Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday the Prime Minister described the vaccination program like this: 'It doesn't matter how you start the race, it is how you finish the race. It is how you finish the race. And we are going to finish this race as a government when it comes to this issue. We are going to finish this race and we are going to run the race all the way to the finish line.' Why then did the Prime Minister repeatedly say earlier this year that the vaccine rollout was 'not a race'?

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

I tell you what COVID-19 is not. It is not a political game; it is something affecting the lives of every single Australian, the job of every single Australian. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for repeating what I said in the House yesterday, because that is exactly how the government is approaching this challenge. He makes reference to comments earlier in the year and, indeed, things have changed a great deal since then. But one thing that has not changed is the importance of doing this in a way that is safe and careful. At the time when those comments were made earlier in the year, as they were indeed made by Professor Murphy, he went on to say we want to do it safely and we want to do it carefully. So it is important that we approach this quickly and carefully. It is important that we do this with the utmost urgency, which our government has already and always been doing.

I can tell you, since 10 June, two months ago, the vaccination of the population has gone from 3½ per cent double dose to 23.7 per cent double dose. The single-dose vaccinations have gone from 23.4 per cent to 45.4 per cent over the past two months. And today we get the news of a further record day of doses delivered of over 250,000 doses in one single day and over the past week averaging at more than 200,000 doses a day.

The vaccination program is achieving the vaccination rates today that it needs to achieve to ensure that we can continue to move forward with the national plan that takes us forward, with clear vaccination targets that take us to the next step and the step beyond that, and where the country needs to get to. By the end of this year we will have made great progress against that plan. It is not just about ensuring that we get there. As we make progress every single day, it is important that we continue to suppress the virus in this first phase, because we want to make sure that every member of your family is around that Christmas table at the end of this year. Suppressing that virus now is incredibly important. Yes, we will run this race, but we will not treat COVID-19 like a political game, as the opposition has been doing.