Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has been through an incredible 12 months dealing with the COVID pandemic. We know that lives, sadly, have been lost far too soon and we know that many jobs have suffered. We're certainly on the road to recovery, and recent announcements about the surge in new jobs, particularly in full-time jobs, are really good news.

In my home state of Western Australia right now we're experiencing it, and it's an occurrence that we're not that familiar with because we have had 10 months of no community transmission. Having just spent some time in the regions on holidays with my family, it's been an experience that we have cherished and all West Australians have cherished. But right now West Australians are doing the right thing. They're staying home as they've been asked to do. They're getting tested.

As I stand here right now, the Premier is giving an update on where things are at. Thankfully now, after the second day after the announcement, we still have zero cases of community transmission. West Australians are going to get tested, which is also very good. This sort of scenario is with us, and may continue to be with us, where there will be the occasional outbreak, because we are seeing as many Australians return home as we possibly can so that they can get back with loved ones, so that they can maybe attend funerals—family members that are sick who are trying to return or they were unable to leave early in the pandemic but they've now freed themselves up to be able to come home. We're going to continue to see many, many new arrivals, so we continue to run the risk—as we're seeing in Western Australia right now.

Really, the only way that we'll get to a point where we don't have the risk and we don't have the massive interruptions to businesses and livelihoods is of course to see the vaccine rolled out. Our Therapeutic Goods Administration is arguably one of the best in the world. Australians can have a tremendous amount of confidence in the Therapeutic Goods Administration, knowing that they have gone through a very rigorous process—a very careful process—to ensure that the vaccines that Australia has acquired and now approved are going to be rolled out in a safe way. They have approached this with real determination but they haven't been hasty either. They've been methodical and have applied themselves to ensure, through an independent process—that's independent of government—that this vaccine and the various items we will be dealing with across the country are safe and able to have the impact that we need.

Like many people—about 80 per cent of our population in Western Australia—we don't want to have to go through lockdowns. I think of the small businesses that are being impacted right now. I think of those cafes that are having to throw out huge amounts of fresh produce they had purchased in advance, believing they were going to be trading over the next few days. They have to throw that stuff out. I think of the workers who right now are having to stay at home and aren't able to earn a living for their families. The Australian government is there for those people, providing all sorts of support for them. But, clearly, the vaccine is going to be the way for us to deal with this.

Labor, on the other side, say that they support this, but by raising such ridiculous motions and questions, and by highlighting fringe, little issues they are not doing anything to support Australians or to build confidence in the vaccine program which can actually help us deal with it.