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

I thank Senator Smith for his question. We know that around the world COVID-19 is continuing to spread. Globally, we have now reached 66.4 million COVID-19 cases and, sadly, we have lost 1.5 million lives. We see that outside of Australia: the challenge of COVID-19 is significant and it is tragic. But when we look at the situation here in Australia, compared with other developed nations, we are in a very good position. In the United States, for example, the death rate is 23.9 times what we have seen in Australia. In the United Kingdom the death rate is over 25 times what we have seen in Australia. So our success in managing the health crisis, as a country and as a government, has built the foundation for our economic recovery. We've had real challenges and genuine loss, but the outcome that we are currently seeing in Australia is certainly one which other parts of the world envy.

In Australia, we have now had 27,965 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and, sadly, 908 deaths. As of 4 pm yesterday, we have had zero cases of community transmission in the past 24 hours. Certainly, that is a good thing. In terms of our response to COVID-19, more than $18.5 billion has been committed to support the emergency COVID-19 health response. As a government, as you know, we took early action to close the borders and institute quarantine arrangements. We've established 147 GP respiratory clinics, and we've now conducted more than 10.1 million tests in Australia since the pandemic commenced.