The Hon.

Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health

TRANSCRIPT
24 May 2021

TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH FOUR CORNERS - ABC

E&OE…

Topics: Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement and rollout.

JOURNALIST:
Minister Hunt, thank you very much for doing this.

GREG HUNT:
Pleasure.

JOURNALIST:
Why did we put so much faith in vaccines that could be made in Australia?

GREG HUNT:
Well, supply has been an absolutely critical part of our national strategy from the outset.

We foresaw what’s occurred in Europe and North America. Without ever knowing what would be
the specific outcome, we could see vaccine nationalism, international supply chain challenges,
countries withholding vaccines.

Of course, this was occurring during 2020 and there was a very strict policy - much of the US’s
rhetoric about not exporting vaccines early on. Europe, we foresaw that.

So, we had to do three things. One, make sure that our vaccines were safe. Two, that they were
effective. Three, that we could get access reliably, as early on as possible.

So, we had a mixture of international supply but domestic supply. And when I look at the world
now, I’m absolutely reaffirmed that the need for domestic production was a fundamental
component. Not the only component, but a fundamental component.

And it was the right component because without that we would be in a very different position with
vastly less access now than we have had.

JOURNALIST:
Well, we don’t have much access now. Did the focus on UQ and AstraZeneca mean that we were
blind to other products from overseas?
GREG HUNT:
Not at all. We’ve always followed the medical advice. And in a world where there had never been a
coronavirus vaccine, and in a world where there had never been any form of mRNA vaccine, that
medical advice was categorical.

Three different platforms: the protein, which was the University of Queensland and Novavax, the
international vaccine; the viral vector, which is the AstraZeneca vaccine; and then of course the
mRNA which was both Pfizer initially and now we’ve added Moderna.

JOURNALIST:
Right. What was our fallback in case something went wrong with the University of Queensland
vaccine?

GREG HUNT:
Well, we actually had five initial contracts and we developed a range of options, because we
presumed, and I remember when we announced it on 7 September, that no vaccine was certain, but
by having a basket of vaccines where, of all of our choices, all but one has gone on to be a viable
vaccine.

So, we had CSL which is the AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine, one of those recommended by the
Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, or the medical expert panel lead by Professor Murphy.
We had the University of Queensland. We also had Pfizer, which was announced, and we also had
Novavax. And then we had access to 25.5 million units of a diversified portfolio under what’s
known as the COVAX international buying facility.

So, five initial strategies. And the last of them itself contains the option for a range of different
vaccines.

So, three different platforms, four different specific vaccines, five different options. And all but one
of those has come through.

JOURNALIST:
Other countries are doing more, earlier. By October, the EU, the UK, the US had five options. At
that point we only had two.

GREG HUNT:
No, that's false.

JOURNALIST:
Possibly only one in terms of pre-purchase agreements.

GREG HUNT:
No, that's false.

JOURNALIST:
We had, at that point, we had AstraZeneca and UQ and not pre-purchase agreements for anything
else.

GREG HUNT:
No, at that stage we already had AstraZeneca, University of Queensland and the COVAX facility.

JOURNALIST:
But what did the COVAX facility mean? What has that actually given us?
GREG HUNT:
That's access to 25.5 million vaccines across a range of platforms. And we are also in advanced
discussions with Novavax and Pfizer, which have made no difference to the timing of the arrival,
but which have added to what we've secured for Australia.

So, by November, five positions in place. And one of the things that we wanted to do was always,
always, always to follow the medical advice.

And there were some who would say, forget the medical advice. The thing that's kept Australia safe,
whether it's been in terms of quarantine, testing, tracing, distancing, vaccines or primary care, has
been following that medical advice.

And as the medical advice laid out that the belief was there, the evidence was there for the safety
and the efficacy of the effectiveness of vaccines, they were purchased.

So, three agreements before the end of September, five by early November.

JOURNALIST:
Ok, we had a very small order initially for Pfizer.

GREG HUNT:
10 million doses.

JOURNALIST:
10 million doses. Why was it so small?

GREG HUNT:
That was the medical advice.

JOURNALIST:
Why would the medical advice be to have enough vaccinations for five million people? We needed
a backup.

GREG HUNT:
Well, the world has never had, and this was something which Professor Murphy and the scientific
advisory committee were very clear on, the world has never had any an mRNA vaccine previously.

But as we saw clinical trial results, and developed more confidence in two things. Firstly, the safety
and secondly, the efficacy. And then we were able to look at the production.

And so, there's a variety of vaccines. Five contracts completed by November. A sixth obviously in
terms of the booster and variant strategy which we’ve put in place with Moderna. Being for
primarily this recognition that the world may face new variants.

So, we've adapted to that as that scientific advice comes in. And the whole pandemic, from the very
first scientific meeting around vaccine strategy in the second week of February 2020 has been about
adapting to circumstances so that all the countries in the world, there's virtually no one that's safer
than Australia now.

And one of the things that was absolutely certain was that we would follow the medical advice on
the choice and volume of vaccines.

JOURNALIST:
Well, Australia doesn't have much spread around the place, I suppose we’re safer than other places
in that sense. But we are doing, we are going very slowly compared to other nations in the United
States, Great Britain, in terms of the vaccine rollout. We're not safe in that sense.
GREG HUNT:
Well, with great respect, we are safe. Of all the countries in the world, when you look at a country
with, as you and I speak, 87 cases of zero community transmission in this year.

And as we speak, on an average day, there is between 600,000 and 700,000 cases. There are over
10,000 people who are losing their lives to COVID on any one day. That's the definition of safety.

But at the same time, one of the elements of safety is to ensure that we have strong, clear, full
assessment of vaccines.

So, of those countries that have done well, Korea, Japan, Singapore, the jurisdiction of Taiwan,
what you see is that we're in an extraordinarily strong position safety wise. But when you compare
us with, you know, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and New Zealand, all of which were very cautious in
making sure that there was a full safety assessment for a vaccine which had never been tested
before, we see that we're in a very strong vaccine position.

3.1 million, as you and I speak, inevitably hundreds of thousands more by the time this program
comes to air.

JOURNALIST:
Yes, well, that would bring us to around four million, which is what the Prime Minister was
intending to for us to be at, at the end of March.

That's not a good outcome. That's a very slow rollout, is it not?

GREG HUNT:
The figure you've just mentioned, of course, was taken off the table on the 25th of January. It was
taken off the table when it was clear that Europe was both unable to produce and unwilling to
supply.

And everything we do in this pandemic is dealing with a situation where the world is facing a
challenge, unlike anything in 100 years. And yet of all the countries in the world, the economic
outcome, the human outcome puts Australia at the forefront.

And in terms of vaccines, there are those who wanted us to bypass the safety protocols. I respect
their views. All our medical advice respectfully disagrees. And so, we have put safety first. And
imagine if we had not done those safety protocols, put them at the forefront, and if we had bypassed
safety.

Now, other countries who were facing mass death, we understand. They had to take emergency
listings and to make those decisions. But Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand, all of whom
followed the full safety and assessment protocols, and if we'd not done that, that, in my view, would
have been dangerously negligent.

And more importantly, the medical advice from the TGA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration,
which is our medical safety regulator in Australia, was we must do a full and thorough safety
assessment.

The medical advice from the Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly was do a full and thorough safety
assessment. And the medical advice from the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group led by
Professor Brendan Murphy was do a full and thorough assessment.

JOURNALIST:
Just going back to something you said earlier about the 10 million Pfizer doses. We could have got
more Pfizer and we chose not to order more early?
GREG HUNT:
Are you perhaps suggesting that the Government should override the medical advice?

JOURNALIST:
I'm asking why we didn't have more Pfizer earlier. It would have been incredibly useful now.

GREG HUNT:
The error in what you're suggesting is that we could have had more supply earlier. There's a
difference here between the capacity to order and the capacity to deliver.

And so what we have done is always look at what was safe, what was effective, and what was
available. And the capacity to deliver in Australia has been at the maximum level under the Pfizer
contract. Our capacity was if it was deemed safe and valuable, that we could expand that.

But as you see, those volumes are coming in the latter half of the year, and that was always the case.
So the counterfactual is actually a false narrative that some have put about.

What we do know is that we followed the medical advice. And where they've recommended
additional vaccines, where they've recommended adding to the vaccines of those that we already
have, we've taken that up.

JOURNALIST:
So if we’d ordered 25 million or 50 million Pfizer, the pace of the arrival wouldn't have changed?

GREG HUNT:
Correct. And I think that is a very important point. This is the fundamental flaw in the argument of
the Opposition, that if you order more, you would get more, earlier. And that was not the case.

And that has been a fundamental part here. Onshore manufacturing has delivered more vaccines to
Australians earlier.

JOURNALIST:
Pfizer contacted Australia in June. A deal wasn't inked until November. Why did that take so long?

GREG HUNT:
Well, there are multiple elements. We were waiting for clinical trial results. That was the medical
advice.

Remember this, given that the world had never had an mRNA vaccine, that it was fundamental to
ensure safety, that there were no unintended complications, that there were no side effects that were
deemed to be unacceptable, and that there was the capacity to produce.

And so the advice we had was once we'd been able to reach agreement, proceed at that point. In
fact, your presumption there is incorrect about Pfizer contacting Australia.

JOURNALIST:
Pfizer say they contacted Australia.

GREG HUNT:
No. The difference here is that we had been in informal discussions. Pfizer was not allowed to
commence negotiations. Only once they were allowed to commence negotiations did they notify us
that they were free to turn our informal conversations into informal ones.

So right through the early part of the year, we'd been in contact with them. They had a prohibition
on commencing formal discussions.
And so we were asking them, please let us know as soon as you’re able to commence formal
discussions. So once Pfizer International gave that right, we began that process and worked with
them.

None of that changed the time of delivery. And the only thing that matters here is delivery.

JOURNALIST:
What was your reaction to the University of Queensland vaccine falling over?

GREG HUNT:
I remember when that happened, and we had the advice that there was the potential for false
positive HIV’s and that was a moment of just profound disappointment that a vaccine that could
have been Australian made was, by all early trial results, highly safe and highly effective, wouldn't
be available.

But we met with the National Security Committee on the week in the first 24 hours after that
advice. We had to collate our initial advice, and we made the decision to review.

And then as soon as we had had a second National Security Committee meeting that week with the
updated material and confirmation of this, and then we made three decisions, to terminate the
contract, and then to use the clauses in both the CSL, AstraZeneca, and Novavax contract to add to
the vaccines that we purchased.

So we were able to take our AstraZeneca purchasing up to 53.8 million units, and we were able to
take our Novavax purchasing up to 51 million units.

JOURNALIST:
The HIV clamp problem started emerging in October. CEPI pulled the pin, withdrew their funding,
further funding a few weeks after that in mid-November.

GREG HUNT:
I think you might want to check those dates.

JOURNALIST:
Well, I understand they’re correct, that CEPI ceased its funding in mid-November, and we didn't
make our announcement until 11 December, I believe. And I'm just wondering why there was that
delay.

GREG HUNT:
We were notified the week of 11 December. I think you'll find that CEPI made a decision in that
approximate time. I believe that you’re incorrect and that you are referring to CEPI’s last payment,
not its decision not to make any further payments.

JOURNALIST:
CEPI decided that the UQ was no go from the middle of November.

GREG HUNT:
Well, we were notified, one of the things here is we were notified at the start of that week. We
called the National Security Committee meeting within those first 24 hours.

And we have acted quickly right through this pandemic. 21 January, the calling of a disease of
human pandemic potential, way in front of the World Health Organization. 1 February, the closing
of the borders with China, roundly criticised from within China and the World Health Organization.
The actions in terms of closing the international borders, the actions from the first vaccine
announcement of 18 February following the first vaccine meeting of the week prior to that in 2020.
And then equally, we took immediate action once we received advice with regards to the false
positive HIV.

JOURNALIST:
Right. The people we’ve spoken to, the, excuse me, I’ll start again. The people we’ve spoken to, the
vaccinologists, the epidemiologists, the Senate COVID committee, say we've been overly secretive
all the way through from which vaccine manufacturers.

GREG HUNT;
Who?

JOURNALIST:
I'm sorry?

GREG HUNT:
Who?

JOURNALIST:
Which experts? Terry Nolan, Michael Toole, Rex Patrick, people like that.

GREG HUNT:
An expert.

JOURNALIST:
Well, he’s on the Senate COVID committee. He’s one of the people whose job it is to oversee what
the Government's doing. He says we haven't been talking to, we haven't been public about which
vaccine manufacturers we're talking to. We were very late to reveal who we were speaking to. We
wouldn't say who wouldn't sell to us and why we wouldn't talk about the amount of vaccinations on
offer.

Why has the Government been so reluctant to reveal critical details?

GREG HUNT:
Well, I respectfully disagree with that. Right throughout, we've set out what we're doing.

The first of the vaccine announcements was 18 February, 2 million being made available for an
opening round; 25 February, that round commences; 11 March, an announcement in relation to
vaccines; 25 March, further action; then in April, May, and June, always setting out what we're
doing and where we're going.

JOURNALIST:
But not who you’re speaking to.

GREG HUNT:
Well, if there are commercial discussions, that's generally not the process that one sets that out.

JOURNALIST:
But commercial in-confidence arrangements wouldn’t prevent you from saying who you’re talking
to.

GREG HUNT:
I think it's very important that throughout, as we've achieved something, we've announced it. And
that's being done to make sure that we have the best vaccine outcomes for Australia.
In particular, those outcomes have produced 194 million vaccines that are available to Australians
and also available to the region. And that vaccine program has actually been set out consistently.

But as an agreement is concluded that we've said it out, the amount of money for the program is
$7.2 billion, as set out in the Budget. And we've also along the way – and I think this is an
important point – in the most competitive global environment in peacetime, been able to secure the
vaccines and the supplies, the pathway which some may have advocated, would almost certainly
have impaired our ability to purchase on behalf of Australia in a competitive environment.

I know with regards to masks, gloves, gowns, all of these elements, procuring test kits, all of these
elements have been highly competitive. And yet Australia's been able to provide that bridge. But we
do it quietly. And then as it's achieved, it's announced.

JOURNALIST:
So this perception that we've been extremely slow, that we're not rolling out as quickly as we
possibly could, you say we’re wrong?

GREG HUNT:
Well, I respectfully take a different view. As we speak, as I say, 3.1 million doses. And as you say,
by the time this program comes to air, hundreds of thousands more, depending on when you, when
you air.

But put it this way, what's the fundamental thesis here? The thesis is that somehow Australia’s not
safe. Australia is arguably the safest country in the world as we sit here.

JOURNALIST:
Well, we’re safe if COVID isn’t here. If it comes, we're not safe, because we’re not vaccinated.

GREG HUNT:
Well, with respect, what we see is that at this moment, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand,
all of whom have been incredibly successful, they are facing outbreaks. We're seeing countries that
have, such as the UK and the US, only just now beginning to reduce their restrictions.

Where else has that degree of success? New Zealand does. Taiwan has done very, very well, but
they are facing lockdown.

So what Australia has is the almost unique capacity to have followed the medical advice. And many
people who say we must follow the medical advice on the other hand say: we'd like you to choose a
different vaccine than the medical experts recommended.

My approach has been, since 21 January 2020, in the discussions with the Prime Minister and the
National Security Committee, our guiding light, our lodestar, is the medical advice, and it’s that
medical advice which has informed the purchase of vaccines.

It’s that same medical advice which has kept Australia safe as arguably one of the safest countries
in the world.

JOURNALIST:
Well, we've spoken to lots of doctors who say COVID is coming. It's inevitable. It will be, on your
argument, isn't it the case that if COVID does come, then we're in deep trouble?

GREG HUNT:
Well, no. Australia knows how to manage this perhaps arguably better than anybody else in the
world.
We have four rings of containment. We have, firstly, the border protection, which is maintaining
itself and is, of all the countries in the world, as effective as any.

Secondly, we have the testing, where, in this highly competitive global environment to which you
referred, many countries suffered enormous testing shortages, but because we were able to work
quietly behind the scenes with a total focus, we're able to secure that.

Then the tracing, which has been an Australian standout. New South Wales has been at the
forefront. All states are now in a strong position. Then finally, the distancing.

To that, we add a vaccine rollout. And I would say to the counter thesis that there are those who
would say we should skip, should have skipped the full and thorough safety testing. That wasn't the
medical advice, but nor would it be responsible.

Countries in extremis, countries that were facing death on a mass scale had to make emergency
listings. But if anybody says that we should have skipped the testing, that's their right and their
view, but it's not the responsible thing to have done, particularly when we see the course of
vaccinations around the world.

JOURNALIST:
How would you characterise the first few weeks of our rollout?

GREG HUNT:
I think it was the start of a process, and it was always going to ramp up. And we started with initial
supplies, firstly of the Pfizer and then of the AstraZeneca International.

And a very significant thing happened. Europe stopped exporting, and so we had to adapt. One of
the things is the world has not dealt with a pandemic like this for 100 years.

If you could be anywhere else in the world, where would you rather be, or would you rather be in
Australia? And the reason why is because we’ve followed the advice and we've done things rapidly,
but we've done them carefully.

JOURNALIST:
Well, the start of the rollout didn't look careful, it looked chaotic. We had GPs not getting supplies,
people inundating GP clinics. We had vaccinations not arriving at hubs, tiny amounts of vaccines
turning up to people who could outlay many more vaccines than they were actually doing.

What was going on? What was going wrong?

GREG HUNT:
Well, again, with great respect, I understand the presentation that you're taking, which was always
going to be how you would do it. But we provided the supply that was available.

And from the outset, whenever the vaccination program began, it was always going to be a large
demand, which we warned about and which we said that would be the case.

As we speak, over 3700 visits have been made to aged care facilities: 84 per cent as we speak, but
probably well over 90 per cent of aged care residents by the time this program comes to air will
have been vaccinated.

The most vulnerable group has been the highest priority right from the outset. And what that has
seen is, for example, where there was an outbreak in Queensland, and it happened that one of the
ground staff had been infected, turned out that that facility had already been vaccinated. So that's
the priority. And right from the outset, we did that.
And in terms of supply, as more supplies become available because of domestic production here in
Australia, remembering there is intense global competition, and some may wish away that global
competition.

The truth of it is that it has been the most brutal, competitive international environment we have
seen in peacetime with relation to access to medical resources, and yet we've been able to provide
our own domestic supply and bring in the international supply as part of that.

But was there more international supply available? No. Did we obtain the maximum possible at the
earliest possible time? Yes.

If somebody believes that more international supply was available early, I'd be very happy for them
to indicate in what volume, at what time, from what supplier. And I’d invite you to do that.

JOURNALIST:
The states say that they wanted a bigger.

GREG HUNT:
I’d invite you to outline what volume, from what supplier, at what time was available.

JOURNALIST:
Well, I don't have time to do that now.

GREG HUNT:
But do you have any information to that effect?

JOURNALIST:
No.

GREG HUNT:
Well, sorry, that's a very important thing. Just for the record, Adam has said he has no information
about any earlier volumes at any earlier times from any other suppliers.

JOURNALIST:
Well, it's, we know that other countries were receiving more volumes at earlier times. So we know
that.

GREG HUNT:
For Australia, were there any others available?

JOURNALIST:
Well, that info, the vaccine companies are keeping it under wraps. The Australian Government
certainly isn’t willing to.

GREG HUNT:
Well, I can tell you, no other supplies for any of those other vaccines that were deemed to be safe
and effective had been available of those that have been recommended at an earlier time.

JOURNALIST:
We don't know what was happening with Moderna, when that was available to Australia.

GREG HUNT:
Well, we have the earliest supply available to Australia at this point in time.

JOURNALIST:
Well, yeah.
GREG HUNT:
Just, this is the fundamental thesis to the program, that more could have been gotten earlier. The
answer is no.

JOURNALIST:
Can I go to states wanting a bigger role in the rollout of the vaccine, saying that they have a.

GREG HUNT:
We’re actually seeing states reduce relative to general practice. Some states have reduced the
number of doses that they're taking, and they’ve emphasised the general practice rollout.

JOURNALIST:
The states say that they wanted a bigger role earlier in the rollout to be able to get more people
vaccinated more quickly, to be in charge of the distribution going to those hubs. That was one of the
reasons why the early stages of the rollout were so inefficient, that it was being done by the Federal
Government, which has no experience in this area.

GREG HUNT:
Well, I don't accept your presumption, with great respect. The vaccination program in Australia is
carried out every year by GPs. This was also carried out by GPs.

In addition to that, the Pfizer vaccine was provided to the states. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been
available to the states, and some have taken it up, some haven't. Where they have taken it up, we've
been grateful to supply, and there's no state which has been seeking more than their maximum
available supply at this point in time.

JOURNALIST:
Going on to blood clots, the first blood clots were reported in, on, the international blood clots in
Europe were reported on 7 March. It took a month for Australia to change our advice.

Why did it take so long? And did we play down the risk because we didn't have anything else?

GREG HUNT:
No, that's false. And the reason that's false is that the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the
Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, immediately, we were engaged with their
European counterparts.

And with great respect, what you're confusing is thrombocytopenia. So thrombosis with
thrombocytopenia or TTS, on which there was a final decision which came through from Europe on
the same day as we made the decision in Australia.

That came through from the European Medicines Agency, and that came through from the UK
Medical Regulator. That came through overnight. An emergency meeting was called with ATAGI,
the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. That advice was provided to the Prime
Minister and myself shortly before 7 PM, and we stood up at 7.15 PM that evening. So that
presumption is incorrect.

What had been considered in Europe was other, unrelated and ultimately, now not considered to be
part of this clots, at an early stage. And so, that evidence was considered, reviewed. It ultimately
was not found to be a cause in Europe and not found to be a cause or linked here in Australia. So
your question is, respectfully, false, misleading and untrue.

JOURNALIST:
Vaccine hesitancy in Australia is growing. We know that.
GREG HUNT:
Well, it will if you make false statements such as that reference to the March European one, yes.

JOURNALIST:
Well, we, just going back to the March European statement, we know that European nations were
suspending their rollout, changing their age limits a long time before Australia was. Australia put in
that age restriction weeks after some European nations.

GREG HUNT:
Well, what we followed exactly was the statement of the European Medicines Agency and the UK
Medical Regulator within a 24-hour period, and they had major vaccine programs and indeed, the
World Health Organization, and all of them, by the way, the European Medicines Agency and the
UK and the World Health Organization, continue to emphasise AstraZeneca as an important part of
it.

We put in a more conservative, a more conservative age limit than some countries which had none,
than South Korea and the UK, for example. And we followed within 24 hours of those countries
which had major programs, being the UK and the European Medical Agency or European
Medicines Agency, the EMA, providing that advice.

And then others, of course, the month before, which was primarily non-TTS related clots, which
have not been linked at this stage.

JOURNALIST:
You don't need to go very far to find people who are terrified of the vaccine.

GREG HUNT:
And you're worried about creating hesitancy?

JOURNALIST:
I think hesitancy is out there. I think it's obvious that hesitancy is growing.

GREG HUNT:
What do you think is the ABC’s role in this? Do you think you have important role to build
confidence? Or do you.

JOURNALIST:
Well, I think our role is, in part, to interrogate the decision makers. And we’ll try and work out if
you made the right decisions, why you made the right decisions. There's a legitimate role there, is
there not?

GREG HUNT:
Is it important to back the medical advice?

JOURNALIST:
We are speaking to many medical experts, including Professor Allen Cheng, one of the people who
is key to the medical advice. So he'll have a big role in this program as well.

But we're not promoting hesitancy.

GREG HUNT:
Are you sure?

JOURNALIST:
Well, one of the things that does affect hesitancy is certainty, confidence. We've had an uncertain
rollout.
GREG HUNT:
The world has had an uncertain 15 months, we've had perhaps more certainty in Australia than
almost any other country.

We live in a country where people can travel. We live in a country where our internal situation is
the envy of the world. And we've done that because we have acted decisively and early.

Whether it was the University of Queensland, whether it was the ATAGI advice, whether it was the
vaccine purchasing advice, the border closure advice, the decision in relation to the declaration of a
disease of human pandemic potential, the declaration of the pandemic advice in late February. All
of these elements – we’ve taken that action immediately.

We've engaged the nation in a journey. It is an uncertain environment. Our job has been to save
lives and to protect lives and to make difficult decisions and to make them immediately.

And in this situation, what we have done is save lives and protect lives on a scale and an outcome
which is the envy of the world.

Were we at the levels of other countries, it would be 30,000, 45,000 dead in Australia, depending on
which country you choose. Unimaginable suffering.

And that's been avoided in Australia. And we'll continue to avoid it. But we need to work together.

JOURNALIST:
So why is there so much hesitancy? Why hasn't the message got through that the risk of being
unvaccinated is enormous compared to the risk of.

GREG HUNT:
Well we've just, as today, I've announced that we've had record vaccinations in Australia.

JOURNALIST:
From a very slow start.

GREG HUNT:
Well, with great respect. We were working within our available supply. So what we're seeing is, as
the supply becomes available, it's distributed to the country. And what we're seeing is the number of
people vaccinated grows significantly.

The last two weeks, we've seen record vaccinations. And this is an important thing. And we’d
encourage as many people as possible to be vaccinated because I'm sure you’re pro-vaccination.

JOURNALIST:
Of course. We do have plenty of vaccine in the country. The problem is, it's the vaccine that people
don't want.

GREG HUNT:
Well, I think providing that confidence that we have under-50 for Pfizer, over-50 for AstraZeneca,
and that's the medical advice. And I hope that you will reaffirm the medical advice of the Australian
medical authorities, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, the Scientific and
Technical Advisory Group, the Chief Medical Officer of Australia, there are, the Chief Health
Officers of Australia through the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, or the AHHPC.

I mean, those are the groups which are emphasising and supporting the medical advice. And then I
think that that should be a great cause for confidence and I would encourage as many people as
possible to be vaccinated as early as possible.
JOURNALIST:
Yes, the nation needs to get vaccinated very quickly. As people keep telling us, the experts keep
telling us winter is coming. This is the worst time for a potential spread. And we're in a poor
position, a weak position because not enough of us vaccinated.

GREG HUNT:
Do you think it's poor and weak, do you? Is that a scientific assessment?

JOURNALIST:
No, I’m saying what the many experts we've spoken to say have said. Even people on the technical
committees have said we could have gone faster. We've had lots of problems.

GREG HUNT:
Well, I think we've had two challenges. One is Europe vaccine nationalism. And secondly, the age
range, for all the right scientific reasons, was changed. And we supported that.

And we gave them the space to know that we would immediately follow the medical advice of the
Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. And so, every day there are challenges. Australia's
challenges are different. In the rest of the world, people are dying. In Australia, they're not.

JOURNALIST:
Do you believe the messy rollout has had any impact on the hesitancy at all?

GREG HUNT:
Well, I think the issue, of course, has been in relation to the change of advice on AstraZeneca, I
think that's been the most important thing. And so we work to provide confidence. And I hope that
you will see this program as a chance to explore, but also to reaffirm confidence and not to take the
steps which would undermine confidence.

But it's a free country. And one of the beauties of it is that we have an open public debate, but
there's a responsibility for me, there's also a responsibility for you, to ensure that we have
confidence. And this is your moment, your time, your opportunity. I hope you take it.

JOURNALIST:
Are our goals, we've had a couple of goals that have come and gone, 4 million by March, the nation
vaccinated by October. When do you think, when do you want us to be vaccinated by? What is,
what is the solid goal?

GREG HUNT:
As soon as possible, as many people as possible.

JOURNALIST:
But if we don't have a target, how do we know if we’re on track to reach it?

GREG HUNT:
Well, we would want to see that all Australians have the opportunity to be vaccinated during the
course of this year. And we're working very hard.

But the important thing is, as I say, of all the countries in the world, we are as safe as any, if not the
safest, seeing what's happening in other comparable nations.

JOURNALIST:
But don’t statements like that mean that, or help to entrench a sense of complacency. We're safe.
There's nothing to worry about. Therefore, and we would, most people on the street do say things
like, ‘I don't need to get vaccinated. I can wait. I can afford to wait.’
GREG HUNT:
I think there are two tasks of the government. To keep people safe, and to give them the confidence
that they're safe, but also to encourage them to be vaccinated. And it's not a bad thing that
Australians are safe. It’s not a bad thing that Australians feel safe.

What is important is that they also understand, and that we convey the message and that you convey
the message that being vaccinated is something that can protect each Australian, but every
Australian.

So it's a way that each of us can help protect each other. And I had that put to me by an older
gentleman. He said, this is one of the few times I can do something where I could help virtually
every other Australian by bringing myself forward to be vaccinated.

And that's the case. And so what we have here is a program which is aimed at giving every
Australian the opportunity to be vaccinated, to be vaccinated safely, to be vaccinated knowing that
the full and thorough safety assessments have occurred. And to make sure that ultimately, in doing
that, we remain safe and we build that safety for the future. For now, and for the future.

And that's why we have a short, medium and long term strategy with our vaccinations including
now, a variant strategy, because we don't know whether the world will provide new vaccines for
variants, but we’re prepared and we've secured.

JOURNALIST:
So does that strategy talk about the number of people you want vaccinated? Anthony Fauci says that
herd immunity is achieved at 80 to 85 per cent. Are we're going for that?

GREG HUNT:
But we want as many people as possible in Australia. And that's our goal, as many as possible. We
want to encourage everybody, because we wouldn't want to set a figure and have complacency,
exactly as you’ve set out.

JOURNALIST:
Well, the other problem with setting figures is that you don’t achieve it. But if we don’t set a figure,
we don't know if we're getting close to it.

GREG HUNT:
So which are you arguing for?

JOURNALIST:
Solid goals. Points that we know whether we’re getting towards them or not.

GREG HUNT:
Our goal is to make sure that every Australian has the opportunity to be vaccinated during the
course of 2021.

JOURNALIST:
But that doesn't really mean much, because AstraZeneca is one of those drugs that, well, one of the
vaccines that are available, and people don't want to take it at the moment.

GREG HUNT:
I hope you're not inadvertently undercutting confidence in it.

JOURNALIST:
No we’re just.
GREG HUNT:
Are you sure?

JOURNALIST:
All you have to do is go out to the street and talk to people, and then you, I’m sure people are telling
that they don’t want to take AstraZeneca because they perceive it to be a risk. Whether they’re right
or wrong, the risk is tiny.

GREG HUNT:
Well, the medical advice is clear. And my job is to emphasise the medical advice. And I would
hope that as a national broadcaster, there is some degree of duty to emphasise that national medical
advice of the Technical Advisory Group, the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, the Chief
Medical Officer and the Australian Health Protection Principle Committee. But these are matters for
you.

For us, what we're saying to Australians is that we have safe and effective vaccines. We have the
capacity for every Australian to be vaccinated. And this is your chance to protect yourself and to
protect your families.

JOURNALIST:
What fears do you have going into this winter?

GREG HUNT:
Well, always we’re focussed on protecting Australians. And our first line of defence is the borders
and what we've done there.

And that’s how we kept Australia, arguably, as safe as any country in the world. And when you put
together our health outcomes and our economic outcomes. There’s virtually no country that's in
Australia’s position.

JOURNALIST:
Minister Hunt, thank you.

GREG HUNT:
Thanks very much.

-ENDS-