I'm pleased to speak on the Australian Centre for Disease Control Bill 2025 and the Australian Centre for Disease Control (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025. These bills deliver on a key Albanese Labor government election commitment to establish an independent Australian centre for disease control and responds to recommendations from the COVID-19 response inquiry report released in October 2024, a landmark inquiry. It was established by our government in September 2023 to consider the Commonwealth's responses to the pandemic, including vaccination and financial support. This is because we thought it was important to be transparent about the response from a Commonwealth point of view to COVID-19 and how we managed it and the lessons we can learn to inform better management of future public health emergencies.
That inquiry found that Australia was one of the most successful nations in its pandemic response, but, as a country, our preparedness left a lot to be desired. I can recall that back in the 1980s people were talking about an Australian centre for disease control in response to HIV and AIDS, and I'm pleased to see this legislation before the chamber today. It has taken a while, but I think it's a matter of good public policy and a matter of necessity.
That's why it's so puzzling that those opposite are opposed to this. We've seen them rail against tertiary education. They don't like TAFE, the way they go on—they think we shouldn't be providing free TAFE. They don't like properly funding the university sector. The arts seem something that they think is an optional extra. Climate science seems like something that they don't believe in. Now it seems that health science and its efficacy are at risk of being something they deny. They don't like medical research, and they don't seem to support the idea that we should prepare ourselves. This was a once-in-100 experience that we had with COVID-19.
But those opposite also, when I listen to their speeches relating to this bill, seem to forget that they were in government at the time and that the National Cabinet was something that was initiated by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. I think they also seem to forget that, when the colonies formed the Federation in 1901, premiers were powerful. The states were still powerful. We might have had some changes with respect to the financial capacities between the Commonwealth and the states on income tax, and I'm not going to go through the High Court decisions there. We might have seen cooperative federalism. We might have seen the Commonwealth government having greater powers through High Court decisions—sometimes High Court decisions frustrated Labor governments; Ben Chifley could talk all about that. But, when it comes to issues of the Constitution, it is very specific about the Commonwealth's power under section 51 of the Constitution. The states have primary responsibility for the delivery of public health services through hospitals and are in control of their state borders. I don't understand Gough Whitlam talking about rail gauges, but the state governments have enormous power, and during the pandemic we were reminded of the power of the premiers.
But those opposite seem to think there were no LNP or Liberal and National party premiers dealing with a Liberal prime minister. They have criticised us on transparency and accountability during their speeches on this bill. It's a bit galling that those who brought us robodebt and a prime minister that actually put himself into multiple ministerial portfolios criticised us in relation to gag issues. They're the party that gagged nearly every charitable organisation they could possibly fund. If you weren't gagged and didn't sign up, you couldn't get funding. That was what Prime Ministers Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison presided over. We had lectures during this debate about all these issues as if they have some sort of political amnesia, as if they never formed government from 2013 to 2022.
We've got a bill before the chamber today that those opposite claim they're not going to support. That denialism seems so evident, so obvious, in their fractured factional thinking, with Liberal against Liberal, National against National, Liberal against National. It's there in the speeches we heard in this chamber yesterday and today. This legislation is absolutely good public policy and deserves to be supported by everyone in this chamber. Now, the crossbenchers have some amendments that they want to bring in, and it's their province and their right as parliamentarians to bring those amendments forward. But those opposite have railed against this legislation here. They took a policy to the last election opposing this legislation. It's as if the consequences of that election had no impact on their thinking not just on climate but also on disease control and management. It's as if they completely forgot about what happened in May 2025. They must have thought they weren't in power before May 2022.
This legislation is absolutely vital, and we must do better if we're faced with a pandemic in the future. The doctors, the nurses, the paramedics, the aged-care workers, the teachers, the couriers, the truck drivers, the logistics workers who I met during the pandemic in my community of Blair in South-East Queensland are heroes. The council workers who did so much great work during that time, the retail workers who suffered such shocking abuse by people who misbehaved terribly in places like Woolworths, Drakes, Coles et cetera—they are the heroes of the pandemic as well, and we should honour them and thank them for what they did. They got us through. It was a tough time. In aged care, anyone who's had a loved one or a friend die and was denied the opportunity or had limited opportunity to go to the funeral, anyone who was denied opportunity to go to a family member's or friend's wedding—we faced those challenges as a family as well.
Thousands of Australians lost their lives, while many had their livelihoods severely impacted. I know businesses, workers and community groups in my electorate were profoundly affected. Let me give you one example. A JBS—the meatworks—in my electorate, which is the biggest private employer in the Ipswich region, experienced a perfect storm during COVID. Market conditions were compounded by the Chinese government's beef import ban, widely seen as a retaliation for former prime minister Morrison's call for an investigation internationally into COVID. As a result, the plant had to cut back from two shifts to one. Six-hundred jobs, Member, were lost because of your side of politics. Six-hundred people lost their jobs in my local communities. So don't give us this nonsense about how wonderful Prime Minister Morrison was.
To add insult to injury, the Morrison government refused to allow JBS meatworkers to access JobKeeper wage subsidies—a devastating blow for those workers. When I asked a question of Prime Minister Morrison in question time, he said, 'They can go and get JobSeeker.' They couldn't keep their jobs. That was the failure of those opposite. It was an awful time for people, and it was a real time. Borders were closed. Australians were asked to stay in their homes, quarantining at home or in a hotel when they went across state and territory borders. We all went through it. Unless you were an ACT MP or senator, we all had to do that at some stage. For Anzac Day services, which are so important for Australians, we celebrated a moment of remembrance outside in our driveways.
The inquiry found that an economic response to the pandemic was critical to achieving the desired public health outcomes. Mistakes were made. There were frustrations and inconsistencies. We know that. People experienced it. We know, as parliamentarians, that happened for all of us. Modelling cited in the report I referred to said peak inflation could have been reduced by at least two per cent if the economic policy settings during the pandemic had better matched the public health restrictions. Global supply of stocks contributed to a substantial increase in inflationary pressures in our economy and are still having an impact on it. The impact was compounded by poor policy choices from the Morrison government.
The inquiry report and the progress we have made are proof of this government's economically responsible management. We focused on fighting inflation, delivering responsible economic cost-of-living relief and fixing budgetary health problems. But we know, as a key finding of the inquiry, that Australia went into the pandemic with no playbook, badly stretched health and aged-care systems, no clear national management plan and deficiencies in the National Medical Stockpile. Can I say, as a Labor politician, I really felt from time to time, rightly or wrongly, that there was some politicisation when it came to the distribution of vaccinations. That's how I felt from time to time.
The review showed gaps in data and data-sharing between the Commonwealth and states, as well as fragmented, outdated planning and preparation for health emergencies. Shockingly, when we came to government, we were the only country without a CDC equivalent in the OECD. Now, even more shocking was the fact the former government had not led a national pandemic drill for 12 years. We were hopelessly and woefully underprepared for the COVID pandemic. Our response was confused, slow and lacked authority. And I might add, as I said before, that the Morrison government botched the rollout of the vaccinations. The inquiry warned we mustn't let this happen ever again. Infectious disease outbreaks, AMR, climate change, changing geopolitical tensions and other things have all impacted on our national health security, and they all demand a permanent national public health authority right now.
Hence, one of the central recommendations of the independent COVID inquiry, which those opposite are ignoring again, is a new Australian centre for disease control. That's exactly what this legislation is doing. Back in October 2020, in opposition, we committed ourselves to a transparent, trustworthy and independent CDC consistent with the outcome of the inquiry. When we came to government, we established an interim Australian CDC in January 2023 to immediately improve the way we prepare for and respond to health emergencies. When you listen to what they say, it's almost as if those opposite didn't know that—as if somehow nothing happened when we got to government except this legislation. We've established an interim CDC within the health department. In October last year we announced that we would invest $251.7 million to deliver the CDC over four years to 2027-28. On top of that, we've committed $73.3 million in ongoing funding from 2028-29 to enable the ongoing operation of the centre.
This bill, along with the Australian Centre for Disease Control (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill, delivers an independent statutory agency that will bring critical information experts to protect Australia from diseases and other public health threats. And those opposite today, when given the opportunity, will vote against it. The Australian CDC will provide high-quality analysis and advice on public health risks to government and the Australian community. It will streamline our public health data-sharing and linkages across the Commonwealth, state and territory governments.
Australians deserve public health data, insights and advice that's high quality, nationally consistent and responsive, not just a crisis every day—and not just when a crisis happens on a Liberal Party watch; it should be available when it happens under a Labor Party government as well. The new centre promotes coordinated action to prepare for and respond to public health risks. I mean, the National Cabinet that Prime Minister Morrison presided over was all about that, but those opposite seem to have forgotten that and don't want that National Cabinet approach.
A transparent, trusted and independent CDC will strengthen our public capacity to respond, improve our preparedness, and safeguard the health and wellbeing of all Australians. We're safeguarded in many ways by that green Medicare card and by a public health system at a state and territory level that we fund, and the federal government puts a four in front of the amount of money we give to the states and territories, in terms of percentage.
But we can do better, and the missing link in our preparedness and prevention is the CDC. Today we've got an opportunity to vote for it, and those opposite are going to vote against it.
The full video can be found at:https://youtu.be/6OdEHoqoJ94?si=bVf22EGYuL0fUA9s
