Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] There we have Labor again taking the political approach, and we have Senator Watt repeating this pathetic line from Labor, that there were only two jobs to worry about. Of course there are many more serious jobs in addition to COVID that we must do simultaneously, have been pursuing simultaneously, whether that be the updated Closing the Gap agenda, whether that be dealing with the sensitive issues in Afghanistan, whether that be pursuit of many other policies in relation to economic growth, to climate change and otherwise.

In terms of the agenda for opening up, we are absolutely committed to seeing the Doherty modelling applied, because it provides a scientific basis to give confidence and certainty to Australians while keeping Australians as safe as possible. We can see Australia charging towards those targets in the Doherty modelling because Australians are turning out as more dosages become available, and that is delivering the opportunity for us to look to a future with far more confidence and optimism than those on the other side apparently seem to have.