Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday the Prime Minister told the House he was talking about the approval of vaccines when he said 'It's not a race' on multiple occasions, on 11 March, 14 March and 31 March. Given the TGA approved Pfizer in January and AstraZeneca in February, what vaccine approval was he talking about in March?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was making reference to the cautious approach that the government have taken when we've been taking advice and rolling out the national vaccine program. He rightly refers to those comments being made in March. It is a very different situation that we're in now, and those comments are not comments I have repeated since that time, and there is a reason for that—because have continued to ramp up the response to the national vaccine program. Yesterday we had another record day.

I acknowledge, as I have done to the whole country, that we have had challenges in the early parts of this national vaccine program, and I have said sorry to the country, for we were not able to be where we had hoped to be at that point. The Leader of the Opposition may wish to continue to pursue that, but the Australian people know I have been very upfront with them about this. Not only do I take responsibility for the problems that we've had; I take responsibility for fixing them, which is what we have done. Now, as the program rolls out, and as we roll towards reaching those targets, I know I can have great confidence that Australians will be able to reach those targets. The Leader of the Opposition has no confidence in the Australian people. He thinks he needs to splash cash at them to do the right thing by themselves, their families and their country—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, Prime Minister, you weren't asked about that. You've been relevant until now.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fair point. I was making a comment about my confidence in the Australian people meeting the targets we've set before us to ensure that we can live with this virus into the future. We have the plan, we've set targets, and we have put General Frewen in charge of getting that vaccination program rolling out at the great pace it is now doing. That is what our government has done to address the challenges we had in the first half of the year. The Leader of the Opposition could help the national vaccination effort by supporting it, not undermining it by engaging in the negativity which he is well known for.