Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] The suburb of Windale is 10 minutes from my electorate office. It's a special place. I had a street stall there just a few weeks ago. It is also one of the most disadvantaged communities in all of New South Wales. It has a high number of First Nations Australians, an elderly population and, very concerningly, a vaccination rate lower than surrounding suburbs. A unit complex there is in hard lockdown because one of the residents has contracted COVID and was infectious whilst in the community. There is an urgent need for a coordinated response from the Commonwealth and state governments to respond to this situation, much like the response in Walgett in western New South Wales.

Windale is a resilient community but no community is resilient enough to fight COVID on their own and that's why my state colleague, the member for Charlestown, and I are calling for an urgent pop-up vaccination clinic for the suburb. However, we've been told that this is not possible because NSW Health does not have enough Pfizer vaccines. My constituents, those ones in Windale, some of the most disadvantaged people in Australia, see the Prime Minister and Premier every night saying, 'Get vaccinated.' Well, Prime Minister, there are not enough vaccines for Windale and it's your fault. My community is exposed due to your incompetence. My community's health is compromised. The lockdown in my region has been extended by another two weeks because of your incompetence. Prime Minister, you had two jobs: secure enough vaccines and have a national quarantine system, and you failed at both.

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