Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet) Share this | Hansard source

You'd never guess, Minister! But if you think about how many McDonald's there are in this country, and you times that by 10, you see that for every one McDonald's there are 10 vaccination places where you can go to get vaccinated. That is the achievement of this government—to make sure that Australians have access to vaccinations.

There were delays at the start of our vaccination rollout. I think it's very important to put them in context. I've said before here at the dispatch box that yes, the vaccination program in Australia started two months or more after the UK or US started theirs, and I think that's entirely reasonable. I wonder if those opposite are suggesting that it shouldn't have. Let's look back at that particular time. At the time emergency approval was given in the UK and the US for the use of vaccinations, the UK was averaging 14,656 COVID cases and 452 deaths a day. At the same time they gave emergency approval for the vaccine in the US, there were 215,000 cases in the US and, sadly, 2,500 deaths a day in the US. Remember those photos of those pine coffins being buried in Brooklyn, and how sad that was? No wonder emergency approval was given for vaccinations in those countries.

It's very clear that the TGA took a more cautious approach, a safer approach, an approach that was supported by this government. In the first week of December 2020, when emergency approval was given for those vaccinations, Australia experienced 74 new cases of COVID—all in hotel quarantine—and, sadly, one single death. So I understand why. I understand that our success in dealing with COVID meant that we didn't initiate our vaccination program in an emergency situation like other nations. But I tell you what: we've more than caught up to where we would have expected to be otherwise. We always knew that, as a result of the delays and supply issues we experienced, we would have to backend our vaccination rollout. Today, for every one McDonald's there are 10 vaccination sites. That is an amazing effort of the governments of Australia, and that is why Australians, together, are achieving the successful vaccination rates we're seeing.

It's also important, I think, to make sure that we put COVID, tragically, in the context in which we live in the world. We know there have been 213 million cases of COVID and that that's resulted in 4.4 million known deaths. In the last seven days, tragically, our neighbours to the north, Indonesia, have experienced 7,111 COVID deaths. The United States has experienced 6,517 COVID deaths. We have seen 787 COVID deaths in France, 597 COVID deaths in the United Kingdom and, tragically, 14—likely 15 today—COVID deaths in Australia. But in Ireland, Israel and Germany, their death rate from COVID has been 20 times higher than Australia's. In the UK, Italy and the US, we've seen death rates 50 times the rate of Australia's.

The Leader of the Opposition, in talking about the MPI today, about 'too little, too late', reflected on the government's efforts in Afghanistan. I think that was a disgusting political slur in relation to the efforts of our ADF members and our public servants from a variety of different agencies in responding to the evolving, volatile and dangerous situation in Afghanistan. Sure, you can have a crack. In a democracy you would expect that leaders of the opposition would, but it should be acknowledged that overnight 1,200 people were evacuated from Kabul on six Australian flights and one New Zealand flight, working together, including with Afghans, other nationals and Australians, meaning in total 4,000 people have been able to be evacuated as a result of the operation, including 29 flights over the last eight days. The Prime Minister alluded to this in his press conference. The challenge that was facing Australia in relation to the evacuation continued to grow as more Australians in Kabul registered for support and the ADF, the Australian government and the hardworking members of the Australian Public Service, particularly those who were in country, have responded to that admirably.

At this point I think it's very important that we do acknowledge the 40,000 Australian Defence Force personnel and honour the 41 soldiers who died and those soldiers who were wounded and continue to feel the effects of their service. We pay tribute to their sacrifice.

Moving forward the Australian government has announced 3,000 initial humanitarian places. The Prime Minister has made it very clear. We anticipate this initial allocation will increase over the course of this year. There's something about this government: it does what it says it will do, and it does it and it achieves it. It doesn't set lofty targets with no particular plan or proposal in order to meet them. We actually set reasonable targets that we can meet with our plans. We go ahead and achieve them. We overachieve them and we intend to do the same here. We shouldn't forget that this is on top of the 8½ thousand Afghans Australia has already successfully resettled in Australia since 2013.

In relation to the economic supports that we're providing the Australian people, at a very difficult time, we can be very proud. I am very proud in my responsibilities as the Assistant Minister to the Minister for the Public Service. I'd like to commend and thank those hardworking members of the Public Service, who have come from a variety of different portfolios, agencies and departments, who have gone to support their fellow public servants at Services Australia to support Australians in need.

We have seen 1.74 million Australians receive at least one COVID-19 disaster payment. That actually represents 2.83 million claims that've been granted across those three different payments. With the COVID disaster payment, which assists Australians who need financial support in the event of a Commonwealth hotspot, there was a total of $4 billion paid out in that particular stream alone. We have seen the $200 income support payments to recipients who've lost at least eight hours of work—149,000 claims have been received, paid to 120,000 individuals there as well. We have seen the pandemic leave payment put in place, which is an agreement with the states and territories for those who have to self-isolate, quarantine or care, and 45,000 claims have been received and paid to 39,000 individuals for that particular support.

Of course, we acknowledge and thank the Australian taxpayer, without whom we would not be able to make these contributions. We thank and acknowledge the hard work of the Australian Public Service who, in a variety of areas, in every corner of this country, are working to support their Australians in need. This government is responding to the evolving situations both with COVID and in Afghanistan at moment. All we see offered by those opposite is constant criticism. They stand at this dispatch box and because some focus group has said that the Leader of the Opposition needs to say how constructive he is—well, I tell you what, the best way to actually do that is to demonstrate it, not to come into the chamber and, after demonstrating anything but being constructive, just claim that you are when you're not.

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