James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House how, by taking a uniquely Australian approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Morrison government has acted to protect the health of Australians, mitigate the economic effects of the COVID-19 recession and build a recovery plan that will get Australians back to work and our economy growing again?

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

I do thank the member for his question and I apologise for the delay. On few occasions has Australia achieved as much as Australians have achieved this year. In the face of one of the greatest set of challenges, both from the health pandemic globally and the global recession that follows from the COVID-19 recession that has been visited upon Australia now, we have not seen in this country, for many generations, a year of achievement in the face of adversity as Australians have been able to demonstrate this year. We thank Australians for that. We thank all of those who have worked together—governments of Australia, health workers, emergency service workers, teachers, nurses—right across this country to ensure that we have met the challenges and the tests that have come upon Australians in this year of adversity.

On the health front, we mobilised early the national health system, together with our states and territories, the workforce, the Australian Defence Force, and the best medical experts in the world here in Australia to advise us on our process. I particularly congratulate Professor Brendon Murphy on his nomination as Australian of the Year for the ACT. He has done an outstanding job for this country. We called the pandemic on Professor Murphy's advice, two weeks clear of the World Health Organization. We acted to shut the borders and we formed the national cabinet to coordinate the health actions and response of the states and territories.

Some $18.5 billion has been invested in the health response, which means that today, again, we can say there are zero cases by community transmission here in Australia as there were yesterday, a new milestone in our path back, in the comeback for Australia from COVID-19. That compares terribly when you think about overseas countries: the United States, some 110,000 cases a day; France, 60,000 cases a day; Italy 39,000 cases a day; the United Kingdom, 24,000 cases a day. These are calamitous impacts in other parts of the world, but Australia stands amongst a small group of nations that have been able to ensure we have the health response right and we have the economic response right.

Our comeback is underway. Australia is opening again, Tasmania is opening up again, South Australia is opening again, Victoria is opening up again, and this is happening in accordance with the three-step plan we have set out. This government has put a lifeline out there to the Australian economy and it is now time, as we graduate from those lifeline measures, that we see our economy strengthen, recover what was lost and build for the future.