Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister give a straight answer on when Australians will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19?

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

I thank the member for his question. As I said earlier during question time, last week, for the first time, we reached half a million vaccine doses delivered in a week. Last week we also saw 100,000 in a day, which is a marked improvement on where we've been in recent weeks. We've got two-thirds of those vaccine doses being administered by GPs. Early this week we expect more than half of the over-70s population to be vaccinated with their first dose.

As the minister for health indicated on the weekend, we anticipate, based on Pfizer contractual arrangements and the information they provided, that we should have sufficient doses in the third and fourth quarter of this year to be able to ramp up those processes to ensure that we make significant progress by the end of this year. We have a population of just over 20 million that is eligible for vaccination. I do note that, in other countries around the world, they're sitting around after many weeks—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note we're halfway through—it goes to relevance. It was a very straight question which asked for a straight answer on when Australians will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. When?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House, on a point of order?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, this grandstanding continues from the Leader of the Opposition. He's been warned about it before. He gets up here to get a grab for the TV night—

Opposition members interjecting—

This may be a going-out-of-business sale for him; I don't know.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat.

Opposition members interjecting—

Members on my left aren't helping me rule on the point of order. I presume the Prime Minister has not finished his answer? No. So I'll just rule on the point of order. I just say to those opposite—you can keep arguing across the dispatch boxes, but it doesn't allow me to rule on the point of order. The Leader of the Opposition is quite right. It was a very specific question, without a preamble. The Prime Minister's been entitled to some context, which he had in the opening remarks, which is why I enabled him to do that, but it is now time to come to the specifics of the question to be relevant.

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

Based on what the health minister said on the weekend and what we understand to be the supplies when they're delivered, we hope to be in the position by the end of the year when all Australians who wish to be vaccinated would have had the opportunity for that first dose. But that is also subject to many variables that are outside the government's control, as those opposite would understand.

Opposition members interjecting—

I don't know what planet the Leader of the Opposition is living on—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will pause for a second. Members on my left, the member for Kingston and others, are preventing me from hearing the Prime Minister's answer. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

I don't know what planet the Leader of the Opposition is living on, but it's not a planet where a pandemic rages around the world. This government is dealing with the realities of the global pandemic and the recession that it has caused, and in response to that, under our government's policies, this country has avoided 30,000 deaths, when you compare it to the experience of OECD countries around the world; and there are more Australians in work today than they were before the pandemic. Now, if the Leader of the Opposition wants to go to—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition's already taken a point of order on relevance. The Prime Minister needs to confine himself to the question—not about other things that have happened in the pandemic. The Prime Minister.

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

I have concluded my answer.