Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks for the question. The thing that we've always promised to the Australian people and indicated to the Australian people is that our vaccine rollout would be based on vaccine approval and then the delivery processes that followed along behind that. The Prime Minister said just recently at a press conference, with respect to the vaccine rollout, that the 'four million position will be something that is going to be achieved in early April as opposed to late March'. That's what the Prime Minister said just recently at a press conference, acknowledging the fact that, with some of the conditions that are occurring in Europe and the scaling up of the manufacturing of the vaccine here in Australia, that was the process and that was the expectation. They are the Prime Minister's words from a press conference just recently. We continue to work with the TGA on the approval process. We continue to work with the vaccine companies on supply to ensure that we have an available supply to roll out effectively to Australians across the country.

The thing that we have the benefit of is that we are providing to Australians fully approved vaccines. We don't have to have the circumstances that many other countries have been forced into, which is having emergency approvals for their vaccines. Australians will benefit from the fact that the data that comes from the application of vaccines in other countries becomes available to the vaccine companies and then to our TGA for the formal approval of the vaccines.