Senate debates

Wednesday, 13 May 2020

Bills

Privacy Amendment (Public Health Contact Information) Bill 2020; In Committee

12:40 pm

Photo of Marise PayneMarise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

A greater ability to determine where there are infections and the contacts that have been experienced around those infections is going to assist in this entire process. I think that's quite compellingly logical. That's one of the reasons the app is so important. It contributes to an ability to change the way we have had to do business in recent months, change the way we have had to live, and to what we've asked Australians to do in recent months—and which they have done, overwhelmingly, with great willingness and great support for this significant national undertaking—to address the spread of coronavirus in this country.

The downloading of the app facilitates, makes easier—whatever words you would want to use—a lot of those processes, in terms of contact tracing, in terms of being able to understand people's engagement if there are outbreaks or issues that need to be considered. I think what the Prime Minister and other ministers have been very clear about is how important that is to the progress and process of moving out of the most extreme of the restrictions that we have had to deal with.

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