Prime Minister Scott Morrison grilled over coronavirus vaccine program on Triple J’s Hack

Scott Morrison agreed to an interview on Triple J’s Hack and was immediately locked in a tense exchange.

The Prime Minister has admitted he’s “not happy” with the state of the coronavirus vaccination program during a tough grilling on the radio program Triple J Hack.

The admission came during a tense exchange with host Ange McCormack in which she frequently interrupted him and repeated questions she wanted answers to.

Ms McCormack asked Scott Morrison when young people would be able to get the Pfizer vaccine against coronavirus.

The Prime Minister began replying: “I will say a couple things about that, the first is we’re now getting a million doses administered …”

But Ms McCormack immediately interrupted him: “It’s a simple question though, when will young people be able to get vaccinated?”

Mr Morrison said: “Well, right now they can get vaccinated right now with AstraZeneca …”

The Prime Minister has admitted he’s “not happy” with the state of the coronavirus vaccination program during a tough grilling on the radio program Triple J Hack. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

But Ms McCormack interrupted again, saying that the AstraZeneca vaccine was not the one that medical authorities recommend for young people.

“I’m just about to finish answering the question,” Mr Morrison replied.

“In September, that’s when it’s designed for people under the age of 40 to get access to Pfizer.

“But what I’m telling you is that right now, the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved by the TGA to be available for people ages 18 and above.”

Later on in the interview, Mr Morrison said he was “not happy with where we’re at right now”.

“That’s why we’ve been turning it around over these last few months,” he said.

A lotta people suggesting to me how I should handle this interview. Or how it’ll be a failure if I don’t ask Qs a certain way. All I’m gonna do is my best, and my priority is to advocate for triple j’s audience - young Australians aged 18-24

— Ange McCormack (@_angemccormack) July 22, 2021

He said the vaccination effort was about two months behind where he would like to see it.

But Mr Morrison said the vaccination program was going “as fast as (it) possibly can”, and that by the end of the year, everyone who wants to get vaccinated against Covid-19 will get the opportunity to do so.

When Ms McCormack said that what slowed down the vaccination program was a failure to order enough Pfizer dozes last year, Mr Morrison replied that it was easy to be “wise in hindsight”.

“But remember, the Pfizer vaccine also had to go through approvals, and we didn’t shortcut those approvals,” he said.

“Many other countries, they rushed those approvals through.”

Originally published as Prime Minister Scott Morrison grilled over coronavirus vaccine program on Triple J’s Hack