The government's COVID-19 vaccine timeline isn't serving the needs of Australians in isolation, Labor Leader Anthony Albanese says.
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At least one of the vaccines already being rolled out in the UK and US could be approved by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration as soon as January. However, the government's timeline for rollout only begins in March. That timeline, first announced by Health Minister Greg Hunt earlier this month, was confirmed by Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Tuesday.
Mr Albanese says the reason for the March rollout is poor planning, not medical, and Australia is at the back of the queue for that reason.
"It gets the tick in January, that means it's ready to go - but it doesn't actually get rolled out until March because of the agreement that the federal government has done with this major multinational pharmaceutical company," the opposition leader said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
"The federal government was very late to sign up to any of the deals with the big pharma companies. The rest of the world started negotiating and doing deals in March. The federal government signed the first deal in September."
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The Pfizer vaccine is expected to be the first to receive approval in Australia. Recipients so far have included US President-elect Joe Biden and Queen Elizabeth under emergency authorisations by their health systems.
The opposition leader says a January rollout after it's been given the TGA tick is still respecting the role of the agency and medical advice.
"There are consequences beyond people getting coronavirus and dying. There's mental health concerns, people being isolated. There is the economy and job losses.
"They need to really step on the gas, start negotiations, try to do whatever they can to fix this. We are going to have a pretty miserable Christmas in various households around Australia this year, whether it's people who have lost loved ones who were aged care residents, whether it's families of the 40,000 Australians who remain stranded overseas, or whether it be people who are just in isolation so they can't actually interact with their families, it's going to be tough.
"We want 2021 to be better. This is a practical suggestion that we're putting forward that they need to really change the attitude on."