House debates

Tuesday, 3 August 2021

Statements by Members

COVID-19: Vaccination

1:48 pm

Photo of Justine ElliotJustine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My community on the New South Wales North Coast are so angry about the situation the Morrison and Berejiklian governments have put us in. Firstly, the Prime Minister's failure to get enough vaccines and his failure to establish quarantine facilities—that's why we're in this dire crisis. Secondly, the New South Wales Premier's failure to lock down Sydney early enough has plunged our region into even more chaos. Last week we saw, in a move of utter contempt, the New South Wales Premier decide to take our already limited supplies of Pfizer from regional New South Wales and redirect them to Sydney. I'm being contacted by locals every day who are so angry that their appointments for Pfizer have been cancelled. Others have been told they've got to wait months and months for even the possibility of Pfizer vaccines on the New South Wales North Coast. This is absolutely appalling and unacceptable.

I'm calling on the Morrison government, the Berejiklian government, all their MPs on the North Coast and their agencies—Healthy North Coast and the Northern NSW Local Health District—to all come clean and tell us the following: exactly how many of our Pfizer supplies have been taken from us and taken to Sydney? How many Pfizer supplies do we actually have in northern New South Wales today? Our community demands the facts, not weasel words or promises in the never,-never. Make no mistake, this situation is an absolute disgrace and it shows we're the forgotten people when it comes to the Liberals and Nationals—(Time expired)