Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the greatest challenge that the world has faced since World War II. It's challenged leaders. It's challenged systems. It's challenged countries. Across the world 412 million people have had COVID, and sadly 5.8 million people have died. When you look around the world, under the leadership of the Morrison government, Australia has had one of the best responses in the world. I want to compare Australia's response to a range of other countries that we usually compare ourselves with.

When you look at our vaccination rate, our vaccination rate today is above 93 per cent. Canada's vaccination rate is 80 per cent. New Zealand's vaccination rate is 78 per cent. The UK's vaccination rate is 71 per cent. The US's vaccination rate is 64 per cent. Globally, 61 per cent of people are fully vaccinated. Australia is second only, according to my research, to South Korea in our level of vaccination per population in terms of countries that we would usually compare ourselves with.

While any death at any occasion is tragic, Australia's death rate is far lower than the countries that we would usually compare ourselves with. In the US alone nearly a million people have died. They've had 2,831 deaths per million. In the UK, over 160,000 people have died, which is 2,331 deaths per million. In Canada, 35,470 people have died. That's 930 deaths per million. In Australia, where over 4,600 people have sadly died, we are at 180 deaths per million. Every death is a tragedy, but our death rate is far lower than the countries that we would usual compare ourselves with.

At the same time that the COVID-19 pandemic has beset our country and the world, we have faced extraordinary defence and security challenges of the sort that we haven't seen for decades. Under the leadership of the Morrison government, we have stood up, and Australia has prepared itself and formed new alliances and hardened its defence spending and infrastructure. Whether that is through AUKUS, whether it is through the comprehensive strategic partnerships we now have with India, the Pacific nations, South Korea or whether it's the new defence agreements or the interoperability agreement with Japan, we are stepping up in our defence responsibilities. If you remember when we came to government, defence spending had dropped to pre World War II levels.

We live in an environment where the national security situation is far more complex than it's ever been, and it's the reason why we've brought in a whole range of important national security laws. Whether it's laws dealing with foreign interference or espionage, or critical infrastructure, or laws dealing with the ability to expel people who are visa holders who've committed violent crimes here, Australia has taken a tougher border security approach. It's appropriate we do so. The situation in Ukraine is a reminder of the instability of our world today. The world is falling into camps that we haven't seen since the Cold War, with Russia and China on one side and the rest of the world largely on the other.

Despite all the challenges, the Australian economy has proven itself to be highly resilient and well performing, again under the leadership of the Morrison government. We have a 4.2 per cent unemployment rate, the lowest in 13 years. Consumer confidence figures out today have seen an increase of three per cent. Australia has retained it's AAA credit rating, and 1.1 million new jobs have been created since the pandemic, and 300,000 Australians have been helped into their homes. Our power prices are the lowest they have been in eight years, and 11½ million taxpayers are benefiting from tax relief, including 57,000 families in my own electorate.

In my electorate the work of the Morrison government has delivered important milestones like NorthConnex, which has taken 6,000 trucks off Pennant Hills Road every single day—that's 20 per cent more than we had imagined. It's meant people can get around their community more quickly. It's meant that, for people who are living on Pennant Hills Road, the road is quieter, and there are fewer accidents. When we think of some of the infrastructure upgrades in our community, we think of Greenway Park; the $2.7 million that benefits all sorts of sporting bodies; and Pennant Hills Park, which has recently had it's DA approved and which will do the same. There's the money that's been spent in education, including the capital grant to Mount St Benedict College to allow that school to expand. All of these things are because of the leadership of the Morrison government. Whether it's at the global, at the national or at the community level in my electorate, the Morrison government continues to deliver for all Australians.

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