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Then prime minister Scott Morrison receives the first COVID-19 vaccines in Australia with aged care resident Jane Malysiak.Credit:Edwina Pickles

Overall,early targets for vaccination were missed,the audit found. Despite then prime minister Scott Morrison’s promise to have completed the vaccine rollout by October 2021,by that time only 55 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over had received two doses of a vaccine and NSW and Victoria were in the process of exiting four months of continuous lockdown restrictions.

By the end of that month,77 per cent of eligible people were double-dosed. Today,the figure is 96 per cent of people aged 16 and over,with 68 per cent having received at least three doses.

The audit found timelines for vaccinating aged care and disability services residents,as well as the Indigenous population,were not met despite these cohorts being identified as target groups for early doses.

It said the Health Department “underestimated the magnitude and complexity” ofrolling out vaccinations to residential aged care homes and disability services through third-party providers,such as Aspen Medical, and “did not engage sufficient providers early in the rollout”.

Aged care vaccinations were scheduled to be completed by the end of April 2021 but,in reality,most facilities did not receive their second-dose clinic until June of that year.

The audit also found the department’starget of vaccinating 80 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2021 was not met. At present,about 82 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have received two doses,after the target was reached in late March.

Commencement of planning for the rollout was “not timely and early planning did not include target dates”,the audit concluded,criticising the department for not finalising jurisdictional implementation plans with state and territory governments until February 2021,when vaccines were already in the country and being administered.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the audit highlighted failures of the former federal government’s organisation of the vaccine rollout.

“For much of 2021,Australia had one of the slowest vaccine rollouts in the developed world,” Butler said. “Australians languished in lockdown,workers couldn’t go to work and students couldn’t go to school because the former government failed to do its job and roll out the vaccine.”

The audit did not consider the procurement of vaccines for the rollout,including the safety and effectiveness of vaccines procured by the federal government,operation of state and territory-run vaccination clinics,or foreign aid vaccination programs.

It recommended the department conduct a “comprehensive review” of the rollout by the end of December,including recommendations to the federal government “about opportunities for improvement in the event of a future vaccination rollout”.

In its response to the audit,department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy said the department believed this review would likely be a part of the federal government’s planned inquiry into the pandemic response,the timing of which is “still to be agreed by government”.

Butler has said the inquiry will return to the political agenda after the current Omicron BA.4/BA.5 case wave.

The Audit Office of NSW is conducting a review of the vaccine rollout in the state,due to be released by the end of the year.

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