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

All premiers, all chief ministers, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and others have had to make many decisions over the course of this pandemic, and collectively those decisions have saved 30,000 lives in this country—something envied by countries all around the world—and we have an economy that remains incredibly resilient and a million people coming back into work after the COVID-19 recession last year. Those are the decisions that governments have been taking and they are the results that are being achieved.

The delta variant, as we know, completely changed everything in terms of our COVID response, and the New South Wales government made decisions, and they have been making decisions over the course of this pandemic. On previous occasions they have made decisions where they haven't locked down, which enabled children to still go to school and enabled businesses to remain open and avoid the great hardship of the lockdowns which cause terrible ruin on people. These lockdowns are hard to endure. They are necessary at this time, but only as long as they need to be.

The New South Wales government have sought to avoid those lockdowns over the course of this pandemic. Those opposite may want to charge in and attack the New South Wales government for their efforts. They may seek to do that. I am not going to do that. What I know is that last year over 800 lives were lost in Victoria. This year, in New South Wales, 76 have been lost. We're making great progress in fighting this pandemic, and I thank all the premiers for their efforts. (Time expired)

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