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

If there is something that the emergence of the omicron variant should reinforce to all Australians and all those around the world, it is the importance of vaccination. It is the importance of encouraging all Australians to be vaccinated. Whilst from the outset our government has always said that vaccination should be voluntary and that we would not enforce mandates, except for working with the states and territories in relation to those areas of highly vulnerable individuals such as in aged care, disability care, and health practice, we absolutely encourage every Australian to get vaccinated.

I urge every member across this parliament to engage in such encouragement as well. More than 19 million individual Australians have had at least one dose of the vaccine to date. That is an incredible turnout by Australians, who now count among some of the most highly vaccinated populations in the world.