Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wants ‘strong’ Covid vaccination education campaign

As international borders look set to remain closed until mid-2022, Annastacia Palaszczuk says one thing has been missing in the “narrative” of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

Annastacia Palaszczuk wants Australia to have a “really strong” educational campaign in place when mass supplies of the Covid-19 vaccine arrive, as international borders look set to remain closed until mid-2022.

And Prime Minister Scott Morrison has not ruled out Queensland’s Toowoomba quarantine centre proposal with the relevant government departments still in discussions.

In what’s among her strongest words yet, the Premier yesterday said the “narrative” had been missing a strong nationwide vaccination campaign when pressed on the reluctance of some people to get the jab.

“I hope that there is a really strong educational campaign for all Australia when that mass supply comes in because that’s what’s been missing from the narrative,” she said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says Australia needs a strong vaccination education campaign. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The Premier, who received her first dose of Pfizer last week, said there was a lot of people wanting to get the jab but were waiting on supply.

Meanwhile, Ms Palaszczuk said while it was the Commonwealth’s decision around when to reopen international borders, she believed it would be “very brave” to do so before a large proportion of Australia’s population was fully vaccinated.

Gold Coast father Anthony Nowak said a vaccine campaign to see international borders reopen was a “great idea” as like many Australians, his wife has family overseas she has not seen in more than a year.

“I think it’s really important, the sooner we can get back to normality the better, we only have one way and that’s the vaccination,’ he said.

“I would travel overseas again, my wife Petra is from Czech Republic so she would love to go home, see her family and to take the kids as well, she misses them dearly.”

Anthony and Petra Nowak with their children Peter and Mira on the Gold Coast. Picture: Luke Marsden

The Premier said discussions were still ongoing between the relevant departments regarding the state government’s Toowoomba Wellcamp proposal.

She said she has not received a letter from Mr Morrison ruling it out.

It comes after Queensland provided a more detailed submission to the Commonwealth earlier this month, which revealed the centre would also house a small number of international university students and Pacific Island labourers.

But the Commonwealth released new guidelines on the same day, including that the location must be close to a tertiary hospital – which Toowoomba is not.

Treasurer Cameron Dick said there was no specific money for increased quarantine facilities in yesterday’s budget but said the government was “ready to go” should it be needed.

“If we need to make provision, if we need to find the funds I can assure you we will find the funds straight away,” he said.

Meanwhile Mr Dick said the budget contained no assumptions around when all Queenslanders would be vaccinated.

“The assumptions that’s made is that there won’t be another virus outbreak, so we’re working on the basis that the virus will be controlled generally in the community and so that’s … the assumption we’ve used for the purposes of the budget,” he said.

Asked what would happen if there was another outbreak, the Treasurer said, “Well Heaven forbid that there is.”