Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please update the House on his annual leaders dialogue meeting yesterday in New Zealand and how both countries are working together to address the shared challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic?

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

I thank the member for Wentworth for his question and the great experience that he brings to this House on matters of international relations. Mr Speaker, it was a very successful meeting yesterday in Queenstown in Otago when I met with the New Zealand Prime Minister as part of our regular annual leaders dialogue. I'm very pleased that at that meeting we were able to reinforce our shared assessment of the regional security risks that Australia and New Zealand face and our joint resolve to address those risks and to always stand up for Australia's interests on our part and for New Zealand's interests on the New Zealand government's part. When it comes to our regional security and the threats that we face and that other countries face, we have a shared resolve. We are great trading nations, both of us, Australia and New Zealand, but we are not nations that would trade away our values and our interests, and we were able to share that resolve yesterday. I thank Prime Minister Ardern for her welcome yesterday and the opportunity to address those very important security issues.

It was also a good opportunity, Mr Speaker, to discuss our respective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, given we are two of only a handful of countries that have had success in suppressing the virus compared to other countries around the world, and to look particularly at our vaccination and quarantine programs, which are quite identical. In fact, they are quite identical except for a couple of differences. We're at some 17 cumulative doses per 100 population; New Zealand is at 11.7. Also, we both run hotel quarantine programs, and the success rate on our quarantine programs between New Zealand and Australia is identical. What we both understood is for countries that have been so successful in suppressing the virus there is the challenge to ensure that we work as hard as we can to lift those vaccination rates. That's why I was pleased that while it took us just over two months to get to two million cumulative doses, in the last month, in the month of May, we got to four million doses—66 days to reach the first two million and one month, 30 days, to hit four million doses. At the end of April, we had a seven-day average of 320,792 doses. At the end of May, that had lifted to 672,117. In the course of the past month, two million additional doses were delivered around the country. Importantly this means more than half of those in populations over 70, Mr Speaker—

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

The Prime Minister's time has concluded. The Deputy Manager of Opposition Business.