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

Thank you, Senator Brockman, for your question. Australia's COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to ramp up, as we said it would. More than 19.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered in Australia. Over the weekend, around 380,000 people rolled up their sleeves and got a jab to protect themselves, their friends and their families and to protect their country. Yesterday, a further 277,000 doses went into arms of Australians. I thank every single one of those people for going out and getting vaccinated, and I encourage all Australians to do the same.

While your home state of Western Australia, Senator Brockman, has very low COVID infections, the vaccine rollout is forging ahead in Western Australia too so that, when the time comes, WA can join all the states and reopen to the rest of the country and to the world, which is going to be very important for us all. We've got on with the job of protecting our most vulnerable Australians, with our older citizens first. More than 87 per cent of over-70s are protected with a first dose. We have done this because we know that elimination of the virus is a fallacy and that vaccines are the answer to us living with the virus, not in fear of it.

We have a national plan that states and territories have agreed on to open up at 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates progressively. If we don't stick to the plan, the cost in terms of lives and livelihoods, as we're hearing right now, will be unacceptably high. Jobs will be lost; businesses will close.