As COVID-19 spread from Sydney to regional NSW in late July, Gladys Berejiklian ordered 40,000 Pfizer doses to be redistributed from the regions to Sydney.
Berejiklian wanted the vaccine for Sydney Year 12 students so they could return to classes for the HSC.
With Pfizer in short supply due to the Morrison government’s bungled procurement process, Berejiklian’s decision did not go down well in the bush.
“There are frontline healthcare workers who [still] haven’t been vaccinated [in regional areas],” Rural Doctors Association of Australia’s CEO Peta Rutherford told ABC News.
Opposition came from the premier’s own side of politics.
Member for Calare and federal minister Andrew Gee called for the Central West to be exempted from the reallocation of Pfizer doses.
“Having just come out of lockdown, it’s not the right time to be diverting the Pfizer doses to the city. We’re only out of lockdown for two days and we’ve got COVID-19 traces in the sewer at Molong,” warned the National Party MP.
Roy Butler of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, whose state electorate of Barwon stretches from Walgett, Narrabri and Coonabarabran in the east to Broken Hill in the west, also expressed concern.
“There’s a stack of people in Walgett who were booked in to get the vaccination, only for them to have their appointments unexpectedly cancelled,” Butler said.
Less than a fortnight after Berejiklian’s announcement, health officials were rushing to send 1200 doses of Pfizer back to Walgett after the virus hit the town and large swathes of north-western NSW went into lockdown.