Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Wong for that question. I believe it's a matter of public record that the National Incident Room was activated on 20 January, and the first briefing would have happened sometime before that; I can't recall the specific date. I'm happy to take that part of the question on notice. But I think that we've been entirely open and transparent along the way, and the Prime Minister has taken the Australian people into his confidence every step of the way. It was a rapidly evolving situation. We were one of the first countries in the world to put in place border restrictions effective from 1 February for any non-Australian travellers returning from mainland China. We were one of the first, I believe, to declare this a pandemic. But, in terms of the specific question that was asked, as I've indicated, it would have been sometime before the activation of the National Incident Room, which has been publicly announced as having happened on 20 January.