Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the Morrison government is protecting lives and livelihoods through the COVID-19 pandemic, and how our response compares internationally?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. He, like many others, will be pleased to know that Tasmania is opening up. That's tremendous news. This has been one of the most difficult years, if not the most difficult year, for Australians in generations because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 recession. This is the matter that has so completely dominated the attention of governments around the country, including our own federally and, of course, all businesses, families, children and older Australians. This has been the issue, understandably, that has dominated the attention of all of us.

But we also know that Australians, working together, have ensured that the impact here in Australia has been mitigated. We have been weathering the storm, despite the heavy blow the pandemic and the recession that it has caused has inflicted on Australians. We have done better than most—in fact, almost better than all. Only a handful of countries around the world have been able to mitigate the impacts of this pandemic in the same way Australia has. The average daily number of cases over the past week in Australia was 19. In the UK, it was 21,650. In France, it was 36,248. This was the daily increase. In Germany, it was 9,830. In the Netherlands, it was 9,040. The fatality rate in Australia per head of population is less than a quarter of the global average. In France, it's 15 times higher. In the UK, it's almost 19 times higher. In the United States, it's 20 times higher.

Our economy fell by seven per cent in the June quarter—a heavy blow in Australia. But we know that in New Zealand it fell by 12 per cent. In France, it fell by 14 per cent. In the UK, it fell by 20 per cent. Our debt will peak at half what it will be in the United Kingdom, a third of what it will be in the US and a quarter of what it will be in Japan, and, as was confirmed last week, our AAA credit rating has been affirmed once again. The comprehensive, coordinated approach across all governments around this country has been brought together by the national cabinet, which again, last Friday, recommitted seven out of eight states and territories to have Australia open by Christmas so Australia may open up safely and, importantly, stay safely open. These are the objectives that we are working to. The surveillance systems, the quarantine systems, the isolation systems, the testing, the tracing, the response capacity and, indeed, the app play a part in that. Of course it does. All of these things are keeping Australians safe. They're saving lives. They're saving livelihoods. That is what is our government has been doing to respond to the single greatest threat Australia has seen in generations. (Time expired)