Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The first and foremost duty of any Australian government is to help keep its citizens safe and protect their lives and their welfare. This year, in particular, we've faced one of the biggest threats the world has ever faced: the emergence of the COVID-19 global pandemic in Australia and across the world. It has threatened the lives and the livelihoods of people across the world. At the last count, there have been some 35 million cases with over one million lives lost across the world. No-one has been immune. We've seen the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson, succumb to the virus. We've seen Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil succumb to the virus. Indeed, on Friday, we saw President Trump and his wife taken down with the virus. Of course, we wish President Trump and the First Lady a speedy and safe recovery from that illness.

Australia has not escaped unscathed. In Australia, there have been 894 deaths from the virus—every one of them a tragedy in miniature. There have been 27,000 cases. Viewed in a global perspective, you'd have to say that Australia is not doing too badly. Our death rate has been 33 per million. In France, it's been 14 times that; in the United States it's been 17 times that; in the United Kingdom, it's been 18 times that; and in Spain, it's been 19 times that. I think the key here has been national leadership and the national government. Our early border restrictions helped stop the entry of the virus. Our testing regime—and we've done over 7.7 million tests so far—is one of the best in the world. Our social-distancing measures and the other restrictive measures we put in place early—causing considerable hardship to people and lives and businesses—have had an impact. We should pay tribute here to all of those health workers, frontline workers, public health professionals, and essential staff and services who have been so integral to Australia coming through this response. Research published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday states that more than 16,000 people would have died in Australia if our outbreak had been as widespread as that of the United Kingdom. That would have been a tragedy of truly gargantuan proportions. The Medical Journal of Australia report states:

This enormous difference underlies the importance of Australia's response using a combination of extensive testing and contact tracing, mandatory quarantine of people returning from overseas, and shutdowns to control community transmission.

The report begins:

Australia has had a remarkably successful response to COVID-19, even considering the second wave experienced in Victoria.

The economic shock from COVID-19 has been equally profound. This has been undoubtedly the biggest economic shock to the globe since World War II. The IMF and the World Bank predict that the global economy will contract by 4.5 per cent this year. As a point of comparison, during the global financial crisis, the global economy contracted by 0.1 per cent, so we're talking here about something that is 45 times bigger in terms of its impact on the global economy. In Australia, of course, we are not immune from this. We've seen an economic contraction of seven per cent in our second-quarter GDP figures. This has, of course, had a very real impact on people's jobs and on businesses and industries right across Australia. In my own electorate of Wentworth, I've seen travel agents, tourism operators, people who work in hospitality, and people who work in arts and events and the entertainment sector all take a significant hit to their livelihoods and their mental health as well, but the government's response has been rapid and effective, I would submit. We've spent upwards of $314 billion in the response package through measures like JobKeeper, JobSeeker, the coronavirus supplements, early access to super, and expanded instant asset write-offs for small businesses. We've saved, by some estimations, 700,000 jobs which would have otherwise been lost. That would have amounted to an additional five percentage points in unemployment. We've had 760,000 jobs restored which had either been lost or had been reduced to zero hours as a result of these measures. There is certainly a long way to go to restore the economy, but we are well on our way, and we've got the fiscal space to do this because we helped restore the budget to balance.

In addition to cushioning the blow and supporting recovery, tonight's budget will focus on building the economic future. I'd like to highlight two announcements in particular in recent weeks that I think set up Australia well for the future. The first is a $1.9 billion investment package in future technologies to lower emissions and support new technology like hydrogen and batteries, help transform our energy landscape and create new clean-tech jobs. Australia is an energy power today, but we can become a global renewable energy superpower producing green steel and aluminium, harnessing renewable energy, building new battery technology and exporting hydrogen. Our low emissions technology statement sets us up to do exactly that.

Australia is facing challenges this year unlike any we have encountered in the modern era, but we are well placed to come through them.

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