The federal government’s Covid taskforce says it is planning a “surge” in vaccinations in dozens of Indigenous communities across Australia – a move the opposition says shows it has so far “completely stuffed up” the protection of the country’s most vulnerable communities.
Over the next month, 30 communities where vaccination rates lag the furthest behind the national rate and where the Indigenous populations are very high will be targeted for a vaccination blitz. It will be accompanied by culturally-appropriate messaging to counteract vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, leader of the Covid taskforce, Lt Gen John Frewen said.
The list of communities is not yet final, and subject to national cabinet approval but will be a combination of remote and non-remote areas, Frewen told the Senate on Friday.
“They will be ones where we will get the highest return on the effort of putting the surge capacities in,” he said.
But Labor’s Linda Burney said the plan is an admission that the Morrison government has “completely stuffed up the First Nations vaccine rollout” and is “too little too late.”
“There are many more than 30 communities vulnerable in Australia. How on earth can the Morison government claim that First Nations people were a priority group, when we are seeing the mad scramble that we’re seeing now?”
Western NSW has recorded 719 cases in the latest outbreak, more than 60% of them Indigenous people, and a large number of them aged under 40.
In the far west, the tiny town of Wilcannia reached a total of 88 cases on Friday, as authorities raced to build temporary accommodation for the surge in the healthcare workforce. The emergency response hub will be able to house up to 70 Rural Fire Service, ADF and police frontline workers each day.
Thirty motorhomes are due to arrive on the weekend for people who need to isolate from their families. Wilcannia locals have reported having to live in tents, as the only way to isolate, as chronic housing shortages and overcrowding have contributed to the rapid spread of the virus.
Frewen told the Senate committee “there has been a plan in place for Indigenous communities since the start of the pandemic” but that it has been “given additional urgency” by the outbreaks in western NSW.
“We have been learning from the example in western New South Wales, where a very close partnership between federal, state, and Indigenous health authorities can deliver very accelerated results. So we see that as a really good model going forward,” Frewen said.
That close partnership was brought into question on Monday when Guardian Australia revealed that Wilcannia’s Aboriginal health service warned all levels of government more than a year ago that such a disaster could befall Wilcannia, and pleaded for help to prevent it.
The Maari Ma Aboriginal health corporation wrote to the prime minister again last week to say its worst fears had come to fruition and the predicted response was unfolding.
“Disappointingly, no tangible plan was in place prior to this outbreak that could have been easily implemented. As a result, we’ve been playing catch up from day one,” it said.
“We are urging the federal and state government to work cooperatively together to salvage what they can from the situation in Wilcannia. The fact of the matter is, the horse has already bolted in Wilcannia, so priority issues there today are humanitarian and acute medical care.”
Burney said the government’s planning needs to be made public so Indigenous communities can have certainty.
“Why isn’t there a national plan? And if there is, please tell us what it is.
“There is absolute daylight between the vaccination rates in First Nations communities, and the vaccination rates in the broader Australian population. Has that been factored in to the Morrison government’s National Plan?
“These are the questions the Morrison government needs to address.”
