This does not make any sense, it's worse than crude economic nationalism because it doesn't take other agreements into context.
They were probably 'following the contracts' - but by the nature of the agreements - at least some shipments to go Australia.
"The fact that they were trying to export doesn't bode well to them pretending they're following "best effort" wording on the contract."
No - this is false.
Everyone is behind on manufacturing - that we all accept.
This means that shipments everywhere are going to be delayed.
If they are late overall, then of course some shipments are going to go to other customers, while some shipments go to Italy.
Your statement basically implies:
"I don't care what your contracts are - Italy comes before all the other customers, if you don't ship to us, we are going to use emergency measures to screw you and your other customers".
You're not saying: "respect the contract"
You're saying: "respect our contract, we don't give a crap about anyone else's contract, because we have the power of the law to screw them"
"If this was the US or any other country I believe most of the comments would be positive. "
No, the news would roughly be the same: a nation screwed up in it's procurement, months behind other nations, is screwing up agreed deliveries to other nations because of a procurement failure.
The EU's attempts to 'work together' to secure vaccines has been a big boondoggle, this is obvious.
There has been a shipment to Australia before: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-28/astrazeneca-oxford-va...
The fact that they were trying to export doesn't bode well to them pretending they're following "best effort" wording on the contract.
Follow the contracts and you don't get your shipments blocked. Pfizer exports from Europe to Canada no problem.
If this was the US or any other country I believe most of the comments would be positive.