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

COVID-19 has dominated our lives and wreaked havoc on the health and prosperity of almost every nation on this planet. That said, Australia has done better than most countries in aggressively suppressing COVID-19 and in learning to live with the virus. This is a testament to the Australian people and to the personal restrictions that we have undertaken in order to help keep each other safe. It's also a testament to the trust that we as a country have placed in our Australian governments to deliver safe, secure quarantine arrangements and effective contact tracing. There have been stumbles along the way but, it's fair to say, we have now achieved in aggressive suppression what is to be the envy of the world.

What next for Australia? With an influx of overseas arrivals returning home for Christmas, it is critical that we continue to defend our borders and stringently enforce 14-day mandatory quarantine. We cannot let our guard down on this front. This remains our strongest defence; it is what has kept us safe as a nation. Looking forward over the next months and years, in order for this island nation to effectively connect again with the world in trade, tourism, international students or Australians returning home, we will need an alternative to 14-day quarantining and that alternative is a vaccine.

Thanks to the extraordinary work of researchers here and around the world, a vaccine is ever closer to reality. There are more than 350 vaccines now in trial around the world. Over the weekend, it was announced that National Health Service hospitals in the United Kingdom have been told to prepare for the first deliveries of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine as soon as 7 December; that is one week away. We're on the cusp of a completely new world of COVID management.

So far Australia has entered into advanced purchasing arrangements with vaccine manufacturers AstraZeneca, CLS, Pfizer and Novovax. We have contracted for 134 million vaccines directly. I'm proud to say the Morrison government will ensure the vaccine is provided free to all Australians. Australia also has access to a number of other potential vaccines through the international COVAX facility. We have lots of lines of inquiry open because we understand that in research you can never be sure about what's going to develop. Data on vaccine safety and efficacy is very promising, leading to the confidence of a successful vaccine being delivered here in Australia some time in 2021.

The great news is that there are many vaccines showing promising results, not just those we invested in but right around the world. It is also worth noting that three vaccine candidates have begun clinical trials in Australia, including one by the University of Queensland using molecular clamp technology, one by Flinders University—an Adelaide company vaccine—and one by international company Clover Biopharmaceuticals,. Australia has always punched above its weight in the field of medical research and this time is no different.

It is also incredibly imperative that we make sure every vaccine is safe and effective. One aspect of safety and effectiveness—so that we can ensure there is no vaccine hesitancy about this new development—is that different vaccines may be required for different ages, because our immune systems appear to be responding differently to COVID. So Australia has enabled the most experienced scientists and biotech and pharmaceutical experts to provide advice, through the COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatments for Australia—Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group. This group is essential, because we want to ensure we continue to have the trust of the Australian public in this incredibly important development. The advisory group is led by Professor Brendan Murphy, our former Chief Medical Officer, whom many will have seen on a daily basis in press conferences, who does have the trust of the Australian community. He will lead this group of experts to assess and work through all viable options to test, secure and administer a safe and effective vaccine if and when one is finally ready to be delivered. The vaccine will go through Australia's safety tests. While we all encourage people to take it, it will remain voluntary.

The world is looking hopefully to a future where we will have curtailed and controlled COVID. This is a crisis the likes of which we have never seen. But what distinguishes this crisis from those of the past is our ability to respond, in an unprecedented way, with globally collaborative research to develop diagnostics and treatments and vaccines to beat this pandemic. This is an incredibly exciting time for the world's scientists.

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