Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Can I say, Senator Siewert, it's a tremendous honour to be receiving your last question. You have been an extraordinary member of this parliament, and I thank you very much for your question and your continued interest in advocating on behalf of some of the more vulnerable members of the Australian community.

Senator Siewert, as you would be aware, last year, when Australia went into lockdown when the pandemic first hit, we were in a vastly different situation to where we currently are. We had no certainty at all about what was about to happen, and the government acted very, very quickly to throw a blanket over the whole of Australia, in the hope that we could give Australians confidence to get through what was a very, very dark time for our country. This year, we have unfortunately seen a second round of COVID-19 impact parts of our country, so what we have sought to do is to be particularly targeted in our response, to people in lockdown areas who have been impacted by a loss of hours as a result of pandemic lockdowns.

The first measure was to make sure that anybody who had lost hours was immediately able to have access to the COVID-19 disaster payment that's administered through emergency services—through Senator McKenzie's department. Subsequent to the initial allocation of the COVID-19 disaster payment to people who were working and had lost hours, we also extended it to those people who were on income support payments who also had lost work, recognising that we did not want those people to actually be going out and seeking to work, because we needed to try and contain the virus in the states that were in lockdown. In addition to that, we have also maintained support across the whole of the community. But, Senator Siewert, as you would know, having listened to the numerous answers that have been provided in this place by Senator Colbeck, vaccinations are the way we can get our country safe again.