John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry; I can't hear you. I'm speaking at the moment.

But, either way, there is a substantive issue with this motion, even though it says so little. Where is the failure? In 2021 how do we measure failure? In a year dominated by the COVID pandemic, we might measure failure in deaths from the disease. While every death is a real tragedy, Australia has been blessed to escape with relatively few deaths, especially compared to other countries. There were weeks when the number of daily US deaths was the equivalent to or larger than the population of Townsville. We have avoided that terrible fate, which I would think is hardly a failure. It is a triumph.

Would we measure it in cases? Perhaps. But here again Australia has had a fraction of the cases of the rest of the world. The UK had a great day for cases yesterday. There were only 2,493. While we certainly need to be concerned about the cluster in Victoria, most countries would give anything to have only 10 cases in a day. It would be a bold person who would look at this as a failure.

What about the economy? That may be a fair metric, but then again this government has had resounding success. We may have gone into recession, but we bounced back out of there so quickly that nobody in the country could have predicted it to be so good or dared to even hope for it. There is no other country in the OECD that has more people in jobs now than before the pandemic. Is that a failure? I think not.

We can always do better, and we don't trust anyone who says that they can't, but, comparing Australia to the rest of the world over the past 18 months, it's pretty hard to call us a failure. We've had this success as a government and as a nation, working together with states to deal with outbreaks, treat patients, deliver vaccines and support people who have been affected by the lockdowns. JobKeeper payments, vaccine deals, quarantine support—national cabinet coordination coming together. This government is helping to keep Australians safe, healthy and employed. If you ask anyone anywhere, they'd say this has been a huge success. In a comparison between nations right now, we are the Dawn Fraser of the race, we are the Heather McKay of the championships, we are the Ken Rosewall of this court.

An honourable member: I'm too young to know those people!

My faster told me about them! You should read your history! We're the gold medallists, and if they had platinum medals we'd win those too. If this was a war, the Mint would be overworked handing out VCs to every frontline health worker. (Time expired)

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