Speeches.

August 2021, Questions Without Notice Senator David Van August 2021, Questions Without Notice Senator David Van

Lockdowns and the Andrews Government

I rise to respond to Senator McAllister and Senator Keneally because they've just got it plain wrong. They were so silent last year when Victoria was in lockdown; we did not hear a peep out of them. There was not one peep about how badly managed the pandemic was in Victoria.

Senator McAllister was quoting Professor Blakely just now. He was the one who was calling for better contact tracing in Victoria last year. Victoria has had over 200 days of lockdown. So when you're banging on about the people in south-western Sydney, think about the people in Victoria. Think about the people in Melbourne who have done it so much tougher than on your patch. I have full empathy and sympathy for the people in south-western Sydney. The government has been doing an exceptional job of getting the vaccine out to protect those people.

I was flicking through some materials over the weekend and I pulled out a media report from 5 November 2020. It was talking about how the government had just completed its fourth order for a total of 135 million vaccines for Australians and for our Pacific neighbours; that's more than five times the population of Australia. Now, if we look at the figures of what vaccine supply we have agreements for, there are 255 million doses ordered or under contract, plus over $25 million for the COVAX facility. There is going to be more than enough to go around. There is more than enough now.

Read More