TRANSCRIPT: DOORSTOP INTERVIEW - CANBERRA - 31 JULY 2021

MEMBER FOR WATSON
MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
TONY BURKE MP
 
LABOR SENATOR FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
CHAIR OF THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COVID-19
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SENATOR KATY GALLAGHER
 
MEMBER FOR GRAYNDLER
LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY
ANTHONY ALBANESE MP

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
SATURDAY, 31 JULY 2021

SUBJECTS: Vaccine rollout; purpose-built quarantine facilities; Parliament sitting; stranded Aussies; anti-corruption commission; vaccination targets; Queensland lockdown; anti-lockdown protests; AstraZeneca; Howard Springs; Labor’s candidate for Higgins.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: The Government had two jobs this year - the rollout of the vaccine and effective national quarantine. We've just had announced another lockdown in southeast Queensland as a result of failure in hotel quarantine. And yet, the Government still refuses to work with state governments and establish national quarantine facilities that are purpose-built around Australia. We know that hotels were built for tourists, they weren't built for quarantine. And we know that our vaccination rates still languishes. Last in the developed world. I say to Australians: get vaccinated if you can. This is a race. It always was. And I know the Prime Minister last night going back to saying it's 'going for gold' towards the end of the year. Well, I'm pleased that he now acknowledges there is something like a race going on. But the truth is that earlier this year, he continued to say it wasn't a race, and it wasn't a competition. Those Australians who locked down, particularly those people in Western Sydney in hard lockdown, know that it is a race.

We'll be holding the government to account over the next Parliamentary sitting. We'll be seeing four weeks out of five and it's important that democratic governments be held to account. It's also important that we talk about what happens out of the recovery. A recovery that Labor wants is one that works for everyone, one that builds a stronger economy, one that builds a more resilient economy, one where we manufacture things here, where we create high value jobs here in our cities, and importantly, in our region's. One where we take the once in a century opportunity to reimagine a stronger Australia than we are today and set about creating it. One where we work together as a nation, where we work out how the Federation can function more effectively so that there is that common purpose going forward.

One of the things we need to do arising out of this is to restore faith in government. It's now 1000 days since this government, Scott Morrison said he'd have a national integrity commission. During this sitting period, it's important that the Government bring forward its legislation. Let's have a debate. Labor has outlined, on Monday, the principles that we would have behind our national anti-corruption commission. A strong commission, one with teeth, one that's able to initiate its own inquiries, be they into Ministers, Parliamentarians, public servants, officials, one that could restore faith in politics, because we know after sports rots, the pork-and-ride scheme, the purchase of land in Western Sydney for $30 million when it was worth $3 million, and this government's relentless creation of funds and treating those funds as if they were Liberal Party funds, that we need to restore faith and confidence in our political system. We should have that debate in the Parliament, it should take place during this parliamentary sitting, given it's been more than 1000 days since Scott Morrison promised he would do so. I'm going to ask Tony and Katie to talk about the Senate and the House of Reps.

TONY BURKE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS: Thanks very much, Anthony. There'll be fewer than 100 people in the House of Representatives when Parliament comes back, when Parliament comes back this week. Some of those numbers will change as new restrictions come in state by state, and there's an agreement between the parties of whatever pairing arrangements need to be made, we'll be sensible with that and that will happen automatically. Twelve months ago, when the Parliament sat with reduced numbers, there was a view of the Parliament getting its job done. Getting Legislation through and then the Parliament stopped quite quickly because there was a view that the Prime Minister needed to go and get his job done. Well, 12 months later, he hasn't done his job. And that's why it's important that when Parliament sits, it's the one time that the Prime Minister can't do to the Parliament what he's often done with the media, and that's go missing on days when questions need to be answered. There are plenty of questions over the failure of his two jobs on quarantine and vaccine. There are plenty of questions over the failure of this government to act with integrity. And their behaviour in treating government money taxpayer’s money, as though it will Liberal Party funds. When Parliament sits, Mr Morrison has to turn up and that's the difference where he's previously gone hiding. That's why, for the next five weeks, we need to have the sittings happen as has been scheduled. In every conversation with the government, that's the expectation from them as well and while last time it was very much get into parliament, get the legislation through, get out again, this time, there's an accountability mechanism that only Parliament can deliver.

KATE GALLAGHER, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Thanks, morning, everyone. Yesterday, the Senate COVID Committee had a hearing into quarantine, and we heard some pretty shocking evidence. So, the main one was that there is currently no department, no person in charge of quarantine or the Commonwealth Government's response to quarantine throughout this pandemic. There is no one in charge. There is no one putting together a plan. There's a range of different agencies involved but as of yesterday, 16 months since our international borders shut and we've 38,000 Australians stuck overseas, hundreds of unaccompanied minors stuck, there is still nobody in charge of putting together the Commonwealth response to quarantine. We also heard how it springs often touted by the Prime Minister as having capacity for 2000 returning travellers has never ever got close to that. He's been saying for months that we've lifted capacity from 850 to 2000 spots and yesterday, it was uncovered that that's just simply not true and it's unlikely that Howard Springs will ever be able to accommodate 2000 returning travellers. As of yesterday, it was about 1200 people were able to be accommodated there. We also heard that the plans around a new quarantine facility in Queensland and one in WA is months away, certainly not this year. Early feasibility works being done but there's months of planning to go ahead and consultations with state governments. So it's very unlikely, I would say, based on the evidence, and the public servants were being a bit shady and careful with their language, but very unlikely we will see purpose built quarantine by the Commonwealth in either of those states this calendar year. And today again, we see the results of failures of hotel quarantine and the lock downs that have been for all of the population in New South Wales and Victoria, South Australia and now Queensland who have suffered from leakages in cases coming out of hotel quarantine. So, we will continue to pursue this but it's clear that the government has no sense of urgency or purpose around actually dealing with quarantine just as they've heard the failures in vaccinations. We're seeing this constant failure and a lack of appetite to actually deal with it, pull together a response and have some kind of comprehensive purpose-built quarantine facility.

In terms of the Senate this week, we will be having extended pairs, there'll be a number of Senators that are unable to come to Canberra. But we will, of course, look forward to debating some of the Bills that we need to debate. We will be introducing, to compliment Anthony's call around the national anti-corruption commission, a bill into the Senate, to tighten up some of the reporting about the dodgy grants and the reports that the government's doing. We shouldn't have to be introducing this Bill because the government should be doing the right thing by the billions of dollars that they've currently got pocketed in the Budget that they're using as election war-chests or to buy seats in the lead up to the election. But this will require the finance minister to have a much more timely way of reporting when Ministers have gone against the advice of their department or whether they awarded grants to themselves, in their own electorate, to actually make that public at the moment. It can take up to 16 months to make that information public. This would bring that and shorten that down to a couple of months. So, we'll be introducing that again. We shouldn't have to do that but that's what the position we're in considering, you know, the rorts in sports rorts and car park rorts, the Urban Congestion Fund and the 21 new funds that the Prime Minister put in this year's Budget. Thank you.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: National Cabinet has set a target, a vaccination target of 70 per cent before we move to the next phase of the so-called roadmap to freedom. Will we ever reach 70 per cent, do you believe, in this country?

ALBANESE: I certainly hope we do, and I encourage people to get vaccinated. I visited a mass vaccination centre at Logan Entertainment Centre on Tuesday with Jim Chalmers to thank the workers and to send a message that people do need to get vaccinated. Until we get the vaccination rates up and until we fix national quarantine, we'll continue to have announcements like we've had this morning with further restrictions on people's activity. People are doing it tough in lockdown. People in Sydney are really doing it tough, as people in Melbourne did beforehand. Southeast Queensland are doing the right thing by making an early decision, getting on top of any outbreak. Again, another outbreak from hotel quarantine can be sourced to there. Bear in mind, the Sydney lockdown can all be traced to one event, to one event with now 3000 people. Three thousand people affected directly by, the whole Greater Sydney Area, impacted by jobs lost, businesses shut down. We need to get those vaccination rates up. I think that we need to have targets. It is the case that last night, the Prime Minister said essentially, it'll happen when it happens rather than have any real target. He did say that it would be October was the date for Australians to be fully vaccinated. And it's very disappointing that as we speak, aged care workers are still struggling to get vaccinated half of them and fully vaccinated. People working in disability care. As of earlier this week, the figure for aged care workers working with homecare was just five per cent. We need to do much better than that. So, Australians have responded magnificently to the responses that have been called for. I say that those people considering going to these ill thought out demonstrations today, you will endanger your health, the health of your family, the health of communities. We don't need these demonstrations to take place like took place last Saturday. And I say to parliamentarians who encouraged this activity, you deserve to be better than that and the Australian Parliament expects our representatives to be better than that. And I say to Scott Morrison, get George Christensen and members of your government, in line. It's not good enough to say 'oh, well, that's just freedom of speech'. We need to do much better and people need to be responsible.

JOURNALIST: Is 70 per cent too high, although other countries have reopened at 50 60 per cent?

ALBANESE: Well, I've said that we should listen to the experts. In this case, the Government, that took them 18 months to do a report from the Doherty Institute. But now that it's there, then we should listen to those experts. And the whole way along. I've said we shouldn't second guess people. The Doherty Institute was tasked with that job. I'm amazed there's taken 18 months to come up with a figure of 70 per cent and then 80 per cent, for further opening up.

JOURNALIST: You agree with the experts that all people in Sydney who are able to should get an AstraZeneca jab as soon as possible?

ALBANESE: Yes.

JOURNALIST: Do you believe that all the states will stick to those targets set last night and ease off on lockdown once they get to the 70 - 80 per cent threshold?

ALBANESE: Well, I think one of the problems we've seen here is different aspects of information going out that has been contradictory and changes. What we need to do is to get the Commonwealth and the states on the same page, heading in the same direction. And certainly, whatever state or territory people are in, they need to get vaccinated. We need also, though, for the Commonwealth to do its bit. This has always been about supply. The problem is there hasn't been enough supply. People have been trying to get vaccinated. I've said a number of times, and it's still the case, that there are people in my electorate who will log on, try to get vaccinated, try and make an appointment and can't. That's not good enough. We need to make sure that people can get vaccinated, but we also need to make sure, as Katie has said, that the issue of national quarantine needs to be looked after. It's extraordinary that we've now heard evidence that, before the COVID Committee in the Senate, that in spite of the Prime Minister saying that they'd be 2000 places at Howard springs, that that simply isn't possible. That is not possible. And we've also seen problems with the government's proposed site that they put forward near Brisbane Airport, Pinkenba, have real problems, real issues that mean a real delay. We need to have quarantine facilities in place so 38,000 Australians stranded overseas who need to have the opportunity to come home, the Australian passport has got to mean something but they've got to be brought home in a way that is safe.

JOURNALIST: Picking up on what she was saying there about whether or not the state will actually agree with this or continue on this, we've seen agreement on roadmaps or paths or whatever you want to call it, in the past, and then the states and territories have been risk averse or they've had different circumstances detoured from those roadmaps. Do you actually think that we're at a stage now where this is something that everyone is going to abide by?

ALBANESE: Well, I think the states and territories have been incredibly responsible. It's Scott Morrison, who travelled to Queensland and said Queensland borders should be opened up was critical of the Palaszczuk Government for putting in restrictions as part of an election campaign. It is Scott Morrison, who stood in the Parliament the last time we sat and congratulated the New South Wales Government for not locking down. I think it's pretty obvious that that decision wasn't the right one that New South Wales made, and that's the knowledge by the actions that New South Wales is taking itself now. We look at Victoria today isn't in lockdown. The Andrews' Government took action early and now they're not locked down. Sydney remains, Greater Sydney remains in lockdown and the spread of the local government areas that are in strict lockdown has been increased as time has gone on.

JOURNALIST: Do you think the federal government should mandate that all public servants get the vaccine?

ALBANESE: I haven't given consideration to that. Certainly, I think that people who are working with vulnerable members of the community need to be vaccinated. Because obviously, and one of the areas I've raised, aged care workers working with people in home care. And I certainly believe that all Australians should be encouraged to be vaccinated. Part of, point three of my four-point plan I've been talking about for a very long period of time since last year, is an effective public information campaign to encourage people to be vaccinated. We simply haven't had one. And that has been one of the factors. But the reason why we haven't had one, as was evidence given to the Senate committee, was that the officials said that they were concerned that they wouldn't be able to meet any increased demand given that they couldn't, didn't have enough supply to meet the demand that was there already, those low levels of demand, and that's been the problem.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

ALBANESE: Well, there have been real issues with supply. We know that that's the case. We know that. I was in Maryborough this week, last week, the beginning of, last weekend, days fade into each other, it was last Saturday indeed. One of the things that they were saying there at the clinic was they weren't getting enough supply. Similarly, in terms of earlier on in Gladstone, it was a similar story. And at Logan, this week at a mass vaccination centre that's operating incredibly well, volunteers I met, one volunteer with Jim who'd come from Ipswich every day to volunteer, to help out her fellow Australians. They're the heroes of this pandemic, those health care workers and volunteers helping Australians out. At that max vaccination centre we're told they could do many more vaccines and they are if they had more supplies.

JOURNALIST: Do you think we can get to 70 per cent by the end of the year?

ALBANESE: Well, I certainly hope that that is the case. The government hasn't said, set timelines and targets. They used to do that, and it didn't meet any of them. We were told that people in category one I would be vaccinated by Easter. That still hasn't happened and we're almost at August. We were told four million vaccinations would be, people would be vaccinated by the end of March, and the Government missed that target by 3.4 million. They missed. They promised four million, they hit 600,000. A shortfall of 3.4 million. We were told that all Australians who wanted a vaccine would be fully vaccinated by October. And now the government says later on. So, this government has missed its own targets repeatedly. And now what they're saying is, they then spoke about horizons. Horizons, of course, I never met. They're, by definition, things that keep going backwards and I hope that that's not the case. I want people to be vaccinated as soon as possible. I want quarantine facilities to be up and running as soon as possible. I want Australians to be home who want to get home and be brought home safely. I want an effective public information campaign. I want us to be manufacturing mRNA vaccines here. I want no economic restrictions; people don't want that. It's a restriction on our daily life. The key is the two jobs that this government needs to get right - the effective rollout of the vaccine and national quarantine. Thanks.

JOURNALIST: Given your criticism of Georgia Christiansen, and saying that the Prime Minister needs to pull him into line (inaudible) undermining public health message, do you also have to have a word with some of your party's candidates such as your candidate in the seat of Higgins who's previously said that we shouldn't use the AstraZeneca vaccine?

ALBANESE: No, she said exactly the same thing as the messaging from the Prime Minister who held a press conference here late at night and said that people, under change to the health advice from ATAGI and announced that late at night. That was government advice, and Greg Hunt stood up also and said, 'if you're worried about this, there's other vaccines coming'. You know, you need to look at the timelines of when things are said according with the ATAGI advice and my message, very clearly, has been consistently consistent, unequivocal, without any prevarication. We need to listen to the health advice and ATAGI. That's my message.

ENDS