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

Thanks, Senator Lambie, for the question. As I said earlier in question time today, the government continues to follow the advice of Australia's world-leading Therapeutic Goods Administration and of the other health authorities that advise us and have advised us so successfully through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this circumstance, ATAGI, who provide advice to us, has put out a statement noting the suspension of the AstraZeneca rollout in other countries, but it has also noted, as part of that statement, that the rates of thrombotic events are not higher in the vaccine recipients than the expected background rate. These events are an issue that health authorities keep an eye on as part of the process, and our authorities here in Australia maintain and continue close contact with authorities in Europe, particularly the EMA, and the UK authority, the MHRA, where over 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been dispensed without seeing an incidence of increase of these sorts of events.

We maintain close contact with those authorities, and the government continues to act on the advice of the TGA, ATAGI and the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Kelly, in continuing a safe rollout of this vaccine across the country, which we all acknowledge is extremely important for not only the health of the Australian community but also the economic recovery of the Australian economy from the COVID-19 virus. We continue to act on that professional advice, and that's the advice that we will follow as the rollout continues. The government believes that that's the appropriate process to follow.