Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. On Tuesday he said, at his budget lock-up press conference, that Australians will get two doses by the end of the year. How is it possible that the Treasurer got this crucial assumption in his own budget wrong, in his official budget briefing, on budget day, surrounded by Treasury officials?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The shadow of a shadow Treasurer is here again. He has nothing really to come at. He hasn't asked questions about jobs. He hasn't asked questions about taxes. He knows that he has been outplayed. The reality is that there is an assumption. It's an assumption, not a policy decision. It's based on the best medical advice to us, which says—and I want to read it to him if he has struggled to understand it: 'The population-wide vaccine program is likely to be in place by the end of 2021.' We have seen more than 400,000 people receive a vaccination over the course of the last week. We now have 5,000 contact points around the country, whether they are GPs or state and territory clinics.

The key to Australia's economic recovery is that we are continuing to suppress the virus. If we continue to suppress the virus we continue to maintain the momentum. The momentum will be continued by measures that we announced in the budget like lower taxes and increased investment in infrastructure and skills.

When it comes to the vaccine rollout, we heard today that we've secured an additional 25 million doses of the Moderna vaccine. The assumption in the budget—one of a number of assumptions—based on the medical advice, with qualifiers like the word 'likely', says that, 'A population-wide vaccination program is likely to be in place by the end of 2021.' Our focus is on keeping Australians safe, keeping Australians in jobs and creating jobs for those who are out of a job. That's our focus. It doesn't seem to be the focus of those opposite.