Rob Mitchell, McEwen MP
In Sunbury, we know all too well the devastation COVID-19 caused last year, with 173 cases recorded in the Sunbury area and 20 deaths at a local aged care home.
Across our community, we also felt the economic and mental health effects of the lockdown and the enormous difficulties it caused, even for those in the shire of Macedon Ranges who regularly visit Sunbury for a range of reasons.
Some residents in aged care were literally locked in their rooms for 60 days or more.
We just can’t go back there.
But there is now confusion with the roll out.
Some of our own local aged care residents have yet to receive the jab, despite supposedly being in phase 1a and having gone through so much personal pain during the height of the pandemic.
As I write, they’ve had two planned vaccination days cancelled, and despite extensive care effort by the wonderful staff in their home, they still haven’t got the jab.
Sadly, they feel nobody cares about them. Some are so despondent they’ve taken their names off the list to have the vaccination.
I have also been contacted by a paramedic who, as a frontline health worker, should have received his vaccination but hasn’t.
And GP clinics around the electorate have been swamped with calls and booking inquiries and they just can’t keep up.
The Morrison government’s online booking system for COVID-19 vaccines is now problematic.
As well, the online booking system for anyone in the 3429 postcode lists only one clinic in Sunbury, with the next nearest available in Sydenham, Craigieburn or Melton West.
For a town the size of Sunbury.
For a town that has suffered first-hand.
We have many people who work at the airport and in quarantine and live in Sunbury. The risk for our communities is high.
It didn’t have to be this way. We knew the vaccine roll out was coming. The online booking system should have been tested and finalised weeks ago.
More than 400 million vaccines have been delivered around the world; more than 113 million vaccines have been delivered in the US, and over 26 million in the UK.
Australia is sitting at around 200,000 vaccines delivered out of the 4 million the PM promised would be done at the end of March.
The PM said all Australians would be vaccinated by the end of October – now his own departments concede they don’t know when everyone will be vaccinated by.
The opening up of our economy is dependent on vaccines being rolled out.
The Morrison government has got to do better. They’ve got to start scaling this up quickly.
Unfortunately, Scott Morrison has shown us time and time again that he is all announcement, but no delivery.
