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

Here we hear them again! They love to talk about the things that don't seem relevant to the Australian people. We're listening to the Australian people and we are delivering for the Australian people.

We know Australians want us to deliver on the health and economic outcomes that the COVID crisis has delivered. Today we have seen from the Australian Bureau of Statistics a testament to the economic response that we have delivered to the most extraordinary economic crisis this country has seen in living memory. This data release showed that there was a GDP rise of 3.3 per cent in the September quarter, officially taking Australia out of a recession. This has largely been demand driven, and we know that the restrictions that have occurred in, unfortunately, Victoria have meant that that state is behind the rest of the country. But the recovery we've seen in the rest of the country is due to the cash boost we have delivered with regard to things like JobKeeper, which has supported 3.3 million workers; the HomeBuilder grant program, which has accelerated the construction sector; and the instant asset write-off, which has helped businesses have the confidence to invest in their own businesses. These measures have generated a demand led recovery, a recovery that puts us in a strong position to prepare for a post-COVID world.

As someone who comes from the health profession, I would like to list the many things that we have delivered with regard to our health response. We have acted swiftly to develop and fund a comprehensive health response—amongst other things, a $2.4 billion health package to protect and keep safe all Australians. We have ensured our health professionals are protected with adequate supplies of personal protective equipment. That has been an extraordinary delivery of an outcome which was, in a crisis, quite an unbelievable and unprecedented global supply chain difficulty. We secured COVID tests from overseas at a time when competition with this supply chain was incredibly stiff. These tests were delivered to states to enable them to do the contact tracing that was required.

We've provided $669 million to expand Medicare subsidised telehealth services for all Australians so everyone has access to quality health care while we've been living through COVID; we funded home delivery of most prescription medicines for those unable to get to their local pharmacy; we've delivered an extra $1 billion to respond to the impact of COVID-19 on aged care; and we've entered into advance purchasing arrangements with three vaccine manufacturers, with 134 million vaccines that are actually contracted. In addition to this, we've delivered $48 million to the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic Response Plan. I could go on. There are 100 fever clinics. We've delivered expert advice and an evidence base with regard to committees. That has underpinned a very science based approach to what has been seen internationally as a wonderful response here in Australia, something that all Australians should be proud of.

I want to turn in my last minute to what we've delivered locally in Higgins. I'm very proud of the fact that we've delivered solar panels to St John's Anglican Church in Toorak and the Sri Venkata Krishna Brundavana temple in Murrumbeena. We've delivered for an exciting new biodiversity campaign run by the City of Stonnington. We're keeping our Jewish community safe with comprehensive security upgrades at the King David School in Armadale and at Chabad in Malvern. We've delivered for our sporting clubs, with projects approved, locked and loaded to commence first thing in 2021 now that restrictions in Victoria have finally been eased. These projects form part of a broad suite of ready-to-commence infrastructure projects across the country.

The road to recovery has been long and bumpy, but the Morrison government has a firm hand on the wheel. Our economic comeback is now underway, and Australians should all be proud. The Morrison government has delivered for Australians on both an economic and a health front, and we will continue to do so now and into the future.

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