E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC STEPHEN CENATIEMPO BREAKFAST SHOW
TUESDAY, 13 APRIL 2021

SUBJECTS: Political panel with Zed Seselja; Vaccine rollout; NDIS changes.
 
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: Well it's time for our Tuesday political panel and it seems like I haven't spoken to these two for ages. Joining us is the Labor Member for Canberra, Alicia Payne. Alicia, good morning and welcome back.

ALICIA PAYNE, MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Good morning, Stephen. 

CENATIEMPO: It's probably only been a fortnight but it just seems like forever.

PAYNE: I think it has only been a fortnight or maybe an extra fortnight this time.

CENATIEMPO: And your sparring partner this time around,  Zed Seselja, the ACT Liberal Senator and Minister for International Development in the Pacific. Morning Zed.

ZED SESELJA, SENATOR FOR THE ACT: Good morning, Stephen. Good morning, Alicia.

PAYNE: Morning, Zed. 

CENATIEMPO: Zed, the Australian medical officials are working through the logistics of this COVID vaccine rollout now, but the Government has abandoned targets. And it seems like abandoned a plan for this rollout. I mean, is this a mistake?

SESELJA: Well, I wouldn't accept that characterisation, Stephen, we haven't abandoned anything. What what we're working through is the challenges of rolling out vaccine, over a million Australians have been vaccinated to date. And that's increasing every day. But of course, there's been some challenges in the rollout. And you'd expect that I mean, we've seen that around the world. And obviously, there was the challenges with the doses that were coming out of Europe. And we've seen the particular advice we received last week about AstraZeneca, which meant we just needed to recalibrate and focus obviously that not on under 50s. But of course, we've responded to that by getting extra Pfizer vaccines, an extra 20 million doses. And what we're doing is that we're seeing our economy roaring back because of the way we've managed the pandemic. Australians are in a very good position as we roll out the vaccine rather than what we see in many parts of the world where there is a desperate need for these vaccines at a time where still many people are dying. There are major lockdowns, something we're not experiencing in Australia. So yes, there's been some frustrations along the way. But the the the planning remains that we're going to continue to ramp up the amount of vaccines that are delivered to the community quite rapidly. But yes, there's been some setbacks, which has forced us to recalibrate some of those numbers.

CENATIEMPO: Alicia, nobody could blame the Government for the health advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine. I'm mean the risk of blood clots, which to me seems quite minimal and maybe a little bit of an overreaction. But we have put our eggs in one basket a little bit, haven't we?

PAYNE: It's correct. It's a shambles, really, as Zed said, you know, we've had around half a million people vaccinated now, but the Prime Minister had promised that it would be...

SESELJA: No, no, over a million, I said, over a million. 

PAYNE: Okay, sorry Zed, but my figures say half a million. But we were told by the Prime Minister that 4 million would be vaccinated by the end of March. So we're well behind and that was, you know, Labor have been saying we should have had around six vaccination deals all along to avoid situations exactly like this with AstraZeneca. We've heard this morning that we also can't have the Johnson and Johnson vaccine partly because the Government has failed to put in a no fault compensation scheme that they require to sell vaccinations into a country.

CENATIEMPO: Zed, I mean, look, I don't necessarily disagree with the Government's reluctance for that compensation scheme. But I mean, why didn't we have more vaccination deals in place?

SESELJA: We've got deals for around 170 million doses. The challenges around the world in acquiring doses are significant. That's why we developed our own manufacturing capacity with CSL here in Australia for 50 million doses. That's why we've got deals with Pfizer, with Novavax with the COVAX facility. So those several deals, to deliver 170 million doses is putting our eggs in a number of baskets, so to speak, and ensuring that we have diversity of supply. Now, there is great competition around the world, there's no doubt about it. That's why we we did focus on ensuring we had sovereign capability, which we're delivering. We also focused on delivering deals with Pfizer, and that's 40 million doses. And of course, there's been some frustrations in some of what we've contracted with Europe. So it's well and good for the Labor Party in opposition to say, you should have you know, 6 deals, 10 deals, 20 deals, I mean, they can make up whatever figures I like, what we've had to do is actually go into the world market and compete. And we are one of the only nations that that's producing our own vaccines. And we've contracted for 170 million doses much more, obviously, than is needed to vaccinate the entire Australian population.

PAYNE: Sorry, Zed why make promises that you can't keep. I mean, people understand that it's a complex process, the vaccine roll out, but they need certainty around when they will be able to get vaccinated, and our economy needs that certainty. So why does the Prime Minister make promises that clearly are unachievable?

SESELJA: Well, Alicia, what the Prime Minister has been doing all the way through this, this very, very difficult year and a bit since this crisis emerged is showing great leadership in the midst of an opposition who, who will criticise anything, unless it's one of their state colleagues who are failing, such as we saw in Victoria.

PAYNE: No, I completely reject that.

SESELJA: If I can finish, if I can finish because you know, you're throwing around the questions, Alicia. So in response to your question, of course, we're gonna, we're gonna set targets. And of course, the Prime Minister will be frustrated if some of those targets can't be met. But if you look at the factors in that, of, you know, doses not been delivered out of Europe, when when we'd contracted for them, or the changed advise, where we sit, is that we have a situation where we have very low rates of COVID in Australia, we have an economy that's recovering very strongly, we had vaccines that are being delivered, well over a million that have been delivered now. And that will continue so you know, the Labor party will sit there and as they have been for the last eight years and criticise everything that the Government does, and and showed no real constructive solutions. But we're dealing with the great challenges. Most of what we said, whenever we put forward policies, you said they wouldn't work? Well. You said it wouldn't work for the economy, it's working for the economy, we have very low rates, you wouldn't want to be almost anywhere else in the world right now than Australia. But yes, there are frustrations in government, when we want to get things moving more quickly and we're working very hard to continue that.

PAYNE: I need to respond to that sorry, Stephen, because that's just simply untrue. We have been 

SESELJA: Which part?

PAYNE: an incredibly constructive opposition, 

SESELJA: Come on.

PAYNE: the part about the Prime Minister showing leadership, we, if you compare us to your response during the global financial crisis, when you fought everything that we tried to do to keep our economy going, and you can go back and look at the votes in Parliament, and the fights that were had, we have been constructive. We've had a Prime Minister that's been dragged kicking and screaming into taking responsibility for anything. It was us who lobbied for a wage subsidy when he said it was not going to happen before we got JobKeeper. You know, it's us who've been supporting what you're trying to do. And a Prime Minister that's blamed premiers and blamed, you know, everyone else except himself when things have gone wrong.

CENATIEMPO: Alicia in fairness, the state premiers, both Labor and Liberal have been pretty ordinary through this with with one exception, and I don't know that pink bats is the is the thing to hold up as the gold standard. But we need to move on from this. Alicia you're concerned about this proposed introduction of a compulsory independent assessment for the NDIS scheme, talk us through that.

PAYNE: Yeah, so people in the disability community are rightly incredibly concerned about this proposal, which will mean that they will need to go and see a team of Government medical professionals that they have never met before, rather than those that they may have been working with their whole life in order to have their plans reviewed. And many people have contacted me very concerned about this. And this comes at a time where we've seen a number of incredibly concerning things regarding the NDIS. We've seen leaked legislation that shows how much the Government is planning to destroy the NDIS frankly. For a long time I've said that they've been neglecting the implementation, but I think it's fair to say now they're trying to destroy it. Not putting choice and control

SESELJA: Alicia, that is a lie. I mean, that I mean, 

PAYNE: No Zed

SESELJA: To say, in the NDIS, a Government that is that has 432,000 Australians now on the NDIS, an extra 93,000 in the last year, to suggest that, is that really the Labor Party's position?

PAYNE: So what about the secret proposal

SESELJA: No that is an outrageous statement

PAYNE: to give the minister

SESELJA: you know it's a lie. 

PAYNE: 'god powers'.

SESELJA: You know it's a lie you will say anything

PAYNE: No no it's not. No I won't say anything

SESELJA: You're scaring people on the NDIS

PAYNE: I'm telling you people say to me about

SESELJA: when we are delivering for a record number. What what a disgraceful statement

PAYNE: Do you meet with your constituents Zed that have problems

SESELJA: What an absolutely disgraceful statement. You don't, you do not believe what you just said.

PAYNE: I absolutely do. And I say that as someone

SESELJA: For 432,000 participants

PAYNE: who's been on the NDIS Joint Parliamentary Committee, someone who works

SESELJA: 432,000 participants

PAYNE: with my constituents who are absolutely worn down by the bureaucratic violence that is inflicted on them by this Government as they are just trying to get the support they need to live a life of choice and control which was supposed to be the central principle of the NDIS and this Government is doing everything to make it about cost cutting, assuming people are trying to rort the system when all they want are the supports they need to live their lives. Why is it making 

SESELJA: That is an absolute lie Alicia and and if I could now respond

PAYNE: Well what are these what are these secret

CENATIEMPO: Alicia you've had your say. Zed, I'll give you 30 seconds to respond to that then we've got to wrap it up unfortunately.

SESELJA: This is a Government that has now 432,000 participants, 93,000 more over the last 12 months, 212,000 receiving supports for the first time. This is a Government that doesn't just talk about the NDIS, this is a Government that delivers the NDIS. We've shown our commitment in real terms to those 432,000 people who are on it and for you to say to them that we are looking to destroy the NDIS when we are delivering for them every day through this program

PAYNE: Well, comment on these new on this legislation 

SESELJA: Frankly it is outrageous allegations. It is outrageous

PAYNE: on these public servants rewriting the independent review 

SESELJA: and it's just another reflection of the fact that the Labor Party will say and do anything, regardless of the facts.

CENATIEMPO: Unfortunately we've run out of time. I'd love to let you guys go on for another hour. Alicia Payne, Labor Member for Canberra, Zed Seselja ACT Liberal Senator, thanks for your time this morning. 

SESELJA: Thanks Stephen.

PAYNE: Thank you.

CENATIEMPO: That was a bit of fun, wasn't it?

ENDS
 
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