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

There have been many COVID tests that Australians have undertaken over the course of this pandemic, but there is a test for the opposition when it comes to national unity on the delivery of the vaccine program, and the Labor Party in this chamber is failing the test of national unity: to support the national vaccination program. As the government that has led Australians out of the COVID-19 crisis—both the pandemic and the economic recession that it caused—we have put Australians in the forefront of the world as we emerge. As there is chaos and crisis around the world—in Europe, in the United States, in the United Kingdom and all around the world—here in Australia we have proved to be a safe haven for Australians in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic storm. As we have learnt as we've led the country in that way, it is important to continue to respond to events as they occur. It may be lost on the Labor Party, but, when you order 3.8 million vaccines from Europe and 700,000 are able to be delivered because of the crisis in Europe, this is something that the Labor Party seems to overlook.

What they also overlook is that it was this government that knew, in August of last year, that supply chain vulnerabilities would be present. So we put in place, in August of last year, the commencement of a program to create a domestic manufacturing capability for the AstraZeneca vaccine. Were it not for that strategic decision—just like our decision to close the borders at the outset of the program and to call a global pandemic two weeks before the World Health Organization—Australia would not have a vaccination program—were it not for the foresight of the Minister for Health and Aged Care; of the Secretary of the Department of Health, Professor Brendan Murphy; and of the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Kelly, who those opposite now seek to undermine in seeking to undercut and undermine confidence in the national vaccination program. This is a Leader of the Opposition who only has political bones in his body. You won't find any other bones, and you certainly won't find a spine.

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