SENATOR KRISTINA KENEALLY

DEPUTY LABOR LEADER IN THE SENATE

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP

SENATOR FOR NEW SOUTH WALES

 

MORE RUBY PRINCESS LIES FROM MORRISON GOVERNMENT MINISTERS

 

The Morrison Government has been caught spreading more outright lies about their failure to stop the Ruby Princess disembarking 2,700 passengers and spreading COVID-19 across Australia.

 

“I don't employ a doctor or nurse at the airport, at ports. That is the responsibility of the Victorian Health Department or the Queensland Health Department, the New South Wales Health Department. It is nothing to do with the Australian Border Force. They look at documentation, they want to make sure they want to make sure they have valid passports and people have valid visas. That they are not criminals coming into our country. But they do not conduct testing, they don't conduct temperature tests, etcetera. That is not the responsibility.” – Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, The Today Show, 14 August 2020

 

This is simply not true. When the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney on 19 March, Federal officials from the Australian Border Force and the Federal Department of Agriculture were on board the Ruby Princess – not NSW Health officials.

 

The Morrison Government has already admitted that at 6am on 19 March, an Australian Border Force official ordered another officer “to investigate information about ill passengers on the Ruby Princess and to provide a report”. 

 

Despite this order, and without making any contact with New South Wales Health, when the crew of the Ruby Princess asked if passengers could disembark at 6:30am, Australian Border Force officers answered “yes”. 

 

Even the Home Affairs Chief Medical Officer has said he oversees a system that conducts about 920,000 medical checks a year from a horde of nine million temporary visitors.

 

“Well let me make this clear- that (the) Federal Agricultural agency only looks after plants and animals; they don’t look after human health. That’s always been the convention of state governments that they hold the responsibility of human health and make decisions predicated on human health.” – Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, ABC RN Breakfast, 14 August 2020

 

This is simply not true. The Department of Agriculture’s website states:

 

“​​​​​The Biosecurity Act 2015 (the Biosecurity Act) explains how we manage biosecurity threats to plant, animal and human heath (sic) in Australia and its external territories.”

 

On 19 March, Federal Agricultural biosecurity officials were onboard the Ruby Princess and were supposed to administer Traveller with Illness Checklists to sick passengers.  These checklists were designed to identify serious illnesses like COVID-19, but they failed to administer these checks, and instead gave formal permission for the passengers to leave the boat.

 

On 15 March, four days before the Ruby Princess docked, Scott Morrison said that arriving cruise ships would be under the “direct command” of the Australian Border Force with “bespoke arrangements.” It’s clear the Morrison Government failed to implement this supposed “plan”.

 

The Ruby Princess is an unmitigated failure at our borders – borders which are a Commonwealth responsibility under the Constitution. 

 

All Australians have had to live with the consequences of Scott Morrison's failure to stop the Ruby Princess. COVID-19 spread across Australia and the globe, states went into lockdown, hundreds of people were infected with COVID-19, and over 30 Australians tragically died.

 

Scott Morrison and his Ministers are incapable of telling the truth and taking responsibility for their Ruby Princess failures which put all of Australia and Australians at risk of COVID-19.