The former Morrison government’s planning for Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout was not “timely”, it underestimated how difficult it would be to protect aged care and disability residents and failed to adequately engage with the states and territories before the rollout began, a damning review has found.
The report by auditor-general Grant Hehir has found the Department of Health’s planning and implementation of the rollout was only “partly effective” and failed to incorporate the government’s targets for the rollout into its planning.
The review also found while vaccines were delivered with minimal wastage, the administration of vaccines to both priority populations and the general population failed to meet those targets.
The Commonwealth has spent more than $45 billion on the COVID-19 health response, including more than $8 billion related to vaccines and booster doses, with the report saying the distribution and delivery of those vaccines was one of the largest exercises in health logistics in history.
But the Coalition faced widespread criticism at the start of the vaccine rollout, blaming delays on supply issues and a change in medical advice recommending people under the age of 50 get the Pfizer vaccine instead of AstraZeneca due to concerns about blood clots.
The report found that after Lieutenant-General John Frewen was appointed to lead Operation COVID Shield in June 2021 the program improved, but the auditor-general noted that the health department “did not undertake sufficient reporting against targets, and it does not have adequate assurance over the completeness and accuracy of the data and third-party system”.
The review also said the department underestimated the complexity of administering vaccines to the aged care and disability sectors.
The Coalition failed to vaccinate aged care residents as promised by April 2021 while the disability royal commission found the rollout for people living with disability “seriously deficient“, with curtailed access to vaccines and a lack of transparency.
Health minister Mark Butler immediately seized on the findings of the report, saying it had laid bare the “multitude of failures” of the former government’s vaccine rollout.
Mr Butler referenced revelations former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly obtained several ministerial portfolios during the pandemic, including health.
“It’s clear the former prime minister was more interested in getting jobs for himself than getting jabs in arms,” Mr Butler said.
“For much of 2021, Australia had one of the slowest vaccine rollouts in the developed world.
“Australians languished in lockdown, workers couldn’t go to work and students couldn’t go to school because the former government failed to do its job and roll out the vaccine.”
Communication not as effective at reaching diverse and Indigenous communities
The review also found while the department targeted public messaging at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, they were not as effective at reaching these groups compared with the general population.
In June 2020 the ABC revealed concerns about the federal government’s handling of high-risk groups such as migrants, with community representatives telling an expert panel of doctors and politicians they were involved in Australia’s COVID-19 response “on an ad hoc basis or not at all”.
The ABC later revealed “nonsensical” translations of COVID-19 public health messages were being distributed to multicultural communities and that bureaucrats had used Google Translate to communicate with culturally and linguistically diverse Australians.
The health department has welcomed the findings in the report and agreed to its recommendations, which were that the department establishes a comprehensive review of the vaccine rollout and reviews IT controls for data from third-party systems that underpinned the rollout.
“It was pleasing to note the audit recognises the significant planning, consultation and engagement that underpinned the vaccine rollout,” the department said.
“I also note the acknowledgement of appropriate governance and risk management processes developed through the rollout, and the fit-for-purpose communication strategy that informed Australians and key stakeholders on the vaccine program.”
In a statement shadow health minister Anne Ruston defended the Coalition’s handling of the rollout.
“The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was unprecedented,” Senator Ruston said.
“The former government had to make quick decisions to protect Australian lives and livelihoods, and did this by establishing Operation COVID Shield, which saw 90.2 per cent of people aged 12 or over in Australia double-vaccinated by 31 December 2021.
“The auditor-general found the approach to planning Australia’s vaccine rollout became more effective as the rollout progressed, as we learnt how to best manage this unprecedented situation.”
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