“We don’t have enough access to enough [Pfizer] vaccines to roll them out across the country and that’s an issue,” Mr Albanese told Sydney radio station 2GB this morning.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese says Australia does not have access to enough vaccines.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“We need the vaccine with the best efficacy [and] we need it rolled out as soon as it’s approved … It’s one of the reasons why we’ve argued very clearly we should be hedging our bets and having six horses in the race.”
But when asked whether today’s report shows that his previous calls to accelerate the vaccine rollout were premature, Mr Albanese said Labor had never argued “that we should circumvent or short circuit the [approval] process”.
“Once [the Therapeutic Goods Administration] approves it, what we’ve said is: why would you then wait two months for the rollout? [It occurred in the UK and US] within a week,” he said.
“We’ve argued strongly against the delayed rollout that was envisaged for late March. “The fact the rollout had been brought forward to February showed earlier timelines were always possible,” Mr Albanese said.
