Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House how the Morrison government's national plan continues to chart Australia's way through the COVID-19 pandemic and provide hope to the country, including through our vaccination program, so that we can live with the virus and build a stronger country on the other side?

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

I thank the member for Reid for her question, and I was pleased to be able to join her while talking to thousands of local constituents recently, as we were able to talk through their questions and respond to their questions as they are moving through the difficult lockdown in Sydney, and the many other questions about the vaccination program and the progress that is being made there, including the national plan. And that national plan is our pathway to living with this virus, which we must do. We must be able to live with this virus. We can't live in fear of it.

The national plan that has been agreed, right across the country, by all states and territories in the Commonwealth, is based on the best science, best health advice and best economic advice as well. That is what has informed that national plan—a process that began back in February of this year, further accelerated in March of this year and was agreed in July and in August, as we continue to consult and develop carefully and consultatively that plan that has brought all together. It was determined the safest and most practical jumping off point for Australia to go into this next phase, where we can live with this virus, in a way that we indeed must, to make our break from the debilitating cycle of lockdowns that Australians are living with now. Those lockdowns are necessary now, but, when we reach those marks, we must begin to say goodbye to them. We must break that cycle. And the national plan is the way to break that cycle. It provides the hope and it provides the certainty needed for Australians to plan for their future and for businesses to understand the direction, and it has been laid out for them, and Australians are counting on its delivery, when seven and eight out of 10 of them have been able to go and get their vaccination—two doses—knowing that that national plan will support their future.

And so with this national plan, we must walk it forward not walk it back. We must embrace it, not fear what becomes of it, as a case number focus gives way to managing the serious issues of illness and hospitalisation. We must prepare for it, which means we must vaccinate. We must continue to prepare our health systems. We must continue to set out the very clear and sensible rules that will continue to operate when we move into phases B and C of the plan. And we must of course adjust our mindset and prepare the country for what life will be like as we move to those next phases.

Our plan is in place and it is agreed. We are making progress against that plan, with over 17 million vaccines having been administered around the country, with over 30 per cent of the country now having received two doses and 1.8 million vaccinations in a week— (Time expired)