Yahoo News Australia’s vaccine rollout a ‘colossal failure’, says former PM
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has described the vaccine rollout as a “colossal failure” and warned border restrictions could remain until early 2022 in Australia.
The country, which was initially praised for its quick and robust lockdown measures, has fully vaccinated just 16 per cent of its population.
Mr Turnbull, who served as the Prime Minister from 2015 to 2018, has pointed the blame at the government for not buying enough jabs.
He said they only secured a generous supply of AstraZeneca and no other brands.
“It’s the biggest failure of public administration I can recall.” He told the BBC.
“It was a colossal failure and the problem is you can’t wind the clock back and fix what should have been done last year.
“The very reason we are locked down - which is so frustrating when so many other parts of the world are opening up - is simply because our government failed to buy enough vaccines.”
Mr Turnbull revealed he thinks Australia’s borders will “probably not” be opened “before the first quarter of next year”.
Thousands of Australians have been stranded abroad because of the reduced flight caps recently introduced.
The decision made by the current government means the country will only accept around 3,000 returnees each week.
Australia’s current leader, Scott Morrison, said on Sunday the government had secured an additional 85 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine but the vaccines will only be delivered in 2022 and 2023.
But Mr Morrison, who has recently come under fire for the slow rollout and the border rules, insisted more vaccine supply did not mean New South Wales would get out of the five-week lockdown.
“Let me be clear - there’s not an alternative to the lockdown in New South Wales to get this under control. There is no other magic bullet that’s going to do that,” he told reporters at a televised media conference..
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