Senator O'SULLIVAN (Western Australia) (15:32): I've been listening carefully to the contributions on the motion to take note at this time of day from Senator Ayres and Senator Watt, speaking about the government's response to the COVID pandemic. Now, I'm very proud of the Morrison government's response to the COVID pandemic. I'm very proud of Australia's response to the COVID pandemic. It must be really difficult for Labor senators to have to come in here and trot out these lines. They live in a parallel universe because their view of what Australia has done is far more pessimistic than the reality. It's actually not connected to reality at all. They're living in some sort of alternative universe here, because Australia has actually tackled and dealt with the pandemic better than practically anywhere else in the world. In fact, if we had just the average death rate from COVID of any OECD country, then over 30,000 Australians would have died in the COVID pandemic. We're not anywhere near that. Way less than 2,000, I believe, is the number of people who have succumbed to COVID since the outbreak began here. Australia has one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world. I don't know if you've seen that as well, Labor senators: we have one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world. I mean, this is phenomenal—we've got over 85 per cent double-dosed vaccination of people aged over 16 in Australia right now. And it's growing every day. This is good news. But you won't hear anyone on that side of the chamber celebrate the success that we as Australians, collectively, have achieved. You're not going to hear that, Madam Deputy President, because what do they do? They come in here—and it's really interesting, actually— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator O'Sullivan, I'm going to draw your attention to the take note question, which was about quarantine facilities. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Well, Madam Deputy President, the points that were raised were in relation to the handling of the pandemic. The issue of facilities was the nature of the question and, in response to that, I think it was Senator Watt who referenced the fact that often the breakouts in transmission actually occurred as people went from the airport to a hotel facility. That's not going to change if we have a dedicated COVID quarantine centre. We still actually need to get people from the airstrip. What are we going to build—a dedicated airport? I know that's what they proposed to do in Queensland, but how many airlines are actually going to land there directly? How many are actually going to land directly into these locations? We know that's just not practical. What we need is resilience. That's where vaccines are the obvious key, and that's what Australians have stepped up to do. Australians have stepped up to go and get vaccinated. Sadly, though, in my home state our vaccination rate hasn't kept up to pace with the rest of the country. I don't blame Western Australians for that fact. The reality is that in WA we had one of the best experiences in dealing with COVID of anywhere else in Australia and, indeed, of anywhere else in the world. So I guess there has been a lack of urgency there in Western Australia which has maybe contributed somewhat to our lower rates of vaccination. But it's interesting when we see what has happened of late, since there have been these mandatory vaccinations— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator O'Sullivan, the question was about quarantine. It's not a debating point. I'm directing you specifically to the take note response. Senator Dean Smith? Senator Dean Smith: Deputy President, with all due respect, it's difficult to talk about quarantine without talking about vaccination rates. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Smith, you are debating with me. I am directing Senator O'Sullivan to take note of the answers that were given, and the questions were about quarantine. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Thank you, Madam Deputy President, and I won't disagree with your ruling. The reality is that quarantine centres become less relevant as vaccinations go up. We do know that with the omicron variant we have a new challenge here. It's looking okay so far, but the reality is that the best thing Australians can do, and the best thing that travellers can do, is to go and get vaccinated. That's the best way we can prevent the spread of disease. Sure, quarantine facilities are a part of that, but let's hope that we don't actually require them going into the future because we have such high levels of vaccinations—as we do here in Australia. We have one of the highest vaccination rates, and that's a credit to all Australians, including to this government, which has procured the vaccines and helped to establish them across the country.