Something happens to the Morrison government each year as they head towards summer. I don't know whether it's visions of lying on a beach—whether it is here or Hawaii—but something happens that makes them more than drop the ball, it makes them ignore the warnings they're being given in any particular year. Let's begin with 2019, when they ignored the warnings of fire chiefs from around the country to be better prepared for what turned out to be the most horrific fire season that this nation has seen —its scale, the death toll, the destruction of homes and of the environment. But, of course, the Prime Minister doesn't hold a hose, not when he's in Hawaii.
In 2020 they ignored the many warnings about getting the vaccine rollout right: that it was a race; that it did matter that we did have things ready to go and ready to be executed as soon as the supplies, which belatedly arrived, landed on our shores. They ignored that warning, and we paid the price for that—well they didn't, but older people did. Hundreds of older people found themselves without vaccines; the rollout was too slow to get them vaccinated in lockdown. They suffered deprivations because of this government. And then there were those who died because they had not been vaccinated.
And so this last summer, in the lead-up, people said, 'What we need is a rapid antigen testing strategy.' I said it in here! I was organising Zooms about it with my small businesses in October, with the local manufacturer Innovation Scientific in my electorate, with global leaders who said, 'We need a plan.' But the government thought it knew better. It didn't bother planning; its eyes were on that summer chill, sipping—I would hate to think what cocktail it is that they sip by their pools—mai tais or whatever. The other thing the government ignored was booster shots, getting boosters into older people, getting those vaccines into the arms of older people. It wasn't the Prime Minister's job, he said. He was happy to shampoo someone's hair, but only if they were well under 75!
This is the failure we have that compounds all the other failures that have occurred, which means we have, right now, hundreds of people who have died in aged care. We have thousands of residents who are locked down. And multiply that for the families who are no longer able to just pop in and see their husband or their wife, their mum or their dad, their grandma or their grandpa. They can't. The only way they can see them is in full PPE and if they have a rapid antigen test up their sleeve.
Now, I just want to deal with this issue where the government says, 'We're providing rapid antigen tests to aged- care facilities.' Well, there's a caveat on that. One of my facilities called me to say, 'You know we only get it when we have an outbreak?' The government doesn't seem to understand this yet: the rapid antigen test is a tool to help prevent outbreaks and to foresee when there might be someone who is COVID-positive. You need to have those screening things happening all the time; you don't wait until there is an outbreak. Right now, across the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, there are husbands, there are wives, there are daughters and there are sons sitting there and wondering, 'When are we going to be allowed back in to see our family member?'
They're suffering, but, more than anyone, the residents are suffering. And it isn't for want of the fantastic work that the aged-care workers are doing. Among others this morning, we heard from Jocelyn, who comes from the Blue Mountains. I spoke with Jocelyn and with Annette about why they had travelled to Canberra. Jocelyn had finished a night shift and hea
