Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister please update the House on the value and importance of medical advice in supporting and informing the decisions of the national cabinet?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Leichhardt for his work in standing up for the health of Australians in Far North Queensland and, in particular, in advocating for the health of Indigenous Australians. On the basis of medical advice, which has been so fundamental to Australia's response, today we have lifted the restrictions with regard to the rings of containment or biosecurity zones for remote Indigenous communities in Queensland—in his own area. This follows the same decisions, on the basis of medical advice, in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. These zones were put in place in order to save and protect some of our most vulnerable Australians. The extraordinary thing that has occurred is that, at the outset of the arc of the virus, our fear was that we would see widespread disease and loss of life in First Nations communities, in Indigenous Australians, as, sadly, we've seen in many other jurisdictions overseas.

The best advice I have as of today is that, right across Australia's remote Indigenous communities, there has not been a single confirmed coronavirus case. That has meant that lives have been saved, livelihoods protected, and futures and cultures put in place and given primacy off the back of that medical advice. That is one of our great national achievements. People on all sides have contributed to that. But the Chief Medical Officer, the deputy chief medical officers, and the state and territory chief health officers helped build this policy of protection. They helped provide the advice to the national cabinet, and we put it in place under the biosecurity emergency powers. Now, as it's deemed safe, we've had the privilege of removing those restrictions and allowing these communities to return to normality.

As we've gone through this process, whether it's been the listing of coronavirus as a disease of human pandemic potential or the difficult decision to close the borders with China on 1 February—which was so opposed by the WHO, and by China itself, but a decision which saved lives—all of these things have mattered. Right now, the medical advice though is absolutely clear: the single biggest risk we face is from uncontrolled mass gatherings. No matter what the nobility of the cause, no matter what the purpose, there is no immunity for Australians who are in close proximity in an uncontrolled situation. That advice was set out by the medical expert panel yesterday and repeated by the Chief Medical Officer today. These gatherings could risk life, and I urge all Australians to help protect lives and to keep their distance and to make their voices known in other safer ways. (Time expired)