Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

In a world with 23.8 million cases and 817,000 lives officially lost and no doubt countless more, in a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen for 100 years, all countries have faced great challenges. Few have met them like Australia. The people of Australia have been through a hardship unlike anything seen in the course of the lives of virtually any Australian—certainly those that have been in this country in the period since the Second World War.

We know 25,205 Australians have been diagnosed. We know that 549 Australians have lost their lives, as of the latest figures provided to me by the national incident centre before coming to question time today. At the same time we have been through a first wave, where eight out of eight states and territories were able to follow the plans put in place by the Commonwealth and were able to beat back this disease in a way that few countries in the world have. Since then, seven out of eight states and territories have continued to maintain that low or negligible level of community transmission. Today we saw five states and territories with zero community transmission, and one case in Queensland, five in New South Wales and 149 in Victoria.

As I said yesterday, what we've seen is that 95 per cent of the cases in Australia since 1 June have been in Victoria. Agonisingly, 99 per cent of the lives lost and, at present, 100 per cent of the cases in aged care are in one state, overwhelmingly in one city and overwhelmingly in one part of that city. What we see is what we said from the outset—that community transmission is the greatest threat to the nation, and containment of community transmission is the single greatest and indispensable defence.

Having said that, we set out from the outset with a containment plan and a capacity plan. Both of those elements, to flatten the curve and to boost the capacity, have four pillars. In particular, in relation to the containment plan, the border controls that we put in place have seen 2,270 positive cases identified in hotel quarantine. These are cases which would otherwise have escaped into the community, which would have ravaged the nation. We put in place border protections as early as 1 February, for which we were criticised by many, including the World Health Organization and China. But we did that because we wanted to take all steps possible to prevent community transmission.

In so doing, what we also put in place was a second pillar of testing. We have now had almost 5.9 million tests done within Australia. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine identified Australia as maintaining one of the highest testing rates in the world. We're maintaining that as many parts of the world struggle. We fought every day to make sure that Australia had the testing supplies and the testing quality. Perhaps most importantly, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine identified us as having one of the world's most accurate testing regimes, and that has protected Australians.

The tracing has been strong and powerful in seven out of the eight states and territories. In particular, we brought the ADF in to assist Victoria with the tracing. Over 400 ADF personnel have been involved in adding rigour. One of the elements here is that seven million Australians have adopted the COVIDSafe app. I will read from a NSW Health press release of 1 August 2020. It's a document that has been on the public record for over three weeks now. In relation to the use of the app, the NSW Health department said:

For one of the cases where NSW Health accessed the COVIDSafe App data, a previously unrecognised exposure date from a known venue, Mounties, was identified. This resulted in the identification of an additional 544 contacts. Two people in this group presented for testing and were subsequently confirmed to have COVID-19.

Those two people could have created an entire Victoria—that's what the app has done. New South Wales, through its tracing regime, has been able to ensure that at least six events, which each could have been of the magnitude of the Victorian outbreak, have been traced to the ground. That has meant that we now have single figure community transmission outbreaks.

The distancing has been important but, in Victoria, the distancing has been agonising. We see the state locked down, with people confined to their homes and with curfews, distanced movements, required masks and compulsory shutting of businesses. They're actions that are extraordinary in a democratic regime. At the same time, the Leader of the Opposition talked about the parliament being opened here. The parliament is closed in Victoria. The Victorian parliament should reconvene and teleparliament, if they need it as we have, can assist them achieve that outcome. It's a sensible, practical measure. However, all of these things were supported by our capacity. Whilst we flattened the curve, with the two significant breaches in Victoria of the hotel quarantine scheme and the challenges they faced with their tracing, on which we are now helping to support after having endeavoured for a long period of time to have the ADF included, we are seeing progress there.

The capacity has been fundamental. That's capacity in terms of primary health. We now have over 26 million cases which have been done through telehealth. A system that was to be 10 years in the making was developed in 10 days. It was implemented to save and protect lives, of which the most significant element has been mental health support, along with our $78 million national mental health package, along with the $48 million national pandemic response mental health package, along with the $20 million investment nationally in mental health research and along with the specific Victorian actions that we have also taken in relation to mental health in Victoria.

Significantly, with regard to aged care, what we see in Australia is not just a billion dollar investment but the four great elements that we put in place over March and April. First, there was the creation of a $101 million surge workforce package to provide a surge workforce for the moments when there would be threats to a particular facility. Second, on 13 March there was the national public hospitals partnership to provide additional surge workforce and capacity. Third, on 31 March there was the historic private hospitals partnership, which has seen over 450 patients transferred to private hospitals from aged-care residents in Victoria alone. Fourth, there was the national testing capacity contract, which ensures that wherever there is a case in an aged-care facility every resident and every staff member is tested. This was developed and put in place in April. All of these four elements were put in place months and months ago to prepare for what might come, but it is being utilised now. With regard to our hospitals, we've seen an 89 per cent survival rate with the near quadrupling of ventilator capacity—there are just over 20 Australians on ventilation—and with the research elements, which I set out today.

I very specifically want to deal with one thing which was raised by the shadow minister, and that's in relation to the loss of life and the comparison internationally. I think it's very important to reaffirm that Australia has one of the lowest rates of loss of life in aged care of any of the countries for which we have data. We have a tragic figure—because every life matters, and every life lost is a cause of sorrow and grief—of 0.19 per cent of residents in aged care who have lost their lives. In Canada, that figure is 600 per cent higher on a per capita basis. What we see is that in France it's 1,300 per cent higher. We see that in Spain it's 1,400 per cent higher, in Italy and Ireland 1,800 per cent higher and in the UK almost 3,000 per cent higher. To look at it another way, in terms of residential care deaths per one million population over the age of 65, in Australia it's 82 residents, in Belgium 2,258, in Canada 1,100, in Ireland 1,600, in Italy 694, in Spain 1,073, in the UK 1,364 and in the United States 1,280. All of this shows that lives have been saved on a grand scale in Australia. In a pandemic, lives have tragically been lost as well. So we will fight to make sure that the plans we put in place continue to save lives and protect lives.

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