Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I don't think that the families who have lost loved ones would be feeling anything other than grief, and I understand that. They have suffered tragic losses—all 342 of them, now. They've all suffered a really tragic loss and, again, my condolences and the government's condolences to them. But, in a comparative sense, the Australian government's management of the COVID-19 outbreak has been relatively good. In fact, I would rather be here in Australia than anywhere else in the world right now. That is also reflected in the figures that we have with respect to the number of contractions of the virus in our residential aged-care system. While the Labor Party might like to hang on calculations that place Australia in a bad light, if you look at the aged-care stats on an international basis, we are doing relatively well.

The government takes no pleasure in the fact that these families have suffered this tragic loss. It is a tragic loss. I don't expect any of those families to feel anything but the loss that they have felt.

If you look at Australia's circumstances in a global sense and our management of COVID-19 compared to the rest of the world, I would rather be here in Australia than almost any other country in the world.