Highlights
- Mr Butler says the clinics are not new and have been operating for the past 12 months as testing centres
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison has again defended the pace of rollout, which he calls a "big project"
- With JobKeeper payment ending at the end of this month, there are fears of an increase in the jobless rate
Labor's Mark Butler says Australians are being subjected to government propaganda and empty announcements about the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.
Mr Butler says this announcement from Health Minister Greg Hunt is the latest example
"Today, we are releasing the list of what are called GP respiratory clinics or Commonwealth vaccination clinics. There's over 100 of those clinics and they are larger clinics, they will take patients in the order they arrive, you don't have to be a member of that practice and they'll have doses of up to 2,000 with an average of just under 1,000 per week, per clinic."
Mr Butler says the publicity regarding these clinics suggests they are a new addition to the vaccination effort.
"This is just an empty re-announcement of existing clinics that have been in place - doing important work, I grant - for 12 months now. Now, the last thing we need with the chaos and dysfunction we saw yesterday, is more spin and empty announcements from this government. Instead, the government needs to focus on getting this chaotic vaccine strategy back on track."
Standing with Greg Hunt in Canberra, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd, confirmed the existing clinics are being reconfigured to administer vaccines.
