CORONAVIRUS
— VACCINATIONS — TARGET
610. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I refer to comments by the
state's Vaccine Commander on 6 October that he had been given a deadline
of 31 December to reach the 80 per cent vaccination mark for our
population.
(1) Did the Premier's cabinet set this target for the
Vaccine Commander?
(2) What other
targets have been set for the Vaccine Commander to meet, where are these
targets published, and what happens if he is unable to meet these targets?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
(1)–(2)
I will tell the Leader of the Opposition
what our target is: it is to get people vaccinated as quickly as possible.
That is our target, and that is what we are
doing. We are getting people vaccinated as quickly as we humanly can. It would be great if the opposition ensured
that Nick Goiran supported that. That would be good. Let us imagine Nick
Goiran, who runs the Liberal Party, actually coming out and saying that he
supports vaccination across the state; that would be helpful. It would actually
be helpful if we had the Liberals and Nationals backing it in. That would be
good, but unfortunately Nick Goiran does not support vaccination. Nick Goiran
is out there, criticising vaccination. The opposition is an alliance between
the Liberal and National Parties, so when the opposition comes in here and says
these things, how about it looks inside its own tent? How about it looks inside
its own ranks as to what its members are actually doing?
We expect that in December, we will
get to at least 80 per cent double dose vaccination, bearing in mind that we
have set ourselves a tougher task than other states. New South Wales, Victoria
and other states have set their vaccination
rates for people aged 16-plus; we have set ours at 12-plus, which is a tougher
task, but a safer way of dealing with the situation. As we have learnt,
kids are not immune and they can spread COVID quite quickly, so the 12-plus
model that we have put in place is obviously a safer methodology. We expect we will
hit the 80 per cent mark in December, but we are also doing all sorts of
innovative and exciting things to get people vaccinated, and that will
continue.