Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Australians have made it clear they are angry about Mr Morrison's failures on vaccine and quarantine. Mr Morrison knows his old pitches have fallen flat, so now he's promising to deliver on an Australia without restrictions, never mind the failures to deliver on all his old promises. He promised a COVID-normal Christmas last Christmas, and he's failed to deliver on all his other promises: that Australians would be at the front of the vaccine queue; that all aged-care workers and residents and all Australians with disability and disability-care workers would be vaccinated by Easter; that four million Australians would be vaccinated by the end of March; that everyone over 70 would be vaccinated by the start of winter; and, of course, that all Australians would be vaccinated by October. He's failed to deliver on all these old promises, so now he's just making new ones. If people have the nerve to question how he's going to deliver his new promises, he just attacks them and tells them they're the problem. He mocks people for being 'in the cave' without admitting he's the reason we're in it. He's more interested in political attacks than talking about how we get out of this safely: contact tracing that can keep up; vaccinating vulnerable communities, older Australians, those living with disability and First Nations Australians; and a plan to protect our children. He's failed to do his job, and now Mr Morrison's lockdowns are bringing us all down. Even if we're not in lockdown, we can't see loved ones who are. The last thing we all need is more promises. Mr Morrison is the one who got Australia into this mess, but he's just not the one to get us out of it.