Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister: The government promised that all disability-care residents would be vaccinated by last Easter yet, yesterday, health department officials told Senate estimates only 355 out of 22,000 people living in disability accommodation had received both doses of vaccine. Why has the government only vaccinated less than two per cent of people living in disability accommodation? Why is the Prime Minister so negligent on the vaccine rollout?

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

I thank the member for his question. I will ask the Minister representing the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme to add to the answer. I refer the member again to the updated figures I have just provided regarding the provision of both first and second doses. What is important we understand is that the health minister has advised on numerous occasions a first dose is a very important protection. It's a very important protection, and I don't think it is helpful for the Labor Party to be talking down first dose protections in the middle of a vaccine program. I don't think it's responsible. I don't think it's supportive of the national effort but it's not surprising to me that that is the way the Labor Party would seek to act as we have seen them act now over these last 18 months. We on this side will continue to focus on the job of rolling out what is the largest vaccine program in Australia's history. We have gone through a week which has seen more than 700,000 Australians being vaccinated around the country. I will ask the minister to add further to the answer.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Ballarat. The member for Maribyrnong was about to take a point of order, but the Prime Minister's now asked the minister representing the minister for the NDIS to conclude the answer. The minister has the call.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the Prime Minister has already said, of the 27,000 Australians with a disability in residential settings, which are shared disability accommodation and residential aged care, there have been more than 10,000 doses and more than 7,000 people have been vaccinated—that is, around 25 per cent of people in residential care have been vaccinated as at 29 May this year. This week alone the Commonwealth in-reach vaccination service will visit 83 disability residential accommodation sites in Victoria to vaccinate vulnerable Australians. The first of the specialist disability vaccination hubs in Thomastown was established last week and it's vaccinating more than 120 people a day as part of that. As part of the broader NDIS population aged 16 and over, 35,000 participants have been vaccinated as at 29 May this year.

At the commencement of the pandemic, the Morrison government acted swiftly to ensure the safety of participants and the viability of the sector, and we'll continue to do that. The numbers speak for themselves: 183 Australians with disability have contracted COVID-19, a third of the percentage of the general population, even though, as a proportion, their disability and the issues in their life are so much greater. This shows what the strength of the government's response to the sector has been, and we'll continue to prioritise this is as we move forward.