Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd just like to start by saying that this government has been a strong and certain government that has delivered outcomes for all Australians. The government has been very clear through this COVID pandemic that it's about saving lives and livelihoods. And, as the previous member has just said, the COVID global pandemic has been an incredibly complex, fast-moving, changing situation. I'm very proud of the fact that the Morrison government, in dealing with something as complex and uncertain as this, has delivered certainty and has been able to pivot when pivoting has been required—and we know that pivoting has occurred all around the world.

Let's start with the alpha variant last year. We could see that the Australian government had the right approach. We understood from the very start that Australia needed to close its borders, first to hotspots in January and February and then to the world. We knew that that was the right public health action to undertake to save lives and to save livelihoods. We've also been very clear from the commencement of this COVID pandemic that it is about getting the balance right between those two issues. As we've seen with the delta variant this year, we've had to move to a different way of dealing with this virus.

When we look at the issue of quarantining, for instance, we know that the world is changing the way it's dealing with international travellers. We know that, as the COVID vaccination coverage increases in countries like the US and the UK, those countries are changing their returning travellers requirements, and we know that that is likely to happen, too, here in Australia. But the first thing to say is that closing our international borders was a strong public health measure that was undertaken, quickly followed by good quarantining measures and contact tracing, then by the move to physical distancing, and then, most recently, by the COVID vaccination rollout.

I know which leadership I would prefer to have on this side of the House. I know that the Morrison government is committed to delivering for each and every Australian. To those on the other side, hindsight can be a wonderful thing, but let's talk about what this government has been doing with regard to saving lives and saving livelihoods. We've delivered PPE and COVID testing. We are now delivering a COVID vaccination program that is ramping up at enormous speed. But we haven't done it by taking shortcuts. We've understood that, to bring the Australian people with us, we need to make sure that this COVID vaccine has been through appropriate testing. We know that our Therapeutic Goods Administration, the TGA, is absolutely world-class. We've methodically assessed each COVID vaccine as it has come online, and we've made sure that we've made it available in the right, targeted way, which is ensuring that the most vulnerable in our community are protected.

When we look at the UK, we see that the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine rollout is working. For instance, there have been three waves of COVID outbreak in the UK. The second wave had its peak on 1 January 2021. Unfortunately, at that time, before the COVID vaccine rollout in the UK, there were roughly 50,000 cases of COVID—that was before the delta variant—and 1,500 deaths each day. The AstraZeneca vaccine rollout was done with great urgency. Emergency approval was given, understandably; there were approximately 1,500 deaths every day in the UK. If that had happened here in Australia, a country a bit under half the size of the UK, you cannot even imagine how many deaths there would have been. In the third wave that the UK has recently seen, they had a peak of around 30,000 cases of COVID a day. But what they are seeing is a peak that's less than 100 deaths a day. That's terrible, each and every death is terrible, but they've been able to disconnect the cases from the fatality rate. And they've had to do that, because they didn't have the aggressive suppression outcome that we have had here in Australia. So this third wave in the UK has seen a success. We've seen that the vaccine rollout in the UK is working to suppress fatalities in the UK, and that is something Australians should take heart from. We need each and every Australian to go and see their GP, work out which vaccine is right for them, put their arm forward and support the Australian government and its rollout of the COVID vaccine, because that is what is going to get us to the other side of this COVID pandemic. That is what is going to get us out of lockdown. That is what is going to get us back to our normal way of living. I would like to see those on the other side not talk down the government's response, but support and back in AstraZeneca, because it is a vaccine that's TGA approved and that is safe. Go and see your GP, get your vaccine and get the one that's right for you.

See this speech in context