Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over these last few months our country has faced one of its most formidable threats ever. As Australians, we should be proud of our strong and early response to the COVID pandemic. We have carved our own curve. This is because Australians right across this country have responded to personal restrictions that many would never have imagined in our lifetime by doing social distancing, despite missing loved ones, including vulnerable parents in aged care; by closing businesses, built with blood, sweat and tears, to ensure the safety of others; by home schooling our children while trying to juggle our jobs online and still keeping family harmony.

Now that these measures have been successful, it is time to carefully ease these restrictions in a stepwise manner. We have the right safety nets in place to contain outbreaks should they occur—the PPE, the ventilators, the testing regimes and, now, the COVIDSafe app. If we don't move forward now, we risk a new threat—one that is not from COVID but from the response to it. We risk greater rates of depression, anxiety, domestic violence and even suicide if more people lose their jobs or businesses and are isolated from social supports. We should continue to listen to our medical health experts, who are informing our government's response that it is time to step forward carefully into the new future that awaits. The virus is not eradicated. (Time expired)