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

Perhaps the most germane of facts is to understand what has happened in Australia during the global pandemic compared to the rest of the world. In Ireland, the rate of loss of life is sadly 331 per cent of that in Australia. In France, it's 543 per cent. In Canada, it's 633 per cent. In the USA, it's 668 per cent. In Spain, it's 698 per cent. In the UK, it's 879 per cent. In Belgium, it's 1,291 per cent. All of these are fine countries doing the finest work they can, compassionately, to protect their citizens. They have faced a global pandemic and each of those countries has saved lives. In Australia, more lives have been saved on that comparative basis than in all of those which I set out.

We've done that through a series of actions. Firstly, beginning with the borders, there's been testing, tracing and distancing. But, in addition to that, there have been the specific measures within aged care. These have been difficult measures. Indeed, we have a 99 per cent vaccination rate amongst staff. Contrary to what has been put by some, we have a 92 per cent vaccination rate amongst residents and an 86.4 per cent vaccination rate amongst residents eligible for boosters. In addition to that, in this year alone over 50 million units of PPE have been made available. There's support for staff with our retention bonuses. In terms of residential aged-care facilities and rapid antigen tests, 13.9 million tests have been provided directly and another over nine million tests have been provided through the pensioner concession scheme. (Time expired)

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