Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday the Prime Minister said, 'Ultimately, everything is a state matter.' Was it the states or was it the Prime Minister who said the vaccination program was not a race?

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

The Leader of the House?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has made very clear that the statement made as a preamble to that question is not accurate. It related to a response the Prime Minister gave when asked about the closure of state borders. It has been repeated since the Prime Minister has raised this, and it is very clear that this misleading statement, regardless of how often it's repeated, is factually not correct, and it shouldn't be allowed.

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

I can't agree with the Leader of the House. The Practice has made it very clear since 1901. It's not for the Speaker to vouch for the accuracy of questions or, indeed, answers. If someone claims to have been misrepresented, we've got the standing orders so organised that there's an official capacity for them to do that at the end of question time or at the end of when a comment has been made. The question is in order.

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

I would encourage the member to go and have a chat with Senator Kitching. I would encourage him, next time they're in their caucus room, to go and have a chat with the ALP senator for Victoria about the progress of the vaccination rollout, which she has made very clear is the reason Australia is moving away from lockdowns in this country, and I welcome her acknowledgment of that. Those here who sit opposite us may want to come in here every day and seek to undermine that program. They may wish to engage in their usual politicisation of the COVID-19 pandemic. They may wish to choose that, but they reinforce only one thing to the Australian people: that they are only engaged in negativity. They are only engaged in running down the country. Even here yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition—

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

I will just say to the Prime Minister: the question was asked by the member for Makin, and the Prime Minister needs to be relevant to the question that was asked by the member. It's not an opportunity to begin a political debate on yesterday or today or any other matter.

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

What I can confirm, as the Minister for Health and Aged Care has done, is that today we are likely to go past the milestone of some 20 million doses of vaccines being administered around the country—20 million doses. That means that almost 60 per cent of the eligible population aged over 16, around 60 per cent of them, would have had their first dose in this country. That's around 35.7 per cent who've had a second dose. For those over 50, it is almost now 80 per cent who have had their first dose and 52.9 per cent who have had their second dose. Very importantly, 87.8 per cent of those aged over 70, the most vulnerable in our community, have had their first dose, and 63.8 per cent have had their second dose.

I can update the House on my earlier response, as further information has been brought to me after my morning briefing. For aged-care workers, first dose is now 82.9 per cent and second dose is 61.3 per cent. The vaccination program is a central part of the government's national plan to get Australia beyond these lockdowns which are doing such terrible damage to people in this country. We need to get past these lockdowns, and the vaccination program is liberating Australians from those lockdowns, which is the objective of the national plan, not to keep Australians shut in, not to keep Australians locked out of states around this country. The national plan is about opening up Australia. The national plan is about connecting Australians to other Australians and connecting Australia's economy to the world so Australian businesses can continue to go forward and have confidence to invest and to employ. (Time expired)