TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - 2 AUGUST 2021

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH KIERAN GILBERT
MONDAY, 2 AUGUST 2021

SUBJECTS: COVID outbreaks; ADF in Western Sydney.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Manager of Opposition Business, Tony Burke, thanks very much for your time. We're seeing the ADF support in your part of Sydney now. Do you welcome that support for the police there?

TONY BURKE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS: Look I’ve been scathing about the lack of consultation over it. Now that it's going to happen we need to find a way of making it work. So I've started talks with the government, for some of the community Zoom meetings and different consultation meetings that members of parliament have been running, just like we have with the New South Wales police, trying to involve the Defence Force in that, so that people can get the accurate information. It could have been smoothed over so much more easily. But effectively, big media release, major announcement, “boots on the ground” - people felt that they were in some way being not trusted. They were conscious that the government said don’t lock down Bondi but then send the troops in on Western Sydney. It's no fault of the Defence Force, we'll find a way to make it work. But I have to say the consultation and the way it was done was hopeless.

GILBERT: Well, Brigadier Mick Garraway, the national commander of the operation, he's been in touch with the Imam’s Council. So that consultation clearly has improved since the announcement. You'd welcome that those discussions are being held there?

BURKE: Absolutely. And this is where, you know, before I did any media on this, I contacted the other federal members, the state members, the mayor, the different community organisations, including the one you just mentioned, and no one had been told a thing. So if this is going to happen, we want it to work. We want people to be safe, we want people to feel safe. It was just a very ham-fisted way to start. I should say I don't blame the Defence Force for that at all. But the government has ready access to the community leaders and to the members of parliament. And to just adopt a media strategy was really silly. We need to be working together on this.

GILBERT: Dan Andrews implemented citywide curfews last year. They were in place for some time. Do you think given schools are not opened now to all students, that kids aren't in the classroom, that's a big threshold you would think. Is it time to go a step further and look at things like curfews just to try and get this dealt with?

BURKE: Any decisions that are made if they're made on solid health advice we have tended to back them in. And so wherever the health advice leads, I'm not going to prejudge it, I'm not going to pre-empt it. But it's pretty clear looking backwards that when Mr Morrison was putting pressure on New South Wales and trying to keep them in a situation of not locking down, we'd be in a very different situation now if they had taken tougher actions then. Exactly how tough we need to be now, I'm happy to be guided by the health advice.

GILBERT: The Eid festival in recent weeks, has that been an issue that the authorities have had to manage? Obviously it's a big festival in communities in Sydney and right around the world. People like to share it with loved ones. Has that been something that they've had to grapple with?

BURKE: Look, all the conversations that I've had with people during Eid, because I was hitting the phones and wishing people an Eid Mubarak at that time, there's a personal sense of festival but none of the big events took place. Now, if you ended up with an individual who went house to house, we don't know about that yet. And I certainly haven't seen evidence that that's happened. But with everything, one of the challenges is disproportionately in my part of Sydney, you have people who cannot work from home. Disproportionately, you have people who have been viewed as essential workers during all of this. So they have to go out, they have to mix in those work settings. And then when they get back home, disproportionately, they're bigger households, and often intergenerational households. So you would have noticed in some of the New South Wales briefings where they’ll refer to someone having died or someone elderly having contracted it, and they'll say it was from a household contact. We have a lot more people where the elderly relatives live at home where the younger children are as well. So there's particular risk factors in my part of Sydney.

GILBERT: We've seen pictures today of long lines at pharmacies to get the jab. Has there been an uptick in terms of those wanting to be vaccinated?

BURKE: Oh there's no doubt about that. And we've all been working really hard on the communication. But the other thing that we've been doing is making it more available.

GILBERT: Are the community leaders helping in that? There’s obviously a language barrier as well for certain families. Many families.

BURKE: Right from bishop to pastor to imam, people have been making public when they've been getting vaccinated which has been really helpful throughout the community. But the other thing that myself and the local state members, particularly Jihab Dib and Sophie Cotsis have been pushing for are community locations to be vaccinated. So you would have seen reports last week of the Lebanese Muslim Association getting 700 people vaccinated across three days. Similarly across Ashfield, Reverend Bill Crews with the Exodus Foundation, had a whole lot of people vaccinated out there. Next to the Orion Centre at Campsie, we're now pushing for more locations. What it means is, it's not only closer to home – and not everybody's got a vehicle - but it also means when you're in those queues lining up, you're seeing other people you know get vaccinated as well. And that of itself helps build community confidence.

GILBERT: Tony Shepherd, the chair of Venues NSW, has said today that once everyone's had the chance and been afforded the opportunity, that once that's done venues in Sydney won't be allowing people who have not been vaccinated. Do you welcome that sort of initiative? Qantas has had a similar message in terms of the private sector. Is that where we're heading?

BURKE: I don't think there's much doubt if you look at the rest of the world, that's where we're heading. The problem that we have is the vaccination rates in Australia are so low. I saw Tom Connell earlier on Sky going through state by state what the percentages of people over 16 are. And when you've got figures that haven't hit 20 per cent yet, you have this challenge: if you get a breakout and we overwhelm our public health hospital system, even if you're vaccinated, if you have a car accident and you need to get intensive care or you need a ventilator, you're hit by the same logjams in the public hospital system. So this is where we need to get those community rates up. And it's why we've been so critical of the Prime Minister failing in his two key jobs of quarantine and vaccine. Even if you're vaccinated, you're not fully protected in the hospital system unless the rest of the community gets vaccinated as well.

GILBERT: Mr Burke, I appreciate your time. Another big parliamentary fortnight, we'll chat to you again.

ENDS