Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Having listened to the member opposite speak, I don't know what planet she's on, because this country can be incredibly proud of what it has achieved. It has achieved the most incredible international outcomes, whether it is one of the lowest case rates in the world, meaning the lowest number of cases of COVID; one of the lowest fatality rates in the world, including in aged care; one of the lowest hits to our GDP or one of the lowest unemployment rates as a result of COVID. If we ask, 'What are the big issues that are important with regard to the last six months?' I think most Australians, if not all Australians, would say dealing with the health consequences of COVID, followed by the economic consequences of COVID.

If we look at this MPI, which is about the failure of the government to deliver on its announcements in areas of critical importance, what is more critical, what is more important, than saving lives and livelihoods? If we look at the outcomes of those, we are absolutely doing a fantastic job as a country, and that is because the federal government has the trust of the public. They understand that we care about the health implications of this COVID crisis, and making the tough decisions to keep us all healthy, but then the economic implications.

When this pandemic first started it was like there was a crisis of unknown proportions coming at us at speed. So you can imagine that there were huge numbers of decisions that had to be made. For a federal government to make such a huge number of critical decisions in such a short period of time is absolutely extraordinary. It's absolutely extraordinary that they've been made so swiftly, so effectively and to the benefit of so many Australians.

The government's decisive actions have resulted in what is regarded as one of the most remarkable economic programs of support in the world, and that is JobKeeper. I haven't heard a single person say that JobKeeper isn't a wonderful economic support program. We now know that there are over 900,000 businesses, in fact almost a million businesses, around Australia that are benefitting from JobKeeper, and that includes 3.5 million employees in Australia who are receiving JobKeeper to help them to have a livelihood, to help them to get through this incredible crisis.

For those who don't have JobKeeper there is JobSeeker. JobSeeker has been almost doubled to about $1,150 per fortnight with the introduction of the coronavirus supplement over the last six months, and that's now been extended to December 2020 at a rate of $250 per fortnight in addition to the underlying supplement. I've had so many locals call me and say, 'Our business was going to collapse without the support of JobKeeper.' Cafes, restaurants, retail and flight services—you name it—have been so relieved that they've had this temporary targeted support to get them through the tough times.

But, unless we have dealt with the health consequences, we are not able to deal with the economic consequences, and we can see that happening in Victoria, because unfortunately the Victorian Labor government hasn't delivered on the health promises that we need in order to ensure that we can have good economic outcomes. That is really concerning because we know that at the national cabinet level we've had a very good Australian approach to how to deal with the COVID response, but unfortunately Victoria has let the side down. Unfortunately, the quarantining hotel fiasco, followed by a poor effort with regard to the COVID tracking and tracing and not using the COVIDSafe app, has resulted in an outbreak of community proportions that has put huge amounts of pressure onto our systems, particularly our aged-care systems, because, as everybody knows, this COVID, unfortunately, unfairly, targets those who are older Australians.

But I do think it is worth mentioning that, despite this, the fatality rate in Australia in the aged-care sector is amongst the lowest in the world, if not the lowest in the world, with around a 0.1 per cent fatality rate. That compares to the fatality rate in the Canadian aged-care sector, which is 15 times higher; the rates in the Irish and Italian aged-care sectors, which are 30 times higher; or the rate in the UK sector, which is 53 times higher. What is quite incredible is that the fatality rate is so low in Australia. Absolutely every death is a tragedy. We are really very, very sad and deeply grieved about anyone who has died from COVID during this terrible, terrible pandemic. But in fact it is the actual response that stopped that. (Time expired)

See this speech in context