Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On 20 January 2020 the National Incident Room for COVID-19 was activated by the government. It wasn't until 12 March that the World Health Organization declared a COVID-19 pandemic. But by that time Australia had already called it. Australia had already begun its response. Australia had already closed its borders. It was only the day after that that the governments of Australia, the states and territories, came together. I remember the day very, very well. We were out in Western Sydney, at Bankwest Stadium, and we were updated during the course of that meeting on the rapid escalation in cases that had been unanticipated. I recall at the commencement of that meeting that the then Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, had already reported to the premiers, the chief ministers and me and those who were also in attendance that day. The Governor of the Reserve Bank was there on that day to speak about what the potential economic consequences of this were. And the head of the National Coordination Mechanism, which had been set up in the Department of Home Affairs to ensure there was integration between industry, business and governments in handling our response to the pandemic, was there. Later that day, on the 13th, we agreed that the federation had to operate in a very different way to how it had previously throughout its entire history.

Since that day we have come together on 50 occasions, as Australians of different political persuasions, as governments, small and large, to work together to manage our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 50 occasions we have met in good faith and in good sense to take the necessary steps needed to protect Australian lives and protect Australian livelihoods. It's true that over the course of that time, from that day to this one, no government has got everything right, whether here in Australia or anywhere else around the world, but I remember those fears at that time very vividly. I remember the fears of what this could do to our most vulnerable communities, and I particularly recall—and I remember discussing it with the Minister for Indigenous Australians—the community we feared for most was Indigenous Australians and the impact it would have on them.

We thought that across our country, where we have strong public health systems—and aren't we grateful for that, and the investments that we've made in our health systems in this country? We knew that would provide us and afford us some measure of protections, and we were also thinking of what this might mean for the countries around us, particularly our Pacific family and friends and what this virus may do to them. We were already activating and engaging with them as to how we might help them through this crisis.

If I had told you on that day, on 13 March 2020, as the world was struck down by this pandemic over the next 18 months, that Australia would have one of the lowest fatality rates in the world, compared to countries just like Australia, and would save over 30,000 lives, you certainly would have believed me. If I'd told you we were going to go into recession at that time because of the pandemic, you certainly would have believed me when I said that. But if I told you that less than 12 months after that a million people would be back at work and Australia's economy would be stronger at that point on the other side than what it was before, if I told you that we'd work together with the states and territories so that around about half a million people would come through our borders and that the quarantine system, put together by states and territories with the Commonwealth, would have a 99.9 per cent effectiveness rate in stopping the transmission of the virus as those half a million people came to the country, you wouldn't have believed me.

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