contract this deadly disease and lose their loved ones.

Senate adjourned at 22:58