CORONAVIRUS — MANDATORY VACCINATION POLICY
629. Mr T.J. HEALY to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the state government's
mandatory vaccination policy that was announced earlier today.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house why the decision to mandate vaccinations for
certain workers and industries has been taken?
(2) Can the minister outline to the house the
engagement that is being undertaken with industry and stakeholders
implementing this policy?
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
(1)–(2) I
would like to thank the member for the question; it is a very important one. As
the member would be aware, earlier today we made an announcement around
mandatory vaccination and this is based upon the latest health advice. The
state government has today, as the Premier said, announced an overarching
mandatory COVID-19 framework that will see a phased approach around mandatory
occupations and workforces within Western Australia. This is a very important
measure to make sure that we continue to drive up vaccination rates within the
community and meet our number one priority, which is keeping Western Australians
safe.
As a result of keeping Western Australians
safe, we have been able to keep our economy open and keep people in the workplace. In addition to this, we
will be mandating the different cohorts of workers. Group 1 has to be first
dosed by 1 December and fully vaccinated by 31 December. These are industries
determined to have high transmission
risk or are a vulnerability risk or are critical to the safety of the
community. The second group, which has to be first dosed by 31 December and
fully vaccinated by 31 January, are industries and workers deemed
critical to the ongoing delivery of business and the function of the community.
These two groups represent about 60 per cent of our workforce. The final group
is the lockdown group, which is those people
who will be required to be fully vaccinated in the event that there is a lockdown.
We say to people in these industry
sectors: get yourself vaccinated now because in the event that we have a
lockdown, you will not be allowed to go to work unless you are fully
vaccinated.
Earlier
today, I briefed representatives of industry, employers, employees and industry
leaders on the government's announcement today, and I think it is fair
to say that it was widely and positively received, but there are a lot of questions. There are a lot of questions and, of
course, a lot of different settings in which people work, both physical
settings and regulatory settings, particularly in the industrial relations
context. The government has undertaken to have
a series of round tables over the coming week or two weeks when we will
sit down with industry leaders so that we can answer their detailed questions
and, through that dialogue, inform ourselves
and the legal teams we have working in this space to make sure that the
directions we put in place are relevant and effective for those particular
industry sectors. I think this is the commitment that they most widely
welcomed—the opportunity to sit down with the government and make sure
that they have an input in how we can best make sure that we can protect their
industries, their workers and their customers or their clients.
I
think this is a hallmark of a government that is prepared to do the hard work,
to sit down and work in partnership with our industry leaders and partners to
make sure that we can have an effective response to COVID-19. The response has
been effective to date and we will continue that to make sure that we work in
partnership with these industry groups to ensure that we are working together,
because we are all in this together and together we will get through this.