"There are three steps state and federal governments can take right now to accelerate vaccination and to lift the safety of, and confidence in, social and economic activity. Taking these steps will improve health outcomes, including mental health; bring forward the end to lockdowns; and allow business activity and the economy to recover and rebuild," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
"Early resistance by officials and governments to rapid antigen testing has led to the ludicrous situation where Australian manufacturers, who make millions of the tests, are able to export their kits while being effectively banned from selling them widely here. The Prime Minister's support for rapid testing has been welcome. We also need to update our views across the board about the effectiveness of rapid testing, which is proving very successful across the world. The extremely limited availability of these kits here and pilot programs and reviews are well and good but we need to move much faster. Manufacturers say results from the testing can quickly be linked into government records which is an added benefit. Our Olympic athletes successfully used rapid antigen testing in Tokyo, so why can't we use the same tests here right now and make them available to all?
"With vaccines now widely available and Oxford Astra Zeneca in abundance there can be no reason to further delay allowing employers to contribute to the vaccination effort at workplaces. Many businesses have deep experience in arranging for workplace-based vaccination and we should start treating COVID vaccines like any other vaccine and let nurses take charge. The government can and should help by explicitly extending to employers the same indemnity that applies to the vaccine provider. This could be done today, and the reduced risk would encourage employers to have workplace-based vaccination programs taking the pressure off other providers and removing the deterrent of extended queues.
"The Prime Minister last week referred to the existing rules for mandating vaccinations and the limits of this approach to workplaces where it would be 'lawful and reasonable' to direct employees to be vaccinated. However, employers need more clarity about this issue than the Government has provided to date. We welcome the updating of COVID advice which is expected soon from the Fair Work Ombudsman, but this is only part of the picture. Updated advice needs to be released by federal and state government agencies in relation to Work Health and Safety and privacy matters relating to COVID-19 vaccinations. For example, Safe Work Australia advice remains: 'There is currently insufficient evidence about the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on the transmission of COVID-19.' This clearly needs updating and is a barrier to employers establishing that requiring vaccination is 'lawful and reasonable' in the circumstances of their workplace.
"Employers are obligated to provide a safe workplace for their employees and vaccination and rapid testing are two ways of ensuring workplaces are safer.
"These are some relatively simple issues that can be quickly remedied and on which we are moving too slowly. Our leaders talk daily about going hard and fast with lockdowns and we need to use this same attitude with other approaches to dealing with COVID-19," Innes Willox said today.
