Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers provided to all questions asked by Labor senators today.

Colleagues, as you saw in question time, we concentrated our questions on the role of the Prime Minister over the past week and his changing positions, it seems, on the use of vaccine mandates; the roles of the states in terms of the national reopening plan; and his failure of leadership in denouncing and condemning some of the encroachment of violence into national political debates that we saw through some of the so-called freedom rallies in the past few months, but most particularly in the last two weeks or so, when they have escalated dramatically.

Last week was a new low for this government, and it is almost difficult to say that. We've got a government that, for the last eight years, has been racked with rorts, scandals, waste and mismanagement, but last week there was an opportunity for the Prime Minister to show leadership—there are moments in time, when national debates on policy are being discussed, for leaders to stand up and speak on behalf of the country and in the national interest. What we saw last week—and I know those opposite would like to dress this up as something that it's not, but we all saw it—was the Prime Minister giving a very short address on the matters of violence and protest. He said he didn't like it, he didn't want to see it and it wasn't part of the way we conducted our debates, but then he went on to give a much, much longer presentation, trying to emotionally connect with those elements who were threatening violence against politicians, in this case, but, in other cases, it could be other individuals. He went on to speak of their frustration and how he understood how they were feeling, as a way of empathising and sympathising with how they were conducting themselves—with nooses and threats to kill. This is what we saw last week. I know those opposite would like to pretend it didn't happen, but we all saw it; we listened to the Prime Minister. The message that got sent around the country from the Prime Minister—into people's TVs, their news streams, however they access news—was: 'I don't like this, but I get how you're feeling.'

There are moments when leaders have to stand up and unite the country. I completely reject the assertion by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Birmingham, that this is a Prime Minister who tries to unite the country. That is absolutely untrue. At every juncture we see this Prime Minister picking fights, whether it be the state premiers, who he loves to pick a fight with—Premier Andrews or his personal favourite in Queensland, Premier Palaszczuk, who he likes to attack fairly regularly; I hope it's not because she is the only female premier left, but you are left to wonder. This is a man that picks fights. He seeks to divide. He seeks to tap in and play across the field. It suits him to do this. He has worked it out. It was a calculated political strategy for him to enter the debate the way he did last week. Don't for a minute think he was thinking on his feet; it's absolutely not true. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly what he was saying.

It's dangerous because, while it might be good and in his political interests to do it now, what we know about some of these movements is that they are very hard to control once they are off and running. When you have a Prime Minister that says: 'You know what, guys? I get how you're feeling. I know you're frustrated. All these mean governments that are trying to curtail your freedoms need to get out of your lives; I get that.' That isn't standing up as a Prime Minister should. That isn't acting in the national interest. That is stoking division. It is cosying up to violent extremists who want to divide the country. That's exactly what this Prime Minister is doing, and we will call it out because it is wrong.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the questions asked by Labor senators during this question time. It is instructive to notice that once again the Labor opposition are so completely disconnected from the people of this nation and from the reality of what is happening, particularly in regional parts of the country but also in the cities. To have this incredible line of questioning about what the Prime Minister's stance is just seems to me to smack of people who have not been watching what's going on over the last 18 months.

The Prime Minister had established a national cabinet to allow the premiers of the states, of our federated nations, to come together and to provide the sort of leadership and direction that this nation so sorely was crying out for at the beginning of this pandemic. It was the Treasurer, the Prime Minister and the cabinet of this federal government that pulled together and quickly came to the fore with financial support through JobKeeper and JobSeeker and a range of incentives to allow people to feel confident that there would be food on the table and that they could pay the rent during this time of extraordinary uncertainty.

It was the state governments that would, each time, walk away from the national cabinet process, having agreed amongst themselves what the next step would be, and then do whatever it was that they darn well liked. For that reason, the Prime Minister has been doing what Australians have been asking him to do: to stand up and call out the inconsistencies in the requirements of the state governments. I have a list here of the different sorts of vaccine mandates across Australia. This is not Europe. This is not a continent divided by different governments and organisations. This is our own nation, where to cross borders is so complicated that, for those of us who have staff to assist, they spend all their time updating people in our electorates and states simply about how to see family and move around the country.

In my state of Queensland, in just a couple of weeks, that Labor government will ensure that there are businesses that close, that there are young people who won't be working, that there are Indigenous Australians who've been left behind by the extraordinary lack of support for the vaccination process in Queensland. We all remember the Chief Health Officer saying that she wouldn't have anybody vaccinated with AstraZeneca and the politics that was played in that state because it suited the Labor states to play politics with these vaccination measures. So now we're in a situation where Labor has once again walked away from workers, walked away from Indigenous communities and left them vulnerable and exposed. We have ambulance ramping and hospital ramping in our state that sends my blood cold, because when COVID-19 comes into our state—as it will, as we know it has across the rest of the world—we will be in a very difficult situation when we have hospitals that can't cope with the most basic of health requirements at a time when flu illnesses are down, when illnesses that are spread by transmission are reduced because of the restrictions that we have in place. And Queensland is incredibly vulnerable, thanks to the game playing and the politics that Labor continues with.

So, I say: thank God to have a Prime Minister who's willing to stand up and support Australians, to call out some of the crazy restrictions and measures that state governments are putting in place and to say to Australians, 'I hear you.' And when premiers say, 'We will reward you for your good behaviour,' I say, how dare they? How dare they talk about rewarding Queensland businesses for the hard work they have done? Where is the acknowledgement of the terrible impacts on small business, on mental health? So, I say: thank goodness for the Prime Minister standing up for Australians. (Time expired)

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not really sure what to make of that contribution by Senator McDonald. It was completely mystifying to me. Senator McDonald indicated that she didn't understand why these questions were being posed today in question time. Well, I'll let her know why: because they're important questions. They are extremely important in terms of what is happening in this country and what our Prime Minister is saying to Australians. As Senator Gallagher said in her contribution, you cannot let extremists get a foothold. You cannot allow them to think that they are being supported in any way in their extreme views. But that is what the Prime Minister attempted to do in his contribution.

To take a well-known phrase used by former Senator Doug Cameron, the government is a rabble—a complete rabble. Today we had not one but five government senators crossing the floor to vote against the Prime Minister. We know that Mr Morrison got a good talking-to from Senator Hanson last week, and his position has become a little more vague since then. But we also know that in the past the Prime Minister has expressed a view in support of vaccine mandates being enforced by businesses and governments in order for people to undertake certain activities, including work. Indeed, he expressly stated, on radio station 2GB in August this year, that businesses have a legitimate right to refuse entry to someone who has refused to get vaccinated.

Fast forward a few months and the Prime Minister is being now threatened by One Nation and his own backbenchers—to change his view on vaccines or have his legislative agenda held hostage, in this place, whether it be Senator Antic or Senator Rennick or Senator Hanson or Senator Roberts. There are angry and violent protests with gallows on the streets of Melbourne. The Prime Minister has buckled and bent to extreme elements seeking to undermine the nation's economic recovery. Make no mistake, that is exactly what will occur if we do not promote the inherent importance of opening up and staying open by way of a vaccinated population in a vaccinated economy, with enforceable rules to underwrite it.

When asked to condemn violent behaviour, the Prime Minister chose to express sympathy with the sentiments of those participating in anti-vaccination demonstrations. It's dog whistling, pure and simple. Deliberate. It's all designed to cosy up with the far Right as part of a cynical strategy that is all about saving his own bacon and not about what is in the interests of Australians. It's a prime minister prepared to enact the agenda of One Nation and Senator Hanson. Without the likes of Senator Hanson, the Prime Minister's agenda—whatever it is—would increasingly be stuck in the mud. He's a prime minister prepared to do grubby deals to get their support but is not prepared to honour his own commitments to the electorate. This is the same Prime Minister who has repeatedly promised to bring forward a bill to establish a national anticorruption commission and has failed to do so.

Now here we are, on the eve of an election, with no bill to tackle corruption at a federal level, despite the very desperate need for such a body. It's on full display for all to see, the myriad scandals littering the government's rap sheet. He's been given the opportunity, and the Prime Minister has failed to do so. (Time expired)

Ben Small (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It might come as a galloping shock to those who sit opposite and come here to say that somehow the Prime Minister's agenda is being held hostage in this chamber, but the contrast couldn't be more stark from a team that has no agenda whatsoever. We've heard today claims that the Prime Minister has a vague or somehow unclear position. Again, the contrast with the Leader of the Opposition—who likes to have an each way bet on every issue before this parliament—couldn't be starker.

What we have is a government led by a Prime Minister committed to delivering for Australians, the same Australians that sent us here last election to deliver for them and to keep government from intruding into their homes, into their lives, and into their businesses to the extent that those opposite would have us do. The Commonwealth's position is abundantly clear, and it has been since before COVID-19 was even a thing. The Commonwealth's position is that vaccine, on the whole, should be voluntary and free, strongly encouraged and only mandatory in a high-risk setting.

Mandatory vaccination of workers is appropriate and is proportionate for those workers in specified high-risk settings such as residential aged care or disability care, because of the impact on the most vulnerable of Australians. That's why, leading the charge, the federal government did take that initiative. Some states and territories—particularly, it has to be remarked, those led by Labor premiers—have issued far-ranging public health orders that require COVID-19 vaccination for people working in many other workplaces and sectors and some community settings. I totally support the Morrison government in standing up for vaccination, to reduce the risk of serious ill health or even death in the advent of catching this disease. It must be noted that ultimately it is the state premiers who have issued the public health orders that require mandatory vaccines in a wide range of settings. The implementation of those mandates—those that mandate I guess differential treatment of vaccinated persons—is entirely at the discretion of those particular states and territories which have done so.

The reality is that most Australians have supported the vaccine rollout. Over many months we heard howls and hyperbole in here from those opposite about the vaccine rollout, but now that Australia is leading the charge with vaccine rates that are the envy of the world, with death rates that are the envy of the world and with an economy that is the envy of the world, those opposite have decided to move on to another baselessly shameful scare campaign that seeks to undermine confidence in Australia's health management of this pandemic and our economic recovery as we move into a post-COVID world.

The reality couldn't be clearer. Australians have rolled up their sleeves like never before to get the COVID vaccine. The federal government has been very clear that those vaccines will be free, will be voluntary, in most cases other than those specific high-risk settings. It is indeed the states and territories which have taken it further with their mandates. Overwhelmingly those mandates are most severe, most intrusive and most invasive in people's lives where they are led by a Labor government and a Labor premier.

The Labor senators sitting opposite here have very little to say, but when it comes to the Prime Minister's remarks—grossly misrepresented by those same Labor senators here today—that he understood that Australians were sick of government getting up in their grill and inserting itself into their families, their homes and their businesses I'm reminded of Ronald Reagan's great expression that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' I think that represents our great Liberal faith in those Australians knowing what is best for them living in their homes and working in their businesses—not those sitting in buildings here in Canberra.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love the tone of reasonableness that is being adopted by senators from the other side making a contribution as if there is not chaos out there and as if they've done their job in a decent and orderly way, because that is absolutely not the case. We have a Prime Minister who in answering questions said: 'I'm the minister who established no jab, no play.' He is the man who talks tough, who's leading the nation in making sure we are going to get mandatory vaccine rollout and then he changed his mind. We have all these excuses trotted out every time a member of the opposition stands to speak. I note the answers to the questions that were asked by Labor senators. I think it reveals a complete lack of morals, failure to admit responsibility and complete abdication of any national leadership on a matter of great importance.

The fact is that you are 20 times more likely to spread COVID if you are unvaccinated. From all the words spoken here today if that one message gets through and helps people make the decision to protect themselves and their family that will be a good thing that comes out of our debate at this point in time. At a time when the country is fighting a global pandemic the Liberals and Nationals are at war with their own government, and Prime Minister Morrison is facing revolt from within. People in his own government have basically indicated that they plan to join up with Pauline. They're not standing with their colleagues and they're not standing with the Prime Minister. They're not following him, because they figured out that he is not worth following. They're chasing One Nation votes that depend on their agenda to try to get themselves a few more votes at the next election. The actions of Senators Rennick and Antic, despite all their protestations and equivocations, give support to antivaxxers—that their views have support and that their views have merit.

Let me be very clear: vaccines do save lives, they reduce the risk of infection and they help prevent serious cases and death in most cases. That, frankly, is the overwhelming medical consensus, supported by the overwhelming majority of medical practitioners, and any attempt to portray it as a conspiracy or to allow conspiracies to stand damages public confidence in the rollout and harms our efforts to control the virus and keep our communities safe. It's a disgrace that those who sit in this chamber and who have the privilege of the confidence of the Australian people would seek to politicise a matter of life and death.

The vaccine in Australia was a strollout, not a rollout, and if Mr Morrison had done his day job in July 2020 and taken on the Pfizer doses that he was offered, the great state of New South Wales would have been getting that vaccine in March and we wouldn't even have had a lockdown. Businesses that have collapsed would still be going. That's the kind of failure of leadership that is the hallmark of Mr Morrison. And right now, with regard to this matter of life and death, Senators Rennick and Antic are playing politics. Vaccines and sensible public health measures shouldn't be the new front for whatever culture wars people on the far Right of politics want to start.

As Senator Lambie pointed out earlier today in this chamber, there are plenty of requirements that Australians accept to enable them to work in a safe workplace. You need to be up to date with your vaccinations to be a medical practitioner, you need working-with-children certification to work in your local preschool and you need a forklift licence to drive a forklift. These are measures that ensure that workplaces and consumers are safe and that our vaccination rates are as high as possible. Words matter. Messaging matters. The Prime Minister is aware of marketing. But the words of those opposite and the failure of their colleagues to properly call out misinformation and deal with the fear and vilification that's now a matter of public record only emboldens antivaxxer extremists and conspiracy theorists. That makes us all poorer, and it makes our recovery from COVID, both physically and economically, much more subject to the vagaries of uncertainty. Violent protests in Melbourne, public violence displayed against effigies and the continuing ratcheting-up of political tension is aided in part by members of the coalition who, by visiting and speaking at these rallies, give political status and currency to issues and people who do not deserve that status. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.