Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin) - Mr Speaker, in the four minutes that I have, thanks to Labor's lengthy contribution, I will put on the record some of the statements that the Greens have made over the last probably 18 months of the pandemic. We strongly support the Government's listening to the Public Health advice. We strongly support the work and commend the work of the director of Public Health, his staff and all the people in the health system, our public health and people in the private health system who have been working in testing and isolation and quarantine and of course tracing. There are so many people who have gone far beyond their normal daily workload over this period to keep us all safe and for that we warmly thank them.
We are concerned that there is a pace of pressure that has built-up here, through the federal Liberal Government looking ahead to the federal election, with the Prime Minister trying to spruik himself as being a strong leader of this country. He has shown himself to be anything but. He is a man who never puts his hands on the wheel. Never makes a statement other than a political one, point-scoring against states that have Labor premiers and completely ignoring the Liberal states. So, Tasmania has been very quiet on Mr Morrison's radar when it comes to dishing out the sort of criticism that he has given freely to Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria even while Tasmania has at certain times taken exactly the same public health approach as those states.
It is very distressing to have endured a Prime Minister who has put politics before the safety of the Australian people on every significant occasion, including failing to take up the opportunity for purchasing vaccinations amongst one of so many things. We have a great deal of support for the Premier and for the director of Public Health. We remain on the record of being concerned about the lack of a plan, the lack of communication about how we are going to keep nearly a quarter of Tasmanians who will be unvaccinated on 15 December safe when Delta enters the state. We want to hear about the plan for vaccinating five to 11 year-olds. It is so important and that needs to happen.