Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says his government’s position on mandatory vaccinations has not changed, although he would not criticise recent policies introduced in NSW and Victoria requiring hundreds of thousands of people to be vaccinated in order to continue to work.

“We have maintained a position that our approach is of voluntary participation, but we have already said it is a matter for states and territories,” he said.

“It is important that people have sufficient time and access to be able to make sure they’re vaccinated, so we want to make sure that there are no critical workforce shortages, wherever that is done.”

Last week, Victoria expanded vaccination mandates to take in about 1.2 million authorised workers.

In NSW, the shot is mandatory for health staff, and a number of workers from hotspots in Sydney’s west were required to have one dose of the vaccine to return to their jobs.

Vaccinations have also been mandatory in the aged care sector, which is overseen by the federal government, since mid-September.

Mr Hunt said 99.4 per cent of aged care staff were now at least partially vaccinated.

“Every Australian has to assume that at some point they’ll be exposed to COVID, so the best reason to be vaccinated is to save your life,” he added.

Follow Australia’s progress via our COVID-19 vaccine tracker here.