The Federal Opposition has warned of a looming “health disaster” in regional and remote communities and is demanding greater transparency on vaccination rates of Indigenous Australians.

Labor is calling on the government to publish daily data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander immunisation rates, and supply availability, as a growing COVID-19 cluster in western New South Wales threatens large unvaccinated Indigenous communities.

On Saturday, the outbreak in Dubbo and surrounding regions including Walgett grew to more than 40 cases.

Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said the infections were mainly among Indigenous residents. She fears the virus will spread further along the Darling River.

"I'm extraordinarily worried about the situation in western New South Wales," she told the ABC.

"The numbers that are growing, particularly in Dubbo are all Aboriginal people, many of them are young people.

"The government both federally and state should have been prepared for this, there is such a high Indigenous population in that part of the world."

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are listed as a key priority group in the vaccination rollout, however nationally only 14 per cent of those aged 16 and over have been fully vaccinated according to the Federal Department of Health.

In western NSW, that number is understood to be around 8 per cent.

Ms Burney said daily reporting of immunisation rates of Indigenous people, and vaccine supplies available to them, would improve accountability and transparency.

“Those things are missing at the moment,” she said.

“Vaccinations, we are told are being rushed out there and that implies to me that there were no vaccinations out there, and I know that to be the case.

“It is just incomprehensible to me that this was not prepared for by particularly the federal government.

“There has to be a publishing of First Nations data by the federal government, so people know what the real situation is.”

Reaching remote communities was always going to be challenging: PM

On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said vaccinating remote communities was proving difficult. 

“Australia is a very big country, and our Indigenous populations live in some of the remotest parts of our country,” he said.

“It was always going to be the most challenging elements of all the vaccine rollout."

Head of the COVID-19 vaccine taskforce Lieutenant General John Frewen last week acknowledged that vaccination rates of Indigenous people were lagging the national average. 

“We're working with the states and territories and we're looking very systematically at all of the communities and how we can best help bring them along,” he said at a press conference.

In a statement provided to the ABC, a spokesperson for Operation COVID Shield said the taskforce was committed to ensuring all Australians had access to a vaccine.

“The taskforce in partnership with the [National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)] recognises the importance of providing culturally appropriate and safe options to access COVID-19 vaccines,” the statement said.

“As such [we] will continue to work to ensure all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have access to COVID-19 vaccinations in a culturally safe and appropriate way should they wish to."

The spokesperson said statistics had been published according to a format agreed to by National Cabinet and "jurisdictions can formally request their LGA data from the Commonwealth and it will be provided to them".

“The taskforce shares Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vaccination rates with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory group on COVID-19 which is co-chaired by NACCHO and the taskforce to inform the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vaccination rollout program."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Watch

Duration: 9 minutes 14 seconds9m

Loading form...