Barnaby Joyce has apologised for claiming “people aren’t dying” of Covid in Australia, while also blaming consumers and businesses for hoarding rapid antigen tests.
The deputy prime minister made the comments on Monday, the first day that priority groups were due to gain free access to RATs, although supply shortages will likely result in a delay of a few weeks before they are widely available.
Joyce told Radio National the “best test of a competent government is that people don’t die” and that Australia has one of the lowest death rates from Covid-19 in the world.
Asked about the European Council applying a warning on travel to and from Australia due to the Omicron outbreak, Joyce replied: “Well, people are not dying.”
There were 1,653 deaths across Australia from the beginning of the pandemic to 27 November 2021, when the first Omicron case was confirmed in the country.
Since then, with a mix of the Delta and Omicron variants circulating, there have been more than 1,100 deaths, with the deadliest day of the pandemic recorded last week.
When Radio National host Patricia Karvelas noted that “people are dying every day”, Joyce corrected himself. “Sorry, sorry. Correction, you were correct,” he said.
“I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have said that. But the numbers in which – the fatality rate is very low.
“Obviously, it’s a tragic thing for anybody who loses a family member for any reason – for catching the flu. But the fatality rate of Omicron is remarkably low and Australia has done a remarkable job.”
Earlier, Joyce said the commonwealth has 70m rapid tests on order, including 16m arriving next week, and the states have ordered another 130m.
Joyce claimed tests that have arrived already are “being hoarded” with some people and businesses buying more than they need.
“It is not as if the tests aren’t there. The problems that Australia is experiencing is being experienced around the world.
“We don’t manufacture RATs like other countries do, such as China … You can’t, years ago, predict RATs are going to be the things that you need. But what we are doing is making sure we deal with issues as they come along. That is what a competent government does.”
The health minister, Greg Hunt, backed Joyce’s hoarding claim and said the commonwealth had stepped in to impose purchase limits in grocery stores and supermarkets.
Supplies would be adequate for the partial free-access scheme “going forward”, he claimed on Monday, without nominating a date they would be widely available.
Hunt also announced the Novavax vaccine had been recommended for use by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and will be made available from 21 February.
Hunt told reporters there were “real signs of hope” with a new vaccine, “clear signs of the virus having reached peak in at least four jurisdictions” and the beginning of the partial free access scheme.
Labor has stepped up its attacks on the government over the widespread shortages of RATs after the Coalition agreed to give free access to more than 6m concession card holders. Labor is calling for universal free access.
Trent Twomey, the national president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, told Sky News on Monday that “clearly the majority of community pharmacies do not have tests to go live today” with the free-access scheme.
Twomey said that supply is “patchy” at present. He noted that 16m tests are due to be supplied to community pharmacies in the next week, with a further 22m to arrive in the first fortnight of February – suggesting that like the vaccination rollout free RATs would be phased in as supply increases.
Twomey said that pharmacies will use “real-time monitoring” to ensure that customers can only receive one free pack of five tests a month, but there was “nothing we can do” to stop people stocking up at other suppliers such as service stations.
He blamed states and territories for giving just “hours’ notice on New Year’s Eve” that health orders would switch from requiring PCR tests to allowing rapid tests, as well as the Therapeutic Goods Administration for allowing general retailers –including tobacconists and service stations – to sell tests.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, said that many pensioners will “rock up to their local chemist and there won’t be a rapid antigen test available”.
“It’s quite extraordinary that on the day on which pensioners are eligible to receive a RAT … what we heard from Barnaby Joyce then was blaming the Australian people for the unavailability of rapid antigen tests here in Australia,” Albanese told Radio National.
“We all knew that once we opened up … elimination tests would be an important part of the response to keep people safe, and the government simply didn’t do anything about it.”
The federal health department has bought $62m worth of rapid antigen tests using the “extreme urgency or events unforeseen” provisions of its procurement rules as it seeks to secure stock.
Despite Joyce’s claim that none are made here, at least one company – Innovation Scientific Pty Ltd (Australia) – has been approved to make rapid antigen tests in Australia.
