8. Question No. 8—COVID-19 ResponseCHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister for COVID-19 ResponseQuestion No. 8—COVID-19 Response8. CHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: What advice if any has he sought on the Controller and Auditor-General's report Preparations for the nationwide roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine and what is his response to the comment in the report I am not yet confident that all of the pieces will fall into place quickly enough for the immunisation programme to reach the level of vaccinations required for the Government to meet its goals"?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I've asked the Ministry of Health to provide me with a further update on progress on the recommendations made by the Controller and Auditor-General. I've already received several verbal updates from the Ministry of Health on their response to the report and they released a response yesterday to all six recommendations on their website. In response to the second part of the question this is the largest vaccination programme in New Zealand's history. There are undoubtedly going to be challenges as we scale up the pace to deliver a two-dose vaccine with unique cold chain storage requirements. I am confident in the progress that we've seen to date and that the planning for the scale up is going well. The delivery by district health boards is ahead of targets and coupled with good planning design and consultation the preparations for the second half of the year are going well. Chris Bishop: Is he aware of why the ministry was not able to provide the Auditor-General with a copy of an immunisation strategy despite Cabinet inviting the ministry in August 2020 to produce one?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The Auditor-General's primary focus with regard to this report was to look at the readiness for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccination. In terms of wider questions around immunisation I don't have ministerial responsibility for those.Chris Bishop: Why did he say this morning responding to the Auditor-General's report that the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out would in his words "roll on into next year if Kiwis fail to show up when they should" when Kiwis have been showing up on time only to be turned away at vaccine stations through no fault of their own?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: What we're seeing around the world in those countries that are well ahead in their vaccination campaign efforts is that demand is starting to plateau at around 60 percent of the eligible population. If that does happen in New Zealand then that is the sort of thing that would push our vaccination campaign into the new year. We're working very hard to avoid that but ultimately those administering the vaccine have a limited degree of control over that. All New Zealanders need to come forward and get the vaccine when they are offered it.Chris Bishop: Does he believe the COVID-19 vaccine programme has the full public trust and confidence in light of New Zealand being ranked second bottom in the OECD in terms of speed of vaccine roll-out?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The biggest constraint on the speed of our roll-out as I've said many times has been getting vaccines into the country. It has been supply rather than the roll-out that has been constraining that. We made the decision in January to adopt a Pfizer-based campaign. Pfizer were very clear at the time that that meant the bulk of our deliveries would be from July onwards—generally in the July through to September period.Chris Bishop: Did the Ministry of Health supply to the Auditor-General a copy of the illustration of volumes and timing of the vaccine roll-out graph which can no longer be found on the Ministry of Health website and which he says is only illustrative and approximate?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: My understanding is the Ministry of Health provided to the Auditor-General whatever information the Auditor-General asked for."