TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH KIERAN GILBERT
WEDNESDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: COVID in Western Sydney; Jamal Rifi; Scott Morrison’s vaccination failures; Fowler.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Tony Burke, thanks very much for joining me live from Belmore, the home of the Bulldogs of course. I'll ask you about this report that Andrew Clennell has just brought to our viewers a few moments ago in relation to Kristina Keneally potentially going to the lower house in the seat of Fowler. But let's start with where you are and why you are at the home of the dogs. It's going to be the first drive-through vaccine facility in Sydney apparently?

TONY BURKE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS: That's right, where we are right here in the carpark will become the first drive-through vaccine facility in the country. So we are right at the heart of the pandemic here in Belmore. And we've been getting the vaccination rates up as high as we possibly can. I know you've been interviewing the state members, both Sophie Cotsis, Jihad Dib, the mayor Khal Asfour. And of course, Dr Jamal Rifi, who’s surgery is in Belmore. But we really need to be able to give this a further push. And there's been a concern of trying to get past every last aspect of hesitancy. Now part of that is being able to get vaccinated in places that you're familiar with. And there's no place in in the area that's more familiar for people than Belmore Oval. And the car park here is what will be used. But the other thing is, there has been some hesitancy based on waiting rooms. And so one of the things we're wanting to be able to provide is for families, as we get to 12 to 15s being vaccinated, that they can effectively keep the younger members of the family in the car with them. They'll drive through, they'll get vaccinated here. They'll wait in the car on the areas through there for the 15 minutes they have to wait before they then drive off. And then it's done. And three weeks later, they can come back again.

GILBERT: You mentioned Dr Jamal Rifi - probably an early favourite for Australian of the Year, given his efforts the last few months from my understanding of his efforts in trying to boost vaccination in his community. And let's say combating and puncturing the hesitancy that was a reality there for many. That's fair to say isn’t it?

BURKE: Look, we had the problem that a whole lot of Australia had Kieran, which was that there was no government public information campaign happening. And if your first language wasn’t English, then there was almost nothing going out from the government at all. Now in the suburbs around me here, three quarters of the households here speak a language other than English at home. Now, that doesn't mean that people don't speak English. Everyone's got different levels of English available to them. But it does mean that the precision of information that needed to be provided wasn't coming out. And in that sort of vacuum a whole lot of the conspiracy theories that have ricocheted around the country have been here too.

GILBERT: But the rates are high now? The rates have shot up haven’t they?

BURKE: Yeah the vaccination rates have been shooting up now. So Belmore, Campsie, Lakemba, we're all now looking above 70 per cent for the first shot. We've got a way to go for the second shot. But you know, if we can get up into the high 80s, which Campsie is there in the 80s, if we can get right up into the high 80s or the 90s, then we'll provide a level of protection that we really need, because you look at the case numbers come through every day. And I've spent the last couple of days going around people's homes, dropping off out at the front doorstep the different food packages. And one of the things that's different here to many other parts of Sydney is the households are bigger. So when we ring before we drop off the food, we always confirm how many people are in the household. And other parts of Sydney, the answer will be two, the answer will be three. Here, the answer is five, six, seven, eight. And with Delta, you used to have situations where only one or two people in a household would have passed on to them. Now it's very difficult. You get some situations, but it's very difficult now, to have a circumstance where it doesn't go through the whole household with Delta.

GILBERT: The Labor Party has provided an FOI document this afternoon is showing that the government was offered a meeting with Pfizer, that Pfizer approached the government halfway through last year, not the other way around, and offered a meeting with the Health Minister. Subsequently it was an Assistant Secretary of the Department that met with the executives of Pfizer. Is it a fair defence though from Mr Hunt, saying that was right in the middle of the Victorian second wave and there were a lot of other competing challenges on his time at that point?

BURKE: No. No, that's not an excuse at all. The reality here is we are in a mess right now. Where I'm standing right now, throughout Sydney, throughout New South Wales, throughout Victoria, we are in a mess because the vaccination rollout didn't start early enough. Imagine if we'd been at 70 to 80% before this Delta outbreak occurred. You know, we wouldn't be in a situation where we've got a curfew for people here. We wouldn't have had a situation weeks ago, where people in the construction industry were told that they couldn't go to work. We wouldn't be in a situation where people in the arts, entertainment and hospitality industry have found themselves out of work for months. We are in this mess because the government didn't do its job: quarantine, vaccine. It's not that complicated. And why am I standing here at a community hub in terms of Belmore sportsground? Because when the government wasn't doing its job on vaccines, the community just got up and said we'll do it ourselves. The Bulldogs have come through to do it, the Lebanese Muslim Association have had a hub there, we’ve had the Maronite Church at Saint Charbel’s in Punchbowl, the Greek Orthodox Church within their grounds, and the gymnasium beside All Saints at Belmore. People have just been stepping up and doing it themselves. But Australia, the economy, being able to do something as simple as go to work would have been fundamentally different if the government had taken the vaccine supply seriously when they first had that opportunity with Pfizer.

GILBERT: Andrew Clennell reported that, on another matter just to wrap up our discussion this afternoon, that Kristina Keneally, that the Labor powerbrokers are seriously considering a move by Kristina Keneally to the House of Reps in the seat of Fowler with Chris Hayes, the much respected and liked Chris Hayes wrapping up his career, that Kristina Keneally might move to the lower house. Is that, as a powerbroker yourself, is this being considered?

BURKE: Can I say that I've heard this report while I had the earpiece in and you were having the conversation there. A few things. First of all, my preference always was Chris Hayes to stay for as long as possible, and I respect that he's leaving, he's a dear friend. Secondly, I'd say we need to make sure that we have Kristina Keneally in the parliament, she really needs to be a member of parliament. That's important. The third thing I'd say is we need to never take local electorates for granted. No seat, no member is anything but beholden to the community that they're part of. And so these conversations, yes, there will be people in the party machine who want to have conversations back and forth on this. But the conversation that will really matter will be the conversation on the ground with the electorate. This is a part of Sydney that has been very hard hit during COVID. And in any discussions, making sure that the community is not taken for granted is something that needs to be absolutely the first principle of any conversation at all.

GILBERT: Just to clarify on that do you mean that the branch, the local rank and file, that they would all have to be on board with such a move?

BURKE: Well, as I say, you've reported something that I wasn't expecting in terms of the conversation today. I've heard every different rumour at different points with respect to Fowler. I only get concerned when people think the conversation can happen devoid of a direct engagement with the local community. These local communities have been very loyal to the Labor Party for a very long time and working closely with them is of critical importance. Now I say all that with a direct understanding we need to make sure that Kristina Keneally is a member of parliament. She's our deputy leader in the Senate, she has carried immense firepower there in the Senate. We’re very lucky to have her in the Labor Party. You were very lucky to lose her from Sky News! But I just do need to add at every point if in these conversations a local community feels taken for granted, you make those decisions at your peril. So working all of this through with the local community is going to be really important.

GILBERT: Manager of Opposition Business and Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke joining me live from the home of the dogs, the Bulldogs, the Sydney Bulldogs, I should say. Those that love rugby league know what I'm talking about, Belmore Oval. Tony Burke, thanks for your time.

ENDS