David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's great to be able to free-range across all these questions that the Labor senators asked, because again it will give us an opportunity to show just how wrong they are, as always. Where do we start? Let's start with the national plan for the rollout. The government has set out, based on the clearest evidence possible, from one of the most reputable institutions in this country, if not in the world, the Doherty Institute, that we will phase out through this as our vaccinations go forward. It's built on the premise that, if you get vaccinated, we can make lockdowns and border closures and restrictions a thing of the past, or at least reduce them, or restrict them to local areas or to people who aren't vaccinated, for example. So this uniquely Australian plan is based on medical evidence outlined in the Doherty report and on the economic modelling from Treasury.

What seems to have happened on the benches on that side and particularly in Labor states is 'I'll look only at the health advice and ignore any economic advice'. We certainly saw that last year in my home state of Victoria, where 130 days—now a cumulative six months—of lockdown wiped out thousands of businesses. I hear the heartbreak of those people who call me every day to tell me how they lost their business. One of my favourite cafes is around the corner from me in St Kilda. It had a notice up on its door, which my wife sent me a photo of, saying that they just couldn't cope any longer with that last lockdown. It knocked the legs out from under them for the last time. They're not reopening after the lockdown. This is the tragedy that Labor won't see, because they've never met a business that they didn't hate.

This plan gives every Australian a target that as a country we can move towards, and then each state and territory must also reach their own targets. I think the fear in most Australians' minds is that once we've hit these targets—and these targets and this plan were agreed in National Cabinet—are the states actually going to follow them? We saw last year in Victoria that the Andrews government agreed to things in national cabinet and then walked out and did the complete opposite. It was woeful. That's why there's so much devastation in businesses, so many people who are lonely and such high mental ill health rates in Victoria. People are now triggered by the word 'lockdown' in Victoria. We've had five. There are cases there today, and I have no doubt that the chief health officer is whispering in Premier Andrews's ear, 'Why don't we go and do that?'

Senator Pratt interjecting —

You want to talk about how many months of things? What about the six months that the Andrews government has locked down Victorians? I'll take the interjections all day, every day, Senator Pratt. Come on. Bring it on. I would love to debate you on this. Are you allowed back into your state without quarantining? I don't think so. So keep up the interjections; I'll take them all the time.

The plan is clear. Phase A is where we are now, and we are seeing lockdowns. Phase B is when we hit 70 per cent of adults, aged 16-plus, fully vaccinated. We're making great progress towards this target, with over a million doses a week going into the arms of Australians, and that rate is growing each week. The stats show very clearly how the time taken for every million doses given to Australians is dropping. I think it was down to six days for every million the last time I looked. We need to keep increasing these vaccination rates. Those opposite have done everything possible to try and stop people having confidence in the vaccine rollout. They haven't got behind AstraZeneca. They're trying to put thought bubbles out about $300 so that people might hesitate and not get it so we don't hit those rates. Our national plan will work, and those opposite need to get behind it and get behind Australians for once.