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

I thank Senator Ciccone for the question. The Australian government has, in fact, provided additional resources and vaccines to Victoria to assist them through their current circumstance. We've worked very closely with the Victorian government. We've supported them in vaccine supply. There are a significant number of additional vaccines that have been supplied to Victoria to assist them with the rollout, so I don't accept the premise of the question that's been put by Senator Ciccone that we are trying to starve Victorians of vaccine supply. In fact, we've worked very cooperatively to provide additional capacity and additional vaccines in the tens of thousands to Victorians so that they have additional supply to support Victorians who are looking for a vaccine.

The announcement today is also obviously going to create some further challenges with the changes in the advice that we received with respect to the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. We will follow that advice and we will continue to work with the states towards supporting them—