Transcript - Doorstop Interview - Perth - Wednesday, 14 April 2021

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PERTH
WEDNESDAY, 14 APRIL 2021

SUBJECTS: Visit to WA; Scott Morrison’s lack of presence in Western Australia; vaccine rollout; Christine Holgate.

PATRICK GORMAN, MEMBER FOR PERTH: I am Patrick Gorman, the Federal Member for Perth. And it's great to have Anthony Albanese here in the heart of Perth at Yagan Square, part of the Perth City Link, a project that Labor funded, that Anthony was the lead behind when he was Infrastructure Minister. And Anthony has been here now for four days. A big, substantial visit across Western Australia. And just as we're concluding that four-day trip, who should rock up in WA but Scott Morrison. Now, Scott Morrison has not been here for 18 months - 538 days since Scott Morrison was last here in Western Australia. And in that time, the one thing that Western Australians remember that he has done was back Clive Palmer in the High Court against Western Australians. There is no doubt that when you talk to ordinary Western Australians, they know Scott Morrison is not on their side. Scott Morrison left them in the lurch in the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. And now he's back here with no plan for WA jobs, no plan for WA manufacturing, and no plan for the vaccine. Anthony, on the other hand, is on the side of WA. He showed that last year. He showed it when he funded and built Yagan Square and the Perth City Link. He can list the infrastructure that he has built here in Western Australia. And he knows that the future for Western Australia is in manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and more local jobs, just like what we've seen here with the C-class trains, 246 of these going to be built here in WA because of a Labor Government. What we need to supercharge that is a Federal Labor Government, a Federal Labor Government that will have a National Rail Manufacturing Plan so we can have a future made in Australia. Now, I'm passionate about trains and Anthony is passionate about trains. We could talk a lot more about them. But I might hand over to Anthony because there's also some huge challenges in terms of the vaccine rollout.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Patrick. And it is great to be here at Yagan Square. This project was one that has transformed Perth by uniting the CBD with the North Bridge precinct, opening up this city, making its quality of life so much better, making an enormous difference to productivity and allowing for an expansion of the rail network. We also have a plan for a National Rail Manufacturing Plan. Labor Governments like building trains. Liberal Governments import trains from overseas that aren't fit for purpose whenever they are in Government anywhere in the country. It is one of the major differences between the two political parties. The Australian Labor Party that supports jobs, that supports local manufacturing, that wants to build back better after the pandemic, and a complacent Liberal Government that's been in office for eight long years, that's tired, that's run out of ideas, that is completely engaged in a way in which they are simply not delivering. If you look at the gap that's there between promise and delivery of Scott Morrison's Government, it is there right across the board. But there is nowhere that's more important than in the rollout of the vaccines.

The fact is that Scott Morrison contracted out to the states most of the responsibility during the pandemic. He was responsible for a few things, though. The app that no one's used and that has been of no purpose and that cost a lot of money. Secondly, aged care, where he passed off responsibility, didn't have appropriate safety mechanisms in place, even though the Federal Government is the founder of aged care, the regulator of aged care, and establishes all of the rules and is quite clearly responsible. And the third area, of course, is the area of the vaccine rollout. We said last year that they needed to do five or six deals, that was international best practice, in order to secure a roll out of the vaccine that would ensure people's health was looked after but so that the economy could be opened up. It was the key. And today we have more thought bubbles. Today we have Scott Morrison saying he is placing Australia on war footing. What's his response? A couple of meetings a week. You know, we will, under Scott Morrison, we will meet them on the beaches, we will meet them on the phone hook-ups. That's his idea of war footing. The fact is that he is responsible, and the Federal Government is responsible for the deals on vaccines. And the problem that you have is you can't have a rollout of the vaccines if the vaccines aren't available. And the Federal Government hasn't made the vaccines available. They put all their eggs in the AstraZeneca basket and then the chickens have come home to roost when that has failed. Unlike other countries, like in the UK that's been able to step up with the Moderna vaccine in order to take the place of AstraZeneca when restrictions were put in place. Australians are now waking up every day to a new announcement about the vaccines, about what will happen with the rollout, about what's appropriate for them to have. And it is creating a great deal of confusion out there. Scott Morrison had just one job this year, it was to get the vaccines right. And it's been bungled. It's been bungled by his Government. And now once again he's gone back to the old playbook of saying he will have more meetings with the states and territories so that he can pass the buck, so that he can pass blame off to the states and territories for the failure that has occurred with the rollout of vaccines. That is the responsibility of his Government. Whenever Scott Morrison has a problem, whether it is bushfires, whether it be the rollout of the vaccines, whether it be issues related to gender and the treatment of women, he never takes responsibility, he always looks to blame someone else. And the vaccines are too important for him to play political games. He needs to put in place absolute certainty as to what is happening because Australians need to know when they are going to be vaccinated. But at the moment, it changes from day to day.

JOURNALIST: You touched on it just there, Scott Morrison's announcement that he will hold twice-a-week meetings with National Cabinet. Is this the PM conceding that there is a bigger problem with the Federal Government's vaccine rollout?

ALBANESE: This is the Prime Minister conceding that he is not doing a good job with regard to his responsibility. He had just one job this year, roll out the vaccine. And now he's saying he will meet with the states twice a week, undoubtedly so that he can then spread the blame and blame the state governments, as he tends to do. He is always looking for someone else to blame and never taking responsibility. Well, Scott Morrison is in charge of the rollout of the vaccine. He needs to take responsibility. He needs to put in place mechanisms that ensure that it occurs. He now has walked away from targets after failing to meet the four million target that he, himself, set. The problem with Australians looking at what he says is that it changes so often. He told Australians they shouldn't get their health advice from Facebook and then made a major announcement on Facebook in order to avoid scrutiny from press conferences, such as the one I'm holding here today.

JOURNALIST: Do you think the twice weekly Cabinet meetings, do you think they will resolve the vaccine issues?

ALBANESE: Well, you don't get more vaccines by holding a meeting with state premiers. This is a meeting-led recovery from this Government. What Australians want is results and outcomes, not more meetings in which he seeks to spread the blame. This is a classic Scott Morrison tactic that he does over and over again. He goes to the same playbook. The next phase, I predict to you, will be as he's briefed out in the papers this morning, to say that there has been failure of the Commonwealth and of the states and territories. That's not right. Mark McGowan has done his job of keeping West Australians safe. Scott Morrison has not done his job in doing exactly what he said would happen with the rollout of the vaccines.

JOURNALIST: Can I briefly ask you about another issue?

ALBANESE: Sure.

JOURNALIST: In light of what we heard from Christine Holgate yesterday, do you regret saying that her position as Australia Post CEO last October was untenable?

ALBANESE: Well Scott Morrison's comments in Parliament made that position untenable. Scott Morrison effectively sacked Christine Holgate on the floor of Parliament during Question Time in response to a question from me that was about the Australia Post board. It didn't mention Christine Holgate. He effectively sacked Christine Holgate on the floor of the Parliament. After that answer, of course, how could she continue? And that was the evidence that was given. And at the same time, we know that prior to that Question Time, she had already been contacted by Tony Nutt, a former Liberal Party director, former campaign director in New South Wales and federally for the Liberal Party, as well as in Victoria, who's one of the Liberal Party appointees on the Australia Post Board that's been stacked by political appointees rather than with experts. Christine Holgate had a fine career in Blackmores and then went to Australia Post. Labor asked questions about taxpayers' funds in Senate estimates. That is what Senate estimates is for. That is our job to do that. Scott Morrison once again attempting to blame someone else for actions for which he, himself, is solely responsible. No one wrote Scott Morrison's script for him in Question Time. And what Christine Holgate said in evidence yesterday, quite rightly, was to draw a comparison with her treatment by Scott Morrison during that Question Time, and we know that before that Question Time a message had been passed on directly to Christine Holgate saying that she should step aside from the members of the Australia Post board, and we know that at the same time the issue of the watches was one in which we know now the evidence is that they were accompanied by a handwritten card and message from the Australia Post chairman to the recipients of those watches. Scott Morrison always looks to not accept responsibility for his own actions. He owns this. And Christine Holgate, I think, gave very strong evidence before the parliamentary committee yesterday outlining the facts of the matter. They are facts that should have been known to Scott Morrison and to the Minister for Communications at the time because they should have made it their business to find out before they reached the conclusions that they did.

JOURNALIST: Mr Morrison said (inaudible) WA presence in your Shadow Cabinet. Are there enough West Australians in your Shadow Cabinet?

ALBANESE: Scott Morrison has got one too many people in his Cabinet. And the name is Christian Porter, who we know remains in the Cabinet despite the fact that there hasn't been an investigation into the very serious allegations that have been raised about whether he's a fit and proper person to continue to serve in the Cabinet. There needs to be, at the very least, an investigation into these matters given the revelations that have occurred this week with regard to a failure of the police to conduct an interview at the time. We need to know why that occurred, because it seems to me to be inexplicable for people who followed what occurred. Scott Morrison hasn't been here for 18 months. During that time, I've travelled here on at least eight occasions since his last visit. Scott Morrison takes Western Australians for granted. And if you compare, to go back to the previous question as well, Christine Holgate compared her treatment with the treatment of Christian Porter, who remains in the Cabinet, of Senator Reynolds who remains in the Cabinet even though she called Brittany Higgins a ‘lying cow'. She remains in the Cabinet, as does Christian Porter. The fact is that Scott Morrison has held onto his WA Cabinet ministers because it's impossible to get the sack, no matter what you do, if you're a member of Scott Morrison's Cabinet. But if you are Christine Holgate, you can get the sack on the spot during Question Time.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) the idea that mining companies from WA should be able to take charge of the rollout of vaccines amongst their workforce?

ALBANESE: Well, it's another thought bubble from the Prime Minister. Mining companies don't have access to the vaccines. If the vaccines aren't there, they can't be rolled out by anyone. The problem here is that people with disabilities were told they'd have their vaccine by now. That hasn't occurred. People in aged care haven't all received their vaccine. Aged care workers were told they'd get their vaccine, then now they are being told to go to their local GPs. Local GPs don't know how many vaccines they are getting and when they're getting. I met with a range of GPs last night here in Perth who were very disappointed and expressing their dismay at the actions of the Federal Government in not providing certainty. They were telling me about the confusion that is there from their patients ringing up, being told when they've seen press conferences from Greg Hunt and Scott Morrison saying the rollout is happening right now and you'll all get your vaccines in March, ringing up to make an appointment, but the vaccines aren't available. Scott Morrison needs to actually be clear about this response. The problem for this Government is that in response to any question, they don't think about what's right, they don't think about what can be achieved, they don't think about an outcome. They think about, 'How do we manage this politically?' And Scott Morrison's interview was all about political management. Political management of the vaccine rollout, political management of the Christine Holgate issue, political management about the treatment of women that has occurred. Well, what I've heard, during the four days I've been here in Western Australia, is that Western Australians are very concerned about the failure of this Government to speak up and act appropriately when it comes to the treatment of women. They're concerned about the failure of the vaccine rollout. They're concerned about the failure when it comes to supporting Australian jobs and building back better. They are concerned about security at work. They're concerned about all of these issues. Scott Morrison leads a Government that's been in office for eight long years, is tired, is out of ideas. And at the next election, they should be out of office.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: I made those comments because Scott Morrison made her position one in which you couldn't possibly continue after that Question Time response. That's just a fact. When the Prime Minister says she should step aside and go, and if that won't occur in terms of the board, she should go. That's what he announced during Question Time. That was an announcement by the Prime Minister that made her position as untenable as if the head of Channel 10, with due respect to you, said, 'You should go this afternoon from your job'. That would make your position not one in which you would be able to continue. That's what occurred during Question Time. No one made Scott Morrison say that. The question was about the actions of the Australia Post board. That was his response. And he is responsible for that. With regard to Christine Holgate, I think her evidence was compelling. And that is evidence that should have been known to the Government. They should have found out the facts. It is appropriate that Labor will ask questions in Senate estimates about the spending of taxpayers' money. That's what Senate estimates is for. Labor Senators did their job. I hope they will continue to do so about expenditure of taxpayers' money. Because we know that under this Government, with Sports Rorts, with Community Safety Rorts, with their money being funnelled for advertisers and for polling, the same companies that do the polling for the Liberal Party during election campaigns, we know that there's a real issue with the Liberal Party treating taxpayers' money as if it's their own. Which is why Labor Senators use Senate estimates to ask questions about the use of taxpayer funds. And that's entirely appropriate. Thanks very much.

ENDS