Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Thursday night, restrictions were eased in Melbourne. It has been a tough couple of weeks for Victorian families, workers and businesses, and I want to thank each and every single Victorian for the sacrifices they have made. But we need to put these lockdowns behind us. The way we do that is by getting Australians vaccinated. This vaccine rollout is months behind schedule. It has seen all sorts of targets being completely abandoned. It has been plagued by delays, confusion and supply issues. Victorians are desperate to get vaccinated, but today the Victorian government was forced to pause the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine because they don't have enough supply of the Pfizer vaccine.

In an interview on the ABC with Ralph Epstein, Dr Norman Swan said the Morrison government had a meeting with Pfizer in July last year. Pfizer came to that meeting saying, 'How many vaccines do you need in Australia?' Instead of saying 'Give us as many as you have got,' the Australian government sent in a low-level bureaucrat and basically insulted Pfizer out of the room. Then the government had the audacity to say there were supply issues in the rollout of the vaccine. The reason why there are supply issues is because they told Pfizer to get out of the room. That is what happened. Now Victorians are waiting, there is no more Pfizer vaccines for Victorians, and this government buggered up the vaccine rollout.