Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, there are now outbreaks of COVID among children across Australia, including in Shepparton in regional Victoria, right next door to my electorate. Yesterday I spoke to a constituent who needs to access child care to perform an essential service as a frontline health worker. She's keeping her son home from child care, fearful that he will contract COVID. What guarantees can you give to anxious parents like her that everything is being done to keep our children safe?

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

I thank the member for her question. I will ask the minister for health to add to my answer. If the minister for education wishes to add further to the answer as well, in relation to childcare arrangements that have been announced today, that would certainly be helpful.

We have received some interim advice from the immunisation advisory group which means that, for children aged between 12 and 15, we will be able to move to the position of being able to vaccinate children in those circumstances. I am advised by the Chief Medical Officer that there is nowhere in the world where vaccinations currently are being offered as part of a formal program to children under the age of 12. We do note that cases are presenting in children under the age of 12, but I'm also advised by the Chief Medical Officer that the serious illness that is associated with COVID is not presenting in them in the same way as with those of older ages. I have a 12-year-old child. I have no doubt that parents across the country will be concerned about the impact of COVID on those younger age groups.

Our next phase is to ensure that we're moving through vaccination of 12- to 15-year-olds, and that will be addressed this Friday. In addition to that, the advice of the Chief Medical Officer is that we should be seeking to vaccinate parents. Vaccinating parents, those who children come in contact with, is the most effective way of ensuring that children, particularly those who are under 12, are at a reduced risk of being infected by the COVID-19 virus. Those are the two principal lines of effort we're working down. I'll ask the Minister for Health and Aged Care to add to my answer.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the member for Indi, this is one of these matters on which we spent an enormous amount of time seeking advice from the Chief Medical Officer. I'm pleased that we are in a position, subject to the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, to move to extend vaccination to all 12- to 15-year-olds if that is the advice. At this stage, we have today expanded the eligible 12- to 15-year-old category to include all NDIS participants, on top of immunocompromised children, Indigenous children and remote children.

In addition to that, a very important factor, as the Prime Minister alluded to, is that although children are not immune they have been overwhelmingly protected. Thankfully, no child under the age of 14 has lost their life in Australia. We have, tragically, had a 15-year-old die, but the circumstances are under investigation. We have a hospitalisation rate of two per cent—mostly for observational purposes, but there are very sick children amongst them—of those children who have been diagnosed. That compares, obviously, with hospitalisation rates across the states of between 40 and 70 per cent for over-70-year-olds. These actions are being taken, and the higher the vaccination rate the more every child is protected. (Time expired)