Prime Minister
Dr Fiona Martin MP, Federal Member for Reid: Well, I’m Dr Fiona Martin, Federal Member for Reid, and I welcome you all here to Destro's Pharmacy here in Drummoyne. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners on the land in which we meet, the Wangal people of the Eora Nation and pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging and to all Indigenous people across Australia. It's wonderful to be here to bring the Prime Minister and Minister for Health Greg Hunt, and also Secretary of the Department of Health Professor Brendan Murphy here to Destro’s Pharmacy. The owners Silvi and Hector have been here, the family have been here for over 30 years. This is a perfect example of a family business here in Reid. A family business that have worked incredibly hard during COVID, delivering a significant number of vaccines to people across the electorate and also providing testing as well. So we are incredibly grateful to our healthcare professionals, those on the frontline and also those who are doing testing and vaccinating all day long. And you know, it's wonderful news this morning with the announcement by the TGA of the 5 to 11 year olds getting vaccinated now by Pfizer. And can I just say as a parent, I have four children, I've got two vaccinated already and now I'll be able to vaccinate one more. So it really does give parents great relief to be able to vaccinate their children. It is a choice, but it's certainly one that I'll be taking up because it makes me feel much more comfortable knowing that they will be vaccinated. Now I won't go on, I won’t detain you. I’ll pass over to the Prime Minister, who you all want to hear from. Thank you.
Prime Minister: Great. Thank you very much. Well, it's wonderful to be here with the pharmacists of Australia and of course, I am joined by Dr Martin, and Fiona, can I thank you very much for the great support you've given to the government and not just as the local member for Reid, where you’ve done a fantastic job, but also as your- your experience as a psychologist and your input has been very important Greg, the Health Minister and I, as we've also dealt with the very serious mental health impacts of going through this pandemic and Australia has an extremely good record of both addressing and being able to manage the mental health impacts of going through this pandemic compared to other countries around the world. As we know in Australia, we have one of the lowest death rates from COVID of any country in the world. We have one of the strongest economies that are coming through this pandemic, and we're looking out that front windscreen going into 2022, looking strong going into next year. And of course, we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, which is what we're here to talk about today and to Silvi and the whole team here and to all of her family. I want to thank the pharmacists of Australia for the contribution they've made to this vaccination effort.
Today, we can announce that there have been more than 40 million doses of the vaccine delivered in Australia, and that is a great achievement by the entire team who have been involved in delivering these doses all around the country. Now from that first day, I was there with Jane Malysiak back in in February, we've had around 137,000 doses a day. Just think about that, that's going all the way back to February to now. An average of 137,000 doses a day and almost a hundred per minute over the course of this extraordinarily ambitious vaccination programme. And the outcome of that is Australia having one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Now back in September, we made the decision based on the best possible medical advice that we would extend that vaccination programme to 12 to 15 year olds, and that programme has been going extremely well. And now we have taken the decision based on the best possible medical advice through the TGA that we will be extending that vaccination programme to 5 to 11 year olds and giving parents the choice.
As a parent, there are no more important decisions that you make than those you make about the health and wellbeing of your children, and we want to make sure that we have been one of the first countries after the North America and the United States and Canada, having observed their experience and looked at their results, to be able to move to vaccinations for 5 to 11 year olds. Now that will start on the 10th of January, and Greg Hunt and Professor Murphy will take you through the steps that we need to take between now and then. We'll be briefing premiers and chief ministers on that further today when we meet this morning. And this is another important step forward in our vaccination programme.
Now the other point I want to encourage all Australians about and that is to go and get your booster shot. I’ve had mine. That booster shot is very important. Now we had a bumper day of boosters with over 30,000 just yesterday I think it was Greg, is that right? Over 30,000 yesterday. So I want to encourage Australians eligible for the booster go and get it. We are continuing to review the evidence about how that time period for the booster shot might be able to be reduced. And we're working with the medical experts on those issues. And Professor Murphy may want to say a few things about that, and we'll talk about that today with the premiers and the chief ministers. But, to all those 5 to 11 year olds, those brave 5 to 11 year olds, they'll come to places just like here with Silvi and the whole team and pharmacists and GPs around the country. And they will now join this programme, which is helping keeping Australians safe.
The fact that we've achieved such a high rate of vaccination means we can look into 2022 with confidence. And even though other strains come as we've seen, with Omicron and Delta and others in the past. What I do know is, is Australia is set up to live with this virus, to live together with this virus. And as we're seeing Australians come together as we get into Christmas, only one state now has to get past that 80 per cent mark in Western Australia and they're not far away, they're only a few days away. And the fact that we got through this year as we set it out is our task at the start of this year, to get to exactly where we are. That is I want to say thank you to all Australians that have made that possible and so we can look forward to a great summer break together when we come back in 2022 and lead the world and with our economy and the other things that I know Australia going to achieve into the future. So with that, I'll pass you onto Greg Hunt.
The Hon. Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Health: Thanks very much to the PM and Fiona and to Brendan, in particular to Silvi and Hector for allowing us into your beautiful pharmacy. And of course, to Trent and Dave. Pharmacists have delivered almost two and a half million vaccinations, our primary care programme has delivered over 22 million vaccinations and has been the backbone of the Australian vaccination programme. But today is about our beautiful kids. Kids such as Hugo and Lachlan, Emily Collette, Savannah, so many others. So this is your time to step forward. Australian parents and children are amazing vaccinators. We have a 95 per cent five year old vaccination rate. 97 per cent for Indigenous Australian children. One of the highest paediatric vaccination rates in the world. The decision by the TGA and now ATAGI is that they have approved vaccination for 5 to 11 year olds. And it does three things it protects our children, it protects their families and it protects their schools. And so these are really important steps. And we have, in my view, the best medical regulators and medical experts in the world, and they've looked around the world. We are one of the first countries, as the Prime Minister said after the US and Canada, to begin a full national 5 to 11 year rollout as we have been with boosters. And so this is the next step in protecting Australians. It will give parents confidence. It will give parents choice. It will give children protection. And it will give their families protection and it will give their schools protection. So I think from January the 10th, we hope as many Australian 5 to 11 year olds as possible will come forward. We're in a strong situation. The steps between now and then are training and Brendan will set out the difference in doses. So that's an important thing. So all of our immunisers understand that. The ordering and then finally, we have the batch testing. So the actual vials that are tested by the TGA, they have been absolutely thorough and rigorous in their assessment. And that's what's kept Australians safe and will continue to keep Australians safe. This has been a challenge for all of us. But I tell you what, Australians have risen to that challenge and we said we'd get through it. We are getting through it. We’ll continue to get through it. And I’ll just invite Professor Murphy, who is here with his role as chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group. Thank you.
Professor Brendan Murphy, Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Health: Thanks, Minister and PM and Fiona. This is a great day for our kids. 5 to 11s, whilst we know they generally get very mild COVID, some have underlying conditions can get quite unwell with it. And there are, there is a rare inflammatory condition that is seen in one in 3,000 young children who have had COVID, so it is important for their protection to vaccinate them. It's also important for the community to increase that vaccination coverage because we know that vaccination does have an impact on transmission and the more of the population we have vaccinated, the more we will be able to control COVID. It's important to note that ATAGI didn't reach their final decision, and the TGA didn't reach their final decision until they had had data, real world data from the US on five million children, showing that the adverse effects for this vaccine for little children are almost negligible. It is really safe. So we've now got very, very, very good data that this vaccine has only the usual mild sore arms. Very, very, very good experience from the US. So I'm very confident that the Pfizer vaccine is a safe and effective vaccine, and I strongly encourage everyone to get it.
As Minister Hunt said, there are some steps now that we've done the approval. We have to get the special one third dose vials into the country. We have to get them tested. We have to get them distributed to our wonderful pharmacies and GPs and clinics, and we have to train all of the vaccination providers in the, this new formulation. So that's going to take some weeks and that's why it'll start on the 10th of January when everyone's ready, but people will be able to be making appointments later this month.
Just finally, boosters are really, really important. Everyone in the media is interested in the Omicron variant. We're still learning more about it. What is clear, though, is that booster vaccinations do improve protection against Omicron from the early lab tests, so it is even more important for everybody who is due for a booster to go and get a booster. It is really, really important and I encourage every Australian to do that.
Prime Minister: Trent.
Professor Trent Twomey, National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia: Thank you, Prime Minister and Minister, and it is an exciting day. From next week, Australians will be able to book an appointment with their local community pharmacy for primary school children to receive a vaccination. We've been vaccinating the rest of Australia, as the Minister said two and a half million COVID vaccines have been delivered through pharmacies so far this year. We've been able to provide our high school kids with a COVID-19 shot for the past couple of months, and from Monday the 10th of January, our primary school students will be able to receive a COVID-19 vaccination as well. And I'm not just a pharmacist, I'm a dad. I've got a 10 year old and a 9 year old, and they'll be in my pharmacy getting their shot in January, so they'll be protected before they go back to school next year. But I encourage all Australians to not just book an appointment on the website, findapharmacy.com.au, next week, but I encourage all of you to do what you normally do, and that's have a conversation with your pharmacist, because there is nothing more important than making an informed decision. And as the Minister said, the decision is yours, and I think it's wonderful that Australia is one of the first countries in the world to give that choice to parents, and my wife and I are going to be having that conversation and we've looked at the evidence and we've looked at the data. It is very safe, it is very effective. And as a dad, that's the best thing I can do to protect my kids. But listen, on the booster shots, there are many letters left in the Greek alphabet. And you know, I think we need to start looking at the COVID-19 virus as just like the annual influenza. You know, the 2021 flu shot is not going to protect me against the 2022 influenza strain, and that's exactly the same thing with the coronavirus. So just please make sure if you've already had your first two shots, do the right thing, pop down, see your local pharmacy and make sure you keep those high levels of herd immunity up. So congratulations and merry Christmas.
Journalist: Prime Minister, you said we are days away from our final state reaching that 80 per cent, have you received any medical advice that says we shouldn't be able to travel freely this Christmas, to see our families this Christmas? You know, all of our internal borders?
Prime Minister: Well, the national plan, which I took to all the premiers and chief ministers earlier this year, and it was agreed twice, was based on the best possible scientific advice from the Doherty Institute, world leading. And that really did show that the 80 per cent vaccination mark double dose was the key trigger point, threshold to reach to be able to start and to be living with the virus. And that is that is our goal. So the issue now is not case numbers. The issue is now the impact on the hospital system and the public health system. And what we've already seen in New South Wales and in Victoria is that the hospital systems have managed incredibly well as those states have opened up. And that has occurred at the same time as them going past those 80 per cent vaccination rates. And as Professor Murphy will tell you, they have bettered the modelling work that was done in terms of the impact on the health systems. And I watch closely what is happening as I know Professor Murphy and Greg does and Paul Kelly about what's happening with hospitalisations in the UK and places like that, and we have seen their hospitalisations rates fall, even though case numbers have gone up. And we are still learning a lot about this Omicron variant and we'll be talking more about that today with premiers and chief ministers. I welcome the decisions that have been made in Queensland. I think that's fantastic. I welcome the decisions have been made to implement the national plan, and I look forward to receiving further updates today from all premiers and chief ministers about how they are keeping the deal with Australians. The national plan is a deal with Australians. They rolled up their sleeves and we opened up the country. That was the deal. Commonwealth government, the federal government is keeping that deal.
Journalist: So will international borders open on December 15?
Prime Minister: Well, we're taking more advice at the moment, but that is certainly our disposition I should, I should flag. I said that the other day. What we wanted to just pause to ensure that we could get a bit more information. We've been receiving more information. And Brendan, you might want to comment on this, but we have seen the severity of the illness playing out to date, as the early indications were, I think it's fair to say, Brendan. And that is that is potentially quite a game changer with the pandemic around the world about how the virus may well step down. But we'll see, it's a little too early to make those sort of judgements. But our plan is to keep moving forward, not to go back. We're not looking in the rear vision mirror, we're not going back to what Australians have had to go through. We're going to go forward and we're going to live with this virus. And the reason we can do that is because of the decisions we've taken, the achievements that have been made in the vaccination programme, the strength of our economy, the resilience of our people. And now by bringing 5 to 11 year olds into that, that only further strengthens us to be able to deal with and live with this virus and live with it together, as the national plan set out many months ago. But Brendan, do you want to comment?
Professor Brendan Murphy, Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Health: Yes, certainly PM. So we're still learning about the Omicron variant. The information out of South Africa suggests that we're not seeing a high incidence of hospitalisation and severe disease, but we still need to learn more. We have to get information from other countries who now have significant clusters of this virus. We're still doing lab testing on this variant. And as I said before, there is a suggestion that the vaccines will benefit from a booster to protect against this strain. We don't know how it will spread in Australia, but we do know that it is here and certainly in Sydney, and it is likely to spread. But we don't need to panic. We just need to study it more and very importantly, make sure we get boosters. What we've seen across this country now with the sustained transmission in Victoria and New South Wales is very low rates of hospitalisation and severe disease in the vaccinated population. These vaccines do protect people against serious disease, and mild COVID is very different from serious COVID. So we are living with this virus now and we're going to have to adapt to that as we move forward. Thank you.
Journalist: Prime Minister, will every child aged 5 to 11 have the chance to get vaccinated before school returns next year?
Prime Minister: This starts on the 10th of January, and that leaves ample opportunity, I think, to do that. But ultimately, that's a decision for parents. Parents make the health decisions about their children. We provide them with the opportunity to do that, and that will be, as Trent said, from the Pharmacy Guild, that is a conversation that parents will have with their kids, with their pharmacies, their GPs, and they'll make those choices and we support those choices.
Journalist: You must be disappointed Gladys isn't going to run for Warringah. Do you have another candidate in mind?
Prime Minister: Sure. I mean. Gladys has been a dear friend over a long period of time, and she has served the people of New South Wales so great and I've been pretty clear about what I thought about her treatment. She's made a decision to go forward a new chapter of her life, and Jenny and I wish her all the very best. She's been a great friend to Jen and I, particularly over these last couple of years as we've worked together to combat the pandemic. New South Wales has done extraordinarily well, and she's going to go on to a new chapter of her life. But, you know, we've got great female candidates in particular who are coming to stand in our team. Just yesterday, as Greg Hunt will know, I was down there with Steph Asher in Corangamite yesterday and of course, Dr Fiona Martin standing here right next to me. So, you know, Gladys has sort of blazed a trail, I think, for women in the Liberal Party and so many of the great professional women who are coming forward and standing up as part of our team have been inspired by Gladys’ achievements. So she's been a trailblazer. She's off to blaze a new trail now, but we wish her all the best for her future, and I know that she will continue to provide tremendously strong support to me and my team, and I thank her very much for that.
Journalist: Have you spoken to her since she decided not to run?
Prime Minister: Yep.
Journalist: When do you expect a resolution to the Alan Tudge matter?
Prime Minister: When Vivienne Thom has completed her arrangements, her inquiry, and that is entirely in her court. And we hope that that is done in a speedy way, in an efficient way and a thorough way.
Journalist: What’s behind the decision to ditch the Taipan helicopters in favour of the Black Hawks?
Prime Minister: The Taipans weren’t meeting their marks. Simple as that. And we want to make sure that our defence forces have the best possible equipment to defend this country, and the Black Hawks will provide that. That's a decision that we've taken together as a National Security Committee to ensure that we're keeping Australians safe. I mean, Australia has been lifting our effort when it comes to defending our nation and ensuring that our expenditure on defence is now over two per cent and our commitments, particularly under the AUKUS agreement and moving towards the nuclear fulfilled submarines, I think demonstrates our commitment. But not just that, but it also demonstrates the relationships and partnerships that we've been able to build and particularly with the United States. But of course, we will continue to work with many other defence contractor suppliers, but in this case, sadly the Taipans didn't do what we needed them to do, so we'll get the things that we need to do it.
Journalist: Why are there so many, so much money, billions of dollars being wasted on defence procurement?
Prime Minister: Well, I don't accept the proposition at all.
Journalist: With National Cabinet meeting today, what will your message be to the WA Premier on reopening borders early or in time for Christmas?
Prime Minister: My position hasn't changed for all premiers and chief ministers and that is to implement the national plan that we agreed. To bring Australians together, to live with the virus. I appreciate greatly the work done by all the premiers and chief ministers and seeing those national vaccination rates get to where they are. We've got one more state to get through that gate as it's a bit like, you know, getting the sheep through the gate and into the run and we’ve got one more state to get through and we're looking forward to that happening in the next few days. And that's an extraordinary effort. I mean, when you think about it, there are states in the Commonwealth that have not had the experience of COVID that New South Wales and Victoria have had and the ACT. In those three areas, of course, the vaccination rates accelerated because we were in lockdowns, and that's to be expected. In states like Western Australia and Queensland and Tasmania, which would be a great place for the fifth test by the way, across those three states, across those three states, they did not have the same COVID experience as New South Wales and Victoria and the ACT. And so it's not surprising, particularly in those states in Queensland and WA, the way that it has been a harder task. But they've gone about the task, and I think they've done a great job to get to the point where before the end of the year and they're going to go past the 80 per cent mark. But you know, Tassie did such a good job because Tassie didn't have big COVID in their state and they're already well through that gate. And I think Tassie has done a terrific job on the vaccination programme, and I commend Peter Gutwein and the whole team down there. That's why they deserve the fifth Test. Did you pick that up about Tassie and the fifth test? I made that point to Cricket Australia yesterday.
Journalist: Prime Minister, do you support Andrew Bragg's dissenting report into the recommendations of the Senate’s Media Diversity Committee?
Prime Minister: Oh, look, I'll take further advice on that, I haven’t had [inaudible].
Journalist: And what's your message to parents who might be a bit hesitant to vaccinate their kids at such a young age?
Prime Minister: My message to parents about 5 to 11 vaccination is the same message you've heard from medical professionals with us today. Talk to your GP, talk to your pharmacist, but most importantly, talk to each other and talk it through. Yeah, there’ll be a little bit of a sore arm. You come home and have an ice cream. I’m sure mum and dad, there could be ice cream, I’m sure there’ll be chocolates too. Don’t mind those sorts of things, they’re all good. So thank you very much for coming today. And but particularly you guys for having us here today, particularly to Silvi and Hector. To all the pharmacists of Australia, thank you very much. If you’re thinking of buying a Christmas present, well, pharmacists are a good place to go and get one. Fair enough? Thank you all very much, everyone. Cheers.