Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, I had the privilege of meeting with a young man from St Kilda called Blake. Until this meeting, I am told that Blake had never actually reached out to an MP, but it was Blake's concern around the monkeypox disease and his willingness to advocate on behalf of his community to get information that will help protect people that drove him to reach out. Like many young people, Blake was just trying to do the right thing by himself, his friends and his community. I was pleased to let Blake know that the first shipment of monkeypox vaccine has already arrived in Australia. There have been 20,000 doses distributed throughout the country. In the second half of September, we're expecting a further 100,000 doses to arrive in Australia, which will go straight into the arms of the most at-risk people. Then a further 350,000 doses will be arriving in the third batch.

Importantly, to administer the vaccine as quickly as possible, we've been partnering with organisations like Thorne Harbour Health in my electorate, who do an amazing job of protecting the community and of working with the community to get out vaccines not just for this but for many other issues. There's an EOI process, which I will put the information on in the comments on this speech, with the state government. I just wanted to reassure Blake and thank him for his advocacy and say that more vaccines are on the way and we appreciate everyone doing the right thing in getting jabbed to protect themselves and their community.