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

I'm delighted to speak on this motion moved by the member for Rankin for a simple reason, and that is that it is a chance to acknowledge the work of all Australians in saving lives and livelihoods across this country during the course of the greatest global pandemic in 100 years, the greatest global pandemic since the Spanish flu. To put all of this in context, as I mentioned in question time, there were over 400,000 cases worldwide yesterday, over 9,600 lives lost—souls lost—in one 24-hour period, over 2,080,000 lives lost just in the course of this year and 96 million cases reported. In Australia we are blessed with the fact that no person has caught COVID in this country this year and passed from it. Every day, of course, is a risk. Every day is a challenge. But that fact alone is perhaps the most human and, at the same time, the most graphic demonstration of that which this nation has achieved over the course of the last 18 months. In the midst of a global pandemic, from which we are not immune, as the opposition would somehow have us believe, where in one day over 9,600 souls perished and in one half year over two million souls have been lost officially, with the World Health Organization indicating it is perhaps two to three types greater than that or the equivalent of five million lives, no-one has caught COVID in Australia so far in 2021 and lost their lives to it.

Every day we focus on trying to minimise the cases. But every day we realise that this is a global pandemic that has stopped the world. At the same time as having achieved these immense unimaginable health and human outcomes, we've also achieved the extraordinary economic outcome of having seen growth of 8.7 per cent over the last three quarters. We've seen unemployment drop in what has been a V-shaped recovery, as the Prime Minister predicted, to 5.1 per cent, with more people in employment now than prior to the pandemic. It is an almost inconceivable national achievement, arguably one of our nation's greatest, if not our greatest, peacetime achievement. We have done it with a very clear and concerted plan, a plan which has been built around rings of containment that began with our borders. This motion was ostensibly in part about our borders, and yet that was almost completely unaddressed by the member for Rankin.

What is it that we have seen? We have seen a quarantine and containment system almost unparalleled anywhere in the world. There is this easy belief, this casual passing belief, that somehow Australia could be immune from recording 400,000 cases a day and almost 10,000 lives lost a day. We're not immune, but we've been better protected by our actions than almost any other country in the world: in the state run quarantine systems, over 99 per cent protection; in the Commonwealth run quarantine system, 100 per cent protection. I understand that those opposite are saying they may not trust some of their colleagues in WA, Queensland or Victoria and they want to move that program to the Commonwealth. We do trust them. We actually do stand by them. These are the systems that they have operated and, where there have been transmissions, we fight every day to continue to improve.

So far the Howard Springs system, because of the clinical governance that has been in place, has seen no cases transmitted. I recognise that in Victoria, in Queensland and in Western Australia, despite their best efforts, there have been cases transmitted. But we have faith and confidence in those governments. I am surprised that the member for Macnamara apparently does not have faith in the Victorian government to operate their system. We do. But, having said that, the very notion of this motion implies that any nation could be immune. We have seen that that first line of defence has protected Australia in a way that almost no other country of comparable size can claim to be protected in terms of lives and therefore livelihoods. If we look at the United States today, they have a seven-day rolling average of 300 lives lost each day. In the UK, their seven-day rolling average of cases is 10,000 a day. So vaccination plays a role but it is only one part of the rings of containment. All of these matters have been airbrushed—Australia's achievements and the challenges that other nations are facing. Vaccination is a critical part but it's not the first line of defence; it becomes a fundamental line of defence. If we look at 300 lives lost every day in the United States and 10,000 cases every day, on average, over the last seven days in the UK, we recognise the truth of that.

Had we not put in place in Australia the rings of containment, beginning with a border decision which was contested and challenged by many, which was rejected by the World Health Organization, we would have faced a catastrophically different outcome. Potentially 30,000 lives have been saved by comparison with the developed world, and 45,000 lives have been saved by comparison with the per capita loss of life in the UK and the US—nations which seem to be a point of comparison for those opposite. We will take our outcomes in Australia. Even though each life lost is an agony and a tragedy, the lives saved are to be rejoiced upon and celebrated.

Then we look in particular to the fact that our testing and our tracing have saved lives. In terms of what we have done there, at the height of a pandemic, whether it was PPE or tests we were able to secure those and to protect Australia. In terms of our vaccination program, we have now passed 27 per cent of Australians who have been vaccinated. On these figures that the opposition have put about: 27 per cent is the reality, with 6.8 million vaccinations in Australia, 140,000 in the last 24 hours, over a million vaccinations in the last 10 days and 990,000 in the last nine days. This is the reality of what's actually occurring in Australia.

In the aged-care facility in Victoria where three residents contracted the virus, we know all three had been vaccinated. All three are in hospital. Two, I'm told, are preparing to come home. Had they not been vaccinated it could have been a very different outcome, as we saw during the Victorian second wave. So these vaccinations are critical. One hundred per cent of aged-care facilities have had first doses. Approximately 99 per cent have had second doses.

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