Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House how the Morrison government is working to secure a more prosperous and safe Australia as we continue our recovery from the COVID-19 global pandemic?

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

I thank the member for Moncrieff for her question. I thank her for her tremendous advocacy representing particularly the many in the tourism, hospitality and travel industries in the Gold Coast who we've been so able to assist over the course of the past year and going forward.

A year ago, there were 169,000 cases of COVID-19 in total around the world and some 6,470 deaths. Today, there are more than 375,000 cases additional daily and an additional 20,000 deaths per day also. It has been quite an extraordinary year. A year ago today, the national cabinet met for the first time officially. This time last year, the borders had already been closed and the incident response centre had already been established, along with the activation of the Incident Response Plan in mid-January. From mid-January, the AHPPC, the medical expert panel, had been meeting daily. The National Security Committee was meeting regularly—and many times a day, on occasions—to direct the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. What followed, through the actions of the Expenditure Review Committee and the cabinet, was JobKeeper; JobSeeker; the cash flow boost; apprenticeship support; international freight assistance; domestic airline network support; 'ZooKeeper'; 'AquariumKeeper'; the RISE Fund, to support the entertainment industry; support for business events; $2,000, completed as recently as just the past week, of welfare payments additional to the supplement, to boost the national economy; support for child care, aged care, pathology services and mental health; private hospital support; critical medical supplies production; vaccines secured from across the world; and, most importantly, a domestic production capability established for the AstraZeneca vaccine to produce over 50 million doses. We're one of the few countries in the world that has such a domestic capability to produce that vaccine. We would not have a vaccination program were it not for the foresight of that decision.

So now, a year later, Australia leads the world out of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 recession, and Australia is recognised. As I met with the Quad leaders for the first time on the weekend, that leadership and that experience here in Australia is recognised around the world. It is the same reason that we have been recognised with the election of Australia's candidate to be the next Secretary-General of the OECD in the former finance minister, Minister Cormann. It is why, at the G7, we join other countries in the G7+ dialogue later this year—because Australia is leading the way. The Australian way of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most successful in the world, and our government remains committed to continuing on that path. (Time expired)