Just days before Tasmanian children are due to return to school, the Gutwein Government has finally realised the critical importance of vaccinating five to 11 year olds.
But Shadow Health Minister Anita Dow said the government's last minute effort to lift vaccination rates in children came way too late with less than half of Tasmanian children now having received their first dose.
"Establishing pop up clinics and making vaccination bookings available - particularly in regional areas - is something that the community has been calling for and it's just incredible that Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff has left it to the last minute," Ms Dow said.
"With children set to return for Term One next week this token effort really is too late.
"The government needed to have come up with a broad suite of options for parents to get their children vaccinated months ago and Mr Rockliff needed to have recognised the difficulties families faced in travelling to clinics and acted much, much sooner.
"He should have recognised the low vaccination rates in areas like the North West where only 32 per cent children have received their first dose.
"It's not good enough that for weeks now Mr Rockliff has put the onus back on parents and called on mums and dads to take their children to Public Health clinics or their local GP while the government did very little to make vaccinations more available.
"It's not good enough that Mr Rockliff is still failing to act on the sensible proposal to utilise Tasmania's pharmacy network to help roll out COVID vaccinations for five to 11 years olds.
"It's not good enough that Education Minister Sarah Courtney remains on an overseas holiday as the most challenging start to a new school year in living memory fast approaches.
"The Gutwein Government and Mr Rockliff made repeated claims that our health system was ready for when they opened the borders to COVID on December 15.
"Clearly they had not done the necessary preparation and now they have realised that, the government is playing a desperate game of catch up just days before children go back to school."
Anita Dow MP
Shadow Health Minister
