Setting aside the partisanship for a second, I think politicians all over are in a tough situation. There is a vocal and violent segment of the population that is opposed to mandatory vaccination. Until the rest of the population becomes upset enough to make a fuss about it, a politician who proposes mandatory vaccination is at risk of losing his job.

So the most practical approach is to relax all the rules, have a flare of illness and death and economic disruption, then get public blowback wherein mandatory vaccination is demanded by enough people to overcome the noisy anti-vax group.

Tennis play in Australia is a comparable example. Public outrage is needed, though, because politicians are mostly reactive rather than proactive.