TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - APRIL 1, 2021

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS
THURSDAY, 1 APRIL 2021

SUBJECTS: Vaccinations; Bluesfest.

LAURA JAYES, HOST: Good to see you Tony Burke. Obviously the states are very frustrated about this. I think if the government was a little bit more upfront we would be forgiving because we know it is a mammoth task ahead. But last year, Tony Burke, six million flu shots were administered in six weeks. In six weeks for the COVID vaccine, it's been 670,000. Can you work out what's going wrong here?

TONY BURKE: No, I can't. And right at the start I just want to make clear, Laura, as I'm sure you agree, we want people to get vaccinated. We want this to be rolled out. We want it to be rolled out successfully. And when people have their turn, to be able to be vaccinated we want them to take that opportunity up. But for all that to happen the government has to act competently. And the government had announced that we were going to have four million vaccinations by yesterday. It was just over half a million. The government had announced that we were at the front of the queue. They proclaimed in Parliament, Australia was at the front of the queue. Well, clearly that wasn't true. And what we need, like I accept this government is brilliant at the announcement. They're sharp, they're slick, they do the advertising, they're really good at the announcement. But when it comes to the delivery, what we are seeing is bumbling, bungling incompetence. That's what we're seeing here. And lives are at stake. You know, I've got a nursing home in my electorate that were calling yesterday saying they have no idea where they're going to be in the queue. We've had state health ministers say that their public hospitals have no idea how many vaccinations are going to arrive on any one day that they then have to organise. This is one of the most important jobs the government will do in 2021. And we need Mr Morrison to stop focusing on the advertising and the messaging and the marketing of it and just do his job.

JAYES: Outside the health aspect there's the economic aspect and businesses are bleeding at the moment, particularly in Queensland. Small businesses having to pull off staff, JobKeeper has ended. Don't we need a commitment as well from the premiers once this vaccine is rolled out in any meaningful way, no more lockdowns?

BURKE: Well, we need the premiers to follow the health advice. And I'm not going to second guess the health advice. But I will say this: there is no doubt the health advice will be informed by how many vaccinations have taken place. If you have a different public health foundation, then you're going to get advice based on that foundation. I wonder where we would be at in Queensland right now, if in fact we had been at the front of the queue, and four million vaccinations had taken place. Because the health advice, which you know, you want governments to be following the health advice, but it would be informed from a fundamentally different foundation. And all I'm saying is where would we be if the government had delivered what they announced? Because I'm not floating other ambitious figures or anything like that, the four million vaccination figure came from the government themselves. It was meant to be delivered yesterday.

JAYES: Do you know why our rollout is so slow compared to other countries? I mean, we're seeing millions of doses administered in the US every day. In the UK, their highest number of doses has been about 800,000. You know, the list goes on. We're well down the list when it comes to expediting this vaccine program. Has Labor asked why? I haven't been able to get the answers. I simply don't know why we're so slow.

BURKE: I can't Laura give you something categorical on that. But I can say this. I remember really clearly last year in Parliament, Chris Bowen, when he held the shadow health portfolio - it's now Mark Butler - but Chris asking the government why other countries had signed very early contracts with the producers of vaccines, and in the development of vaccines. And Australia hadn't. That other countries would have half a dozen contracts signed very early getting themselves up front in the queue. And Australia wasn't doing that.

JAYES: We did get a program going with the University of Queensland and it didn't work out, things like that happen. So we can put it down to that in many ways. But then CSL came on board, AstraZeneca. A couple of weeks ago we were told by Brendan Murphy they were having trouble getting the vaccine in little bottles, surely that's been sorted out by now.

BURKE: And all of these, there are a lot of logistics, I get that. But this is the government's job to roll out. And it's not like there hasn't been a long lead time. There was a lead time when other countries were signing contracts and we weren't. There was a lead time when other countries were making sure they had spread their risk by engaging with a series of different vaccines, and we hadn’t. There was a period where this was approved, ready to go, and the government should at that point have known exactly how to start getting in line the logistics for both Pfizer and AstraZeneca. They didn't! You know, logistical jobs are complex. They're hard. But they've had plenty of lead time. We often talk about issues as if they’re a life and death matter. Well, this one is a life or death matter, that is the implication. If we were to get if we were to get serious outbreaks in the country as to whether or not we've got an underlying population that's been vaccinated. And once again, you only have to look at yesterday's papers, where the government decided after all of these bungles, what was their response? Start a war with the states, get stuck into them, shift the blame to them. Go from “I don't hold a hose mate to I don't hold a syringe mate”. Well, this is their job. And the example I gave before of nursing homes, the aged care facilities, that is 100 per cent of the job of the Commonwealth, and they're still not getting that done on the timeframe.

JAYES: Yep. It's hard to disagree with that. Let's talk about the Bluesfest because that was meant to start today. It was cancelled late yesterday afternoon, we're talking staff in place, the entire festival set-up, food vans, preparations. I mean, it's just a nightmare scenario for these organisers and everyone involved with it. I spoke to Dominic Perrottet on the program yesterday about some kind of government guarantee because these festivals aren't going to go ahead because they can't get cancellation insurance. So it's not just about the Bluesfest, it's about the recovery and getting these events in the near future, over the next 12 months.

BURKE: Right now, we are potentially at a turning point in people having confidence to invest in major events. And the government has to get this right. We need to remember -

JAYES: Shouldn’t it be up to the states?

BURKE: Well, I've been calling for a long time for the Commonwealth to deal with this.

JAYES: So why is this a Commonwealth issue? I mean, it's the premiers cancelling these festivals and locking down borders and sending people into lockdown. Shouldn't it be a state government issue?

BURKE: The reason I've been calling for the Commonwealth is because they've done exactly what you described for the film industry. So they've already decided for the film industry, where you can't now get insurance, that it is in fact their job to provide an underlying fund so the businesses have the confidence to be able to invest. Now, I don't see how it can be their responsibility for the film industry but not their responsibility for major events. Twelve months ago, Bluesfest was cancelled as well, a couple of days leading up to it. Now, back then they had pandemic insurance. So as a commercial enterprise, they did the right thing. Twelve months later, you can't get pandemic insurance anymore for COVID-19 because it's a pandemic that already exists. So the only way you can get that sort of underlying guarantee for business is if the Commonwealth provides it. And for them to provide it, think of the choice now. Having seen this happen, and it's been reported as being in the order of $10 million or more that's been lost. And don't forget the losses aren't just Bluesfest. It's every small business, every enterprise, every artist, every road crew, every technical support, every catering business associated with it. All of that hinges on whether or not these events can go ahead. If nothing is done with respect to Bluesfest, what confidence are any of the events industries going to have that they can go forward and take this level of risk?

JAYES: Well, it seems like New South Wales might be going alone here, the Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, making some very good signals yesterday. We'll check in with him. Just finally, before I let you go, a senior Labor figure has self-referred an anonymous historical allegation to the AFP. Should they identify themselves as Christian Porter was forced to?

BURKE: I don't know any of the details in terms of the gravity of it, the veracity of it, but my view has always been this: you need somebody other than the person who's been complained about to make a decision on the veracity of a complaint. And if it stacks up and there needs to be a test as to whether someone's a fit and proper person, then the person concerned should stand aside for that period. And if the fit and proper person test comes back, then it should be viewed as dealt with. And if it doesn't, then they take the consequences. You need to be able to deal with these issues seriously, you need to be able to deal with them immediately. Effectively, I think you need to be able to deal with them the opposite to how Mr Morrison dealt with the other allegations that you referred to.

JAYES: So should we know who that person is? And should they stand aside? While there’s that fit and proper person test, as you said?

BURKE: Well, as I say, I don't know who the person is, I don't even know if they know who they are in terms of these allegations. I don't know whether we're talking about something that stacks up in any way or whether we're talking about something vexatious. I just don't know. But I think the process needs to be clear that someone other than the person themselves needs to make an assessment of the veracity of it. And if it is something that genuinely we should have a fit and proper person test then the consequences follow of that immediately.

JAYES: Okay, Tony Burke, thanks so much for your time this morning.

ENDS