Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to touch on this complex area of arrival, biochemistry and COVID. A Sunday Telegraph article by James Campbell yesterday pointed out that rapid antigen testing would reduce from 13 per cent to one per cent the number of COVID-positive travellers coming to Australia. It would take a huge amount of pressure off hotel quarantine. So today to say that we need to expand our use of PCR to include rapid antigen testing, which has now been shown to be 100 per cent sensitive—99.86 per cent specific—in tests by the Doherty institute over the seven days post COVID symptoms.

More importantly, we need to look at antibody testing. This tells us whether people have been vaccinated effectively, whether they are able to fight COVID and whether they have been previously infected or vaccinated. That antibody testing is critical. Why are we letting arrivals in Australia not demonstrate that they are already covered and protected from vaccination? They come from countries where there is often 30, 40 or 50 per cent vaccination but we need to know if they are a reservoir of arrivals or potentially not protected from COVID. We need to be testing every arrival, not just using the antigen testing for are they currently infected but the antibody testing to show they have the antibodies to fight disease. Because many people, particularly high-risk demographics, get the vaccination—both shots—but are still unprotected. It is a very important area that Professor McLaws has identified, which affects between 18 to 25 or 30 per cent of people who are vaccinated. Let's use the technology. If you cannot land in China without testing, we need to do the same here in Australia and do the best testing we can for arrivals in this country.