Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister promised Australians we were at the front of the queue for vaccines, but today Victorians wanting to get their first Pfizer jab are being turned away because there are no vaccines; they have run out. This is the federal government's mess, and the Prime Minister refuses to take responsibility for it. Instead, he folds his arms and stamps his foot and says, 'It is not a race.' Well, it is a race. It is a race to slow further outbreaks, it is a race to beat mutations, it is a race to save lives and livelihoods and it is a race that Australia is losing.

The Prime Minister needs to stop turning his back on problems he doesn't like. The whole of Australia is vulnerable and exposed, because what happened in Victoria just weeks ago could be happening in Sydney or Adelaide or Brisbane right now undetected. Without enough people vaccinated, Australia will see more outbreaks and more lockdowns. Every lockdown, every ramp-up of restrictions is the Prime Minister's fault. The resulting economic damage, especially to families and small businesses, is on him. The Prime Minister promised 22 million vaccines would be done by now but, today, only 2.7 per cent of Australians have been fully vaccinated. Zimbabwe is doing better. The rest of the world has a choice in vaccines but not Australia. We could have had as much Pfizer as we wanted but the Prime Minister said no. The Prime Minister was one of the first people in Australia to get a vaccine. For him it was a race, but for everyone else it is a long, far queue.