TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2021
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH LAURA JAYES
THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2021
SUBJECTS: NSW reopening; financial supports; Queensland outbreak; schools.
LAURA JAYES, HOST: Joining me live now is the Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Tony Burke. Thanks so much for your time. First of all, I just want to ask about these business payments. They're being phased out in line with the individual payments that we saw announced yesterday. But New South Wales will fund some kind of business recovery direct payment system yet to be announced. Is now the right time?
TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: I’m worried about it and it’s for this very simple reason. The social distancing restrictions that continue after we technically open up, there will still be a significant number of businesses that cannot function profitably under those rules. So you'll have a series of businesses and, there's a whole lot of them in hospitality, arts and entertainment for example, where the social distancing rules prevent them from being able to run profitable events. Now, in those circumstances, it's COVID rules that are preventing them from working. And yet, the COVID support stops. Now, I can understand withdrawing support when you're in a situation where you're back to business. Of course, when people are functioning properly, like they were before, then you're not going to have a reasonable demand for extra taxpayers money. But where the restrictions are continuing and preventing you from running your business, just like if you're a worker there, if restrictions are preventing you from being able to do your job, I can't for the life of me see how the government can justify withdrawing support.
JAYES: I've just got some breaking news that’s come to hand. We are going to hear from the Queensland government at 10am, we know there is one new case in the southeast of Queensland overnight, who had travelled to northern New South Wales. But Tony Burke, I can tell you that we've just got news from the Townsville Bulletin that there's been a positive case of COVID detected in the community in Townsville. This would really be a complication, given the weekend that is planned for the southeast. And now new cases, it seems not just limited to the south east, what do you make of that?
BURKE: Look, I obviously I only know what you've just put to me there. Every COVID case, wherever it happens in the country, carries enormous risk of spreading, particularly with Delta. What I can see is why there's been a frustration from other states, like my part of Sydney has benefited from the prioritisation of vaccines. Every time I put up a post on social media encouraging the community, I get comments from all around the country of people saying, “yeah, good on your community but we're not getting the vaccines that we need”. And this is where, as you hear those cases appear in different parts of the country where vaccination rates are lower, I can really understand the frustration that people have had that we didn't get the number of vaccines we have now, months and months ago. Because what you've just reported, if we had the vaccination rates in Townsville three months ago, that we have in my part of Sydney right now, we would not be treating that report with anything like the caution that you and I are feeling right now.
JAYES: Yeah, absolutely. And look, I've been very critical of supply, as you know, but that is really, you know supply is well and truly keeping up with demand now it seems and we've got those allocations, we've got millions coming every month -
BURKE: Can I just add, there's one thing on supply, there’s one link that I'm not sure we've entirely made, and that's the personnel dispensing the vaccines in the different parts of the country. Every time I've heard reports of there being no longer a supply problem, I then also hear reports of people in different parts of the country saying it's months before they can get an appointment, or many many many weeks before they can get an appointment. Now I don't know if those appointment times are starting to crunch forward again now. But even when we've said there's a really large number of vaccines in the country, the real life experience in many parts of Australia are of people not able to get an appointment within a reasonable time is part of the delay that's happening out there.
JAYES: Yeah, look, that doesn't explain everything that's happening in Queensland does it? It could be on the verge of an outbreak and still vaccination rates, the lowest or might be the second lowest in the country along with WA. So there seems to be an equivalence with whether there's been an outbreak or not.
BURKE: There's no doubt that when an outbreak happens there are two impacts that you get straight away. One is you get fear in the community and people who might have been a bit hesitant, go out there and get vaccinated where they might have been inclined to not see it as something as urgent. The second thing that happens is supply of vaccines to that part of Australia improve. Now, when you're in the midst of an outbreak you're incredibly grateful for it. But the truth is, every part of Australia is constantly at risk of an outbreak. And this is why the price that we have paid the last few months for the vaccine rollout not happening properly at the start of the year is a price that Queensland is facing as we speak.
JAYES: Yeah, look, there's a lot that gets slated back to the federal government and justifiably so. It was interesting, I spoke to Tanya Plibersek on the show yesterday and she said that there should have been more compassion, there still should be more compassion, shown to people separated by a border closures and she's been shocked by the no’s. Now, this is very much in the jurisdiction of the premiers. And it's particularly relevant when we're talking about Queensland, isn't it?
BURKE: I'm not sure if their legal construct as to where it's a health decision and where it's a decision by elected officials, I know the Queensland circumstance is a bit different to legislatively what we've got in other parts of the country. But, of course we want as much compassion to be shown as possible without creating a massive risk to other people. There's been some specific, you know cases come to us as members of Parliament all the time. And even though we're federal Members of Parliament, where we're on the phone to state ministers, sometimes Liberal sometimes Labor around the country trying to get individual cases fixed. And by and large, I've got to say, the ones that I've been involved with no matter what the colour of the state government that I've had to deal with, we've been able to get some pretty decent compassionate outcomes.
JAYES: Okay, let's finally ask you about schools. There's some good news for parents who are watching this from home, perhaps still homeschooling in New South Wales at least the vaccine rollout is going so well, that essentially, this opening is being brought forward by a week. Are you frustrated this morning to hear that some unions are arguing teachers aren't ready and it's too early.
BURKE: I hear the frustration that the different unions have been offering in terms of whether or not their members have had an adequate opportunity to be able to be vaccinated. I hear that concern. And a lot of them have argued as we argued and announced months ago, that an incentive process would have got people moving faster. And that didn't happen. From a parent’s perspective -
JAYES: Hang on, you can't say that supply is an issue and incentives would have got them there. I mean, aren’t they diametrically opposed?
BURKE: Well, no, and you and I've spoken many times about the AstraZeneca issues. So there was a period of time where there was supply of one vaccine and not others. So that's the difference there, where you would have actually made a significant impact on those numbers. From a parent's perspective, you know I looked at that date and straight away when you're reading that on the screen, I thought, yep, we're the last one in November at our household. People want their children to be able to go to school again, it's not just what they miss educationally. It's also what they've been missing in terms of their friends. So you want that to be able to happen. What teachers’ unions are putting forward also goes to the issues that I described in terms of wanting to make sure that their members have had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
JAYES: Okay, Tony Burke I dream about vaccines, we'll leave it there. Thanks so much.
ENDS