Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by saying that this is a week when all Australians are thinking about our friends in Victoria as they endure yet another lockdown. All of us, through our own experience—thankfully, from New South Wales, never as severe as the lockdowns that Melbourne has endured—have some familiarity with the consequences and anxieties that these lockdowns cause, as necessary as they may be as we battle this pandemic. So all of us are united in our support for Victorians.

But what disappointments me is that this is also a week in which the parliament could have been united in encouraging Australians to learn from what is happening in Victoria and to make sure that they are overcoming their hesitancy and participating in the vaccination program. Yet what we see from those sitting opposite is a desire to continue the fight of politics rather than the fight against this pandemic. We should be very disappointed, at this time when the pandemic is still raging, as bad as it ever has been around the world, that we are seeing this type of politics come to this parliament.

I want to reflect in the first instance on three things—three things which I believe are the truths about this pandemic. The first is simply a statement of fact. There are very few nations on this planet that have endured the last 12 months as well as Australia has. You can name them on one hand, and I'm pleased that our cousins across the ditch in New Zealand are part of that small coterie of nations that have proved that, with the right policies, you can actually ensure that your citizens are protected from the worst of this pandemic. It is reflected in both our response to the health implications of the pandemic but also the economic consequences as well. We should be proud of the fact that governments, state and federal, and the people of Australia themselves have heeded the advice from the best of science and the best of our health experts and have been relying on that advice and that health expertise, which has seen us reach the point that we have in this nation.

The second point I want to make is that today, as we stand here debating vaccinations, I think we should reflect on the fact that it is an incredible achievement of all of those scientists and all of those health experts that we can debate the rollout of a vaccination program for COVID-19. I well remember 12 months ago discussing this with some of our leading epidemiologists, who said that it was a fifty-fifty shot as to whether we would ever get a vaccine, let alone one that we are now able to roll out to so many millions of Australians as we have already done.

The third point I want to making goes to what we as a parliament united together should be doing, and that is to urge all of our fellow Australians who are eligible to not hesitate but to get the vaccinations, which are our pathway back to an even greater level of normality in our community. I've had my AstraZeneca shot. I had it 10 days ago. I did not hesitate not only for my personal health—which is a real factor for all of us, I hope—but also thinking about my mum, my friends, my relatives and the support that we can provide to our neighbours and in fact our country by getting that vaccination shot. So I didn't hesitate for a second, and I'd encourage Australians to think rationally about how minute the risks of these vaccinations are compared to the huge advantage that they provide to us as individuals and to our community as a whole.

I want to make one particular point about vaccinations in our aged-care settings. It is fantastic news that the vaccination program has now reached in Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory every single aged-care facility. Every person who has accepted the vaccine in those aged-care facilities and those jurisdictions has now had a first dose. In other states, including my own, that figure is at 99 per cent. I'm very pleased by the fact that in my own electorate, this weekend, this Saturday, the very last aged-care centre as part of the program will receive its second doses. So it will mean that, by this weekend, every-aged care centre in North Sydney will have had two doses of the vaccination, based on the information that has been given to me by my PHN.

But what I do want to say is that we know that 15 per cent of aged-care residents haven't had that vaccination. There are some reasons for that; some are in palliative and it is not appropriate. But for those relatives who haven't given consent, I'd say please do so now. We have a vaccination program that is based on the best of science vaccination program that is based on the best of science. It is protecting Australians. It does continue to ramp up at an incredible rate—300,000 a week just a month ago and now 600,000. It is based on that great achievement of our own domestic capability and we would be up a creek full of excrement if we didn't have that AstraZeneca production here. So please, Australians, continue to get vaccinated for this important program.

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