The Morrison government still hopes to give every adult Australian their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by the end of the year as Labor pushes for the Prime Minister to guarantee that timeline despite new limitations on the use of the AstraZeneca jab.
Australia’s vaccine program, already bedevilled by supply shortages, took a blow last week when the government announced that the AstraZeneca vaccine that Australia can produce locally was no longer preferred for people under 50.
Trade Minister Dan Tehan will go to Europe this week to make the case for greater global access to vaccines.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Trade Minister Dan Tehan will use a trip to Europe to push for greater global access to vaccines, many of which are manufactured and, increasingly, consumed in the European Union because of export controls that have effectively blocked contracted supplies to countries including Australia.
“One of the things that I will be doing is vaccine diplomacy,” said Mr Tehan, who has already had one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine ahead of his trip, which begins on Wednesday. He will meet with his ministerial counterparts in France, Germany and the European Union as an institution.
“And I’ll also be meeting with the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation to talk about what we can do to ensure supply of the vaccine not only for Australia, but globally.”
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed last week that more than 700,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine — before its use was curtailed — were flown to Australia from Britain rather than the European Union, illustrating the bloc’s export restrictions.
On Friday, the government announced it had secured an extra 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to be delivered in the final quarter of this year. Mr Tehan said he hoped all adult Australians would have their first doses this year.
“The goal that we’ve set is to try and have all Australians have a dose by the end of the year, but we have to remember that we’re dealing with a pandemic, things can change,” he told Sky News.
Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler said the Coalition’s timeline was too slow and vague, especially when other countries are considering timelines to roll out booster shots for people who have already had their first doses to protect against potential coronavirus variants.
“We really can’t have a situation where vaccines are rolling out into next year, which seems to be the Prime Minister’s thinking,” Mr Butler said.
“He’s refused to guarantee that people will even receive first doses by the end of Christmas. This is not just a question of the strength of our economic recovery, it’s also a question about the health of our population.”
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Nick Bonyhady is industrial relations reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based between Sydney and Parliament House in Canberra.
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2021-04-11 01:21:00Z
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