Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Rory is a 42-year-old with autism. He's non-verbal and has complex mental health issues. He lives in disability group accommodation in my electorate. Rory and everyone in his group accommodation are scared because they are unvaccinated and unprotected against COVID. The government should be racing to vaccinate people in disability care, so why hasn't the Prime Minister done his job?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. The government will continue, with the various agencies and supports and the various platforms we have, to distribute the vaccine through the national vaccination strategy, which includes the work we do with states and territories, which is part of the plan that was agreed back in April. That plan saw a greater role for the states and territories in providing more platforms, more points of access, for the vaccination program to reach all Australians, particularly the most vulnerable Australians. Of the approximately 27,000 people with disability in residential settings, there have been more than 10,000 doses now and more than 7,000 people have been vaccinated. That's around 25 per cent of people in residential care that have been vaccinated. That is towards the end of last month, 29 May.

The Commonwealth inreach vaccination service will visit 83 disability residential accommodation sites in Victoria to vaccinate vulnerable citizens. The first of the specialist disability vaccination hubs, in Thomastown, was established the week before last and is vaccinating more than 120 people a day. Of the broader NDIS population aged 16 years and older, 35,000 participants had been vaccinated on the most recent information I have from 29 May.

We will continue to roll out these programs to the most vulnerable Australians, in particular those who are living with disabilities. As I have remarked in this place before, one of Australia's greatest successes during the course of COVID-19 has been where, in situations with people with disabilities and, in particular, those in remote Aboriginal communities, we've been able to avoid having high levels of infection rates among those communities. That is a great credit to those who work with people who have disabilities, their carers, those who are working in those residential facilities and the infection control procedures that they put in place in those facilities. And we will continue to roll out that vaccination program as quickly and as safely as possible.