Nationals MPs have warned that vaccination rates in regional Australia must not be allowed to fall behind metro areas, as Labor calls on Scott Morrison to consider separate targets for the regions.
In its modelling underpinning the four-stage national plan, the Doherty Institute called for 70% and 80% vaccination targets to be achieved “at small area level”, describing this as “critical to ensure equity of program impact, as ongoing outbreaks in under-vaccinated populations are reasonably anticipated”.
Despite this advice, the national plan requires the targets to be reached only at the national, state and territory level, not at a regional level.
Statistics released earlier in August show the lowest rates of vaccination are in regional Queensland, Western Australia and sections of New South Wales with little exposure to Covid since the Delta outbreak.
Federal regional health minister, David Gillespie, said he was “keen to make sure that regional Australia reaches the 70% and 80% targets at the same time as metro Australia does”.
Asked about the Doherty Institute proposal for targets at a “small area level”, Gillespie said only that he supported the modelling.
Anne Webster, the Nationals member for Mallee in Victoria, said there should be regional targets, or national targets “should be inclusive of regional centres”, and that the regions needed more Pfizer supplies.
“It’s grossly unfair to have regional centres unable to access the vaccines in the same way you can access them in cities, notwithstanding the higher case numbers there,” she said.
Webster believes the rollout is on track in her electorate, where most areas have first dose rates of 60% to 67% and double-dose rates of up to 40%.
But Mallee has had access to Pfizer vaccines only “in the last couple of weeks”, she said, and many communities near the South Australian and NSW borders still have none.
“We should be able to achieve targets at the same time if we have access to vaccines.”
Mark Coulton, whose electorate of Parkes is embroiled in the western New South Wales outbreak, said it was hard to find a silver lining, but if there was one it was “that there is now a focus on getting vaccinated”.
On Monday, NSW health officials announced that a man in his 50s had died of Covid in Dubbo, in Coulton’s electorate. He was later reported to be the first Indigenous Australian to die with Covid.
“A lot of the communities with outbreaks were among the first to have the vaccine offered to them, but that was after 18 months with no cases,” Coulton said.
“There was a belief that Covid was an issue for somewhere else. And there was hesitancy, with a bit of disinformation about some of the side effects … it all culminated in a sense of complacency.”
Vaccination rates in Broken Hill and the far west have lagged the rest of the state, although rates have improved since the ADF was sent in, with 37.9% aged over 15 now fully vaccinated and 61.7% having received a first dose. Around NSW there is a large disparity in vaccination rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Coulton said he believed western NSW would catch up very quickly, especially as more mRNA vaccines become available.
Asked if 70% and 80% vaccination rates should be achieved in regional areas before reopening, Coulton said: “I always believe that regional areas should have exactly the same standards as the metropolitan areas.”
His fellow Nationals MP, Darren Chester, said that “high vaccination rates are essential throughout Australia and it’s even more important in regional areas which have higher rates of vulnerable people, and less intensive care facilities if people fall ill”.
“High rates of vaccination will be our ticket to more freedom, and we can expect metropolitan people to travel to our regions, which reinforces the need for everyone to get the jab when it’s their turn.”
Labor’s shadow health minister, Mark Butler, accused the prime minister of “leaving regional Australians behind in the vaccine rollout”.
“To guarantee the national plan is implemented safely, Scott Morrison needs to ensure no group is left behind. There is no evidence [he] is committed to this,” Butler said.
“Scott Morrison must tell regional Australians if they will have separate 70 and 80% vaccination targets.”
Morrison has acknowledged that public health measures might need to be in place for longer in areas with low vaccination rates, but has declined to set separate targets for vulnerable populations such as Indigenous Australians.
On Thursday he told reporters in Canberra that “measures will remain available to protect particularly vulnerable populations with stronger restrictions that may be necessary to protect those particular populations in those cases”.
“So highly targeted actions and things of that nature – that is contemplated in the national plan.”
National cabinet has asked for further analysis from the Doherty Institute about what public health measures will be required.
Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, said Australia should move forward together with the national plan.
“Certainly, where local government areas have not had a case of Covid-19 for many months, if at all, I would expect they would not be penalised for not meeting a national vaccination target they have not been able to meet through no fault of their own,” he said.
“It is not the government’s intention to leave these communities behind in any way.”
