Celia Hammond (Curtin, 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 the progress of the Morrison government's plan to chart Australia's path back from the COVID-19 pandemic and how this plan will ensure that we can live with the virus and emerge stronger on the other side?

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

I thank the member for Curtin for her question. The news in New South Wales today, for all of us who are from New South Wales—but not just New South Wales; I'm sure for the member for Curtin as well—is heavy news: 356 cases today. There are 297 in hospital. There are 60 in ICU in New South Wales, including 28 on ventilators. There have been 30 deaths this year in New South Wales, and that includes three in the past 24 hours.

The national plan that we have championed sets our pathway out of this, and every Australian has a role to play in every single phase of that plan. Right now we are in that suppression phase—that suppression phase that seeks to minimise as best as we possibly can this delta strain which has completely changed the response that is needed to address COVID. Delta has changed everything; Australians understand that.

Ms Collins interjecting—

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

Member for Franklin!

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

So we are acting to support those—

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

The member for Franklin is warned!

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

in New South Wales or elsewhere in this suppression phase, bringing forward the doses, hundreds of thousands, whether they be in New South Wales, Queensland or Victoria. Moderna has now, of course, had TGA approval, and that was announced by the health minister and Professor Skerritt, and those first doses will come in September. There are the mental health supports that we are providing not just in New South Wales but also in Victoria—over $17 million of urgent mental health support in New South Wales, done with the New South Wales government, with over $12½ million directly from the federal government, similar to what we did in Victoria during their long lockdown last year. COVID-19 Assist has 581 ADF deployed in New South Wales right now. The economic supports continue to flow through the COVID disaster assistance payment, and I commend those at Services Australia and also those working in Service NSW who are delivering the business payments which we are sharing the cost of.

So, for those who are affected by those lockdowns, particularly in New South Wales, the challenge is to stay at home and to get vaccinated—234,899 doses yesterday; 1.36 million doses in seven days. That is the mark of a program that has been turned around, the mark of a program that has had its challenges for all the reasons we have gone into but that the government has addressed and has turned around and is ensuring that those dosage rates are hitting the levels that are necessary to get this job done. That's 14 million doses we are now closing in on this week. Forty-five per cent of the population had their first dose.

We need to enter phase B strong and we need to not squander the great gains that have been made by Australians as we go into phase B. We must not give up in the fight against delta. This government will never do that. And we will continue to support Australians as we take them through and out of this crisis.