Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] My question is to the Prime Minister. On 24 June, the Prime Minister said, 'I commend Premier Berejiklian for resisting going into a full lockdown.' Now hundreds of thousands of working parents across Western Sydney, including in my electorate, are bracing themselves for remote schooling with no end date. Does the Prime Minister still commend the New South Wales Premier for resisting an earlier lockdown?

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

As a fellow Sydneysider, my children also are facing that. My children and those across Sydney are all facing that—families separated from each other. That is the terrible business of lockdowns. What we have learnt from the delta variant is that, indeed, at that time absolutely shorter, sharper lockdowns would have been the necessary response, as we've seen from South Australia and as we've seen from Victoria and as, I hope, is the case in South-East Queensland. I notice those opposite are equipped with perfect hindsight, but what I do know from the New South Wales response is that, over time, the delta variant has completely changed the necessary responses. It has completely changed it. And it is indeed true that, for a very long period of time in New South Wales, they were able to manage cases as they arose without having to go into lengthy and extraordinary lockdowns. That is indeed the case. But the virus writes the rules. It was also the case that, earlier in the year when short, sharp lockdowns weren't the necessary healthy response, there were unnecessary lockdowns that would have cost people more than they had to.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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

The member for Isaacs!

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

That is the advantage of hindsight. I am being quite transparent in saying that where the data changes, where the virus changes, we need to adapt our response.

Those opposite can be smug in their hindsight and be critical, but no country in the world has got everything right. There are few countries that can claim this: one of the lowest rates of fatality and deaths as a result of COVID-19 in the world and one of the strongest economies coming through COVID-19 in the world. Those countries that have had particularly low rates of infection and low rates of fatalities have also had low rates of vaccination—New Zealand is another example, South Korea is another example and Japan is another example. When it comes to having low death rates and a strong economy, if those are the things that we're desiring to have, then those are what the Australian people are achieving. We will now add a strong vaccination response to that. Australians will come forward because it's in their personal health interests and they will do it because it's in their communities' interests, their families' interests and their national interests. They won't be doing it as a grab for cash.