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

If Australia had the rate of loss of life of the OECD, there would have been 30,000 lives lost. If Australia had the loss of life, sadly, of the United Kingdom or the United States, upon which the model of the opposition is based, the loss of life would have been 45,000. By contrast, we have gone down the Australian way, and it has saved lives and it has protected lives. That Australian way has been based upon a very simple principle— that we have a national incident centre, with a chief medical officer who has been co-opted for the duration of the pandemic to all of the discussions within the National Security Committee, which the Prime Minister has chaired and upon which all of the large decisions, the biggest decisions, have been made based on medical advice directly to the Prime Minister and the National Security Committee. And that structure includes the Communicable Diseases Network Australia, the AHPPC, the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, all feeding in through the National Incident Centre and the Chief Medical Officer.

When the big decisions had to be made, ultimately it was the national security committee, and ultimately it was the Prime Minister, who had to take those decisions, and that structure has protected Australia.

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