Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

As the answers—or non-answers, I might say—given by government senators to questions asked by Labor senators today reveal, we have a massive lack of certainty in relation to our path out of COVID. This is not due to scientific uncertainty, as the government has tried to argue in the past. It is due to their lack of transparency and of accountability for the issues our nation confronts.

Only yesterday, or the day before, we heard from the Prime Minister that once we get to an 80 per cent vaccination rate we will have a pathway out of lockdowns and an end to lockdowns. Today we heard that the government is finally prepared to mirror what the Doherty modelling itself shows, which is that, yes, we need higher levels of vaccination, but they are not a pathway out of the uncertainty of lockdowns. Absolutely, we must have a very high vaccination level in order to minimise lockdowns. But, as we have seen from the Doherty modelling, the modelling done by the Burnet Institute and the many previous iterations of coronavirus lockdowns, there is a relationship between locking down and managing the spread of the virus. It's been apparent all along, and yet this government does not seem to want to own up to that at all. Yes, we are in a race to get vaccinated in order to minimise disruption to the Australian community, but that does not guarantee a pathway for us out of lockdowns, particularly at 70 per cent vaccination rates. If we see 70 per cent of the Australian population vaccinated, which we are way off—way, way off—achieving, and we then let COVID rip when it comes into our country, there will be thousands and thousands of deaths. Tragically, there have been deaths in New South Wales in recent days, including the deaths of young people. We know we have to lift the vaccination rate among younger Australians.

We also need to look at the level of vaccination that's taking place regionally. Again, in answers to questions asked by Labor senators today, the government refused to be transparent about vaccination rates at a regional level. How can we have an aspirational target of 70 per cent or 80 per cent and say, 'Yes, once we reach those vaccination rates, it's going to give us clarity about how we manage lockdowns with some efficacy,' when this government refuses to disclose what the vaccination rates actually are in different communities? There is a complete lack of accountability and transparency. This government has given a contract to Accenture for software maintenance and support. They have paid out $6.6 million. We're paying for Commonwealth data. There's a lucrative contract here. And yet this government will not tell us how many Australians are vaccinated, region by region, under its GP vaccination program.

We've got better data from the states, with their mass vaccination programs. You can see from those programs and that transparency that, in Victoria, for example, there are regions like Gippsland that have lower vaccination rates because they're not as close to a large vaccination hub. But what you can also see is that those very same regions have lower access to GPs, and it is therefore more likely that they would have a lower vaccination rate. So here we have this government refusing to— (Time expired)

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

It's great to be able to free-range across all these questions that the Labor senators asked, because again it will give us an opportunity to show just how wrong they are, as always. Where do we start? Let's start with the national plan for the rollout. The government has set out, based on the clearest evidence possible, from one of the most reputable institutions in this country, if not in the world, the Doherty Institute, that we will phase out through this as our vaccinations go forward. It's built on the premise that, if you get vaccinated, we can make lockdowns and border closures and restrictions a thing of the past, or at least reduce them, or restrict them to local areas or to people who aren't vaccinated, for example. So this uniquely Australian plan is based on medical evidence outlined in the Doherty report and on the economic modelling from Treasury.

What seems to have happened on the benches on that side and particularly in Labor states is 'I'll look only at the health advice and ignore any economic advice'. We certainly saw that last year in my home state of Victoria, where 130 days—now a cumulative six months—of lockdown wiped out thousands of businesses. I hear the heartbreak of those people who call me every day to tell me how they lost their business. One of my favourite cafes is around the corner from me in St Kilda. It had a notice up on its door, which my wife sent me a photo of, saying that they just couldn't cope any longer with that last lockdown. It knocked the legs out from under them for the last time. They're not reopening after the lockdown. This is the tragedy that Labor won't see, because they've never met a business that they didn't hate.

This plan gives every Australian a target that as a country we can move towards, and then each state and territory must also reach their own targets. I think the fear in most Australians' minds is that once we've hit these targets—and these targets and this plan were agreed in National Cabinet—are the states actually going to follow them? We saw last year in Victoria that the Andrews government agreed to things in national cabinet and then walked out and did the complete opposite. It was woeful. That's why there's so much devastation in businesses, so many people who are lonely and such high mental ill health rates in Victoria. People are now triggered by the word 'lockdown' in Victoria. We've had five. There are cases there today, and I have no doubt that the chief health officer is whispering in Premier Andrews's ear, 'Why don't we go and do that?'

Senator Pratt interjecting —

You want to talk about how many months of things? What about the six months that the Andrews government has locked down Victorians? I'll take the interjections all day, every day, Senator Pratt. Come on. Bring it on. I would love to debate you on this. Are you allowed back into your state without quarantining? I don't think so. So keep up the interjections; I'll take them all the time.

The plan is clear. Phase A is where we are now, and we are seeing lockdowns. Phase B is when we hit 70 per cent of adults, aged 16-plus, fully vaccinated. We're making great progress towards this target, with over a million doses a week going into the arms of Australians, and that rate is growing each week. The stats show very clearly how the time taken for every million doses given to Australians is dropping. I think it was down to six days for every million the last time I looked. We need to keep increasing these vaccination rates. Those opposite have done everything possible to try and stop people having confidence in the vaccine rollout. They haven't got behind AstraZeneca. They're trying to put thought bubbles out about $300 so that people might hesitate and not get it so we don't hit those rates. Our national plan will work, and those opposite need to get behind it and get behind Australians for once.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I want to comment briefly on the remarks made by Senator Van before me in this debate taking note of questions by Labor senators. He said that Labor have never met a business we don't hate. It's completely absurd and offensive commentary from Senator Van , given that the nature of debate in this chamber today has been about economic support for individuals and economic support for businesses. I know that I personally have been supporting businesses and businessowners through this time who have suffered tremendously because of these lockdowns—not just economically and financially but in terms of their mental health—and are really, really struggling. To suggest that I or other senators in this place hate businesses, when we are currently trying to support them through something extremely tough, and something your government has contributed to, is horrifically offensive and disgusting.

But to the matter at hand, the questions raised by Labor senators in parliament in question time today that we're taking note of: can we just look at the facts? Only 15 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated. We know that the order of vaccination we need to see to have some kind of road map or plan out of this is well above that. We're talking 70 to 80 per cent—in that frame. We're at 15 per cent. Senator Colbeck couldn't even answer the specific questions that we had around the levels of vaccination in certain parts of Australia and, in particular, vulnerable parts of Australia. He says the rollout's continuing to gather pace. Seriously, mate? Seriously? That's the best you've got? You can't answer specific questions about where we're at in the vaccine rollout when we know we need to get much, much higher. We need to see less back patting from this government, and more arm jabbing. It's ridiculous.

We need to get the vaccine rollout on track. We need jabs in arms. That is our ticket out of these lockdowns, which are causing enormous distress in my home state of South Australia and, of course, enormous distress in New South Wales, where they've been going on for weeks and weeks. And there are weeks and weeks—at least—of lockdown in the future for the people of New South Wales. Who knows what the future holds for Queensland. And we have a government. while this is going on, that just shrug their shoulders and say: 'We'll be right. She'll be right, mate. It'll be okay. We'll get there.' Well, Australians are sick of your complacency. Businesses are sick of your complacency. Australians are sick of your complacency, and they're sick of your blame-shifting. You had two jobs: the vaccine rollout and fixing the mess of quarantine. How are you doing on both of those? Less patting yourself on the back, please, and more jabs in arms. I think that would be a really, really good place to start.

South Australia recently went through a week of lockdown. I know it was only a week, and I acknowledge the states around Australia who are going through or have gone through a lockdown much longer than that. But even one week of lockdown has had tremendously difficult impacts on people in my home state. It impacted their mental health, their wellbeing and their social connectedness. It impacted businesses and unemployment. It impacted people who couldn't work from home and who didn't have a job to go to if their business was shut down, if their workplace was shut down. It impacted the essential workers who went to work every day, at great personal risk to themselves and to their families, to keep our economy moving, to keep us safe, to keep essential services open during a lockdown. Many of these workers aren't vaccinated, many haven't been eligible for a vaccination yet. They're working on our checkouts and in our supermarkets; they're driving our buses and our trains; they're working in essential businesses and essential jobs. They are waiting for this vaccine rollout to ramp up. They're waiting for vaccinations to become available so that they can book in. They're waiting to have their jabs so that they can be safe and protected at work. That's what they're waiting for this Commonwealth government to do. They're two pretty simple things: the vaccination rollout and fixing the mess of hotel quarantine, which contributed to these outbreaks in the first place.

Lockdowns are a necessary tool in combating the Delta variant—I understand and appreciate that, and Australians do too—but we do expect the Commonwealth government to do everything they can with all the policy levers they have available to minimise the impacts of this, to minimise the likelihood of future lockdowns and to minimise the impacts on people living through them and experiencing them. It's not about expecting you to have perfect 20/20 vision in hindsight; it's about expecting you to respond to what's in front of you and to do the best by your fellow Australians, to use every lever in your arsenal to fight this and to make it easier for those Australians doing it tough.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can't help but start by once again calling out the inane comment from senators opposite—they keep using it—that the Prime Minister and the government only had two jobs. What nonsense is this? It shows a complete lack of understanding, a complete lack of insight into what it actually takes to govern this country—particularly in a pandemic.

We can go through the questions that were asked today, but I'm going to stay on the vaccine rollout because there are some key points that Australians do need to understand about the vaccine rollout—in particular, how the vaccine rollout has ramped up significantly over the past few months. In March of this year, 770,000 vaccines were distributed into people; April, 1.4 million; May, 2.1 million; June, 3.4 million; July, 4.5 million. We are now regularly hitting over a million doses of vaccine administered to Australians each and every week. In the last seven days, it was 1.2 million. The total doses administered so far is 12.5 million. I have that written down here, but I think we are actually up to about 12.8 million as of today. Every Australian who hears those figures knows that the vaccine rollout has ramped up significantly over the past few months to the point where in July, as I said, 4.5 million doses were delivered to Australians across this country.

Do we need to see those rates continue? Absolutely. But those rates will mean that all those Australians who want a vaccine will be able to get one. There have been 12.5 million doses administered and we're up to a million doses a week. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise that this will get the job done.

Have there been setbacks? Absolutely. The Prime Minister has been absolutely open about this. I myself was hit with one of the changes of advice from ATAGI. I was booked for my AstraZeneca vaccine. I'm going to reveal my age here, which is a bit sad. I don't like doing that.

Senator Wong interjecting—

I know, but nobody looks at the internet, Senator Wong! I was booked for the AstraZeneca vaccine and then that unfortunately wasn't possible because of the changed ATAGI rule. I was then rebooked for the Pfizer vaccine, which I have now had. In the long run, I will actually be fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine before I would have been with the AstraZeneca vaccine due to the different times between the first and second doses of those two options.

They are both very good vaccines. They're very efficacious and offer a lot of protection to the people of Australia. As I have done before, and as I will continue to do, I urge everyone to get vaccinated, particularly my fellow Western Australians. We are sadly a little bit behind on the leaderboard in the rollout. We are a little bit behind in the progress of the vaccination rollout in Western Australia. I would urge all my fellow Western Australian citizens to get their names on those lists and register for their vaccination to enable all of us as we move through the road map over the next few months to have as much protection for ourselves, our loved ones and the communities in which we live as humanly possible.

We also have to remember as we continue this vaccination rollout that the path taken by the Australian government, with the absolute cooperation of the Australian people, has saved a large number of lives. Something like 30,000 lives have been saved by taking the path we have. Obviously it's difficult in the current environment with the outbreak of the delta variant, and we are again facing these challenges. But I know that the Australian people will step up to the mark and do what is required to be done over these next few difficult weeks and months ahead. Above all, I know that they will register and that they are registering for those vaccines that are available.

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

[by video link] As I speak to you now it's more than 12 months on from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia. Millions of Australians are living under lockdown. Just to pick up a remark by Senator Brockman, we are not just a little bit behind; Australia is in fact 36th out of the 38 OECD nations. The government just dismisses that as if somehow we are doing okay, but quite frankly we are not. If it weren't for the opposition and others in the health profession putting pressure on government, we would still be dead last.

In recent weeks citizens right around the country have at some point been confined to their homes in a very drastic attempt to stop the spread of this deadly virus. It pains me to learn just how much these lockdowns have impacted upon the lives of many locals in my community here in Victoria, with families separated and livelihoods lost. But why must it be this way? Why is it that, after more than 12 months, restrictions continue to be a feature of our daily lives?

As we look overseas, it is not hard to identify what at least part of the answer might be. Countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Israel tower over Australia in the proportion of their populations that have been vaccinated. In these countries, as in many others, a new COVID normal has been allowed to develop, one which is for most part free—free of lockdowns, curfews and other harsh measures, which limit the freedom of the citizenry. There can be no doubt that a key element of our pathway out of this mess is through vaccination. It's very simple. Sufficiently vaccinated Australians will help end the lockdowns, each inflicting billions of dollars of losses on businesses, both big and small. It will help in the border closures, the constantly cancelled holiday plans and help us all get back to work. Australia's lag in vaccination rates is hardly a new phenomenon. They have been lagging since day 1. Whether it's been insufficient supply, hesitation or any other concern in between, more needs to be done.

This week Labor announced another element of its positive alternative plan to help Australia combat and recover from the coronavirus pandemic. It's these incentives that can indeed help play an important role in helping us all to get our vaccination rates where they need to be, and by no means is Labor alone in suggesting such measures. Offering incentives has been an important element of many other country's plans to combat the pandemic in a positive manner. Sadly, those opposite have dismissed such measures out of hand. We are not making excuses for their own failings on vaccinations. Of course, this isn't the first time a coalition has dismissed Labor's positive suggestions out of hand. Do we remember JobKeeper? The measure was credited with saving countless jobs right around the country. Given the victory laps we have seen from the government, one could be forgiven for forgetting that this wasn't even their idea. It's not just that it wasn't their idea; when Labor and those in the union movement first suggested it, those opposite also dismissed it completely out of hand.

My hope is that the government will once again perform the same about-face on this initiative. My hope is that instead of pointing the fingers at others for their own failings that the coalition will see merit in this suggestion from Labor and implement it. If we are about to get where we need to be, it is imperative we get jabs in arms. Any measure that gets us to that point should be entertained. To reject such measures simply because they came from Labor is irresponsible. I call on those in the government to stop the spin and to start getting on with the job of keeping all Australians safe.

Question agreed to.