Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning Tasmanians woke up to learn 36 clinics had been announced to roll out the vaccine from next Monday—36. There are five seats in Tasmania. Divide that and you get just over seven clinics in each electorate, you would think. There are five in Lyons. The population is about even in each seat. There are 11 in Braddon and 10 in Bass. Now, I wonder why that is! Eleven in Braddon, 10 in Bass—two Liberal seats. And the other seats, non-Liberal held seats, get fewer clinics. Six councils in my electorate have missed out altogether. More than 32,000 Tasmanians who are over 70 live in council areas with not one clinic. The people in those areas have a choice. They can try to book at a clinic that is a one-hour-to-90-minute drive away, if they can get in, because the books are full, or they can wait to see if their GP makes it into the next round. That's a waiting game. So what are doctors saying? 'No communication. The details are being lost. There's no thought being put into managing the logistics. It's been poorly planned.' One doctor has told me that his staff will have to work weekends for years to get through the backlog. It is described by doctors as a fiasco. They are not being listened to. Labor supports the vaccination rollout, but this government is stuffing it up from beginning to end.