Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think thou doth protest too much, Senator Green. You stand up and you begin your speech here today by saying, 'Oh, no, Labor is not politicising this issue; we're not trying to make this issue a political pointscoring exercise,' and then you spend the next five minutes—and you spent many hours in estimates—doing exactly that, politicising this issue and trying to turn what is a very complex and technical undertaking into a political pointscoring exercise.

I would encourage all Australians to get out there and get a vaccine. I'm on the list to get my vaccine. It was going to be AstraZeneca, and now that may have changed depending on what happens over the next few months—and timing will potentially shift in terms of my booking. But the point is that 'when the facts change I change my mind'. I don't often quote John Maynard Keynes in this place; I don't think I've ever done it before and I don't plan to do it again, probably. But that's what John Maynard Keynes said.

So, what have we got? Today ATAGI, the expert medical group—the group that Labor constantly tells us we should be seeking and following the medical advice from—has changed the recommendation on the AstraZeneca vaccine. This is the second time the recommendation has been changed. The government has been completely upfront about that. It's the second time the age recommendation on the AstraZeneca vaccine has been changed as new information has come to hand, which is exactly appropriate. It's exactly the way that this rollout should be managed. It is the government taking note of the change to the recommendation, the updated advice on the Pfizer vaccine for adults aged under 60. Until today ATAGI's advice had been that the Pfizer vaccine was preferred for adults under the age of 50. This updated advice, taking that age to 60, is based on new evidence demonstrating a higher risk than originally thought of a rare blood-clotting condition—I'm not even going to try to say the condition's name—for the 50- to 59-year-old age group.

But those opposite also don't like the facts about the vaccine rollout. The facts include that there have been over six million vaccinations, with a daily increase of 152,000 as of midnight 15 June 2021. In the last seven days, there were 738,000 doses, in the last eight days there were almost 900,000 doses and in the last nine days there were one million doses. The rollout, as we always said it would—and as the Australian people would expect—has been significantly boosted over time. The first million doses took 45 days. The second million doses took 20 days. The third million doses took 17 days. The four-million-doses mark was hit 13 days after that, the five-million-doses mark nine days after that and the six-million-doses mark around 10 days after that. So the rollout has significantly ramped up over time but, obviously, the government has taken note of the medical advice, has acted on that expert medical advice and has altered the program accordingly.

I'm extraordinarily proud of what we've managed to do in response to an international pandemic, the like of which the global community has not seen for 100 years. Australia has responded extraordinarily well in so many ways. I think the Australian people, as they choose to do so, will be vaccinated, and I encourage all Australians who are currently eligible for a vaccine to make sure they are using the appropriate websites to register for those vaccines. I went through the Western Australian Department of Health website to register for my own vaccine, and I would encourage all my fellow citizens of Western Australia to do so. If you are eligible to have a vaccine, you should register and you should get vaccinated. That is the quickest path to continuing the very solid foundation we have of recovering from this once-in-century global pandemic and getting life back to normal as much as possible, as we always want it to, as quickly as possible.