Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Government Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for the question. The issue of vaccinations for people with disability, particularly those on the NDIS, their carers and also their support workers has been of great importance to me and a great focus in my first couple of months in this job. We have actually had a significant increase over the last few weeks in the new measures that we have been implementing. We have now got many more hubs, particularly based at providers, and I very much thank the SIL providers in particular for opening up their facilities around the nation and providing vaccinations both for participants and their carers, and also for workers.

Since the last lot of figures that I published, we now have just under 50,000 NDIS participants who have had at least one dose of the vaccine, which is an increase of 18,700 since 25 May. This includes 9,500 people with disability living in residential aged care, or eligible people who are living in disability residential care, under phase 1a of the scheme; that is an increase of over 3,300 since 25 May. We are making significant inroads, and it's due to a fantastic effort between the Department of Health and our department, and now the providers. As I said, I'm very grateful for their assistance in speeding up the rollout.