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

I want to thank the member for Sturt for his advocacy, support and passion for vaccination and for all of the elements of the things that have kept Australians safe during the global pandemic. The member is correct: last week there were 1.33 million vaccinations in Australia. 1.33 million Australians, or almost the entire population of Adelaide, as the Prime Minister said, stepped forward to be vaccinated. We believe it is a record for vaccinations for any week for any form of vaccine in Australian history. That's a testimony to the work of Australians, it's recognition of their commitment to the program and it's recognition that as the supplies increased so too has the capacity of Australians to receive those vaccines.

What that has shown is that they are stepping up; that they are passionate about being vaccinated. Around the world we see the horrors of the pandemic every day. In the last day alone, over 470,000 cases and, again, over 8,000 lives lost. We're seeing these numbers grow again in another global wave of the pandemic driven by the delta variant. Against that background, we know that Australia has not been immune, but that we have been overwhelmingly shielded from so much of the agony that has ravaged the world. As the Prime Minister mentioned, we now have 941 lives lost in Australia, but 30,000 lives have been saved against the OECD average. The things that we have done as a nation have been the rings of containment of borders, testing, tracing, distancing and vaccination.

Right now, in terms of vaccination, we've reached 13.7 million total vaccinations. That's over 9.1 million first vaccinations. What we also see is 4.6 million second vaccinations. Indeed, what we've seen now is well over seven million AstraZeneca vaccinations. I want to thank the member for Maribyrnong, who has been a very strong supporter of the AstraZeneca program. There are others who've taken different views. He's been a strong supporter of that program.

I want to thank all of those who have advocated for this vaccination program. What we are seeing is that we have now passed 75 per cent, or three-quarters, of the over-60s in this nation. We've now passed 81 per cent of the over-70s in this nation. These vaccinations are saving lives and protecting lives. There's more work to be done, but every week more Australians are stepping forward. In the last week alone, a population almost the size of Adelaide was vaccinated. (Time expired)

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