Perin Davey (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Labor Party for raising this very important issue. Yes, we are still in the middle of an international pandemic, but the Labor Party continue to talk us down. They continue to talk down Australia, which has far exceeded the rest of the world in managing COVID cases and in ensuring we have best practice for testing, tracing and managing outbreaks of COVID. We have actually got through this pandemic with very low statistics.

When we talk about the actual vaccination rollout, the sense of urgency that other countries have is not experienced here in Australia. We are getting the vaccination out the door. We are entering into negotiations with companies to ensure that we've got enough vaccine, going into the future, to ensure that we can vaccinate our entire population. Importantly, in a country like Australia that is so big and so diverse and that has such a disparate population, we are ensuring that we can manage to get the vaccine out to the people on the ground in the regions where it's needed. We are utilising every possible mechanism to get the vaccine out there. We are working with our general practices. We've got over 5,000 general practices registered to be able to give vaccinations. Those general practices are throughout Australia; they are not general practices located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane. They are general practices like those in my home town of Deniliquin, where my local health clinic is giving COVID vaccinations.

We are working with the Aboriginal community controlled health services to ensure that our Aboriginal communities in some of the most remote locations in Australia are not forgotten as we manage the rollout of this vaccine. These are all things that take time to develop, but we've done that. They are all things that ensure that we are flexible and we can pivot to need. We're even working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service to ensure that people on our most remote stations have access to the vaccine. We're not focused only on where the pandemic has occurred in our cities, where we've had the majority of outbreaks. We are focused entirely on ensuring that every Australian who wants a vaccination can access a vaccination. We should be proud. Senator Ayres made the point that Australia is 81st in the world in terms of getting the vaccine rolled out. He failed to mention that our case numbers are 120th in the world. But, when you look at the number per capita, our case numbers are much, much lower than all of the countries that the Labor Party are focusing on comparing us to.

We don't want to be the next India. We don't want to be the next United Kingdom or the next USA. We want to make sure we stay ahead of the pack, so we are managing the entire pandemic. We are not focusing just on vaccinations. We know that the best way to get through this pandemic is to continue to ensure that we don't have major outbreaks, continue to work with our state partners of all political colours on their management of COVID and continue to ensure that we can manage any COVID coming to our country with returning Australians. We are working constructively through national cabinet to get the vaccine out the door. New South Wales last week opened their first major vaccination hub at Sydney Olympic Park. That has been going very successfully, with massive registrations of people, to bring forward the phases of the rollout as required, as advised by our health experts. We continue to listen to and we continue to work with the scientific community to manage this pandemic as we go.