Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:34): This bill is timely and pertinent, especially as the coronavirus becomes a pandemic. The Andrews Labor government is stepping up the fight against the flu and making vaccinations compulsory for frontline doctors and nurses in our hospitals and for paramedics caring for Victoria’s most vulnerable patients.

Last year’s unprecedented flu season put enormous strain on our hospitals, with more than 69 000 laboratory-confirmed flu cases. Victoria’s dedicated health workforce rose to the challenge and continued to deliver world-class care, and that needs to be underlined. The Labor government already makes the flu shot free for healthcare workers. These new laws will mean that healthcare workers must be fully immunised to protect themselves and patients against the flu each year, as well as whooping cough, measles, chickenpox and hepatitis B. All healthcare workers in public and private hospitals and ambulance services with direct patient contact will be required to be vaccinated, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, dentists, orderlies, cleaners and staff working in public sector residential aged-care services. Workers who refuse to be vaccinated may face restrictions or be redeployed to other parts of the health service.

The intent of these laws is to protect healthcare workers from preventable diseases while also reducing the risk of transmission to the most vulnerable in our communities, such as children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with chronic diseases. This is why this is important. I want to emphasise that last year the Labor government set a target of an 84 per cent flu vaccination rate among healthcare workers, which was well exceeded. It reached 88 per cent across the state; that is an incredible take-up rate and should be applauded.

Victoria’s landmark no jab, no play laws are also making a real difference in protecting children against preventable diseases, with Victoria’s immunisation rates still the best in Australia. Again, that was landmark legislation. that was important and that has proven its success. The Labor government is also making it easier for busy families to get the flu jab by reducing the age at which Victorians can receive it at a pharmacy to 10. This is another part of a raft of legislation and reform on prevention and how we actually address these critical matters. I think that is the important context to know and understand.

The member for Lowan has raised the issue of people who refuse vaccines on religious grounds. I have been informed and advised that the only exemption will be for medical contraindications. As the government has said publicly, workers who refuse to be vaccinated may face work restrictions or be redeployed to other parts of the health service. That is how that issue is going to be addressed. There will be exemptions for people with medical contraindications as defined in the Australian Immunisation Handbook. Healthcare workers who are unable to be vaccinated due to temporary or permanent medical contraindications should provide documented evidence of this to their employer. I hope that that addresses that issue.

I think that we really need to look at Victoria’s international leadership. We are world leading in medical research. We keep building on our incredible institutional clout that has been built up over decades. I had the privilege, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Medical Research, to join the Premier and the Minister for Health, Jenny Mikakos, earlier this week when the Victorian government provided another $6 million to the consortium led by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. As people would know and understand, this is built around Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty, and the elegance of the science that comes out of Victoria is world leading. Just to underscore that, the Doherty Institute was the first laboratory outside of China to grow and share the coronavirus. It is now working with other laboratories to increase Victoria’s capacity to rapidly diagnose infected people and to also develop better diagnostic tests to understand who has been exposed and how we can clear the virus without symptoms.

This is world-leading research. This is getting the collaboration that counts and having the institutional clout. And it is bringing together the Doherty Institute with Professor Sharon Lewin, one of our most eminent leaders. She said that it is a tremendous contribution from Victorian state government, and it will support Victoria’s frontline diagnostic laboratories and also bring together leading expertise in Victoria to tackle this global health issue.

COVID-19 is spreading fast around the world and it demands a global response …

is the way that she put it, and:

This funding will go a long way towards Australia’s ability to build capacity to prevent, detect and control this new virus.

And this is a collaboration also with the Burnet Institute, and Professor Brendan Crabb said:

… an urgent and highly collaborative research component is essential to an effective COVID-19 response.

With this support from the Victorian Government, Burnet Institute will extend its already close partnership with the Doherty Institute and other key partners to accelerate the generation of knowledge and new tools that will help minimise the impact of this new infection to our community. Research goes hand in hand with front line responses, one cannot be effective without the other, and Victoria is an international powerhouse when it comes to health and medical research.

That is another important proposition with the University of Melbourne. I just want to use this opportunity to call on the Australian government to actually look at establishing a centre for disease control based in Melbourne and anchored on this collaboration that has already been formed and well established with the Doherty Institute, the Burnet Institute and the University of Melbourne.

The other critical proposition to know and understand is that what is happening is these viruses are transferring from animals to humans. What we need then to have is the connection with the CSIRO down at Geelong, with the Australian Animal Health Laboratory. That is a facility worth hundreds of millions of dollars that has already been established, so Victoria has the institutional clout and it has the internationally regarded expertise, and this should be the critical centre. When you are in a pandemic you do not go parochial, you go for the world’s leaders and you go for the best.

I would argue that this should be one of the missions out of the Medical Research Future Fund rising to $20 billion. It looks like it was tailor-made to actually bring these institutions together—and I know that from Nobel laureate Professor Sharon Lewin to Professor Brendan Crabb and the dean of health at the University of Melbourne, they are all concerned to actually make this happen so that we have a critical mass of expertise to inform government responses. Of course we would obviously reach out and maximise our resources, so never forget Monash University and CSIRO; that they have connected in what I would call the great southern hub there, connected by Innovation Walk. I think that this is the time to bring these resources to the fore; for the Australian government to step up on the leadership. We have got the mechanism with the Medical Research Future Fund to establish a centre for disease control right here in Melbourne and to make sure that this becomes the centralised centre of excellence for emergency response to these issues as well.

Now is the time to act. This is an issue that is of international significance. It has already become a pandemic. In Victoria, by virtue of what it has already achieved—its leadership and excellence—now is the time to recognise this. Do not go parochial; be big picture, deliver on the vision and this will be the area that is the stand-out nationally. In the past this has become a bit of an issue between Melbourne and Sydney. Put that to one side, go with the world’s leaders, deliver the best result and help improve and save lives.