Covid-19 vaccination

 

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:21): I cannot say I am pleased to speak on this motion, but I am compelled to. This morning I second read a bill that was something really important, and it was really important to the majority of people in Victoria, around access to reproductive health from public health providers. I take my time in this chamber very seriously. I feel incredibly privileged to be here to represent my community, and every moment, including those precious 90 minutes that I get on a general business day—I get them twice a year—is precious. I think long and hard about what I am doing. I plan for them. I go out and speak to stakeholders. I take a lot of time.

This motion I do not think took a lot of time. I do not think it took a lot of thought. And I wonder what the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are going to tell their grandkids about their time in Parliament—what did they achieve? Well, they did get to go to Parliament from a nightclub. Now, that is kind of cool and you could tell your grandkids that. Of course no-one else was at the nightclub. The music was not playing. The lights were going, so there were some lovely red and blue flashes on their faces as they joined Parliament from that nightclub. They could tell their grandkids that they drew a turd on the map of Victoria and called it Rexit. Interesting. Again, my grandkids would probably find that funny.

But what did they do here? I mean, this is a silly motion—to ask us to say that we will not request people to be vaccinated in the future. I mean, I am sorry. Mr Gepp read out those numbers—that is impressive. The vast majority of Victorians very much believe in vaccination. In fact I would ask the question: do we ever want to elect someone into this chamber that does not believe in vaccinations? Yes, this is a democratic palace, this is a democratic place and everyone has the right to be here—everyone, including the people over 70 and the immunocompromised that visit this place. I wear a mask today. I have the constitution of an ox. I do not get sick. I do not wear a mask to protect myself, although I think I should, but I wear a mask to protect others. I wear a mask because I do not want to harm someone else. I get vaccinated for that reason as well. I would be surprised if any of us did not think the same way. I also get vaccinated so that people who are immunocompromised can come to this chamber, so that people who are immunocompromised or older and more susceptible to various viruses and diseases can visit this Parliament, can take part in the parliamentary process and can give evidence face to face in our committees—that is why I do it—and so that people who work here are not at risk when they come here.

Those are the reasons why I choose to get vaccinated, why I believe we all have a responsibility to be vaccinated. It is a great privilege to be in this chamber. It is a great privilege to represent our communities. I do not think that we should even consider not doing what we can to protect our community, and getting vaccinated is one of those things.

I recently, in fact just this weekend, went to Malaysia, where they are still asking for vaccination status when you go into a shopping mall. When you go to Malaysia you actually have to give them evidence of your three vaccinations, and they are very strict about it. They want to know the batch number. It was kind of over the top, and I have to say I spent a lot of time at check-in completing the documents that I had not done before I got there. However, the rest of the world understands the seriousness of this. I understand the seriousness of COVID. I understand the seriousness of viruses. I understand that this will not be our last virus. I understand that this probably will not be our last pandemic. As we are seeing, pandemics are becoming more regular.

I am actually stunned that I hear that the LNP would support this motion, that they would say, ‘If we’re elected, we won’t ask members of Parliament to be vaccinated’. Who else are they not going to ask? That to me is treading down a very dangerous path. We are considered leaders in our community, and we should lead. I suspect there are reasons why Mr Limbrick and the LDP have brought forward this motion—well, they are suspicions. But this is serious. COVID is serious. I take the job here seriously, and I do not think this is a serious motion. I do not support it.

 

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Motion by Mr Limbrick 2/8/22