Canberra 30-year-olds' fervent uptake of Pfizer vaccine appointments has been lauded as evidence of a successful ACT rollout by Chief Minister Andrew Barr, despite NSW currently reallocating regional vaccines to Sydney to control its ongoing outbreak.
More than 11,000 ACT residents in the 30- to 39-year-old age group rushed to book their Pfizer when eligibility opened to them on Tuesday, leading to criticism the vaccine could have been better utilised elsewhere.
Mr Barr said pleas from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to send vaccines to help combat Delta outbreaks in that state would be ignored as "we only get our share".
"The number of doses we're talking about would have no material impact on the bigger states," Mr Barr told ABC. "We are 1.7 per cent of Australia's population."
Mr Barr said the ACT was already donating 10 per cent of its vaccines to surrounding NSW regions, freeing the state to direct vaccines from there to those who desperately need them in Sydney.
"I would say on a per capita basis, the ACT is doing more to help NSW than any other state or territory in terms of a share of its own allocated vaccines being donated to another jurisdiction," Mr Barr said.
Residents from bordering NSW towns have been permitted to receive their vaccines in the capital, with the Garran Surge Centre at the Canberra Hospital heralded as one of the best resourced in the region to provide the jab.
On Tuesday, the ACT became one of the first jurisdictions to give the Pfizer vaccine, it is anticipated that more than a quarter of adults in Canberra will have been fully vaccinated by the end of the week.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament on Wednesday the uptake in the ACT was proof Labor Leader Anthony Albanese's plan to incentivise the jab with a $300 case payment was a waste of taxpayers' money.
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"The people of the ACT, they didn't need the vote of no confidence that the Labor party wants to put out there in their ability to get vaccines," Mr Morrison said.
Chief Minister Barr said getting the 15 per cent of the vaccine hesitant population over the line was a national challenge. He said a discussion about an incentive was a worthy one.
"There's a variety of ideas that have been put forward and just to be talking about this, I think is a really good thing," Mr Barr said.
