Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Ryan on a COVID-19 vaccine. I think we in this House all agree —

Mr Tim Wilson interjecting—

I remember the member for Goldstein's electorate. I think we all agree in this House that it's not a matter of politics but a matter of science to support vaccines. We must be guided by science in our support of vaccines. I've said before publicly and I'll say again that vaccines save lives. Vaccines have been a miracle of modern medicine, of science, of understanding, of study, of evidence and of facts.

I will start my contribution by saying thank you. Last week I was joined by the shadow minister for health, the member for McMahon, in visiting the Burnet Institute in my electorate. The Burnet Institute is one of the top medical research facilities in Australia, and it is proudly located in my electorate, even though it does have plans to head north, to the Parkville precinct in Melbourne. The Burnet Institute is led very ably by Professor Brendan Crabb, who hosted us with the leader of the Doherty institute, Professor Sharon Lewin, who is a board member of the Burnet Institute and who also was there. It is a highly collaborative ecosystem in the medical research space. We had the privilege of walking around and speaking to the Burnet Institute. They are doing amazing work on instantaneous COVID tests, blood tests that will be able to determine whether you have COVID and how long you've had COVID for or whether you're free of COVID or have antibodies in your system. It will be a really important test that will be able to tell you instantly whether you have COVID with a very high success rate and a very low mistake rate, which is obviously an important piece of information. They also are continuing a lot of work on the other aspects of their research, including on malaria drugs and supporting work around vaccines for malaria. There is actually a vaccine coming out for malaria. It only has a 30 per cent efficiency rate, but that is better than nothing. That is being explored at the moment.

The story of the COVID vaccines at the moment is that there are some promising signs with vaccines. There are promising early signs with the science. Whether it's the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine or the UQ vaccine, there have been early results that suggest there is hope, that we might be able to get to a place where the world as we know it might be severely disrupted by a piece of science and a piece of medical technology that we are so desperate for in the vaccine. Even if we do get there and have a highly efficient and effective vaccine, it is still uncertain how long the vaccine will be efficient or effective for. It is still uncertain how long the vaccine will protect us from coronavirus, so it is important we are constantly based and focused on science, listening to the science, respecting it and assessing the efficiency and safety of a vaccine. However, it is amazing work and we thank all of those putting their time and effort into it.

Before I finish, it is important to say that in Australia we have been guided by science in order to deal with this pandemic. We've been guided by experts. Across the country our health experts have stood up next to our politicians and answered hard questions and questions on subjects that many members of the public haven't had to think about before. They needed to be supported by politicians, and I note that there are many people in this place on all sides of politics who have stood by our public health experts. But there have been members who haven't.

The member for Hughes has constantly undermined our medical health experts in this place. The member for Hughes has constantly undermined our health experts in Victoria and those overseeing the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the TGA. He's constantly spouted dangerous and false medical solutions to the coronavirus pandemic and, sadly, despite hundreds of occasions where the member for Hughes has used his prominent position, the Prime Minister has said nothing. He's said nothing to stop his MPs undermining the health response. This vaccine will be based in science when you respect the science, and we need all government MPs to do so. (Time expired)

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