Prime Minister Scott Morrison's push to make the coronavirus vaccine mandatory for aged care staff has been met with mixed support in Wagga.
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Mr Morrison said after Friday's National Cabinet meeting that he and the leaders of state and territory governments were "leaning heavily" into a compulsory vaccination program for aged and disability care workers.
The PM said he had sought advice on the matter from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, the peak decision-making body for public health emergencies.
Wagga aged care support worker Deagan Newell is on the fence about enforcing the jab, in part because of the very rare risks associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"I'd support it if it was the Pfizer vaccine but with the other one which seems to be a little less certain, I wouldn't feel very comfortable if people were forced to get that one," he said.
Mr Newell, 21, has had both of the required two shots of the Pfizer vaccine.
"I guess ultimately you should have your own choices, but you can't really do the job if you're going to be a health risk to residents," he said. "I always felt fairly safe in Wagga but it's done now. I'm just glad it's out of the way, it's one less thing to worry about."
More than 5 million Australians overall have now been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Commonwealth government's publicly available data.
Aged care workers do not need to disclose if they've received a COVID-19 vaccination despite a new requirement for mandatory reporting of jab numbers by providers, which comes into effect on June 15.
I would be supportive as long as the logistics of it are very carefully planned.
- Evan Robertson
Evan Robertson, the chief executive officer of the Forrest Centre aged care home in Wagga, said he supported the vaccine being made mandatory as long as the logistics of it were "very carefully planned" and the jabs made readily available.
"It'll take a lot of the uncertainty out of it. I think the main issue is they've got to then make access for all aged care workers to get it quickly," he said.
"We're certainly encouraging our staff to get the jab. As they're not mandatory at the moment there's no requirement for them to tell us [if they have had it] but certainly a number of our staff are doing that."
Health Services Union aged care manager Lauren Hutchins said she was really supportive of vaccination but thought it was "the wrong move" to make it compulsory.
"We think our members would love to get vaccinated ... but we're worried that if it is mandated people will leave the sector, which is already struggling [with staff shortages] and push it to crisis point," Ms Hutchins said.