Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am not supportive of the amendments, but I am supportive of the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022. The last 12 months, it must be said, have been among the most testing periods, outside of war, since the Great Depression. By comparison, the GFC, the global financial crisis, shrank the world economy by 0.1 per cent, and the world economy lost 3.4 per cent in 2020 alone. And let me tell you that the damage is not over yet, because the COVID virus is raging across the world.

We should be enormously proud here in Australia of the collective performance in combating the COVID virus—of our businesses and our workers, including healthcare and aged-care workers and volunteers. I think most Australians, are admiring, if not proud, of the job the Australian government has done. It has fought on every front to protect Australians. Our economic success is all but unparalleled around the world, and that has been built on the foundations of our success in containing the virus—keeping the virus out of Australia and getting it under control when it breaks out. Really instrumental in our ability to do that, I think, was the recognition by the federal government, three weeks in front of the WHO, that we were dealing with an international pandemic and that we should shut down Australian borders while we worked out how we deal with it.

Things have changed throughout the last 12 months. There have been constantly changing circumstances, if you like, and predictions are only sometimes useful. What I think has been really useful is the establishment of the national cabinet and the government's ability, combined with the states, to change the way we're dealing with the pandemic on a weekly basis as the pandemic has changed. That's what you would expect good governments to do, and this has brought into place a structure that we have not had previously, where the state and federal leaders are meeting on a regular basis. I think that has been very important.

The government recognised early the importance of, and possible problems with, international supply lines on essential articles, particularly in the medical field with personal protective equipment and ventilators, and it supported the ability to manufacture our own vaccines. All this was recognised early and acted upon. That led to us establishing a capacity in Australia to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine. It would be fair to say that there have been a few glitches with AstraZeneca. Certainly there are microscopic, or very low, chances of actually causing any illness or damage to most people, and I must say that I've had my shot and come through it very well. I had a small sore spot on my shoulder for a few days, and that's about it.

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