Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that I have received the following letter from Senator Lines:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

"The need for Morrison-Joyce Government to stop blaming First Nations Australians and instead take responsibility for its bungled vaccine rollout, the dangerous situation in Western New South Wales and its failure to prepare and protect First Nations communities across Australia from the spread of COVID, including a failure to properly communicate and ensure access to health facilities, food security, adequate housing and isolation places."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Lines, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for Morrison-Joyce Government to stop blaming First Nations Australians and instead take responsibility for its bungled vaccine rollout, the dangerous situation in Western New South Wales and its failure to prepare and protect First Nations communities across Australia from the spread of COVID, including a failure to properly communicate and ensure access to health facilities, food security, adequate housing and isolation places.

Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] In early March 2020 the Australian government convened the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on COVID-19 to develop and deliver a national management plan to protect communities and save lives. The four-phase plan developed included: firstly, preparedness; secondly, developing advice on a range of actions to prevent sustained community transmission; thirdly, developing an effective response to outbreaks in communities, including the potential deployment of mobile respiratory clinics; and, fourthly, standdown and evaluation.

Lessons learned from this plan were to be incorporated into future national pandemic planning. In the event of positive coronavirus cases in remote communities, provision was made to evacuate early cases to enable an effective response and limit exposure to other community members. Work was done towards opening GP led respiratory clinics to provide advice and health care to people with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms, while reducing the pressure on hospitals and the risk of transmission by visits to regular GP clinics. The advisory group, which became known as the task force, agreed the preparation of culturally appropriate and consistent advice to First Nations health services and communities was a priority.

Obviously, at the start of the pandemic vaccines were pretty much over the horizon, so planning for the rollout wasn't included in the initial planning phase. But the point here is that there was a plan. There was clear communication about the threat of COVID to First Nations people. Communities locked down and took their own initiatives to restrict visitors. The community based and controlled First Nations media organisations rolled out some innovative and creative content to get the message out. The government backed them with a small amount of funding, but what they did with that money was remarkable. Some great ads promoting good hygiene were produced, and jingles and songs were written and broadcast, with community leaders and identities leading the way. They used social media, radio and local leaders to get the facts out and keep communities safe, informing people about the importance of washing hands, keeping 1.5 metres apart and keeping movement to a minimum, and developing new ways to observe cultural obligations like sorry business. The government backed First Nations communities and organisations to get the job done. Community controlled organisations worked together to inform people about the facts. And guess what: until a few days ago we had not lost one elder. Earlier this year, we were celebrating that. In contrast to Indigenous populations in other parts of the world, Australian First Nations people had escaped the pandemic relatively unscathed, with just 147 cases until the start of the year and no deaths.

With all the planning done nearly 18 months ago and with what we knew worked to keep First Nations people and communities safe, all we can ask now is: what the hell happened? Let me tell you: it's not First Nations organisations and people who have dropped the ball and it's not our community controlled health sector; it's not our First Nations media organisations and it's not our housing associations or land councils. They have continued to strongly advocate for the need for adequate vaccine supplies, for health workers to be ready on the ground, for facilities to be set up for people who need to isolate, and for assistance and backing in countering the dangerous misinformation that's getting around.

The Morrison-Joyce government and its ministers keep falling back on the line of vaccine hesitancy. This is their attempt to abrogate all responsibility for the ongoing tragedy that's continuing in western New South Wales. What they say every time they blame vaccine hesitancy for the spiralling caseload is that it's blackfellas' fault for not getting the needle, for believing the stories that are out there and for putting themselves at risk. Well, guess what: I didn't hear them saying that every time a person in Bondi, Byron Bay or the Whitsundays got COVID. I didn't hear the Prime Minister, the health minister or even the Minister for Indigenous Australians saying that those wellness gurus in Byron just needed to overcome their gullible beliefs and their susceptibility to being conned by COVID deniers and just get vaccinated. I don't hear the Prime Minister taking action against members of his coalition who are out there peddling COVID misinformation, directly leading to all kinds of thoughts on vaccine hesitancy. The Morrison government's cowardice in refusing to take strong action against the dangerous lies being spread by their own people, in particular the member for Dawson, is reprehensible. They won't take action because they're too scared he will pack up his bag of conspiracy theories and leave the government facing a by-election. In the words of the Deputy Prime Minister, in an interview last month:

If you start prodding the bear, you're going to make the situation worse for us as a government, not better.

And, further:

I'll say that to my colleagues, I can assure you that when you've got a thin margin, don't start giving reasons for a by-election.

The Morrison-Joyce government are happy enough for one of their own to go around promoting vaccine hesitancy. If one First Nations person says they're concerned about getting the needle, because of the misinformation being spread, such as by the member for Dawson, then it's all about First Nations people being foolish enough to believe what is said. It's their fault for putting lives and communities at risk. That's what this government are saying. It's nothing to do with the failures of their own performance and nothing to do with the Prime Minister's failure to deliver on his promise to vaccinate 1b priority groups by winter. Today, on the first day of spring, less than 21 per cent of First Nations Australians have been fully vaccinated.

The Morrison-Joyce government have failed spectacularly to get messages out there countering the misinformation and directly targeting First Nations audiences. At the outset of the pandemic, Labor supported the government's move to fund community controlled First Nations media organisations to produce and broadcast their messages about staying safe. The funding—and it was only about $230,000—supported local broadcasters to produce and broadcast health and safety materials to address local issues, concerns and misinformation. It also helped broadcasters engage the support of local elders and leaders to pass on the importance and the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic. It worked. The media organisations developed those messages in their language. They were relevant to their audience and they resonated with the community. They weren't messages devised in a boardroom in Canberra or Sydney and farmed out to broadcasters that no-one understood or listened to.

We knew what works. We knew about the vital role that First Nations community controlled organisations have to play, but the Morrison-Joyce government didn't learn. It hasn't listened and it did not prioritise the health and safety of the vulnerable. Its priorities have been made very clear in this vaccine rollout. This government prioritises the implementation of the harmful and unproven cashless debit card over keeping First Nations communities safe from COVID. The proof's there. This government has translated material about the cashless debit card into 13 Northern Territory First Nations languages. There are ads spruiking the card on First Nations radio. In print there are ads and articles flogging the benefits of the cashless debit card. There are even items in local council newsletters urging people to sign up. Yet, nationally, radio ads about COVID have been translated into just six First Nations languages and only two here in the Northern Territory. There is a woeful lack of relevant community information. It is completely down to this government being totally unable to hear, consult and coordinate with local First Nations organisations.

Vaccine hesitancy is nothing more than a failure of this government to firmly counter misinformation and to implement a comprehensive communication strategy with First Nations communities in First Nations languages. It's shameful that the Morrison-Joyce government sees no issue with continuing to not listen, to not heed, to not plan and to not care for the most vulnerable Australians in this country: First Nations people, people with disability—those that it said it would have vaccinated by the winter. Prime Minister, you had two jobs, vaccination and quarantine, and you have failed.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to address the Senate on this urgency motion. These are very serious matters, and I will seek to spare you the talking points as we try to address what is a serious and grave situation. I agree with Senator McCarthy: it's not appropriate to blame the people. This is not about blaming any Australian. I don't think it's a good look for politicians to blame people, and I don't think that is what is happening.

The issues here are acute. They are happening in the west of my state, in towns that I've visited and spent quite a bit of time in, like Brewarrina, Bourke, Walgett and Coonamble. They are towns that do not have ritzy facilities. They have, in many cases, quite reasonable medical facilities that are run by passionate people at the AMSs. The whole point of this was to try to keep COVID infections out of these communities for obvious direct health reasons but also because the facilities in these places are not what you would find in Sydney. It would be the same in any Australian state. It doesn't matter who you are, the facilities are not as good in the bush, in most cases, and the sort of treatment that is required for people who contract COVID-19, when it is a serious case, would stretch a basic medical service very heavily. So the objective right now in western New South Wales—and I've spoken to some people that have been there in the past few days—is to try and manage the people who have COVID, as well as can be achieved in those locations. When that is beyond the capacity of medical institutions in those parts of the state, they are taken by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Sydney or to a larger hospital.

The second part of the plan is, of course, to vaccinate people—to vaccinate all the people who live there, because that is the best protection. And what we are seeing across New South Wales is a real commitment to getting vaccinated. I think, today, we've hit 70 per cent for first doses in New South Wales, which is a real feat. I have spoken to people who are from Brewarrina. Their view is that in some ways we have been a victim of our own success and there's been a sense of complacency. There were AstraZeneca vaccines available in these towns, towns like Dubbo, from 25 March this year. They were available, and perhaps there wasn't a sense of urgency. Perhaps that's because the country had done very well. I would argue, given how many remote Indigenous communities there are in Australia, the country is still doing very well at keeping COVID-19 out of these communities. There is COVID-19 in western New South Wales; there is also COVID-19 in the town that I grew up in, in northern Victoria—in Shepparton. Those are two communities which are dealing with COVID, but there are many, many more remote communities that are not having to deal with COVID. That is one of the reasons that have been put to me that we have not had the level of vaccination take-up that we would have liked. As it stands today, about 35 per cent of Indigenous people have had a first dose. That is not high enough, and that is something that we need to turn around quickly, particularly if there are likely to be further outbreaks, which we want to prevent at all costs.

The other point to make is that, beyond the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the vax hubs that have been set up in these towns, there are the AUSMAT teams. These are Commonwealth government teams, aided by the ADF, and they are going round to people's houses, to their premises, and offering them a vaccination. If you are living in Walgett, which is a lovely little town, you can go along to the mass vax hub—which I'm told is at the local footy oval—or you can be visited by an AUSMAT team or an ADF team to receive a vaccination in your front yard or in your house. That is really now the focus.

Of course, having these communities in lockdown presents the same issues that people have to consider in urban areas. It's only that they are more pronounced, because the technology is not as good. I was talking this morning to another person familiar with the situation, who made the point that homeschooling there is very, very different. Homeschooling is difficult because there is a low level of good internet penetration and there is, of course, in many cases, a lack of technology resources in the form of computers and iPads and the like, which are required to do homeschooling. Anyone who has become familiar with this concept of homeschooling would know that, in public schools, it often does rely upon having some access to the internet and having some access to an iPad or some other sort of tablet in order to facilitate that.

The issues in that part of the state are acute from a health point of view and these very significant other consequences have arisen. Vaccinations are happening now in Dubbo. They're looking at basically 18 sites in the Dubbo LGA. They are providing about 7,000 doses a week, which is a lot of doses in a town like Dubbo. I'm not sure what the exact population is, but it would be around 40,000 or 50,000. I'm expecting to see the vaccination rate go very quickly from 34 per cent on average—and I'm not exactly sure if it's the same in western New South Wales—to the overall populationwide average, which in New South Wales is hitting 70 per cent. These are serious issues. The only way we can manage this is through putting in a lot of resources through the military, through AUSMAT and through the vax hubs and having the additional home support and care that is required in these areas.

I would argue that the objective of keeping COVID-19 out of Indigenous communities has overall largely been met. There has been a high degree of Indigenous input into the management of this pandemic. We have had, sadly, one Indigenous death, but overall it has been a strong performance. We are dealing with this outbreak in western New South Wales. It is in a number of very small towns. I emphasise again for the Senate that Brewarrina and Bourke are really small towns. They were never going to have the capacity to deal with these things on their own. Now that there has been an outbreak we have moved resources into those places. My hope is that we can get on top of these outbreaks pretty quickly. We can't get on top of them without vaccinations, which is why Pfizer shots are now available there. In a bigger town like Dubbo, which has more resources, I'm sure it is a bit easier, but again we do need these shots to go into arms. We are expecting 6,850 doses a week in the Dubbo LGA. It's really important that those go in, because we don't want to lose any more people. Losing one person is more than we should have.

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] We are all without exception affected by COVID-19 and we are all weathering the storm, but we are definitely not in the same boat. There are the haves and the have-nots. The ongoing impacts of colonisation, land dispossession and the theft of our children by the governments of this country mean that our people are already experiencing the worst impacts of an inequality that we did not create. We are not strangers to dealing with infectious diseases to which we have no immunity. When the pandemic hit we led the way in keeping our communities safe, but governments, both Labor and Liberal, sent us body bags before they sent PPE, assuming that we would fail.

Our people are always the ones hit the hardest. Our health, legal assistance and income support services were already under strain before the pandemic because of neglect by Labor and Liberal governments. Don't make out that you care when, when you are in government, you do exactly the opposite of what the people want. Our people were very clear at the start of the pandemic, and for decades before, that we demand homes for all, higher income-support payments so that our babies would not go hungry, the immediate and safe release of imprisoned First Nations people and more resourcing and public money for our health, social support, legal assistance and family violence prevention services. What did we get? We got what the old colonial system has always done to us. We were dismissed, ignored and not allowed self-determination to decide our own destiny as the First Peoples of these lands.

I want to pay my respects to my fellow First Nations senators who have spoken in support of this MPI, particularly Senator Dodson and Senator McCarthy. Too often our people get talked about or spoken for, but we don't get to speak for ourselves. When you've got to deal with black senators in 2021, times have changed, haven't they?

Our people know how to look after ourselves and each other, and we certainly know how to do it better than any Labor or Liberal government. How long have you fellas been here? Just 200 years. We've been doing this for thousands and thousands of generations. When decisions are in our hands, our solutions work and we take care of our communities. That's why we need treaties or a treaty. We are better off when we are free to make the choices that are best for us. But, today, Labor and Liberal governments around the country decide who gets to eat, who gets to be vaccinated and who gets access to a good hospital, based on the colour of your skin.

Our people and our cultures are strong and resilient, and, just like everyone else, we thrive when we can set our own course. We need your solidarity. Our people are dying and our babies are hungry because too many Labor and Liberal governments over decades have pushed— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the absolute catastrophe that is unfolding in First Nations communities in western New South Wales because of the spread of COVID into those vulnerable communities. It was completely avoidable, yet the Morrison government, the Minister for Indigenous Australians Mr Ken Wyatt, Senator Colbeck in this place and, indeed, the Prime Minister are trying to convince us that all is well. It is not well.

Today we have yet another letter from the Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation, pleading with Mr Morrison to send assistance, to put in place specialist quarantine facilities and to help with the overcrowding—something that was foreseeable. This is not the first time this Aboriginal community controlled health organisation has written to the Prime Minister. They wrote to the Prime Minister 18 months ago to say, 'We need an urgent plan.' Senator Colbeck stood in this place today and said, 'Oh, it's all okay because we offered First Nations people vaccines as part of the 1B group.' That's all they did! We've heard about communication failures, vaccine hesitancy and proselytising by religious groups, and all the while the Morrison government is trying to pretend that everything is hunky-dory. Well, it isn't. The Maari Ma corporation know what's going on. They're on the ground in western New South Wales.

We have put this government on notice. Earlier in the week Senator Dodson and I wrote an urgent letter to Minister Wyatt to ask, 'What are you doing about contingency planning in Western Australia?' Many of our remote communities are on the border with South Australia and the Northern Territory, so it's not rocket science to imagine that the disease can spread fairly quickly from western New South Wales into Western Australia. Indeed, we had two truck drivers cross the Nullarbor last Friday who turned out to be COVID positive. That's how quickly it spreads. Yet there's no plan, there's nothing, in place to protect remote communities anywhere in this country. And we've now got the shocking statistic of a man who has passed away in western New South Wales. The responsibility for that rests fairly at the feet of the Morrison government. They're in control of the vaccine rollout and they are in control of quarantine, and they have failed at both of those jobs.

They failed at communication with First Nations communities. They sent white nurses into communities in Western Australia completely unannounced—and they wonder why we've got vaccine hesitancy. It takes communication, it takes elders and it takes cultural leaders to get communities vaccinated. It takes taking the vaccine out. There was the response earlier in the week that pharmacies are now able to give the vaccine. Where do they think the pharmacies are in the remote Kimberley and Pilbara regions in Western Australia? What a joke! It shows you just how out of touch the government are and how they don't really care about what is going on. Western New South Wales is a 'catastrophe'. They are the words being used by the Maari Ma Health corporation. It was absolutely avoidable, and the responsibility sits fairly and squarely with Mr Morrison.

There's time to fix things. There's time to protect other communities. But it needs you to sit down with, listen to and engage with Aboriginal community leaders. Just making vaccines available as part of the 1b group—tick, done—is not good enough. In many of those communities, English is the third or fourth language that is spoken. And what are we doing with our communication? Nothing. In fact, when we met with General Frewen a couple of weeks ago he admitted to us that they hadn't got the communication right. We're 18 months in and we're making fundamental errors like that. We have an uncaring government. The public will judge you. We are watching, and you'd better get to work right now, urgently, and fix the mess that you've created.

Perin Davey (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed by the actions of Labor today in politicising a family's grief, politicising a community's angst and prioritising blame over solutions—which is exactly what they have accused us of doing, but this is what they are doing. I want to put some of the issues raised today in a bit of perspective, including this idea that once delta reached our shores it was still entirely possible to keep it out of our communities. As Senator Lines just said, there was a case of a truck driver, an essential worker with all the right permits, who travelled to Western Australia and, yes, it was then discovered he had COVID.

I want to commend all of the businesses, all of the roadhouses and all of the family businesses across the nation who have in place their COVID-safe plans, because the truth is that the delta variant is causing significant concern right across the world. No country has managed to contain a significant delta outbreak. In fact, we saw in the UK that, even though they had record high vaccination rates, when delta hit their shores, they went back into various stages of restrictions and lockdowns to try and deal with it. It is undeniable that the infectious nature of the delta variant is a significant factor in the situation we're seeing before us not only in regional New South Wales but also in regional Victoria and in Sydney and Melbourne.

I'm not for a moment trying to deny the problems faced by the people of Wilcannia and other communities. But we have been working and will continue to work with our Indigenous communities to find solutions. In fact, in March last year, in the very early stages of the pandemic and before any lockdown, we set up the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group, with Indigenous peoples, because—as is quite rightly said to us all the time—'Don't be the white people telling the Indigenous people what to do; listen to the Indigenous people.' And that's what our government has sought to do.

In late March last year that advisory group had developed a management plan. Indeed, the Maari Ma clinic, which Senator Lines was talking about, from May last year were a recognised GP respiratory clinic doing great work with their people in Wilcannia. From March this year they have transitioned to being a Commonwealth vaccination centre, giving out the AstraZeneca vaccine, and from June this year they've been able to give the Pfizer vaccine. I thank them for what they're doing in their community for their people. But we are also doing other things, because it is not a simple solution. In dealing with COVID there is not a simple solution. We need to take a holistic approach.

I'd like to address some of the other outlandish suggestions by those opposite. I want to draw to Senator Lines's attention and to Labor's attention comments by the first assistant secretary of the vaccine task force during his presentation to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 on 23 July this year, in response to questions that I asked—because I have been asking, through that committee, ever since its establishment: 'Are we rolling out vaccines in regional areas? Are we looking after our Indigenous people?' I've been asking those questions—more so than those opposite. The answer I got was that every aspect of the COVID-19 response and vaccine rollout has been done in partnership with the Aboriginal health sector. But don't just take my word for it. Let's look at the—

Senator McAllister interjecting—

Working with them, thank you, Senator McAllister. We did; we worked with them. We asked them. But let's look at the figures. In Australia, over 200,000 Indigenous Australians have now had their first dose. Over 108,000 are now fully vaccinated, which is over 20 per cent of the Indigenous population. Is that the same rate as that of the rest of the nation? No. But it is certainly a lot further than those opposite would have you believe. In relation to western New South Wales, an additional 600 doses of Pfizer have been reallocated to the Dubbo Shire, and an additional 600 doses have been reallocated to the Dubbo Regional Aboriginal Health Service. More broadly, our government is working with 2,645 primary care sites in regional Australia, including over 1,500 general practitioners, nearly 1,000 community pharmacies and 27 Aboriginal controlled healthcare providers, and, of course, our wonderful Royal Flying Doctor Service have set up 182 flying doctor service sites.

While I'm talking about the flying doctors—because they are one of my favourite organisations—it may be pertinent to repeat an anecdote that was provided by Minister David Gillespie during question time today. He told the story of RFDS nurse Kellyann Johnson, an Aboriginal woman with family from Jervis Bay, who is now with the flying doctors, providing vaccinations to residents in Wreck Bay, another Commonwealth territory. Yesterday Kellyann vaccinated both the youngest and the oldest Aboriginal resident in that population 'and everywhere in between,' she says. Kellyann has been a real inspiration to her community and, following her community engagement, is considered a local hero. As one Indigenous leader said, 'Some of the kids now want to be RFDS nurses.' I would strongly encourage them to follow that gallant career path.

So I want to thank not only Kellyann but all of our flying doctor nurses, and the doctors, and the pilots who facilitate getting them out there, and their logistics crew and ground crew. Thank you for the work you've been doing—because they have not just been vaccinating. They have also been providing medical evacuations. They've been providing the personal protective equipment deliveries into our regional and remote communities—and they are the ones who are going into the Kimberley and the Pilbara—that Senator Lines thinks our government was giving to community pharmacies. We know our geography. We know regional Australia, and we know how to service them.

Back to western New South Wales: following the current outbreak that leaked out of Sydney, there are currently 690 cases, and, yes, it is very sad that there has now been a death. An Aboriginal man in his early 50s, who was positive to COVID, has passed away, and my condolences go to his family, and I apologise that this place has chosen to take advantage of your grief for cheap political shots.

In western New South Wales, we have a multi-agency, multigovernment approach to vaccinating our regional and remote population. We are currently working with the state government and the Aboriginal health services. We've got over 100 Australian Defence Force personnel deployed. We're using the Royal Flying Doctor Service. We're using the on-the-ground GPs and pharmacists, who people trust and know and feel confident to go to. I am receiving feedback from those in these areas about how relieved they are to see these people and to hear the messages.

And yes, it is true: communications—we have been rolling out communications. But have we always got the message right? Not necessarily. But I thank the elders that have stepped up to encourage their communities. I thank Riverbank Frank and I thank the other Aboriginal elders who are strongly advocating amongst their populations for people to roll up their sleeves. And I implore Labor to come back to the bipartisan position we had. (Time expired)

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to the debate on this motion about:

The need for Morrison-Joyce Government to stop blaming First Nations Australians and instead take responsibility for its bungled vaccine rollout, the dangerous situation in Western New South Wales and its failure to prepare and protect First Nations communities across Australia from the spread of COVID, including a failure to properly communicate and ensure access to health facilities, food security, adequate housing and isolation places.

I read that out specifically because this is also about years and years and years of neglect of First Nations communities, to the point where the government knew that First Nations communities were highly at risk from COVID; they knew that at the beginning of the pandemic. They knew it when they set the plan for the vaccination rollout, which is why First Nations peoples are in 1a and 1b—importantly, to make sure First Nations people got vaccinated early on. And yet here we are, with exactly what was feared and what Maari Ma warned the government about.

But the government knew, because they've known for years and years and years about this—not just in western New South Wales, but in my home state of Western Australia and in the Northern Territory and in South Australia. And I'm sure it's the same situation in Victoria and Tasmania. They knew this. They knew that our First Nations communities have a significant gap in life expectancy and a much higher burden of chronic disease than any other community in this country. And yet the stroll-out didn't even bother to really prioritise First Nations communities—the same as they didn't prioritise people in residential aged care and aged-care workers and disabled people. In New South Wales, the data shows a huge gap between First Nations and non-First-Nations vaccination rates in every region in the state. Why has it taken so long for the government not only to release this data but also to get these vaccinations into people's arms and to deal with the conditions that would lead to the situation that we find ourselves in now?

This situation is unacceptable, and don't blame delta. Don't blame delta for this. We knew with alpha that, if it got into communities, it would significantly impact on those communities. And don't say that we are taking advantage of this to push this point, because this is life and death for people, so of course we're going to raise it. Of course we're going to raise the point in this chamber that vaccinations are not getting in the arms of First Nations peoples and that they have been let down massively.

Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] The first thing that I would like to do in speaking on this matter of urgency is to say that I absolutely reject the premise of this. It talks about the need for the Morrison-Joyce government to stop blaming First Nations Australians and instead take responsibility for their bungled vaccine rollout. I reject all of that comment, all of that sentence. Who has said that anyone is blaming First Nations Australians—or anyone else for that matter? And why do those opposite constantly have to find blame? We talk about how we're all in this together and we're all working together and we should have a bipartisan approach, yet those opposite continually politicise this issue and continually want to apportion blame to someone. I haven't heard anyone in this government blaming First Nations Australians, yet we're accused of doing that here, and I absolutely reject that. We're not blaming anyone, yet that's what those on the other side continually seek to claim. Why does there have to be someone to blame? Can they not just join with this government in getting on with the job?

Secondly, the government should take responsibility for its bungled vaccine rollout: there has been nothing bungled about this vaccine rollout at all. Yes, there have been aspects of it that may have been less than desirable, where things haven't worked out as planned, but it hasn't been bungled. Things happen. This is an absolutely unprecedented situation. We're being asked to do something that we as a nation—and we as a world—have never, ever attempted to do previously, so not everything is going to go absolutely according to plan all of the time, but that does not mean that the job is bungled. This government has been exceptionally good at dealing with it and dealing with everything that has been thrown our way. Many things have changed; this is a dynamic situation, and we have dealt with everything that has come our way and we've dealt with it practically and efficiently.

The governments that are actually responsible, as those on the opposite side say, for getting jabs into arms are the states and territories. They've decided that they want to be responsible for health and for the vaccine rollout, and that's fine. They probably should be. They know their communities. Particularly with regard to Indigenous communities, they know those communities, certainly better than the federal government does, so it's appropriate that they should be in charge. Yet we hear, for example, that in the Northern Territory there are some fairly poor results with regard to Indigenous communities. In Utopia, one community in Central Australia, at the clinic there, approximately 10 out of 700 residents have been vaccinated. At Kintore, another remote Indigenous community in Central Australia, it's reported one in 400 people consented to be vaccinated when a team went out there with enough vaccine to vaccinate that whole community of over 400 people.

This failure absolutely has to fall at the feet of the Northern Territory government. Again, I'm not laying any blame, but if they are incapable of doing this rollout then they need to ask for help. We are certainly here and prepared to help and to provide resources and funds where they are needed, but the Northern Territory government are very much in charge of this rollout in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. They need to admit that they are not capable of doing this effectively, and they need to ask for help where they are failing in their task of rolling out the vaccine to remote Indigenous Territorians. Come forward, say you're not doing the job— (Time expired)

Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Reconciliation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Technology is a wonderful thing—I'm coming to you from Broome. This MPI wouldn't be on our agenda except that, in the other place yesterday afternoon, the Minister for Indigenous Australians was blaming hesitancy amongst First Nations people for the dreadfully low rates of vaccination against COVID. 'Hesitancy is an issue that has to be overcome, and we still have a lot of work to do,' is what the minister said. But why is it that in September 2021 this government thinks that having a lot to do is news in this particular space? There is only one answer to that. It's because this government has been scandalously and callously negligent.

At the very start of its rollout program, the government identified First Nations peoples as the No. 1 priority, the group to be focused upon and prepared for the virus when it arrived. The extent to which hesitancy amongst First Nations people is an issue is not their fault; the government's bungled and inadequate messaging is the cause of that. And then there's the impact of wrongheaded evangelists and tin-pot religious elements that are said to be spreading propaganda to create fear about the vaccine amongst the remote and susceptible communities. These are no more than wolves in sheep's clothing—that is the way I see them. What is the government doing to fix this hesitancy and misinformation? Well, the minister gave us no comfort yesterday. If the government has a plan to avert whatever hesitancy there is, then the minister told us nothing about it. This government is more concerned, it seems to me, with punishing people than with managing the lives of First Nations people and getting them the vaccine that's necessary to avoid COVID.

We know COVID is raging in First Nations communities in western New South Wales, and my awful fear is that it is only a matter of time before communities elsewhere are overwhelmed. We've heard why the connection between east and west happens. What is happening in New South Wales is tragic enough, but if this scourge ever gets into remote Australia the impact will be catastrophic. My own state of Western Australia has a hard border. But, apart from occasional spot checks, the policing of that border is confined to the main access points, like the highways and airports. The border means very little to those in Aboriginal communities, who regularly travel for family or cultural businesses from the APY Lands of South Australia and the Northern Territory into Western Australia and vice versa. I know that the COVID-19 Vaccine Commander of Western Australia has sought assistance from the Morrison government for the Defence Force to help out in these remote reaches, but, as far as I know, there has been no ADF assistance provided from the Commonwealth government.

These are times that really call for leadership and vision. Leadership from the top of the Commonwealth government is needed, informed by a clear-sighted vision. We've heard Senator Siewert talk about the awful conditions, well known in this country, that prevail in the social-indicator areas that affect First Nations peoples. This calls for urgency, communication, organisation and action. We wouldn't be in this mess if the government had done their job and fulfilled their obligations to protect First Nations peoples. Lives are at stake, and the government shouldn't hide behind NACCHO and the peak organisations. Time's up—government, get out there and do your job!

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I couldn't agree more that this is a matter of extreme urgency. It calls on the Morrison-Joyce government to take responsibility for the dangerous situation in western New South Wales. Why was this government sitting on its hands and sitting on data that clearly showed vaccination rates in First Nations communities in western New South Wales were desperately low? Why did you not do something sooner? Because you just don't care.

There's such a severe lack of adequate housing in Wilcannia that people are having to isolate themselves in tents because their homes are overcrowded. Locals have said that the food being delivered is sometimes out of date and nutritionally poor. These failures and the utter disregard for First Nations communities are not new. They have been targeted systematically since the start of colonisation, and the pandemic has changed nothing.

According to the government's own vaccination plan, First Nations individuals were either in phase 1a or 1b. They should have been vaccinated by now. The government has no-one to blame but themselves. Scott Morrison's government was told clearly that, were the virus to enter a First Nations community, there would be devastating results, given the abysmal rollout of vaccinations, the food insecurity, and the lack of adequate housing and appropriate health services. A loud and clear alarm was sounded at the very beginning of this pandemic. The Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation wrote to Minister Wyatt 18 months ago. The letter outlined grave fears for Wilcannia if COVID was spread to the at-risk population there. It said

Warnings from around the world are clear: the earlier we prepare and act, the better the outcomes will be. We cannot wait until the first case turns up in the community …

And here we are now: not just the first case, but with a large percentage of people and children infected—and, sadly, a First Nations man has died of COVID-19.

The crisis unfolding in Wilcannia is not mere incompetence. It is a complete disgrace. The equally incompetent New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard has bounced the responsibility off to the federal government. Mr Hazzard had the audacity to say that he had 'many friends who are Aboriginal in north-west and western NSW', and that he was 'quite frustrated'. Everyone knows Mr Hazzard can be very vocal about his frustrations when it suits him, so why was he so quiet about this one? Why didn't he turn his frustration into action? The federal and New South Wales governments have completely failed First Nations communities in western New South Wales. Wake up! First Nations people know what is best for their communities. Listen to them, and do what they are asking you to do.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] In my state of New South Wales, we are now seeing the tragic consequences of Mr Morrison's lack of urgency on vaccines, on quarantine and on protecting First Nations communities. We have seen the first death of an Indigenous person in the pandemic—a man in his 50s in Dubbo. Nowhere in New South Wales has a higher rate of infection than that of Wilcannia, where more than 10 per cent of the mostly Indigenous local community have contracted the virus.

Mr Morrison was warned about the potential for a COVID crisis in Wilcannia 18 months ago. In March 2020, the Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation wrote to the Morrison government. That letter said:

We cannot wait until the first case turns up in the community, or worse, the first hospital case presents.

The poverty and extreme vulnerability of Aboriginal people and communities in the Murdi Paaki region is a direct result of decades of failed government policies.

The letter went on to say:

I'm sure you can understand our anxiety that these failures not continue, or worsen, throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

That was in March of last year. As of yesterday, there were 73 cases in Wilcannia, which has a population of just 745 people. The worst fears expressed by Maari Ma 18 months ago have, tragically, been realised. In a separate letter sent to the Prime Minister just last week, Maari Ma said,:

Disappointingly, no tangible plan was in place prior to this outbreak that could have been easily implemented.

As a result, we've been playing catch up from day one.

Our systems and services are ill-prepared, actions are too slow to be implemented, our responses have been substandard, existing resources and expertise is not sufficient.

It's clear, based on these comments, that there has been an utter failure of preparing and planning by the Morrison government.

Dr Peter Malouf from the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of New South Wales said yesterday:

Our community-controlled health services in those areas certainly expressed to government 18 months ago about preparedness and investing in resources in those communities.

But those requests had obviously been silenced by both the commonwealth and NSW governments, and now we're seeing these high numbers of cases.

He went on to say:

It's just horrible.

While Mr Morrison is doing the rounds in the media talking about a 'national plan', it's worth remembering that, under Mr Morrison's earlier plan—his vaccination plan—First Nations people were part of phase 1b of the rollout and were supposed to be fully vaccinated by this winter. Winter has come and gone. Spring is here, and just 12.5 per cent of Indigenous people in New South Wales are fully vaccinated. So not only has Mr Morrison not heeded the warnings of Maari Ma and other groups and not only was there no plan in place to prevent the outbreak in far western New South Wales but he has also failed to hold up his own vaccination plan.

I want to contrast that with the inspirational leadership you're seeing from those in the local community. Last night, NITV shone a spotlight on Leroy Johnson and Warlpa Thompson, who are making five-hour round trips to hunt kangaroo meat in the Mutawintji National Park, which Mr Johnson manages, and deliver it to Wilcannia to prevent the local community going hungry. They call this 'Operation Deliver-roo'. If only the big platform Deliveroo had a sliver of the integrity and community spirit that you have shown. I commend Mr Johnson and Mr Thompson and those who are supporting their efforts, including the CEO of Barkandji Native Title, Derek Hardman, Barkandji elder Robert Kennedy and local broadcaster Brendon Adams for stepping up and demonstrating some sorely needed leadership during this outbreak. I hope the Prime Minister is taking notes.

Quite clearly the government does not know how to represent and support regional Australia, and quite clearly the concerns raised by this community are a rallying call for the government to get its act together— (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the urgency motion be agreed to.