The ACTU, aged care and disability support unions are calling on the Prime Minister to confront and address its systemic failure to administer the vaccine rollout, with few aged care and almost no disability support workers receiving even one dose months into the program.
The unions are calling for transparency on both the number of workers being vaccinated and the arrangements in place for the private providers currently responsible for administering the vaccines. They are also calling on the Morrison Government to seek help from the states to complete the rollout.
The most basic objective of the vaccine rollout is to protect the most vulnerable people in our community and the frontline workers who care for them. To date the Morrison Government has failed to accomplish this.
Aged care and disability support workers have been the frontline of the pandemic, continuing to risk their own health and safety to support some of the most vulnerable, and without the full vaccine rollout it is likely they will have to do so again.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Assistant Secretary Liam O’Brien:
“The Government needs to admit it has failed and ask for help. The vaccine rollout cannot be delayed by a Federal Government trying to save face.
“We need transparency on the number of vaccines being administered to workers and the process by which they are being distributed, and we need the Morrison Government to seek help managing this task.
“Obfuscation and delay has become a hallmark of this Government. If this rollout is not administered correctly we risk additional waves of infection and death, further lockdowns, job losses and economic damage.
“There are many government departments and bodies at the state and federal level which could assist the Morrison Government in managing this rollout. We need the Federal Government to admit that the rollout is failing and seek help.
“Protecting the health of our society is the most basic duty of any Government. If the Morrison Government is unable to manage this rollout themselves then they should seek help from state bodies who have been administering tens of thousands of tests per day for months.
“We call on the Morrison Government to act immediately to get this rollout back on track – frontline workers and those they care for cannot wait any longer.”
