TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - THURSDAY 9 SEPTEMBER, 2021

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH LAURA JAYES
THURSDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: Pfizer failure; vaccine rollout; NSW reopening plan.

LAURA JAYES, HOST: Joining me live now is Tony Burke, the Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations. Tony Burke, thank you for your time. What do these emails show? Is it a smoking gun?

TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: They show absolutely that the government did too little, too late on vaccinations. At the exact time that the rest of the world was out there signing, like the UK and the US were out their signing deals for extra vaccinations, we weren't. We were way behind. And what that means is - it's why I've been describing what we're going through right now as the Morrison lockdown. We are in this situation precisely because of the complacency that happened last year. Let’s not forget, it's not like the government approached Pfizer and did it the wrong way. Pfizer approached the government. Pfizer approached the government to try and make an offer. And the government decided they were too busy to be able to take that seriously. And that's why we're now in a situation where we're scratching around the world trying to check with other countries if they've got any leftovers to deal with our crisis.

JAYES: You've left a few crucial details out, haven't you? At that time, we were focused on sovereign capacity, we were putting hope in the University of Queensland and AstraZeneca, which could be and is locally made here. You supported that at the time.

BURKE: What we also said at the time was you needed to make sure that Australia was doing best practice in terms of signing contracts for vaccines with a range of different companies. Here was an opportunity to sign with Pfizer, and there is no doubt about this simple fact: we would not be in the sort of lockdown that my community’s living in right now, if Mr. Morrison had handled this differently last year. We would not be in the situation where people are locked down, people have had their businesses ruined, people have had their lives turned upside down, all because of the complacency last year to not do world's best practice of signing five or six different agreements with different companies. And that way you spread your risk and I should just add: it’s not like Labor’s late to this issue. We continually last year raised this on the floor of parliament and the government ridiculed us for doing so.

JAYES: Would it be unethical for the Health Minister to meet with the boss of Pfizer? Would that have been up to the department normally?

BURKE: In terms of, certainly your final contractual details are always done by departmental officials. But there is a level of respect that you show when a minister meets with a major company. You look at other countries. Look at what the Prime Minister of Israel did in terms of direct phone calls. When you're trying to save your population you leave no stone unturned. And to simply decide we'll send someone mid-ranking from the department.

JAYES: Absolutely and the Pfizer issue is a big one. But also don't we have to look at how the AstraZeneca vaccine has been totally kneecapped in this country by people like the Queensland Chief Medical Officer, and that ATAGI advice just simply scaring people? If that hadn't have happened, we would have been okay wouldn’t we?

BURKE: I’d add to the list there the Prime Minister and the Health Minister.

JAYES: Fair enough.

BURKE: I think if you're going to do a list of people who’ve given information that added to hesitancy on AstraZeneca, that late night media conference, including the Health Minister saying, you know, and if you don't like AstraZeneca, you can wait because there'll be mRNA vaccines available later in the year … Like if they want to have an argument against ATAGI or have an argument against the Queensland Chief Medical Officer. Can I tell you, you can't put forward a team of people who have added to vaccine hesitancy on AstraZeneca without putting Mr Morrison and Mr Hunt in that team. They were a huge part of it. And I've had both my AstraZeneca shots. It's important now that certainly in my part of Sydney the best vaccine for anyone is the one they can get. In the last few weeks we've had a massive increase in vaccination rates. AstraZeneca is part of that. None of that changes the fact that the government mishandled Pfizer last year and we’re paying a price for that now.

JAYES: Okay, yes, I am double vaccinated with AstraZeneca as well as of yesterday afternoon, I'm happy to say. Let me ask you about freedom day in New South Wales. It’s going to be the 18th of October. I'm told before we hear from Gladys Berejiklian officially at 11am that all 12 LGA is of concern will be included in the Greater Sydney freedoms. But if case numbers grow in certain areas, the government will give itself a bit of wriggle room to lockdown some suburbs. Is that fair enough?

BURKE: In the terms you've described it, it might be. I was very alarmed with the early talk that effectively the suburbs where the virus started, but they weren't willing to lock down and up until now have had really favourable conditions compared to my part of Sydney. Like here, in the area where I am, people even though the Premier said curfews don't do anything good for public health, we've got a curfew here. The impact that it’s had on people's businesses and everything, people are itching to be able to get out of it. So if they can avoid the tale of two cities, that's important. I have seen reports, and obviously we'll see from the Premier where this lands, reports that they haven't acted on the health advice. Now, if that's the case, obviously everybody wants restrictions lifted as soon as it's safe to do so. If they have gone against the health advice, they do need to explain what risk they are taking as a result of that.

JAYES: Indeed, Tony Burke thanks so much.

ENDS