Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The strong measures that we took at the start of the pandemic have ensured that we fared better than most countries in dealing with COVID-19. The closure of the border to China was a significant step that allowed us to continue protecting Australia lives and livelihoods. Over 12 percent of people in the USA and 11 percent of people in the UK have had COVID-19. When you contrast that to Australia, 0.4 percent of Australians have had COVID-19. Of the 38 developed OECD countries, Australia has had the second-lowest number of COVID-19 cases on a per capita basis and, again on a per capita basis, the UK and the USA have had over 40 times the number of COVID deaths compared to Australia. By avoiding the death rates of OECD countries we have saved, as Australians, around 30,000 lives.