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

If the ACT Chief Minister actually believed that, why did he agree to the Doherty modelling at national cabinet, which was agreed by all of the premiers, which includes vaccination and consideration of vaccination rates for proportions of the population? Of course vaccination for children is important. It is more important, Mr President. But the ACT Chief Minister sat in national cabinet and agreed to the targets in the Doherty modelling. If he wanted to change it, why didn't he do it then instead of in a press conference?

He can do it on Friday when national cabinet meets again. There will be further information on the Doherty modelling presented to national cabinet on Friday. That's public information, so if the Chief Minister of the ACT wanted to change the parameters of the modelling with respect to the vaccination rollout, why didn't he do it in national cabinet? Why does he do it publicly in a press conference or get Senator Keneally to ask a question in question time? He's sitting in a chair at national cabinet, which gets to make the decisions. Why doesn't he ask the questions there? Why doesn't he propose the modification of the parameters at that point in time? Why doesn't he do that? He is one of the few people that gets to sit in national cabinet. He's one of the few people that gets to be a participant in those decisions, so why doesn't he use the forum that he has available to him to actually put those inputs into that process?