Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] My question is to the Prime Minister. Just 15 per cent of First Nations Australians are fully vaccinated, about half the rate of the general population. With outbreaks in First Nations communities in New South Wales, will the Prime Minister acknowledge his failure to do his job on vaccines and quarantine has left these vulnerable Australians at risk?

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

I thank the member for her question and for her keen interest in this area, and for her support working with the government, wherever we can, to try and boost the uptake of vaccines amongst our Indigenous population. The first dose vaccination rate of our Indigenous population is 33.31 per cent and the second dose is 17.83 per cent. That is, indeed, lower than the overall level of vaccinations of our adult population—over the age of 16. This has been a very keen area of concern for the government right from the outset, and the Indigenous communities have been one of our most vulnerable communities. For the work that is being done in western New South Wales in particular, I want to commend all of those, from the ADF to the clinicians and others who are working there, and I know the member would also be positively assisting in those efforts. I will ask the Minister for Indigenous Australians to update further on our progress.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our work is focused on where we have significant gaps. There have been plenty of supplies provided to the Aboriginal community controlled health organisations across the nation. In particular, in the western regions of New South Wales and the western suburbs of Sydney, there are coordinating groups that are working together to ensure that we increase the rates of vaccination. To date, we've seen the hesitancy slip away and people are becoming much more concerned. We are also looking at the movement of people. As the member for Barton would know, people living in Western Sydney often have family connections back at their home places in Brewarrina and along the river towns. They have gone back to those regions and, inadvertently, there's a possibility that that COVID spread has been extended further.

But I also wanted to say that the work that we're doing is significant in the way in which we are working with community on the ground and making sure that the information flow is going through to community. What we're also seeing is community coming together and working with the two health systems, both the Commonwealth and state. Pat Turner is leading a coordinating committee under the auspices of the health minister, and there is a targeted plan to ensure that we reach as many people across New South Wales as possible, and that plan is focusing on targeting those areas where there are low vaccination rates. What's good is that people are now coming forward. Listening to Jamie Newman from Orange this morning, he also outlined the need for additional people on the ground to help increase those vaccination rates. So government is working very closely across both jurisdictions with community to ensure a better outcome than what we've seen in the past.