Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

With reference to the speeches of a number of members on the other side of the chamber, I would note that I'm personally on record as being in favour of a strong anticorruption commission. Like many within the community, I've been shocked by some of the revelations that have come out of Senate inquiries. They have caused me grave concern. I would also say with a great deal of regret that such revelations are not new. I think ever since Senate estimates were invented we have come across, time and time again, revelations of behaviour that should not be followed. I also agree with the previous speaker that airlines and, I would add, travel agents are two sectors that we do need to look at. This government is looking at both of them, and a number of members have been making representations on their behalf.

If I come back to the main question of the MPI, focusing on the interests of Australians, I can tell you what the people of my community have come to me about over the past six months. They have come to me with concerns about their health, they have come to me with concerns about their economic security and they have come to me with concerns about the financial, sovereign and physical security of our country. They are the three main areas that people frequently have been coming to me about. On each of those fronts this government has listened, acted proactively and—and this is the thing that pleases me most—responded. When issues have arisen that were not necessarily predicted or contemplated, this government has responded. Our Treasurer, our Prime Minister and, in fact, all of our ministers have responded when issues have arisen with perhaps a program that had to be put in place within two weeks and wasn't working as well as it should. Our ministers and our government have responded.

So what have we done on the health front? We have done an enormous amount on the health front. The two things which have been of particular interest to the members of my community have been the increase in mental health services and the telehealth services. Right back at the beginning of the pandemic I had numerous GPs contacting me wanting to have telehealth in place. Let's go back to prior to COVID: telehealth was not widespread at all. It was a very, very small undertaking. Since that time, since March, we have had in excess of 35.4 million telehealth services delivered to 11.26 million patients. That doesn't just happen overnight. That happened because of people asserting and arguing that we needed to put this in place and the government responding and getting in place telehealth services. There was a lot of background that had to be put in place for that. The systems had to be put in place to be able to support it. On the health front, we've been investing in treatments, in vaccine research and in building up our health systems to make sure that if we have a great rush of people who require health services we will be capable of actually delivering that and supporting people.

On economic security, 7,300 businesses in Curtin have received JobKeeper, 6,500 businesses in Curtin received the cashflow bonus, thousands have used the instant asset write-off, close to 5,000 people in Curtin have received the JobSeeker supplement and close to 10,000 age pensioners in Curtin received the two supplementary payments of $750 in April and July. These were what were requested by my constituents. Constituents wanted economic security. The businesses in my community have all expressed enormous support for and overwhelming endorsement of the 2020-21 budget initiatives to help keep their businesses going and to ensure that they can continue to employ people.

This is what this government is about. It's about making sure that people are safe and that our health is our priority but also that our livelihoods are maintained, that people can get an education, that people can get training, and that people have jobs to look forward to so that they can live their best lives, notwithstanding the huge impact that COVID has had on our health and on our economy.

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