Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister please update the House on how the Morrison government's COVID-19 vaccine strategy will help protect Australian lives as well as underpin our economic recovery?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Reid, who has been a great advocate for mental health throughout her career but in particular during this, the year of COVID-19. What we've seen is that the government's been able to contribute $500 million as part of our response to that but also as part of our broader response to COVID-19. We're doing incredibly well as a nation, and there are so many people across the nation to thank for that. There were zero cases in the 24 hours to midday yesterday. There was one today within the community. But we are doing extraordinarily well. At the same time, we know that Australia will not be safe until the world is safe. Therefore, a vaccine is a fundamental part of the next stage of our defence and our COVID plan.

We know that overnight there were more than 600,000 cases and, agonisingly, the world had the greatest loss of life ever. That's why we welcome the news out of the United Kingdom of an emergency authorisation for the first of the vaccines, the Pfizer vaccine. What we have seen in Australia is that our vaccine strategy is underway. We have five stages to it, and the first of those stages was the selection of vaccines. That has been done. The second is the acquisition, and we have secured four vaccines, or 134.8 million units—in particular, the Pfizer vaccine, with 10 million units; the Novavax vaccine, with 40 million units; our own University of Queensland-CSL vaccine, with 51 million units; and the Oxford vaccine, with 33.8 million units.

We're also now in the process of approvals—the third stage of that strategy—and in particular the TGA has given priority approval process to three vaccines so far. They are going through the stages of giving their data, and then, subject to those approvals—the first of those the head of the TGA, Professor John Skerritt, reaffirmed today is hoped for by the end of January—we go to stage four, which is distribution. That's about making sure that we begin with our health workers, our age workers and, subject to approvals, our residential care, elderly Australians and critical service workers.

But we work on the basis of making sure every Australian has access to a free, voluntary vaccine during the course of 2021. Finally, we have the post-vaccine circumstances, which allow us to open up the economy and to open up society in a freer way. We are making real progress, and I want to thank all of those involved for their work this year in keeping Australians safe. The vaccine program will help protect lives, save lives and improve job prospects for all Australians.