Australians should not have to wait until March to get the coronavirus vaccine, Labor leader Anthony Albanese says.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has granted "provisional determination" to three vaccine developers - Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Janssen-Cilag - but has not approved any for a full rollout.
It's expected final approval could come for one or more in January, but even then the government has said the rollout won't start until March.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters last month if the TGA gave the vaccines the tick "you can get the jab".
Mr Albanese said Australia was not at the front of the queue when it came to vaccines, pointing to the rollout in other countries.
Figures compiled by Bloomberg showed 12.3 million doses have so far been administered across 30 countries, including 4.33 million in the United States and 4.5 million in China.
"It makes no sense for the TGA to have recommended - as it is likely to do, in January - the approval of the Pfizer vaccine, but then for the rollout to not occur until March," Mr Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
"Australia is not at the front of the queue. We have never been at the front of the queue.
"And that's why Labor argued very early on that we needed to get these deals signed, that we needed to get six deals signed, which is international best practice."
He said Labor supported the independence of the regulator but if the government had confidence in the TGA's processes, once it was approved it should be rolled out.
The TGA has previously said it was "actively monitoring" COVID-19 vaccine development in Australia and around the world and was part of a network of international regulators working on systems for monitoring the efficacy and safety of vaccines.
The ability to access early data and work with international regulators would assist in the speeding up of the evaluation of any new vaccines without compromising safety, quality and effectiveness of products, the authority said.
