The government’s National Aged Care Advisory Council has launched this week with 17 members to provide expert advice to on aged care issues almost five months after the expected start date.
But the use of private contractors and the lack of transparency from government is obstructing attempts at accountability over other elements of the program, including logistics, planning and communication failures.
Questions about the rollout are referred to the health department by the contractors but the department claims information is commercial-in-confidence when asked about its contracts.
The government initially promised 4m Australians would be vaccinated by the end of March but missed that target by about 3.4m people.
Problem areas include the aged care rollout, which was designed to immunise vulnerable elderly Australians before winter but is well behind schedule.
Logistic companies Linfox and DHL are responsible for delivering the doses to aged care facilities, while the private health contractors are responsible for providing the immunisation workforce that delivers the jabs to aged care residents.