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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Birmingham) and the Minister for Sport and Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services (Senator Colbeck) to the questions without notice asked today by Senator Gallagher, Senator Ayres and Senator Ciccone.

Before I go to my prepared remarks, can I just indicate that we would normally be finished this part of the day, but we've had 45 minutes of hearing about what it's like in this building—the stench of the place! It's like swimming in a sewer. And the king of the sewer rats is Mr Morrison, leading them along a path of deception. What a way to end the year. What a way to close out this year—another year of scandals. Another year of jobs for the mates, press releases with no policy, rorts, botched vaccine rollouts, backflips and lies after lies. And they delivered the same performance in question time today.

The government of Liberal and National members and senators had two major jobs this year: it needed to establish proper quarantine facilities and it needed to roll out the vaccine. It still has not established proper quarantine facilities, and people are now facing Christmas asking: 'Are we going to be okay?' They're worried because the government hasn't done its job. And people should be worried, because this government has not done its job and does not deserve to be re-elected. The government needed to roll out a vaccine; instead, we got a strollout and an 'Oops, I forgot to order.' That's the quality of the government. It needs to be kicked out.

The cabinet have been just as hapless. They have had an NDIS minister constantly undermine the scheme and call it 'welfare for life'—that's what they call it. They had an industry minister at war with Australia's car industry and, allegedly, with her own staff. They have a communications minister more interested in attacking online critics of the government than in building the NBN—fixing that whole piece of infrastructure that they totally stuffed up across the country.

Of course, we haven't seen any legislation to establish a federal integrity commission—and you can see why in their answers to questions today, in the debate that has ensued since question time finished, and in this litany of failures of a corrupt and incompetent government. It's been a significant year for the Liberal and Nationals parties, to hide their dirty deeds behind public-interest immunity claims. They are hiding the dirty deals that they do, saying it's 'not in the public interest' to put them out for critique or for the Senate to have oversight. They've blacked out FOI requests. They've constantly rorted government funds, using taxpayers' dollars as their own personal re-election funds. When it comes to accountability, it's only ever 'Silent Night' for those opposite.

In these historic times, the government has fallen far short of the ambition that the moment requires. This is a listless, drifting government. It has no integrity and no vision. Throughout all of 2021—and the seven long years before we had to watch this shameless display—it has been a government characterised by the way it has completely and totally let down the women of Australia. Mr Morrison and his cabinet have fallen short even of my ever-diminishing expectations of what they might be able to do.

When it comes to the treatment of women in this place and outside, they have abjectly failed 50 per cent of the population. They do not deserve another term. They deserve to be kicked out. Mr Morrison's failure to meet the moment, his pettifogging and his refusal to hold his ministers accountable are a shame on this entire place. I only hope that the women of Australia remember how those opposite, the Liberal and National Party members here, have let them down at every opportunity.

Here are the 12 days of Scott Morrison's Christmas for the Australian people: 12 jobs for his mates, 11 months of policy inaction, 10 days of sitting until next August, nine glossy blue brochures, eight sitting days of chaos, seven vaccine targets missed, six car parks cancelled, at least five backflips, four ministerial resignations, three fewer senators to count on in this chamber, too many lies, and one big botched rollout. Australia, that's your Christmas present from Mr Morrison. He's no Santa. Instead of good governance, we've had zero integrity commissions, zero women's budget statements, zero action on housing affordability and zero accountability from those opposite. It's been a year of power without glory. Do not give them the chance to continue next year in the same way. (Time expired)

Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Once again we've had a series of misquotes, vague references and accusations against the Prime Minister from the opposition in question time today. What a way to finish the last week of another very difficult year. Surely there were questions of policy that they could have asked. But no: only innuendos and wild accusations, including around quarantine proposals, loaded with implications.

Quarantine Services Australia is a not-for-profit company established by the private sector to support industry, and it's important to note that the government is not funding QSA in any way. Of course, we do have an interest in the work they propose to do, because we want Australian businesses to be able to bring in the skilled workers they require in order to grow and create more jobs during our pandemic recovery. We know there's a skilled workforce shortage in Australia, and travel restrictions during the pandemic have presented particular challenges. That's why we've flagged skilled workers as our next stage in the border reopening—which, as we know, was due this week but has been paused until the 15th to give us time to understand the new omicron variant.

That said, our vaccination rates being among the highest in the world means that we're now in a very strong position. That's why the New South Wales, ACT and Victorian governments removed the requirement to quarantine for fully vaccinated international travellers from 1 November. In my home state, Tasmania, we're due to follow on 15 December. Dependent on vaccination rates, the remaining states and territories have flagged their intention to remove the requirement for fully vaccinated international travellers to quarantine by the end of this year or early next year.

So, the large-scale quarantine services that we thought, back in July, may have been necessary are unlikely to be required in the future, due to what we've achieved with our vaccination program. However, we do know that quarantine arrangements will likely continue to be necessary for certain groups of people coming into the country. So the formation of Quarantine Services Australia is a positive thing—an industry-led solution to help industry bring in the workforce they require. The Department of Home Affairs engaged DPG to facilitate a model capable of developing a quarantine approach that was private sector funded, scalable and acceptable to the states and territories. The model was required to be operational in the absence of any federal government financial support.

On the topic of quarantine facilities, I remind senators that during the course of COVID-19 this government has successfully worked in partnership with the northern Tasmanian government to utilise the Centre for National Resilience at Howard Springs and indeed doubled its bed capacity, expanding the facility's capability to 2,000 beds. We're also looking at Victoria's Mickleham facility, which has a 100-bed capacity, and the first stage should be complete shortly. We've also been working with the Western Australian government on a new Centre for National Resilience, and we're in talks with the Queensland government on a federal quarantine facility there, too. These new Centres for National Resilience, which are fully funded by the Commonwealth, will increase capacity to repatriate Australians. However, afterwards, these facility will be available for other important long-term resilience uses, such as supporting responses to natural disasters.

Today is our final day in this place for 2021, and later today we'll be undertaking a time of reflection and thanks for the year we've had. We'll be wishing those around us a great break, a lovely holiday and a joyous Christmas season. With that in mind, how can we justify the behaviour we've seen in this place not just today, when those opposite have once again launched an attack on the Prime Minister, but also over recent days, when unparliamentary behaviour and comments have been made against each other? The Jenkins report was titled Set the standard, and that is something that each and every one of us in this building—particularly in this place—should reflect on over the coming weeks. Too often there is language used and remarks made with the sole purpose of inflicting pain, and blatant disrespect is evident. We should be attacking the policies of our opponents, not the person.

I hold the institute of the Senate and other senators in high regard and believe that when we return in 2022 we must hold each other to even greater account. This is not a gender or sexuality issue and it's not a political or race issue. We are all here as equals, and we need to show due respect of that fact and to each other. I look forward to seeing everybody in the new year.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we are at the end of parliament for the year, and after eight years in government and three years under Prime Minister Morrison, what are we left with? A government in shambles. A government that is divided. A government that is coming apart at the seams. A government that can't keep its own people in line. A government that can't pass its own legislation. A government that Australians simply can't trust. A government that is led by a Prime Minister who can't seem to determine what is fact and what is fiction. A Prime Minister who says one thing one day, and something completely different the next. From Cobargo to Paris, our Prime Minister is known for being loose with the truth. That is his reputation. This is a government and a Prime Minister that the people of Australia cannot trust to deliver for them.

With Prime Minister Morrison, every problem is someone else's fault. Every crisis is someone's else's responsibility. Instead of action, what we get from this Prime Minister are excuses: 'It's not my job. It's a matter for the states. I don't hold a hose.' Whether it's bushfires or a global pandemic, Australians just can't trust this Prime Minister to lead. Australians couldn't trust him to roll out the vaccines. They couldn't even trust him to buy the vaccines in the first place. Australians cannot trust this Prime Minister, who said we were at the front of the queue and then said that it wasn't a race—a Prime Minister who said one thing one day and something else the next. Australians paid the price this year.

Australians cannot trust this Prime Minister to lead this country in a crisis, and they cannot trust this Prime Minister to lead the country at all. Australians can't even trust the Prime Minister to run his own government or his own party. This Prime Minister is distracted by division in his own ranks. We have members of parliament and senators crossing the floor, left and right. We are in a situation in this place today where the government is held hostage by One Nation and by the extremes of its own party room. We are in a situation today where we have a Prime Minister who is showing no leadership whatsoever to rein in the members of his own party and his own government who are spreading fear and misinformation about vaccines. He can't even shut down the misinformation of Senator Rennick.

This Prime Minister cannot keep his own party in line, so how can the people of Australia expect him to deliver for them? This is a Prime Minister who won't rein in people who are spreading misinformation and mistruth, even when their actions threaten to undermine the advice of the public health experts, even when they threaten the efforts of the millions of Australians who have gone out, done the right thing and got themselves vaccinated, and even when they put the health of Australians at risk. It is completely unacceptable and shameful.

Instead of providing leadership when we need it and instead of building on the values that saw us come together over the course of this pandemic, we have a Prime Minister seemingly happy to benefit from the division in our community. He is playing a dangerous game of doublespeak in a desperate scrounge for votes. It is a desperate ploy to distract the people of Australia from the fact that after eight years the government don't have a plan for the things that matter to Australians. They have no plan to deliver the things that matter.

The government have got no plan for the good secure jobs that people need. They have got no plan to grow wages—wage growth is the flattest on record. They have got no plan to fix our broken aged-care system and value our aged-care workers. They have got no plan to rebuild manufacturing and make more of what we need here. They have got no plan to act on climate change and bring green energy jobs to Australia. At a time when wages are going backwards and the cost of everything is going up, they have got no plan to make people's lives any better. They have got no plan to make it easier. They have got no plan to build a better and brighter future. This government can't even imagine that future, let alone deliver it.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Guys, wow—I really did think there were some people on the opposite side of this chamber with a little bit of EQ, emotional intelligence, who were able to read the room. We had an incident in this chamber last night that was absolutely disgusting. The most vile of comments was made by a Greens senator towards me. It was widely reported as the most vile thing that has ever been said in this chamber. And what do you come in here with today? Smears, personal attacks, misinformation and lies. It is absolutely pathetic. Is that all you have? We know Albo is running a small-target strategy. He's beyond small target; he's not there.

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

Senator Hughes, please refer to members of the other place by their correct title or full name.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I apologise. I know the member for Grayndler is running a small-target strategy, but there's no such thing as a no-target strategy, which is what he's trying to achieve. The opposition have no policies on anything. That is reflected in the fact that they come in here day after day making personal smears against the Prime Minister that are based in absolute mistruth and misinformation and that distort the facts.

I'll come back to COVID a little later, but from listening to some of the responses and comments coming from the opposite side of the chamber I'm not sure that we live in the same country. Australia has higher vaccination rates than most countries in the world. We are at such a significant rate of vaccination—and this might be one for you to take note of—that we don't need quarantine centres. Once we are vaccinated we won't be quarantining. We understand you guys like to throw money around, because it's from the taxpayers. You just chuck it where you can. There will be no need for the centres. You guys wanted to give people $300 to get the vaccine. People went out and got it willingly for nothing. You were prepared to chuck $6 billion up the wall—$6 billion of taxpayers' money to pay people to get a vaccine. You did not even need to think about it.

I would like to point out to this place that not only in this chamber do we hear vile comments but in the other place in question time today, when Minister Hunt was answering a question from the member for Chisholm, an ALP member screamed across the chamber, 'Go and get a room.' We know you can't read it. Someone screamed out, 'Go and get a room,' to Minister Hunt when he was answering a question from Gladys Liu. Seriously? Have you been sleepwalking through this week? The Jenkins report was released in a week when we have seen behaviour in this place descend to new levels.

I haven't heard from one member of the Greens. I'd like to say that when Senator Di Natale and Senator Siewert were here they were absolutely decent people and if Senator Di Natale were the Leader of the Greens, he would have come and spoken to me about the vile behaviour of his colleague. He would have come and talked to me; he would have come and seen me. I can guarantee that Rachel Siewert would have done that, or messaged me, after the many years I have spent with her on committees and knowing what a decent person she is. But there has not been a word—not a peep!—from someone at the end of this chamber. It's absolutely shameful behaviour. The words are, 'I apologise for my colleague's conduct.'

But, on top of that, just to rub a little extra salt into the wound, this morning the member for Sydney who, ironically, is my local member, was asked a question about the vile comment directed at me and she started her sentence with, 'If it's true.' So we believe her and believe all women except for conservative women—they deserve it. They should have got it. It's fine to speak to conservative women in that way, because we're treated differently by women of the Left. So it's not just what was said in this chamber, but the reaction that has been demonstrated by the highest-profile woman in the ALP responding with, 'If it's true.'

Well, it was true. There was an apology given because it was so true and all you women in the Labor Party should be ringing up the member for Sydney and asking her to apologise, because that is disgusting and disgraceful. If you have nothing but personal smears against the Prime Minister going into this election, do you honestly think that Australians, who have had their jobs saved, who have an incredibly high vaccination rates and who have been supported through this pandemic in such a good way, are going to be impacted by your smears and that they'll have any impact on the result?

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians were truly disgusted to see the Prime Minister's behaviour last year, and that is not a smear; that is a fact. This is not a grubby attack, as has been accused by those on the other side; it's a fact. Mr Morrison was off on holiday in Hawaii when the bushfires hit, and when he finally got back and finally decided that maybe he should do something he made the whole thing about himself.

One of the things that shocked people about Mr Morrison's behaviour was his conduct towards Zoey, the young woman Senator Ayres was talking about just before. He referred questions to Minister Birmingham about that exchange. This was a young woman, pregnant at the time, who had lost her home. The Prime Minister grabbed her hand to shake it—that's a fact—and patted her on the shoulder, which is also a fact, and, when she turned around to plead with him for help, he walked away. That is also a fact. They're not smears; they are facts.

Senator Birmingham implied that Senator Ayres was out of line when he brought up this exchange, and that is outrageous. Those opposite said it was 'grubby' that we would raise such things. It's not grubby; these are facts we're addressing here. In her own words, Zoey said: 'I have lost everything. My house is burnt to the ground and the Prime Minister turned his back on me.' It is outrageous to say that those things are slurs. They are not; they are facts.

My home state of South Australia was hit especially hard by the bushfires last year, the bushfires that Mr Morrison handled so atrociously. Again, that is a fact. In Kangaroo Island, Cudlee Creek and communities across the Adelaide Hills homes and businesses were lost, livelihoods were ruined and lives were lost. Minister Birmingham has accused us of muckraking for raising it. It's not muckraking. The courage, strength and commitment shown by people across Australia has not been matched by their Prime Minister. He showed his true character in the heat of that crisis and he let us all down.

The bushfire season started yesterday in South Australia, and we're worried—we're worried about a repeat of last year and we're worried that once again we'll be abandoned by this government. Minister Birmingham says we should all be talking about policy, not people—that we shouldn't be raising these points and that we should just be talking about policy. Okay. So let's talk about the Emergency Response Fund. The government has spent just 0.37 per cent from a $4.7 billion fund—an 'Emergency Response Fund'. Now, you would imagine, from the name, that it would be about responding to emergencies, but, 2½ years after it was established, a minute amount of money has been allocated. So let's talk about the fact that this fund can allocate up to $200 million a year for disaster recovery and resilience—for things such as constructing evacuation centres, firebreaks and other mitigation measures that this country desperately needs.

By failing to invest this $4.7 billion fund, this government has again failed Australians, and this Prime Minister has again failed Australians—especially those who live in the bush. The Prime Minister has ignored very clear warnings by former Fire and Rescue NSW head Greg Mullins, and 23 other fire and emergency chiefs, back before the 2019-20 fire season. He refused to invest in a national aerial firefighting fleet—again, that is a fact. And when Australia was on fire, he went on holiday to Hawaii—a fact—and posed for gratuitous selfies on the beach.

What we need is real action. We need properly resourced fire services. We need help for our communities to prepare for future bushfire risks. And we need a Prime Minister—and a government—that acts and listens.

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

The question is that the motion moved by Senator O'Neill, that the Senate take note of questions asked by Senators Ayres, Gallagher and Ciccone of Ministers Birmingham and Colbeck, be agreed to.

Question agreed to.