Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, as the member for Rankin outlined and as the Assistant Treasurer outlined in his opening remarks, this is a very difficult time for many Australians right across the country, whether it's in my home town of the City of Logan and the northern Gold Coast or whether it's New South Wales and Victoria or, to a lesser degree, whether it's South Australia. But there have also been impacts further afield, in WA. The whole country actually suffers as a result of these outbreaks.

While we have been able to come to Canberra and continue the process of parliament, there are many, many people in many, many businesses right across my electorate and across broader parts of Australia that don't have that luxury, that are struggling to decide how they keep their doors open and how they keep people employed. That is what this bill and many of the other support measures that we have put in place over the last 12 months have been designed to do. It's been about keeping business turning over and keeping people employed and engaged with the businesses that employ them to ensure that, as we come out of these lockdowns and these restrictions, we can see that recovery, once again, come to fruition.

In the early part of this year we saw the ingenuity and the willingness of Australian business and the Australian community, when the opportunity presented itself, to get out there on the front foot and build on the opportunities that were sustained through the programs that this government put in place through 2020. Whether it was JobKeeper, the SME loan guarantee, the instant asset write-off extension or the instant expensing provisions, I know all of those measures were used by a variety of businesses across my electorate of Forde. In some cases it was one; in other cases it was a number. From speaking to those businesses, I know the benefit and value it had to them. Equally, the package of measures in this bill is about getting money out the door into our economy to support people in their current time of need. We don't know where individual people's situations are at, but through these measures in this bill we create the opportunity for them to make that assessment and to take advantage of the support that this government has provided, if they meet the conditions around which that support will be provided.

I note that the member for Rankin spoke at length about the vaccine rollout. I'm pleased to share with the House that some 41 per cent of the population across the country have now received their first dose and some 20 per cent their second dose. And we're seeing that ramp up each and every day. As we see the vaccination rates ramp up as the vaccination rollout continues to gather pace, the opportunity to move through the four-stage process that the Prime Minister and the premiers agreed to last Friday at national cabinet will get closer and closer to coming to fruition. And that staged process is about ensuring that we have the protections in place to open up our economy once again. We saw the success of that earlier this year. We recognise that we can't forever stay in this situation of lockdowns—coming out of a lockdown and going back into a lockdown when there's another outbreak. We have already seen a significant increase in the number of younger people impacted by the delta variant. Sadly a young 38-year-old lady lost her life in Sydney in the last week or so having been infected by the delta variant. So these are crucially important measures.

I am pleased to note that in my home state of Queensland the Chief Health Officer who has been opposed to the broader rollout of AstraZeneca—one of the important vaccines in dealing with this outbreak—has today changed her tune and has now got on board with the ATAGI advice of allowing the AstraZeneca rollout to be made more broadly available. I know a number of young people, who I've spoken to over the past few weeks across my electorate, who are keen and willing to get whatever vaccine is available to them—not just Pfizer; they were willing to get the AstraZeneca based on an informed discussion with their doctor. I'm pleased to see that the Chief Health Officer in Queensland has changed her view on that. Hopefully that will see Queensland catch up with vaccination rates to the averages of the rest of the country because currently we trail those averages across the country.

This government continues to be focused—through this bill and through, as I said, many other measures that we previously brought before this House—to seek to continue to support our economy, particularly our businesses, but also individuals in this time. I know that there will always be differing views on how well these packages are rolling out and whatever. It's always easy to be wise in hindsight. We are seeking to make the best decisions with the best information we have available at the time. Over the past 12 or 18 months we have shown the capacity to change and make adjustments to the packages and the programs that we are rolling out to reflect changes in circumstances as and when they occur. I note that many businesses in my electorate have been very appreciative of our willingness to do that. I continue to engage with my business community about the issues they're seeing on the ground and provide that feedback to the Treasurer to continue to review and refine the programs that we are rolling out.

I commend this package of measures to the House as another step in ensuring that we are providing the support necessary across our economy to deal with the economic impacts of COVID-19. Whilst we are focusing on these bills, on the economic impacts, let us not forget the health and other impacts on our communities as well. The government has equally outlined measures around mental health and other things in the budget that're focused on dealing with those health and mental health issues that we know are impacting people across the country.

I know a number of discussions were had in the last couple of days with people across my electorate where we're trying to get resources to them because they're too afraid to leave their houses. We have some great community groups like Lighthouse Care, twin Rivers care and others who are also providing enormous community support across the electorate, particularly to support frail and elderly people who have a degree of fear about going out at present. We are ensuring that where necessary we're getting the supports, in terms of food or medicines or other critical supplies, to those people in need and that is being done right across the country.

I want to take this opportunity to thank those community groups, many of whom are run by volunteers, who are willing to go out there and support these people in need at this crucial time. I commend these bills to the House, in their unamended form, because they will continue to keep things ticking over so that, when we come out of a lockdown, our economy will have the ability to again recover. We have done it before. We have seen the capacity of Australian business people and Australians more generally to get out there and do that. It's typical of the Australian attitude of getting out there and getting things done. I commend these bills to the House.

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