The NSW Government today announced that Pfizer vaccine doses will be taken from regional NSW to vaccinate Year 12 students in Sydney’s eight Local Government Areas of concern.
Member for Eden-Monaro Kristy McBain said regional NSW residents are being left behind because Scott Morrison didn’t think the vaccine rollout was a race and didn’t order enough vaccines.
Ms McBain is calling on the Federal Government to urgently expand the vaccine rollout in regional NSW and restore the doses that have now been taken away.
“I am contacted by Eden-Monaro residents every day who are struggling to get vaccinated,” Ms McBain said.
“In Queanbeyan, people have told me that they are having to wait up to 3 months to get a vaccination. While in some of our remote towns, people face journeys over an hour to reach a vaccine clinic.
“Communities in the Eden-Monaro rely on transient workers and tourists to survive. They’ve been hit hard because of ongoing and repeated border closures and now residents and businesses are being told their health and safety isn’t a priority. It’s another blow to communities already struggling.
“People in regional areas, in the Snowy Mountains, in Tumut and Tumbarumba and on the far south coast have been waiting patiently for Pfizer supplies to reach them and now the Government is telling them they need to wait even longer.
“Regional communities are sick of being treated as second class citizens.”
Ms McBain said the Federal Government’s failures throughout the pandemic have left our communities exposed and under resourced.
“While this is a decision by the NSW Government, it comes as a direct result of Scott Morrison’s failures in hotel quarantine and the vaccine rollout.
“It is completely unacceptable that regional NSW residents have had to bailout this government’s failed vaccine rollout,” Ms McBain said.
“The Federal Government’s failures have once again left regional NSW exposed and at the back of the queue.
“Now is not the time to hit the brakes in the vaccine rollout, we need to be traveling full steam ahead.”
28 July 2021
Media contact: Melanie Leach, phone 0423 759 288
