Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Last month the Deputy Prime Minister was asked on Insiders about the vaccine rollout in regional Australia. He said, 'We're doing quite well.' Figures released yesterday show the truth. Regional Australia is being left behind by the vaccine rollout. His own electorate has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state. Scott Morrison's utter failure on vaccines has resulted in less than one in five Australians being fully vaccinated. That, along with the failed hotel quarantine and more infections has led to more infections, more deaths and more lockdowns, like in Sydney today. But it's much worse in regional New South Wales. In the far west and Orana, 13 per cent are vaccinated; the Hunter Valley, 14 per cent; Coffs Harbour and Grafton, 14.6 per cent; his own electorate of New England, a touch over 15 per cent. Regional Australia has enough problems in accessing decent, affordable health care, but this has been made much harder.

It's going to be harder for regional communities to access hospitals and respirators in the event of a COVID outbreak. We saw this during the Spanish flu, which ravaged regional communities and, disproportionately, Aboriginal communities more than it did the cities. Now the opportunity to vaccinate those communities in advance of this last round of infections has been squandered. In the last 12 months National Party MPs have clearly spent more time plotting against each other, focused on their own jobs, than on doing the job that they're required to do. National Party members like Senators Canavan and Rennick have done more than anybody else to undermine the public health effort by spreading conspiracy theories. At the end, it's about vaccine supply and Scott Morrison having to do his job.