'Totally unfair': Victorian premier slams PM over 'secret' vaccines for NSW
Daniel Andrews has lashed out at NSW and the federal government over “unfair” and “secret” vaccine allocations, as the Victorian Covid crisis escalates.
The Victorian Premier unleashed during his daily Covid briefing, after announcing 246 cases of the wildly infectious Delta strain for the second consecutive day.
It follows revelations NSW received 45 per cent of the Pfizer doses allocated to primary caregivers in August while other states received less than their share of the population.
“I signed a national plan to vaccinate our nation, not a national plan to vaccinate Sydney,” he began.
“We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of vaccines that should now be in the arms of Victorians going into Sydney.”
Covid Victoria: 246 new infections spark fears of case explosion
Covid NSW: 1,220 new cases, 8 deaths as vaccination rates rise
PM accused of 'secret' vaccine decisions
Mr Andrews told reporters he doesn’t “begrudge” Sydney receiving extra does due to the “difficult set of circumstances” in NSW.
But claimed some 340,000 allocations were not made public by the federal government.
“I have been very clear the extra allocations that were given to them - known and announced and aboveboard and clearly transparent - that was a good thing.
“We are not talking about those doses. We are talking about otherwise secret arrangements that are just not right.”
He said Victoria would be far closer to hitting key vaccination targets if doses had been distributed “fairly”.
Victoria will remain under tough lockdown restrictions until at least 70 per cent of eligible residents receive their first vaccine dose.
"So you can see a sense of frustration and in others a sense of anger," he said.
Calls for fast-tracked supply
The Victorian premier demanded additional supplies be sent to other states immediately.
"Some don't like to see this as a race but a race it surely is. What I didn't know was that premier Gladys Berejiklian is in a sprint while the rest of us are supposed to do some sort of egg and spoon thing,” he said.
“No, we want our fair share. These allocations, which are totally unfair and were under the table need to stop and we need to get a make-good. We need to get those doses we didn't get fast-tracked to us.”
WA Premier says other states need to be allowed to catch up
Western Australian premier Mark McGowan also said his state needs to be given the opportunity to catch up after vaccine allocations were diverted to NSW.
"The states that provided that additional support to NSW now need to be given our catch-up supplies, in particular of Pfizer," he said.
"We can't have a situation where some states are punished for doing the right thing for NSW."
The ABC has reported WA may have missed out on more than 100,000 Pfizer doses during the winter months, thanks mostly to shifts in supply through the federal government's distribution of vaccines to GPs and pharmacies.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the reallocation of vaccines to NSW saved lives.
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