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

[by video link] We've been through this a number of times in the chamber now. When the Prime Minister made that commitment the intention of the government was to vaccinate the workforce and the residents at the same time. We did, however, take the health advice, which came from evidence out of other jurisdictions, other countries around the world, that it was not safe to do that. So, based on that advice, we were forced to change the way that we were vaccinating the workforce.

We continue to provide opportunities for the workforce to get vaccination. We continue to focus our attention on doing that. As Senator O'Neill quite rightly says, 36.6 per cent of the aged-care residential workforce have received full vaccination and 56.8 per cent have had their first vaccination. (Time expired)