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

I thank Senator McKenzie for the question. As we've seen over recent months, supporting Victoria to suppress community transmission of COVID-19 is critical not just to economic recovery, of course, but also to save lives. Sadly, as a result of the second wave of COVID-19, we have now seen over 517 Australians lose their lives. The Morrison government has stepped up our support to the Victorian government to assist them in combating the effects of COVID-19. The Australian government's Department of Health is assisting the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to undertake contact tracing. Over 1,700 Australian defence personnel are currently deployed to Victoria to assist with contact tracing, testing, logistics and Victorian police checkpoints. In July and August, the government substantially increased dispatches of personal protective equipment, PPE, from the National Medical Stockpile. Of the more than 66 million masks dispatched from the National Medical Stockpile to date, over 23 million masks have been dispatched to Victoria, including nine million masks dispatched for Victorian aged-care providers. The Australian government is dispatching 186,000 goggles from the National Medical Stockpile to assist Victorian general practitioners and allied health providers. Additionally, the Australian government has established 28 GP led respiratory clinics in Victoria, providing free, holistic care and testing for patients with respiratory illness. Respiratory clinics in Victoria have assessed more than 153,200 people and have now conducted over 138,000 tests.