Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. The security of our borders and the safety of our families and our businesses is absolutely critical to Australia's continued economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It's very clear that our international border arrangements have played a major role in our success in managing and containing the virus. As the Prime Minister has said, international borders will only open when it is safe to do so. But we are focused on continuing the COVID suppression strategy with testing, with tracing, with restricted international travel, with quarantine arrangements and, of course, with the rollout of our vaccination program. Our vaccination program is, in fact, well underway, and those opposite would be much better served if they proactively got out there and encouraged Australians to take the opportunity to get vaccinated at the first possible opportunity. So perhaps those opposite may spend just a little bit of time pondering how they can actually assist in a vaccine rollout other than doing everything that they can to undermine what is in the best interests of this nation.

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