The Morrison government botched the early planning of Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout, failing to provide priority for at-risk groups including aged and disability care, and First Nations people, according to a new report.
The Australian National Audit Office report, released on Thursday, criticised the previous administration for not beginning to plan the rollout with states and territories until November 2020. It recommended a more comprehensive review and will likely fuel calls for a Covid-19 royal commission.
The health minister, Mark Butler, seized on the findings, which he said confirmed “for much of 2021, Australia had one of the slowest vaccine rollouts in the developed world”.
The ANAO found that the health department’s planning and implementation were “partly effective” – with 90% of the eligible Australian population vaccinated by the end of 2021 – but the “rollout to priority groups was not as effective”.
“Initial planning was not timely, with detailed planning with states and territories not completed before the rollout commenced, and Health underestimated the complexity of administering in-reach services to the aged care and disability sectors.”
“Further, it did not incorporate the government’s targets for the rollout into its planning until a later stage.”
The ANAO found governance of the rollout was “largely effective”, especially when “senior level oversight of the program substantially increased” in June 2021 when Lt Gen John Frewen gained oversight.
But 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 systems”, it said.
The ANAO said “health’s administration of vaccines to priority populations and the general population has not met targets”.
“The vaccine rollout to residential aged care and residential disability were both slower than planned, and the vaccination rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has remained lower than for the Australian population.”
It further found that planning for the rollout “was not timely and early planning did not include target dates for the rollout”.
Detailed engagement with states and territories began in November 2020, with plans not agreed until 2021, “by which time the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines had already commenced”, it said.
In January 2021, the Morrison government brought forward the start of the rollout to mid-to-late February and announced a target of four million people to receive the jab by the end of March, an ambitious interim goal ahead of the population being “fully vaccinated” by October.
In April 2021, the vaccine program was thrown into disarray by health authorities placing an advisory on the AstraZeneca vaccine, warning people under 50 it may cause extremely rare but potentially deadly blood clots. This “resulted in limited supply of vaccines preferred for people under 60 until September 2021” and “reduced confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine and a surge in demand for the Pfizer vaccine”.
In April 2021, the Senate Covid committee heard fewer than 7% of disability care residents had received a dose of Covid vaccine, due to a decision to prioritise aged care, despite both groups being classified as top priority. The report found it wasn’t until August 2021 that the department “developed a series of sub-plans which contained lower-level target dates for vaccinating specific priority groups and sectors”.
In the aged care and disability sectors, health “did not engage sufficient in-reach providers early in the rollout”, it said.
Despite aiming to complete both groups by April 2021, it wasn’t until June 2021 that second-dose vaccine clinics for aged care residents were completed and residential disability residents did not reach 80% double vaccination until November 2021.
Communications strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culturally and linguistically diverse communities “were not as effective at reaching these groups as communication to the general population”, the ANAO said.
The health department welcomed the findings and noted that a review of the rollout “would logically form part of an expected broader review into the Covid-19 pandemic with the timing still to be agreed by government”.
On Tuesday, Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra he had “consistently” said a broader inquiry would occur “once we [are] through the pandemic”.
Butler has also asked the former health secretary Jane Halton to review vaccine and treatment purchases.
