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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Tragically, COVID infections in New South Wales reached a new daily record today. The New South Wales Premier said today:

… vaccination reduces your chance of spreading, reduces your chance of landing in hospital and it reduces your chance of dying.

The New South Wales Premier has also said it is a race. Will the Prime Minister admit that, if he had not bungled the vaccine rollout, New South Wales would not be in the position it is today.

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

I don't agree with the assertion put forward by the Leader of the Opposition. The federal government has ensured that New South Wales has been supported to the tune of 386,000 additional doses of Pfizer. On top of that, over a million doses of AstraZeneca have been made available. I'm pleased by the strong response of the New South Wales government and the people of Sydney, as they've been coming forward and the vaccination rates in Sydney have been lifting, particularly over the last few weeks during the course of the lockdown and in particular in those nine local government areas that have been at the centre of the outbreak in New South Wales. We will continue to support the New South Wales government in supporting the effectiveness of the lockdown that is critical to suppressing this virus, the delta strain, which has completely changed everything when it comes to the COVID response and the plans and the initiatives that are necessary in this phase of our four-phase plan. It is absolutely vital that we seek to suppress the virus as much as we possibly can in this phase, so we can enter the next phase in the strong position that Australians have worked very hard to achieve. We do know that in other countries that have higher vaccination rates than Australia—whether Singapore, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands or other countries around the world, including China—they have had to go back into lockdowns as a result of the delta strain.

The Leader of the Opposition, in raising this question today and putting it in that way, may wish to pretend that the delta variant is a myth, or he may wish to pretend that it doesn't change the responses that are necessary. He may seek to undermine the efforts of the government, as we seek to support the New South Wales government in dealing with this outbreak. He's got one job, and that's to undermine the government, not support us in this effort.

We will continue to support the New South Wales government and the people of New South Wales in mental health support; getting the Australian Defence Force on the ground; additional vaccines, and targeting vaccines into those areas particularly most affected, ensuring those regional communities who had vaccines taken away from them—20,000 vaccines back in the Central Coast, back into the Hunter, back in Armidale and Tamworth, which are also in lockdown now. We will continue to support the people of New South Wales as they go through one of the toughest challenges of this COVID-19 pandemic.

I'm advised by the minister for health that the number of cases in 2021 is already almost 50 per cent higher than the total number of cases in 2020. That is the difference in 2021: the delta variant of this virus is impacting nations all around the world. The whole world is in a battle against the delta strain of this virus, and this country, our country, continues to perform. (Time expired)