ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr believes vaccine passports are unnecessary for Canberrans given the resounding eagerness of ACT residents to get vaccinated.
His remarks come as the Federal Government gears up to begin issuing coronavirus vaccine passports from next month as preparations to restart international travel continue.
Domestic and overseas travel is not expected to start until the national vaccination coverage for people aged 16 and over reaches 80 per cent, which remains months away.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said vaccine certificates would also be required to enter pubs, cafes and sporting events as well as being crucial for travel.
Given high vaccination rates and a lack of reluctance in the ACT, Mr Barr labelled the idea of vaccine passports incentivising Canberrans to get the jab as a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
“People don’t need a vaccination certificate to want to get vaccinated in our jurisdiction, but I acknowledge they might in others,” he said.
Eighty per cent of Canberra’s over 70s population are now fully vaccinated.
Based on the first dose figures, Mr Barr expects that cohort to reach over 95 per cent coverage in the coming months.
Additionally, over 90 per cent of Canberrans over 50 have now had their first dose, with that age group also expected to achieve 95 per cent vaccination rate within a few months.
Younger age groups are tracking well, too.
“A lot of fraud” on the cards
Mr Barr is also sceptical about how such a program could be securely rolled out given the proven potential for counterfeit passports.
Fraudulent copies of the certificate as it currently stands have been produced in under 15 minutes.
“The Commonwealth are going to have to do a lot more work to ensure that those things are secure,” Mr Barr said.
“You’re going to see a lot of fraud here regardless. It will be hard to do it, to travel to another country, but there will be a lot of internal fraud within Australia.”
Other state governments are forging ahead with plans to link vaccination status to check-in apps which would allow people to enter venues.
The NSW Government, for example, is currently looking to upgrade the Service NSW app to allow people to check in and prove their vaccination status at the same time. A pilot trial is set to start early next month.
The app development team behind Check In CBR are currently investigating how to integrate a digital vaccination certificate into the app.
As Check In CBR is not an identity verification app, serving a fundamentally different purpose as a contact tracing tool, it may not be fruitful or helpful, the Chief Minister said.
“It’s not necessarily going to make it any easier or quicker,” Mr Barr said. “You may as well just use your Medicare app.”
Currently, an immunisation history statement or COVID-19 digital certificate to show proof of vaccinations is available through one’s Medicare online account via myGov, or for individuals ineligible for Medicare, through the Individual Healthcare Identifiers (IHI) service via myGov.
With AAP
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