Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I pre-empted the Leader of the Opposition's question in my last answer when I made it fairly clear that the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party speak out of both sides of their face when it comes to the government's response to the pandemic. On the one side, they pretend to support these measures, whether it's JobKeeper or the vaccination program—the unprecedented support which has ensured that we've stood by Australians—and on the same hand, they talk out the other side of their mouth, seeking to undermine the very things that have ensured that this country has led the world in both our economic and our health response.

When it comes to vaccination, it may be a mystery to the Leader of the Opposition that, of the 3.8 million vaccines we've contracted from overseas, 700,000 were able to be provided because of the desperately serious situation that we find in Europe. But, regardless of that point, we said back in February that we would be hitting around 80,000 a week in the early weeks. Well, we've already hit that mark in the early weeks. We already advised, back in February, that the four million task would not be hit because of the disruption in supply that occurred, and that target would be pushed back. The Leader of the Opposition seems to think that we are living in a pandemic that does not have uncertainties. If the Leader of the Opposition had been sitting in my chair during this crisis, Australians would be despairing, because he would not have had the ability to pull together the response that this government has. I'm happy for the Minister for Health to add further to this answer.

But the vaccination program will continue to roll out. It will reach all Australians with the first dose by the end of October, and every single day we will work hard to deliver that vaccination program, despite the undermining by a leader of the opposition who even seeks to play politics with the pandemic.

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