Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for moving this motion, as it gives us all the opportunity to talk about Australia's recovery from the COVID pandemic and the ongoing recovery efforts. The member for Warringah is quite right when she says that Australia has done a remarkable job throughout the COVID-19 pandemic on measures relative to the rest of the world. But it's Australians who have done the heavy lifting. This wasn't just luck. They have rallied significantly. They have followed directions and requests to get the jab and to take other measures. It wasn't just fate. It was this government moving swiftly to put in place support measures that helped them get through the early lockdowns and uncertainty of the pandemic and then allowed us to get through the further lockdowns of the last 18 months.

JobKeeper and JobSeeker have been lifelines for Australian businesses. I was reflecting earlier on in this place about the practical impact that they had had in seats like Ryan, at popular pubs like the very famous Regatta Hotel, particularly for young people, who tend to work in hospitality establishments. For them, having JobKeeper there was an absolute lifeline. We've seen the results of that. We have seen youth unemployment drop significantly. The RBA is forecasting economic growth at 5.5 per cent next year as well as for the unemployment rate to be sustained at five per cent for the first time in 50 years. Three hundred and fifty thousand jobs have been created since the start of September. We were the only nation, of comparable economies, to be able to say that we had more jobs after the pandemic than we did at the start. That's because, at all stages, the government has moved swiftly to put in place support packages as needed.

I agree with the member for Warringah that businesses do need certainty, and that certainty is the most important thing in helping them plan for the economic recovery. But the remarks she has made today, and that the Labor Party are making today, are trying to stoke fear of new variants. She's trying to jump a couple of steps ahead before we truly understand whether this new variant is going to lead to lockdowns or anything like that. We are in a different position now. We do have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world because of the vaccination program this government has been able to roll out and because Australians have been willing to roll up their sleeves. That gives us the opportunity to provide more certainty for businesses that rolling lockdowns aren't going to be required.

The other way we can provide certainty is to, again, reinforce with the state governments that the agreements they made as part of the national plan, to open up their borders when certain vaccine benchmarks are reached—they have now well and truly been reached—are stuck to. That's what will help the travel industry more than anything else that the member for Warringah has specifically raised. It gives Australians the ability to make plans without concerns that they might change at a moment's notice because of a border closure or of new quarantine requirements.

Although nothing can be exactly certain, if we have premiers out there—Liberal and Labor; I'm from Queensland, so I know the example of the Queensland Labor government best. If we had our Labor Premier in Queensland reinforcing that she will meet the national plan requirements that she has agreed to and that the border will definitely be reopened at 80 per cent vaccination rate in our state, then the tourism industry that Queensland is so heavily reliant on—people travelling from the southern states, which the Queensland tourism industry is so heavily reliant on—can have more confidence than they have at the moment. We have a planned reopening date, on the 17th, but already today, with the new variant, we've seen the Labor state government start to equivocate on that.

We will continue to ask state premiers of all political sides to stick with the national plan as we continue to support Australians into apprenticeships, into jobs and into new homes through programs like the HomeBuilder scheme that has been so successful. We will be nimble and quick as support is required, as we have always been throughout the pandemic.

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