Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker, Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Mallee for the question and acknowledge her lifelong commitment to the health of the people of the Mallee long before she came to this place and became a member of this House. Following on from the health minister's answer just now, I want to reassure the people of regional Australia that the vaccine rollout will be nationwide and that there is no discrimination in the timing between the larger capital cities and the regions. The health minister just mentioned that next week the rollout starts, protecting aged-care residents and workers and frontline health workers. That is across the entire continent; it is not just in the capital cities.

Regional Australia has done very, very well through this pandemic. The communities have managed to keep themselves safe. Probably some of the safest places on this planet have been in regional Australia. But that's not a fluke. That's because the communities of regional Australia have taken COVID-19 seriously. They've reacted accordingly. They've done that because, despite their success, some of these communities are some of the most vulnerable communities health wise we have in this country.

That's why we have the logistics. The Deputy Prime Minister and I saw on the weekend the capacity of DHL to deliver these vaccines to the four corners of this country in the same condition as if they were going a short distance. Linfox will be involved with the AstraZeneca rollout as well in some states. When the rollout happens, it will be done in a number of ways. The expressions of interest have closed for general practices. They're being assessed at the moment. There are discussions happening at the moment with state governments as to how their facilities are going to chime in for this. Also, not long behind that, we'll be making arrangements with the pharmacies that have shown a lot of interest as well as Aboriginal controlled medical centres and, in some cases, maybe flying squads will come in.

Regional Australia has not only been probably the safest place on earth over the last 12 months; it has also played its part in keeping the economy of this country running. Regional Australia has underpinned the economy of Australia over the pandemic, which has enabled this government to do what it's needed to do to protect Australians. So it's important that the people of regional Australia are protected so they continue in that vital role of keeping this country moving.

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