SENATOR PENNY WONG
LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY IN THE SENATE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
LABOR SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA
SENATOR KRISTINA KENEALLY
DEPUTY LABOR LEADER IN THE SENATE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
SENATOR FOR NEW SOUTH WALES
MARK BUTLER MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING
MEMBER FOR HINDMARSH
Labor calls on National Cabinet leaders to urgently provide options for additional support for the people of India, as well as Australia’s large Indian community.
Reported COVID-19 cases in India have now passed 18 million - with the total number potentially far higher - and the devastating death toll from the country’s second wave continues to grow.
As a good friend of India’s, Australia must be doing all we can to help combat this crisis - including working with our partners around the world on ways of ensuring access to safe, effective, and affordable COVID-19 vaccines for India’s population.
Almost 10,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents are stranded in India and the Morrison Government must act to ensure they are safe and protected.
Labor calls on the Government to work urgently to support Australians in India, including options to vaccinate Australians left behind in this high-risk situation, and provide extra financial support to those most vulnerable.
The Morrison Government should be using the pause in direct flights from India to put in place a plan to get stranded Australians home as soon as possible by acting on safe, national quarantine, and ensuring sufficient flights including possible additional repatriation flights.
It’s time to listen to the experts calling for national standards on Personal Protection Equipment and ventilation in hotel quarantine.
Scott Morrison’s failure to deliver on quarantine has left too many Australians stranded for far too long.
In September last year, after Scott Morrison promised that all stranded Australians would be home by Christmas, his bureaucrats then promised to do “whatever it takes” to support the states to safely increase quarantine capacity to bring stranded Australians home. Both of those promises have been broken.
The crisis in India demands more than the same old political management from this Government – it demands action to keep Australians safe, both at home and abroad.
Authorised by Paul Erickson, ALP, Canberra.
