Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] Like Senator Colbeck previously, I reject completely the assertion in relation to vaccine supply. Australia has contracted some 180 million doses of vaccine for primary supply and many tens of millions of doses now to support booster shots. Of course, as is well known, there have been some challenges in the vaccine supply—the challenges in terms of early failure to deliver, from Europe to Australia, some 3.4 million doses that would have enabled us to move faster earlier, had those doses turned up; and challenges in relation to the changes in ATAGI advice related to AstraZeneca that are all too well known. But what we have managed to do is ensure Australia had fallback options with each of those challenges, with the contracts we put in place with Pfizer and the contracts we put in place with Moderna. The fact that we're now seeing Australians turn out in such record numbers and that, indeed, we are administering vaccines at a faster rate than many other countries have managed to achieve is a testament to— (Time expired)