Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Of great concern is the slow vaccine rollout in Queensland and WA, the two states most reluctant to join the national plan to reopen. The rhetoric in Queensland, of course, of Pfizer days, Pfizer 2.0 and Bunnings bonanzas belies the fact that only about 0.4 per cent of our population in Queensland is getting vaccinated each day, compared to one per cent in New South Wales, whose double-dose percentage passed Queensland's single-dose percentage 10 days ago. Now they are eight per cent ahead of us, having already lapped us.

This is not due to being in lockdown. Tasmania, which is not locked down, is doing way better than Queensland as well. We don't want low vaccination rates in Queensland becoming a plausible excuse to remain closed. My great concern is that the per capita performance by state hubs around the nation shows Queensland and WA particularly low. In the meantime, the Commonwealth rollout, of course, is speeding ahead. We need to stop blaming the customer. You don't need to keep encouraging them to get jabbed, because they're voting with their feet and seeking out a jab. We need more FTEs performing vaccinations in the hubs. There simply aren't enough at the moment.

We don't want this to be an excuse to remain closed. We don't want community spread coming to any state. In New South Wales's case, my modelling shows that, by the end of this month, October, they'll have new cases under control. We then have a 14- to 28-day period of waiting before we reopen. Hopefully, our data will tell us that 14 days are okay to save tourism, hospitality and major events and get the Christmas break happening in Queensland. (Time expired)

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