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

We see that the situation in Australia is vastly different. The most fundamental of all the protections is the quarantine system, but it was always the first line and not the last line of defence—the first ring of containment, where others are in place. That's been recognised right throughout—borders, testing, tracing, distancing and vaccination. As the Prime Minister has said, well over 300,000 Australians have come back through hotel quarantine, and it has been 99.99 per cent effective. We know that any country that engages with the rest of the world is at risk of incursions. No country has an immunity, but no country is, perhaps, better protected than Australia.

Having said that, there are very clear hotel quarantine guidelines that have been put in place and have protected Australia. Firstly, we have the decision of the national cabinet on 27 March 2020, which also included the Australian Defence Force beginning to assist state and territory governments to undertake quarantine compliance. But there has been ongoing work. Reference has been made to the Halton review, and on 23 October national cabinet accepted the review's recommendations. On 24 December, very importantly, the medical expert panel, the AHPPC, agreed on the ongoing national principles for hotel quarantine and noted that, as state and territory governments manage hotel quarantine, many of these recommendations are implemented locally. They had that role and they had that responsibility, and they have overwhelmingly been doing it to the highest of standards.

The Commonwealth has put in place, in line with the recommendation of the Halton review, the Centre for National Resilience at Howard Springs. That has now been adopted by the Northern Territory as its responsibility. We have seen its expansion in capacity. I would note that flights have come in on 23, 24, 25 and 31 May, and on the current intended schedule we have flights which, subject to final confirmation, are expected on 10, 16, 20, 21, 23, 24 and 30 June. These are the people who are coming in to be cared for, protected and quarantined in Australia. Indeed, they make up the very numbers to which the Leader of the Opposition was referring. (Time expired)

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