Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister please inform the House about the importance of the Morrison government's considered and disciplined approach to governing Australia through the pandemic and through our recovery?

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

I thank the member for Boothby for her question. Throughout the course of this pandemic, Australia has been able to save lives and save livelihoods like few countries in the world today, and we have done this by following an approach to Australia's COVID response not just at a federal level but by working together with the state and territory governments that have pursued an approach that has put in place disciplined decision-making—put the safeguards in place and the mechanisms to drive decisions and drive our responses. What's been important through all of this is to make sure that we were well informed when making decisions, that we were getting the best possible advice and that we were consulting widely, not just in the health community but in the business community, directly in the community, listening to the scientific experts, consulting with other nations around the world to inform our decisions, considering the implications and thinking through the responses, so necessary to guide our response to a COVID pandemic the likes of which we had not seen in 100 years.

It doesn't come with a rulebook. It doesn't come with a guidebook. But Australia has been able to make an Australian way through this pandemic that has saved lives and livelihoods like few other countries in the world. The National Security Committee COVID group, the national coordinating mechanism led within the Department of Home Affairs, is engaging with industry, with businesses and with governments, particularly at a state level, as we work through outbreaks and lockdowns. The national cabinet will meet for the 50th time this week, consistently meeting together to deal with challenges and work through issues as best as we possibly can. Operation COVID Shield, which now leads the vaccination response under Lieutenant General Frewen, was set up in June. Operation COVID Assist, which was there on the ground in Victoria last year, has been on the ground all the way through and is on the ground now in New South Wales supporting those efforts. The clear principles that have guided our response are proportionate, timely, scalable and aligned with all other responses and existing structures. If those opposite think JobKeeper came late—I know those opposite are now critics and opponents of JobKeeper, the most successful program we have seen take a country through a crisis, and they call it waste. Labor call JobKeeper waste. People will remember that of Labor at the next election—

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

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

The Treasurer will cease interjecting.

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

that, when push comes to shove, Labor thinks JobKeeper was a waste. So these are the things that have guided our response, and yesterday was a super Tuesday. There were 213,947 vaccines delivered yesterday. Hitting its marks, we'll reach our target—

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

The Prime Minister's time has concluded.