Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Just give me a chance, Gerard. I'm getting to it. My understanding is there is an indemnity in place, but if I am wrong I will come and change the record. I understand it was put in place for a number of the new vaccines because they were new. There were particular COVID related arrangements put in place to ensure that we could essentially support the rollout of a widespread national vaccination program which was so important to ensuring that we protected Australians from the worst of the COVID outbreaks. That was essentially a secret. Getting the vaccine program rolled out and protecting people in the fastest possible way was a key strategy of managing the pandemic. If I have anything else to add to that I will come back, particularly if I have to correct the record. But I recall from my chairing of the COVID Committee that there were indemnity arrangements put in place for vaccine contracts.