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

I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. One of the most significant things which this government has done during the course of the pandemic is to focus on protections in aged care. As I said yesterday, we recognise that each loss in this pandemic is a tragic loss for those that are affected. We are, however, in the position where, thankfully, due to the work of our nurses and our carers, and of all of those involved, we have one of the lowest rates of loss of life in residential aged care in the world—a rate which, when we look at the United Kingdom and the United States, is multiple times higher in those countries. And, unfortunately, many countries that have been affected during the pandemic were not able to count and chronicle all those whose lives were affected by COVID. We, by contrast, have been able to ensure that we have been able not just to take care of and treat but also to ensure that we have a comprehensive accounting of all of those that have, sadly, been lost. In particular, in terms of our actions, what we have done is lay down a series of things. Firstly, in relation to the PPE, this year, for example, we have provided over 50 million units of PPE within the aged-care sector. That includes now over 14 million rapid antigen tests. That includes approaching 20 million masks, a similar number of gowns and significant numbers of goggles—practical action. That then comes on top of that which is being done in relation to boosters. We have an 86.4 per cent—

See this speech in context