Representing Northsiders during lockdown

Representing Northsiders during lockdown

Ms WELLS (Lilley) (17:27): [by video link] I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021. As I speak, millions of Australians are in lockdown, including in my electorate of Lilley in the north side of Brisbane. I am joining parliament for the very first time virtually from Nundah today. In my community, frontline health workers at Prince Charles Hospital are working night and day treat people with COVID. We now have six testing sites on the ground here in our electorate testing north-siders, with umpteen more administering vaccine doses to keep us safe. Aged-care workers are protecting our senior citizens who are most vulnerable to the disease-and for insufficient pay, I would add. We have retail workers and service workers here on the north side at places like Westfield Chermside, Woollies at Sandgate, Aldi at Toombul and Coles at Stafford who are continuing to work and to put their own health and safety at risk so we can buy groceries and feed our families. Healthcare workers, nurses and GPs are doing their bit to get as many jabs in arms as possible. Their receptionists and other healthcare workers are bearing the brunt of the Morrison government's bungled vaccine rollout.

The common thread uniting north-siders and all Australians is that no matter where they are, where they live or what they do for work, all we want is for our pandemic recovery to succeed, and to succeed as quickly as possible. Today we are debating a bill to implement administrative arrangements to support communities that have recently been locked down. Of course I welcome any financial support for workers and businesses in Lilley who are struggling because of COVID. But lockdowns like the one in Sydney and the one we are experiencing here in Brisbane right now have been made necessary by the Prime Minister's failures to deliver on vaccines and fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities-failures which are hurting workers and small-business owners and are costing the economy hundreds of millions of dollars a day. Roughly 2 billion in financial support from the federal government, including 2 billion in his pocket, Alan Joyce tried to outsource the jobs of 2,000 baggage handlers last year-a decision which, on Friday of last week, was found to be illegal by the Federal Court. This morning, not 24 hours after the Deputy Prime Minister announced further unconditional support for the aviation industry, Alan Joyce announced that he will be standing down a further 2,500 workers. This is exactly why public money given to giant private companies like Qantas should only be given on the condition that this taxpayer money will be used to keep local workers in their jobs.

The Prime Minister has Alan Joyce's number on speed dial. He now needs to pick up the phone and tell Alan Joyce that any taxpayer support given to Qantas must be used to keep workers in their jobs here on the north side of Brisbane. I thank the House.