Influenza Vaccinations

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:42): A supplementary question: can the minister confirm if there are 116,000 flu vaccines, as in my original question, sitting in a warehouse?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:42): I'm happy to clarify the number of doses in store. I just ask the honourable member to think about the implications of her question. I would be criticised if there were no vaccines in the warehouse. It is a public health clinician's job to make sure they manage the distribution of the doses and maintain the integrity of what I understand is called the cold chain. These are not, shall we say, standard pharmaceuticals. Vaccines are products that need to be maintained at a very high quality for the whole duration of their journey.