Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Would the minister update the House on Australia's world-leading vaccination rates and how they can assure us of a strong uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine, which will obviously help Australia become a world-leading nation in our recovery as we lead our way into a strong economy again?

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

I want to thank the member who, as a young doctor in rural Australia, was proud of his work in helping to provide vaccinations to people from rural Australia. He, along with many others on both sides, including the member for Macarthur and so many others, has served in the medical profession and supported Australians.

Again, there is positive news for Australia in the fight against COVID-19—zero cases Australia-wide today, zero lives lost Australia-wide today, zero Australians on ventilators or in ICU today. At the same time, the world has lost another 15,000 people since we spoke yesterday, and so the global pandemic continues to rage. What that means is that as a nation, despite our strongest efforts at home, we will never be truly safe until there is vaccination abroad and vaccination at home. That's why the news that we have now achieved record vaccination rates for our five-year-olds is incredibly important. We have gone from 94.9 per cent, which was itself a record in the September quarter, to 95.1 per cent for five-year-old vaccination rates across Australia in the December quarter, the first time Australia has ever passed the 95 per cent mark for vaccinations on record.

In addition to that, as the Lowitja Institute explained to me today, the extraordinary Pat Anderson, Indigenous Australia has an even higher rate of vaccination. We sometimes talk about closing the gap. This time we need the rest of Australia to close the gap to reach the extraordinary 97¼ per cent vaccination rate for five-year-old Indigenous children. All of this is important because it's not only protecting those children, but it says that Australians are great vaccinators, that they believe in vaccination, that they practice vaccination. It's important that Australians continue to follow the TGA. That's why we are focused on the rollout and that is why one of the things we're doing is making sure we follow fully the advice of the TGA, not skipping any steps. There are those who wanted to skip steps to bypass tests to pass the things that the TGA has proposed and to bring it forward too early.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left.

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

That is not the right place to be. What we have done is follow the advice of the TGA, because what Australians want to do is make sure that their medicines are safe, they are assessed and, therefore, they are effective. If they know that, there's confidence; if they know that, there's a higher take-up and, if they know that, we will protect the nation. (Time expired)