Mr Speaker, there have been many Covid tests that Australians have undertaken over the course of this pandemic.
But there is a test for the opposition when it comes to national unity. On the availability of the vaccine program, Mr Speaker.
The Labor party in this chamber is facing the test of national unity to support the national vaccination program. Mr Speaker, as we have learnt, as the government that has led Australians out of the Covid-19 crisis, Mr Speaker, both the pandemic and the economic recession that it caused, Mr Speaker, to put Australians in the forefront of the world. As we emerge, Mr Speaker, as there is chaos and crisis around the world, in Europe, in the United States, in the United Kingdom, all around the world, here in Australia, we have proved to be a safe haven for Australians in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic storm.
Mr Speaker, as we have learned as we led the country in that way, it is important to continue to respond to events as they occur.
It may be lost on the Labor party, but when you order 3.8 million vaccines from Europe, and 700,000 are able to be delivered because of the crisis in Europe – this is something that the Labor Party seems to overlook.
What they also failed to overlook, Mr Speaker, is that it was this government, this government, in August of last year, that knew that supply chain vulnerabilities would be present.
So we put in place, in August of last year, the commencement of a program to create a domestic manufacturing capability for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Were it not for that, Mr Speaker, were it not for that strategic decision, just like our decision to close the borders at the outset of the program, Mr Speaker, and to call a global pandemic two weeks before the World Health Organisation, were it not for that, Australia would not have a vaccination program were it not for the foresight of the minister for health and aged care and, Mr Speaker, the secretary of the Department of Health, Professor Brendan Murphy, the chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, who those opposite now seek to undermine, Mr Speaker in seeking to undercut and undermine confidence in the national vaccination program.
This is the leader of the ppposition who only has political bones in his body. You won’t find any other bones, Mr Speaker, and you certainly won’t find a spine.
