Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Higgins for her question and for her work. I also want to thank all of those in Victoria who have come forward in record numbers for vaccination. In the last 24 hours there have been 40,389 vaccines administered in Victoria. That has contributed to a record figure on Monday for Australia—119,139 vaccinations in the last 24 hours—which comes on top of a record week of 630,000 vaccinations in the seven days to Sunday. These are important steps forward in Australia. Victorians are stepping forward, and Australians everywhere are stepping forward. But we also know that Victoria is facing difficult challenges. At this point, the advice I have is that there are 54 active cases in Victoria. We know that we can manage challenges. New South Wales, for example, had over 200 active cases in a one-month period, from 16 December to 16 January, and was able to manage and contain those cases. Victoria is doing a very good and important job.

The Commonwealth has stepped in with 130,000 additional vaccines and offered contact tracing and ADF support. I'm advised that 160 defence personnel are on the ground, as we said last week they would be. They are on the ground and they are available and being tasked, in conjunction with Victoria, for operations. We have activated asymptomatic testing from the Commonwealth respiratory clinics. In addition to that, the Chief Medical Officer and his team are leading meetings of the national medical expert panel, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee. The Commonwealth medical officer declared a hotspot on 27 May, which was in concert with the Victorian government's announcement of restrictions there. As a result, that includes the provision of PPE from the National Medical Stockpile. In line with the advice of the AHPPC of 9 November last year, which was tabled at the national cabinet on 13 November last year, that also leads to the single-site workforce payments in Victoria, a system which was, as I say, endorsed by the AHPPC last year and tabled at the national cabinet. Furthermore, in terms of total vaccines available in Victoria, what we see is that the Commonwealth has provided approximately 787,000 vaccines, and Victoria, to their credit, have administered 494,000 of those.

These are difficult and challenging times, but the nation is coming together to protect Victoria. We know how to do this and we will do it again. (Time expired)

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