Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Regional Health. Will the minister update the house on the progress of the Morrison-Joyce government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout in regional, rural and remote Australia?

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for that question and compliment her both on her pre-parliamentary career as a social worker and on setting up the Zoe Support charity. She has been a dogged defender of the vaccine restrictions and cross-border problems that her constituents have had and has developed border bubble policies and the like. The seat of Mallee is a massive electorate, like many in Australia. It is the size of Ireland. Like other places in regional Australia, it had multiple primary-care sites—90 in total—along with the help of the Flying Doctor Service, the Australian Medical Assistance Teams and the defence vaccine outreach teams to get comparable rates, and areas in her electorate have a rate of over 90 per cent first doses in some areas. But in the last week, 4,000 people in Mildura, the heart of Mallee, got themselves vaccinated, so the rate of completed doses has gone up to 73 per cent. In the outbreak in both western New South Wales and in northern Victoria, rapid antigen tests have been a really helpful bit of technology to rapidly isolate and get answers in these regional far-flung places. I can confirm to the member and to other members from regional Australia that I've been in touch with the major retailers—Coles, Woolies, IGA and the Pharmacy Guild—and they have assured me that regional Australia will be getting rapid antigen tests which people can use at home or in the workplace without a medical professional at the same time as the rest of Australia does.

Unfortunately, in some areas of regional Australia the vaccination rate amongst some of the more remote communities with high numbers of Indigenous residents hasn't been as good. There's a lag in them catching up, but just in this last little period—in the last week or so—3.9 per cent of the Indigenous population that hadn't been vaccinated have. So the message is that if you're not vaccinated yet it's never too late. Going forward, you'll be able to get a booster dose or, if you haven't been vaccinated, you can get it from your GP, or your pharmacy or one of the hubs. And there are rapid antigen tests coming to help manage stuff.

Regional Australia: you're well looked after as we open up and get our lives back.

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

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.