Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] People on the Central Coast have been left confused, frustrated and angry because of the Morrison government's botched vaccine rollout. The Central Coast has been in lockdown for six weeks now, and locals are told the way out of lockdown is to get vaccinated. What does the New South Wales government do? Cancel Pfizer appointments on the Central Coast to help vaccinate year 12 students in Sydney instead—students who are unlikely to be back in the classroom. What's more frustrating is that some of these people are teachers living on the Central Coast who teach those same students in Sydney—teachers like Ana, who, after countless attempts to make a booking, finally found an appointment for Pfizer at Gosford Hospital on 2 September. Then, on Sunday, Ana received a message saying her appointment would be rescheduled because the vaccine was being redirected to Sydney. In her words: 'I was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and as soon as I was diagnosed I was advised by my GP to get the Pfizer vaccination. To be informed that my vaccination will now be cancelled is upsetting. I need Pfizer.'

This rollout is in chaos. We have active cases on the Central Coast today and local schools closed, and now we learn the government will be sending extra doses to the regions to make up for what's already been taken. Does that mean doses will be sent back to the Central Coast too? What my community deserves is the certainty to know that, when they make an appointment, when they make a booking, they will get their jab. What my community deserves is to be a priority and to have all vaccines replaced now. If the PM had secured enough vaccines for all Australians in the first place, we wouldn't be in this situation now.