Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Australians, including my electorate of Higgins, are coming forward to be vaccinated in record numbers. They want to see the implementation of the national plan so we can get past the lockdowns we have endured over the last year and a half. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House how this national plan, informed by world-leading scientific, health and economic advice, will work to ensure we can live with COVID-19 and reopen Australia?

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

I thank the member for Higgins for her question and I thank her for her continued advice over the course of this crisis, over this more than 18 months. I have found her to be a great source of advice as we have moved through this pandemic.

The national plan, as the member rightly refers to, gives Australians the confidence and hope that they need to open safely at 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination rates amongst the population over 16 and, importantly, to stay open and to ensure that we live with this virus. That's what the national plan set out achieves. That plan was developed and agreed to over many months, going back to as early as March and February of this year, and the work that has been brought together, the best scientific health and economic advice, is the platform and the basis for this plan, which can give Australians confidence that this can be done safely.

This plan differs from many other approaches in any other country. It continues to show that Australia is making our Australian way through this COVID-19 pandemic, an Australian way that has saved 30,000 lives and put a million people back into work after last year's COVID-19 recession. This plan is not about a freedom day. There's no special virtue in a calendar. This plan is based on vaccination rates and it's based on a careful staged reopening in phase B and phase C at 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates. Nor is it an eradication strategy. It's a plan that accepts and acknowledges and understands that COVID zero as a future plan is not sustainable and is not realistic, as other countries are beginning also to learn. It's a plan that is clear eyed about the risks. It's a plan that is very careful to ensure that it has the flexibility to deal with vulnerable populations, I'd say especially our Indigenous populations, to deal with the challenges and to ensure we're preparing for that time of phase B, particularly in our public hospitals. It's also a plan that recognises that vaccinated Australians, because they present a lesser and lower health risk to themselves and their community, can be exempted from many restrictions that otherwise will need to apply. It's a plan, at current rates of vaccination, that means that the 70 and 80 per cent targets that are set out in that plan are achievable this year. They are achievable when we know 335,000 doses were administered yesterday, and soon one in three Australians will be fully vaccinated. Our plan sits along our absolute commitment that we will vaccinate children between 12 and 15 and we'll be announcing further plans on that after it's considered by the National Security Committee of cabinet. It's a careful plan. It's a safe plan. It's the right plan for Australia.