The Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 has continued its important work this year in overseeing the government's response to the economic and health challenges of the pandemic. Coalition Senators acknowledge the important role of parliamentary oversight in our system of government, which is even more important during the COVID-19 crisis.
On both the economic and health fronts, Australia has fared better than most countries in dealing with COVID-19.
Australia's critical response has been underpinned by a combination of extensive testing and contact tracing, high vaccination rates, quarantine of people returning from overseas, and measures to control community transmission. Of the 38 developed Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, Australia has had the second lowest number of COVID-19 cases on a per capita basis, and by avoiding the death rates seen in OECD countries we have saved over 30 000 Australian lives. Commendably, 87 per cent of the eligible population aged over 16 are fully vaccinated and hence we are one of the most highly vaccinated societies in the world with a national booster program already underway.
While Australia has been doing it tough, our economy has proven to be resilient. Australia was the first advanced economy to have more people in work than prior to COVID-19 – nearly 900 000 jobs have been created since May 2020. The Reserve Bank of Australia has recently revised up its forecast for wages and now also sees the unemployment rate reaching 4 per cent by the end of 2023. After last year's recession, Australia's economy (GDP) recovered to be larger than prior to the pandemic, ahead of any advanced major economy in the world. While Australians have experienced public health restrictions this year, the federal government has supported 2.19 million individuals who have been paid out a total of $12.59 billion in COVID-19 Disaster Payments.
In 2021, the committee has held 17 public hearings which includes nine appearances by officials from the Department of Health. This year, the committee has sent out approximately 470 questions on notice to both government and non-government witnesses, and about 260 answers have been returned to the committee. Since the commencement of this committee's inquiry in April 2020, more than 2700 questions to witnesses have been put on notice, and about 2160 responses to those questions have been received.
This committee's public hearings have been held in addition to the regular parliamentary sitting weeks and appearances of government departments and their agencies before Senate estimates hearings. It is clear that parliamentary scrutiny is operating as normally as possible, and that parliament is fulfilling its duty to keep government accountable even when challenges have arisen due to public health restrictions across the country.
It should be noted the parliamentary scrutiny of the federal government's response to the pandemic has been far more extensive and robust than any state parliamentary oversight. Given the most onerous restrictions to the liberty of citizens during the pandemic in the name of public health have been imposed by state governments, they should have at least as adequate oversight as the federal parliament has put in place. It is regrettable that in many jurisdictions, parliamentary committees scrutinising the performance of state governments have only been put in place temporarily, have held few public hearings and have often been chaired by government chairs.
It is not unusual for tension to arise between the committee's duty on the one hand to keep the public informed on the government's decision making, and on the other hand the public interest to not disclose information about the operation of Cabinet and its committees, including submissions or papers. It is a longstanding view of governments of both persuasions that the deliberations of Cabinet should remain confidential because disclosure may impact the government's ability to receive confidential information and hence make appropriate and informed decisions for the Australian community. This is especially so when the responsibility of protecting the health and welfare of the Australian people during a pandemic is at stake.
As stated in the second interim report, the relatively few disagreements between this committee and the government regarding a small number of public interest immunity claims should be viewed in light of these facts and the committee's busy workload.