Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

As I indicated before, the government takes very seriously the importance of ensuring accurate and timely information is provided to Australians, providing them with reassurance about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. I restate in this place the very thorough process that Australia went through. Unlike other parts of the world where there were emergency listings that short-cut regulatory approvals, in Australia we went through the thorough processes of the Therapeutic Goods Administration to ensure the safety of the vaccines. In this country we have developed a type of modelling that, as you've heard from Senator Colbeck, outlines very clearly the efficacy of those vaccines. The fact is that, be it the Pfizer vaccine or the AstraZeneca vaccine, they reduce the rate of serious illness and indeed death by up to 90 per cent for each— (Time expired)