Transcript - Sky News with Sharri Markson - Sunday, 18 April 2021
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH SHARRI MARKSON
SUNDAY, 18 APRIL 2021
SUBJECTS: Vaccines roll-out; international travel; Bluey, funeral of HRH Prince Phillip
SHARRI MARKSON, HOST: My political panel, Liberal MP Fiona Martin and Labor MP Patrick Gorman in Perth. Welcome to you both. The Prime Minister has today flagged opening up international travel for people who have been vaccinated. He said they may be able to quarantine at home instead of in a hotel. But he's been quick to reiterate that any easing of the rules will be done in the most cautious of ways.
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SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER: I can assure Australians that I will not be putting at risk the way we are living in this country, which is so different to the rest of the world today, the issues of borders and how they're managed will be done very, very carefully and must be done in partnership with the states and territories. In terms of how the quarantine program works, public health orders control what is done with quarantine of returning Australians and residents.
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MARKSON: Patrick Gorman, is it too early to be having this debate about opening up when our vaccination program is still up in the air? Only 1.5 million people have been vaccinated. Or do you think it's time to return international students to Australia?
PATRICK GORMAN MP, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WA: Well, what I would like to see is some clear timelines around all of these things, they are interrelated and I believe that we should be a mature enough country to be able to have a sensible discussion about these things. But at the moment, we're always going to come back to the vaccine. The reality that we do not have enough doses of the vaccine to distribute to our population that the vaccine is behind its own schedule. I checked the numbers for Western Australia before I came on air. Seventy-six thousand West Australians only two hundred and forty-four vaccines administered yesterday. And if we're not going to get serious...
MARKSON: The question though as well is how many are sitting there unused. You know what? I don't have the figures for W.A. on hand, but what percentage haven't been administered yet?
GORMAN: Well, exactly, there's a lot of questions, and I think what's really clear from the Australian public and the people I talk to in my electorate is they want more transparency and they don't want to say they thought bubbles. Yes, of course, we would love to have people travelling around the world again. And that would be good for Australian businesses and good for reconnecting families. And I really want to see that, too. But I think people know that it's just false hope if you're not actually outlining when the vaccine is going to be rolled out. When are we actually talking about is this a thought bubble that's not going to happen until sometime towards the end of next year? It's really, I find it really frustrating that we can't nail down the prime minister to say, well, what is your timeline for the vaccine rollout? What is your timeline to get all those stranded Australians’ home? Because we can't really start...
MARKSON: We're going to talk about those stranded Australians in just a moment. But let's stick with this for a minute, Fiona, the prime minister did indicate that it might be the second half of this year when international travel might return for people who have been vaccinated. And he specifically said for employment purposes or medical reasons.
MARTIN: Yes.
MARKSON: Do you think Australians will accept some level of community transmission if people who have been vaccinated arrive home, quarantine in their own home, and that means there potentially would be breaches compared to a strict hotel quarantine scenario?
MARTIN: Yeah, look, there's always going to be a risk even when people are vaccinated, and we've been open and honest and transparent right from the beginning. Of course, we've had a vaccination portfolio of different range of vaccinations available. And anticipating what vaccinations would do over time is something that we couldn't have had prior, when we were securing our vaccinations. We've secured over 20 million doses now of Pfizer. We've been given advice from the experts regarding AstraZeneca, which we've actioned. And I think that, quite frankly, I wouldn't want to be in any other country in the world right now. We've successfully suppressed the virus here in Australia to date. And I think with over three million deaths now internationally from COVID, and countries like India clocking two hundred thousand cases a day and countries like Brazil, where there are more deaths than births, we should be very grateful, really, of what we've been able to achieve in Australia with suppressing the virus. I think there is no hurry. We'll always take the advice of the medical experts. And we can still go to the pub. We can still go to work. We can still go to school and go to the shops. So, we're very fortunate. We are to be able to carry about our business as usual.
MARKSON: Well, let's turn to the issue of the stranded Australians now. Patrick, the UN Human Rights Committee has ruled that the Australian government should, must, facilitate and ensure the prompt return of Australians stranded overseas. This was a case that Geoffrey Robertson brought to the UN Human Rights Council, and it was taken up by two men in particular. Do you think the Australian government does need to look at returning those who are overseas, who haven't been able to afford the business class flights to get home?
GORMAN: Yes, the Australian government does have a responsibility to help Australians get home to their country. Now, these two men should never have had to bring this case forward. I think it's a really sad reflection on Australia that these men have had to go down this path to assert their rights, to get home to the country that they love and that we all love. What I want to see is the government get serious about the charter flights that they have talked about and they've done a few. They should do a lot more. That's one thing that would actually help clear this backlog. The other thing that they could do is step up to the plate and take responsibility when it comes to quarantine here in Australia. Now, in my electorate of Perth, I've got CBD hotels full of returned Australians. Now we know that that's not the ideal place to have people because the workers that are in those environments are mixing with the community. We need the federal government to step up and look at regional and isolated mass quarantine facilities. They could step up some of the facilities that are in their control and that would help us clear the backlog. And again, I'll just come down to that thing that Australians are telling me time and time again they want, which is they want clear timelines from this government of, when is that thirty thousand person backlog of people wanting to come home, when's it going to be cleared? What is the pathway for all those people in those wait lists with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade? That's what I think people want to hear, and that's the plan that we still don't have from the government.
MARKSON: OK, I want to turn to a different topic now. There's been some debate, Fiona, about whether there's enough diversity in the children's show Bluey. This is originally raised on the ABC, of course. Yes. You're a child psychologist, so you have some expertise in this area. Do you think there needs to be more diversity in a children's dog cartoon?
MARTIN: Look, I think that Bluey's a great program. It has wonderful things in it for children and it has a lot of prosocial behaviours in it, lots of imaginative play and explore for children. I honestly think that it's fine as it is, quite frankly. And my youngest daughter loves the show. In fact, the whole family loves the show. And I think any comments about it being any different than what it is, is a little bit over the top, quite frankly.
MARKSON: Patrick, what do you think of this? You've also got young children. In fact, we all here have young children. I have found myself before watching Bluey after my two-year-old has gone to bed. I don't know how you would get more diversity in a dog, with dogs though. Very difficult.
GORMAN: Bluey is a fabulous program, I'm a huge fan. My claim to fame is that I can play the Bluey theme song on my guitar, I should have brought it along for tonight. It's a great program. It reflects positive parenting. You're not going to get a bad word from me about Bluey, but I've also noticed that the ABC, I mean, you've got, Playskool have Kiya, the new doll that's been added. If you look at, there's Mayor Goodway in Paw Patrol, people of colour, there's a lot of different programs. And I think the diversity that we see on television today, the programs that our children watch, is so far advanced on what I had when I was a child. I think we should celebrate that diversity and we should all, every time we hear this debate about what Bluey could be, let's just appreciate it for what it is. It's a great show that shows great ways to parent children. And that's a good thing.
MARKSON: Yeah, absolutely agree with that. And it is sometimes surprising when you look at some of the older children's programming that we used to watch. You know, we were watching the original Peter Pan movie a couple of weeks ago on the weekend when it was raining. And it is a shock to see some of the racist terms. I do not think it should be cancelled, but it has changed a lot in terms of what's acceptable.
MARTIN: Yeah, and sometimes when there are inappropriate things on TV, it's a good opportunity to have a conversation with your son or daughter about why it's inappropriate. So, you can use opportunities like that to have discussions about, you know, why, why something is inappropriate and kind of mould and shape behaviour accordingly. It opens up an opportunity to have a conversation with your child. So, whilst it might not be ideal behaviour at times, it is an opportunity to have a conversation, and that's really important, I think.
MARKSON: Look, let's turn to the very heartbreaking sight of The Queen sitting there on her own, bidding farewell to her beloved husband, 73 years of marriage. Patrick, you know that side, that solitary side to her and it was captured so beautifully, I think, on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph today. It just, you can't help but feel so devastated for her.
GORMAN: No, you can't, and I think it's really tough to watch someone have to go through that in public, and I think it just shows you the strength of Her Majesty The Queen and the way that she has conducted herself throughout this, it must be incredibly tough. And I think all Australians, whatever your views on the monarchy, are to that family. It is both nice to see them able to reunite, but also, it's tough to watch. It really is.
MARKSON: Yeah, it is. And Fiona, you know, The Duke Prince Philip's funeral also provided a chance for the first time for Prince Harry and Prince William to reconnect. It was reportedly the first time they had spoken since that very explosive Oprah interview, that very damaging Oprah interview. It was nice to see that in grief, hopefully the brothers will have a chance to repair their relationship.
MARTIN: And I think too, Prince Philip, ninety-nine lived a life of service and he did an incredible job representing Britain and the Commonwealth and very fond of Australia as well. I think he came to Australia over 20 times and Australia was represented in the ceremony with an ADF personnel present during the ceremony. And I think, you know, it was good for the two princes to be together while they were dealing with their grief for their grandfather.
MARKSON: I mean, how it's being portrayed with Kate playing the role in bringing them together, you know, compared to Meghan, who is seen to have pulled the brothers apart, I think is an interesting contrast as well. Fiona Martin and Patrick Gorman, thank you both very much for joining me this evening.
MARTIN: You're very welcome.
GORMAN: Great to be on the program.
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