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

Thank you, Senator McDonald, for the question. This week is a historic week for Australia and all Australians. The mass vaccine rollout began yesterday in aged-care homes, hospital hubs and for border, quarantine and frontline health workers. I'm also pleased to be able to report that a second shipment of Pfizer vaccine arrived in Australia overnight.

This week health professionals will deliver vaccines to aged-care residents across 240 facilities in 190 towns in regional centres across the country. In your home state, Senator McDonald, aged-care residents in regional centres such as Toowoomba, Kearneys Spring, Harristown, Glenvale, Bundaberg, Millbank and Kepnock will receive their vaccines. Under the Australian government's plan for aged-care residents, we're on track for them to be vaccinated by April.

We encourage all Australians, when your turn comes, to take the opportunity to line up to receive the vaccine that will protect you, your families and the whole country, from major cities to rural communities. As the Prime Minister has said, we are going to make our Australian way back through this pandemic, and the Australian way has proved to be, when you look around the world, one of the most effective there is. People are relying on us to protect their livelihoods, to protect their lives, to maintain the health of the country, to make sure we roll out this vaccination program, and we will do that.