I like this one better. No mention of scare campaigns. It is on topic - Plibersek, Ebola
Labor's Tanya Plibersek steps up attack on Abbott government over lack of Ebola action
19 October
Mark Kenny Chief political correspondent
The Abbott government's hopes of pulling the opposition into line over Ebola have evaporated, with Labor's Tanya Plibersek stepping up the criticism of the current hands-off approach as short-sighted and wholly inadequate.
The response came after Health Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop wrote to the opposition branding its calls for sending in Australian health workers, reckless in the absence of third-country agreements to treat them if infected.
The Deputy Opposition Leader said it was curious that the government had seen fit to deploy Australian Federal Police to Ukraine even before any agreement on access to the crash site of MH17, and had deployed hundreds of defence personnel and assets to the Middle East before any decision to participate in Iraq, but was effectively sitting on its hands regarding the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
"Well I think it's a bitrough to call for bipartisanship when the government's plainly doing the wrong thing," she told the ABC's Insiders program.
"We were briefed at the beginning of October about all the impediments to Australia sending volunteers to West Africa to assist to get this virus under control, and in the weeks subsequent it appears that the government's made little to no effort to overcome those impediments.
The strong comments came as world leaders rejected isolationist tendencies from some countries following the outbreak, with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron calling on the developed world to "wake up" to the crisis.
US President Barack Obama has told his nation that the US cannot simply cut off West African nations affected because that would merely make the situation worse.
To date the heavy lifting in response to the crisis is being done by the US, Britain and France, with many other countries hanging back and offering only piecemeal support.
Australia has reportedly sent $10 million to the fund but has allocated a modest $18 million to the Ebola effort so far.
Over the weekend, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned excessive international caution, noting that his proposed $US1 billion Ebola fund had so far attracted just $100,000 – and that was from Colombia.
"We can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa … trying to seal off an entire region of the world - if that were even possible - could actually make the situation worse," Mr Obama said as some Americans have begun to campaign against US assistance for fear of an outbreak at home.
Ms Plibersek said the disease had to be contained in West Africa.
"This becomes a greater risk not just to the African continent, but to the world more generally – the best way that we can protect Australia and protect Australians is to help stop Ebola in West Africa.
The government has written to the opposition arguing that campaigning for greater involvement, including through putting Australian medical professionals on the ground, represents a reckless disregard for health workers because there is no reliable evacuation arrangement with another country, and Australia itself is too far away.
Ms Plibersek said, however, that other countries were putting in place facilities to deal with infected health workers such as proposed hospital ship in the case of Britain.
"It is beyond me why other countries are able to make arrangements for their health workers, including now Japan, are able to make arrangements for their health workers and the Australian government's not able to do that," she said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labors-tanya-plibersek-steps-up-attack-on-abbo...
Poor Bill had to try to cobble up some kind of response that didn't make him look like the empty showbag his comrades know he is.
