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

I thank Senator Roberts for the question. I don't think that there have been any attempts to attribute specific COVID infections to any such public event of that nature, and the government doesn't hold data in relation to that. Although, it may be that some of that information is held at a state level, where the contact-tracing processes for COVID-19 are conducted.

I'll go back to something that I've put to the chamber on a number of occasions: the whole point of where the government is going in relation to the vaccination program is to get as many Australians as possible to be vaccinated. We know the vaccine works. We know that it's safe, we know that it supports in protecting us from COVID-19, we know that it protects our families and we know that it protects our communities. One of the really fortunate things that we've seen in this country is the willingness of Australians to go out and get vaccinated. In excess of 92 per cent of Australians have now had a first dose, and in excess of 86 per cent of Australians have now had a second dose. It's one of the reasons that we are able to start to reopen our economy, to reopen our communities, which is what I think the people who are participating in these protests are looking for. They want to see us be able to get around more freely. The decision to take up a vaccine which we know is safe and which we know works is really important.

We continue to monitor circumstances globally, as I said in my answer to Senator Smith's question earlier in question time, so that we can understand what's happening with new variants and so that we can take appropriate actions to protect Australians from those new variants while we learn more about them and get to understand the impact that the vaccines might have on those new variants so that we can keep Australians safe. We will continue to take all of the actions that we need to to do just that.