Labor has warned defence troops dispatched to boost coronavirus vaccination rates in western NSW Indigenous communities will fail without trusted Aboriginal elders working alongside them.
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Five Australian Defence Force teams of medics, nurses and logistics experts will be sent to the region to boost low vaccination rates.
An AUSMAT team of emergency medical experts will join the effort, with the reinforcements to be based in Dubbo.
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Linda Burney welcomed the move but warned scars from the Northern Territory military intervention remained.
"If it's going to work, if it's going to be successful, it has to be done hand in glove with the local Aboriginal community," she told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
"These are traumatised communities. It takes a long time to build trust particularly around the issue of provision of help - that trust will not be there with the ADF."
The opposition is calling for a First Nations coronavirus plan to include localised data, more vaccine, testing and tracing resources, and more power for Indigenous health organisations.
The approach would also clearly outline to communities treatment options should people require it.
Ms Burney said the four-point plan was better than resorting to military being dispatched when an emergency cropped up.
"I am fearful that what this will become is a game of whack-a-mole," she said.
About 60 per cent of the 142 cases in western NSW are Indigenous people.
More Pfizer doses are being sent to the region which has incredibly low vaccination rates among the Aboriginal population.
Nationally 15 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have received both doses.
Ms Burney said about eight per cent of Indigenous people in NSW and Queensland were fully vaccinated compared with more than 40 per cent in Victoria.
"The reason there is a difference is because in Victoria the Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations ran the vaccine program," she said.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd denied the western NSW vaccination blitz had come too late.
"It is never too late for people to get vaccinated against COVID-19," he told reporters in Canberra.
He said he was unaware of reports a Broken Hill woman was infectious while attending a funeral in Wilcannia with 150 mostly Indigenous people.
Aboriginal leader Pat Turner said changing advice around the AstraZeneca vaccine had fuelled hesitancy in some communities.
"There was all the publicity and mixed messaging from leadership about the blood clotting, so everyone got fearful," she told the ABC.
Australian Associated Press
