The chief executive of Flight Centre says Australia's COVID-19 vaccination is "too slow" and that Australians need to be inoculated "as quickly as possible".
Graham "Skroo" Turner called for vaccination to be made mandatory earlier this week.
He told ABC Radio Brisbane that the "dramatic positive effect" of high vaccination rates in the United Kingdom and the United States were plain to see.
"It's been too slow. I think everyone accepts that, including the state and federal governments," Mr Turner said.
About 75 per cent of adults in the UK and about 63 per cent in the US have had their first doses.
The ABC's Australia Talks national survey captured the views of 60,000 Australians in March — before health authorities recommended that Australians under 50 should only have the Pfizer vaccine – and found that 54 per cent believed the COVID-19 vaccine should be mandatory.
'Variants are going to keep coming'
Flight Centre employs about 3,700 workers in Australia, which is a third of its pre-pandemic staffing level.
Mr Turner said the company had issued about $1.4 billion in refunds nationally to customers throughout the pandemic.
"These variants like we've got in Victoria are going to keep coming and the only thing that's going to stop the spread of them is vaccinations, so it's absolutely crucial," he said.
"I think the Victorian situation has shown everyone now very clearly that we have to do this, we don't have a choice, and I think governments, both state and federal, are realising this."
Mr Turner's comments came after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday that he had been repeating remarks from Professor Brendan Murphy, secretary of the Department of Health, when he referred to the vaccination roll out as "not a race".
In Senate estimates on Tuesday, Professor Murphy said he thought he made the comment during a press conference in January regarding racing through TGA approvals of the vaccine.
"It's not a very helpful phrase now because we're going, we're in action, we're fired up and we're doing it as quickly as possible," he said.
