Today host Karl Stefanovic grills Peter Dutton over Australia’s vaccine rollout

Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout has been slammed as too slow, prompting Today host Karl Stefanovic to ask Peter Dutton a pointed question.

The pace of Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout has again come under scrutiny ahead of the first Pfizer jabs being given to priority groups later this month.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will on Friday visit Melbourne’s CSL factory where manufacturing of the soon-to-be approved AstraZeneca vaccine will take place.

Labor has repeatedly called for coronavirus vaccines to be rolled out as soon as possible as Australia becomes the last continent to begin a rollout.

Speaking on Today, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton defended Australia’s vaccine timeline, saying the country does not have the deaths toll of Europe or the US.

But host Karl Stefanovic had a pressing question for Mr Dutton.

“Peter, are you embarrassed at all about how long this has taken?” Stefanovic probed.

“I’m not,” Mr Dutton said.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the government was not going to roll out a vaccine that was not safe to 25 million people. Picture: Image/Josh Woning

“We aren’t going to make political decisions to override the decisions of the scientists.

“We will get it rolled out in accordance with the medical advice and the expert advice from those that make decisions on a day-to-day basis about the medicines that Australians buy from their chemist.”

Mr Dutton said Australians could be assured the process had been followed to protect their health.

Earlier, Australian Labor Party national president Wayne Swan told Today that he was “gobsmacked” the government had dragged their feet on the vaccine rollout.

“We should get our population vaccinated as soon as we possibly can,” Mr Swan said.

“There is much more to come in dealing with this virus and we should be very honest about that.

“They said there would be four million vaccines out by the middle of the March, that is not going to be achieved.”