Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Morrison government promised that aged-care workers would be fully vaccinated against COVID by Easter. Four months on, more than half are still waiting. Today the New South Wales minister for health said he'd never been asked by the Morrison government to put in place an order for mandatory vaccination of aged-care workers. Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for his mess, which is leaving vulnerable Australians at risk?

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

I will ask the Minister for Health and Aged Care to add to this answer. The matter of mandatory vaccination of aged-care workers was the subject of a national cabinet decision attended by the Premier of New South Wales, where, with the exception of Victoria and the ACT, who have a different set of arrangements that relate to public health orders relating to aged care, all, including the New South Wales Premier, agreed to put in place those public health orders, and I have received several updates from the Premier of New South Wales about their progress towards achieving that. Now, I can only refer to those matters as they've been discussed between me, as Prime Minister, and the Premier of New South Wales. I can't speak to the state of knowledge of the minister for health in New South Wales, but I'll ask the Minister for Health and Aged Care to add further to the answer.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In relation to aged-care staff, at this stage the latest advice I have is that there've been 158,204 first vaccinations, or 57.5 per cent of the workforce; 102,771, or 37.3 per cent, of the workforce; or 260,975 all up. As the Prime Minister said, in relation to the very constructive work we've been able to do with all states and territories, on 28 June 2021 national cabinet met and agreed to mandate that at least the first dose of a COVID vaccine be administered by mid-September 2021. That work has been carried on, on 28 July and on 4 August, in discussions by the Aged Care Advisory Group of the medical expert panel, the AHPPC. On 2 August the AHPPC approved and published the guidelines on mandatory vaccination of residential aged-care workers, which were then published on 3 August. That's publicly available. AHPPC has been meeting daily, and this has been raised on multiple occasions and on the advice of the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd, to me today; and on 10 August, following the Western Australian public health order, there was further discussion at the AHPPC. Indeed, the Western Australian Chief Health Officer only yesterday published the Residential Aged Care Facility Worker Access Directions. It has also been raised in health ministers' meetings as a matter, and what we're seeing is all states and territories making very good progress not just with the vaccinations but also with the orders. We thank Western Australia for their work. We thank all the states and territories for their cooperation.