Richard Marles Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
2:36 pm
My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister take responsibility for the failure of the $70 million COVIDSafe app to assist contact tracers?
Stuart Robert Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business
I thank the member for his question whilst clearly rejecting the premise of it and the number for it. As at 27 May COVIDSafe had 7.4 million registrations. With the addition of the Herald protocol, it now makes it the most effective contact-tracing app of its kind in the world. The app was designed to work in concert with states' and territories' contact tracing and to be used accordingly for that. For example, in the current Victorian outbreak, the app was accessed by Victorian officials on Saturday 29 May to gain a number of uploads. So it's being used right now by the Victorian government as part of their response. As we've made the point previously—
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Opposition Members:
Opposition members interjecting—
Stuart Robert Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business
They're a noisy bunch, Mr Speaker.
Stuart Robert Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business
The app was used extensively by New South Wales on 23 July and 25 July. There were 544 connections on 31 July and, of course, 567 contacts in total since 1 August. So the app is as a part of a suite measures and is actually being effectively deployed by states and territories with the contact tracing that they're using. I would continue to urge Australians to follow all health advice during the pandemic, I'd continue to urge Australians continue to use QR codes in terms of contact tracing at venues to allow contact tracers to access and find out who's been where, and I'd continue to urge Australians to use the COVIDSafe app and ensure the COVIDSafe app is open so state and territory contact tracers can use it as they incorporate it into their contact-tracing measures.
Mr Tony Burke Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts
Can we get the document he was reading from tabled, please? That claim is extraordinary.
Tony Smith Speaker
No, you can't put it like that. I just asked the minister whether he was quoting from a confidential document.
Stuart Robert Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business
I was.