Transcript - Radio Interview– ABC Goldfields Breakfast with Ivo Da Silva- Wednesday, 15 September 2021

HOST, IVO DA SILVA: Do you think a $300 incentive would get people in the Goldfields vaccinated faster? That’s the solution Federal Labor MP and Shadow Assistant Minister for Western Australia Patrick Gorman has called for while visiting the Goldfields yesterday. He said it would be cheaper than dealing with a costly outbreak given the current levels of protection. Sean Tarek Goodwin caught up with Patrick yesterday.

PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: In my role as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Western Australia, one of my jobs is to make sure I'm getting out all across WA, listening to people, finding out what infrastructure we need, what disappointments or concerns they've got with the Federal Government, and making sure that we're really listening to people, as federal Labor, across all of WA.

REPORTER, SEAN TAREK GOODWIN: Okay. And what things have been highlighted with you?

GORMAN: The biggest concern that I've picked up is just the slowness of the vaccination rollout. So if I look here in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, we've only got 44.9 per cent of the population with one dose of vaccination. That's one of the lowest vaccination rates anywhere in Western Australia, and that's simply because there's just not enough vaccine supply and the rollout has just been so poorly handled. So for me right now, that's my biggest concern, because if we don't get the vaccination rollout right, we won't get the economic response right. And here in Kalgoorlie, there's been so many concerns about what happened in the Goldfields if the virus gets in, it would be an economic wrecking ball. So we really need to make sure that we don't let that economic wrecking ball of the virus dent things here because the vaccination rollout is too slow.

GOODWIN: Right, and beyond that, this area has the lowest Indigenous vaccination rates out of anywhere in the country. What should have been done differently and what needs to be done differently going forward to accelerate that?

GORMAN: We've got fabulous Aboriginal controlled health organisations, we need to be partnering with them. Giving them the resources to do the sort of communication that only they can do. We can have the national media campaigns and all the rest, but give them the resources. Up until recently, they haven't had enough vaccinations, so that's another problem. One of the things that's been suggested to me while I've been here is that we need to link the vaccination rollout with other ongoing health programs that are already running in the community. And in terms of what Labor has suggested would help is, we've suggested that for every Australian give a $300 payment. But we're all economic beings, we all respond to incentives. $300 - get vaccinated, it's very cheap compared to that economic wrecking ball that will swing through the entirety of the Goldfields if we don't get the vaccination rollout right.

GOODWIN: Right. OK, so on that similar kind of issue of COVID and health preparedness, there have been some fairly urgent calls to really increase … there were also already concerns and calls for our local hospital to be put under code yellow due to staff shortages, and this is the existing kind of health demand. Do you think enough is being done to ramp up the preparedness and provision of health services in our area for not if, but when COVID does get in?

GORMAN: I've been pleased to see the Health Minister and others say that they are confident that we have that surge capacity necessary to deal with COVID. But at the same time, obviously we do need more resources into our public hospital system. Australia, at its best, has one of the best public hospital systems in the world, underpinned by Medicare and strong State and Federal funding. It was good to see in the budget last week from Premier McGowan, an extra, I think, $1.8 billion investment into public health. One of the biggest challenges we've got, though, is at the moment is workforce, and it's making sure that we have the doctors, nurses, specialists and allied health professionals who can actually deliver those services, and at the moment we have people stretched for staff in so many industries. Of course we've got it in housing, we've got it in the mining industry, we've got it in health as well. And that's a challenge we're got to continue to see. I was very encouraged yesterday, though, to be meeting with the School of Mines to hear that they've partnered with TAFE to be starting a program where, from next year, they'll start teaching nursing at the School of Mines. So I mean, that's just a fabulous local initiative with one of our best universities in Australia. You know, obviously a part of Curtin University, making sure we're going to have that workforce for the future, because that's the long-term solution.

GOODWIN: On the State Government's kind of health announcements in the budget, we still haven't seen any detail of what's going to happen for our area and the breakdown of what the increase will be. And meanwhile, a lot of health practitioners in our area are very concerned about what's going to happen and have acknowledged the risk that we could have an outbreak tomorrow. Meanwhile, we've got the State Government talking about over the next year will increase capacity, 300 beds, some more doctors and nurses. Do you think there needs to be more urgency in increasing capacity?

GORMAN: I'm sure that we will see more detail put out from the state government. I mean, they only release their budget on Thursday last week. I'm sure we will see more detail from them about what that means right here.

GOODWIN: Okay, moving on from that, this is one of the trial areas for the cashless welfare card. Do you support that system?

GORMAN: I don't support cashless welfare card system. Labor said that we won't proceed with it if we are elected to government. While obviously wanting to make sure that people are able to provide for themselves and their families, that is an admirable value, what we've seen is it's a very expensive system to run. You know, it costs thousands of dollars per participant for that system. And I've been really concerned about the creeping of that system from targeted, now seeing that it's going to be rolled out potentially to pensioners, people on disability pensions, and I just worry that it's a very expensive system that really does penalize people, and particularly when it comes to pensions and older Australians I think now if you work hard your whole life, you know, I don't want to tell people they can't buy a beer, or tell people that they can't go to enjoy themselves a bit. It is a bit too nanny state for me.

DA SILVA: It’s eight minutes to 8 o’clock and that was Patrick Gorman, the Federal MP for Perth.