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

I thank the member for the opportunity to tell you about the job we've been doing, and this is just since late 2021. There is record high employment. The economy added 64,800 jobs in December, taking employment to a record high of 13.2 million.

On 27 November, 39 million vaccinations—86.7 per cent; 16-plus fully vaccinated; 411,000 boosters administered; vaccinations for five- to 11-year-old had not commenced. On 6 February, 51 million vaccinations; 93.7 per cent of over 16s fully vaccinated; 8.9 million boosters administered; and over one million five- to 11-year-olds, or 45 per cent, have had their first dose of a vaccine.

We closed the borders to high-risk countries in southern Africa to slow infections on 27 November. We have opened all of those borders since then, and we are welcoming foreign tourists back into Australia.

We convened on numerous occasions. In the meetings of state premiers and chief ministers to work through the omicron variant that was impacting Australians, we changed the rules when it came to close contacts and we arrested the issues that were occurring in our supply chains. There was $9.8 billion in additional health funding announced in the midyear statement, including $308.6 million to make telehealth services permanent. This government has made telehealth services permanent.

We activated the private hospital agreement to enable 100,000 private healthcare staff and 57,000 nurses to help with the management of COVID. We increased MBS incentive payments by $10 per booster shot to drive the booster program. We supported Australia's aged-care workforce, with an additional $800 bonus payment. We approved $116 million in additional funding for rapid antigen tests into residential aged-care facilities. We announced free tests for 6.6 million pensioners and Commonwealth concession cardholders. The National Coordination Mechanism activated to address the supply chain issues we were facing. There was $24 million for telehealth to support GPs, specialists and their patients to stay connected, and over 20 million units of PPE was provided.

We concluded the reciprocal access agreement with the government of Japan—something we've been working on for many years. The reciprocal access agreement with Japan is the first such agreement Japan has signed with any country anywhere in the world. We were able to land the first comprehensive strategic partnership with the ASEAN countries—before any other nation in the world. We increased funding for headspace. We announced the two antiviral COVID-19 treatments approved by the TGA. A new Moderna sovereign vaccine manufacturing facility will be built in Victoria to produce the respiratory mRNA vaccines for future pandemics. We're getting on with the job. This Labor Party— (Time expired)

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