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

The public health advice on vaccinations remains very clear. That advice is that vaccinations prevent seriousness of disease—the level of illness that you get—and it prevents hospitalisations, which allows our health system to deal with other health issues, as it's always meant to. Vaccination protects people from serious disease and death. So, from the government's point of view, if you're due for your COVID-19 booster, go and get it, but it is voluntary and, obviously, people will make that decision for themselves. I would also say that, when state governments were having to deal with maintaining services and protecting employees in a pandemic—in an emergency—they made some very, very difficult decisions to protect their communities. National Cabinet supported that, and we support that.