Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

The Senate will be aware that earlier today the minister for health addressed the parliament and gave an update on Australia's response to the COVID-19 situation. As at 6:30 am today, Australia has 6,970 confirmed cases of COVID-19. More than 6,257 of them have fully recovered. Fifteen people are in intensive care and 13 people are on ventilators. Sadly, there has been a total of 98 deaths from the virus. The rate of increase in new cases has gone from 25 to 30 per cent per day, at the peak of growth in cases at the end of March, to less than half a per cent a day now. The rate of increase has been below 0.5 per cent for 23 consecutive days.

Globally, more than four million cases have been confirmed, with more than 290,000 deaths. This puts the threat we face in the clearest context. As the minister has stated, we need to be clear: our work is not finished, and the virus is not defeated. There is still a long way to go, and we have a long road to travel to protect our national health.

Last week we saw a very powerful piece of work from Pat McGorry and Ian Hickie, from the University of Sydney, highlighting the extent to which Australians' mental health is at risk in a major economic downturn. We know that supporting Australians to get back to work is critical for their economic security and their aspirations but also to help with their mental health. These factors are intrinsically linked. This is a deeply human reminder of the importance of assisting people to get back to work.