E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC STEPHEN CENATIEMPO BREAKFAST SHOW
TUESDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2021
SUBJECTS: Political panel with Zed Seselja; vaccine rollout; industrial relations; JobKeeper; the Pacific.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: Joining us on the line, the Labor member of Canberra, Alicia Payne. Alicia, good morning.
ALICIA PAYNE, MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Good morning, Stephen.
CENATIEMPO: And from the Government, Liberal Senator and Minister for International Development of the Pacific, Zed Seselja. G'day, Zed.
ZED SESELJA, SENATOR FOR THE ACT: G'day, Stephen. Morning Alicia.
PAYNE: Morning Zed.
CENATIEMPO: Very good news this morning. We finally got the Pfizer vaccine has landed in Australia, the Eagle has landed. 142,000 doses. And the vaccines could start rolling out here in the ACT next week. I mean, this is good news, Zed.
SESELJA: Yeah, look, it's fantastic. And obviously, as we've worked to deal with this pandemic, and so far, compared to most countries very successfully, of course, the development of vaccines been critically important. And the Australian Government's been very clear that we want it to go through all of the proper processes. So people can have absolute confidence when they take it that the same processes that their kids' vaccines have gone through over a number of years. So this will be fantastic news. And we'll be getting it out, of course, to frontline health workers, to people in aged care to people with particular vulnerabilities first, and then over the next few months, obviously rolling it out across the population. So really good news is part of our recovery, our economic recovery. And obviously, it'll be the first step towards being able to deliver more freedom and more prosperity for us going forward.
CENATIEMPO: Alicia as somebody that is local here in Canberra, are you, how do you feel that the rollout is gonna go here in the ACT as opposed to the rest of the country?
PAYNE: Well, it is, of course, great news that the vaccines have arrived. But there are questions about the supply and delivery and how that's gonna work. And one of those questions is how will it be distributed among the states and territories? So, we don't know when the ACT will necessarily get those and where there'll be in that pecking order.
CENATIEMPO: Yeah, well, Zed is there is there any more information on that that you can give us?
SESELJA: Well, I think, I mean, I've seen the reports that the ACT will potentially be rolling it out from next week. So obviously, there'll be doses coming here, in terms of the exact detail of how many go to each state and territory, that's, that's a matter for the Health Minister. But we've made it clear where the priorities will be. The priorities, of course will be if someone's working in hotel quarantine, of course, if someone's a frontline worker in places like aged care and nursing, but then a whole range of other important industries and vulnerable individuals. And of course, our elderly who are the most vulnerable to it will be very high up on the list as well.
CENATIEMPO: Jobs and industrial relations are going to dominate the week in Parliament. Labor has unveiled its suite of industrial relations policies, the Government's got its own industrial relations bill before Parliament. There's debate over the future of JobKeeper and JobSeeker. Alicia, this Labor policy that's being bandied around, it's trying to invent the wheel reinvent the wheel, isn't it particularly with the gig economy?
PAYNE: Well, I think given that secure work is under attack under this Government, we've needed to do that. So we've got a plan that will ensure that people have more secure work because particularly as we're coming out of a pandemic, it's secure work that will enable people to spend money. When you have a secure job you can get a home loan to buy a house. When you've got a secure job you can feel like going out and buying things. Going to, you know, restaurants, and frankly feeding yourself and your family properly, putting petrol in the car, things like that. And this is so important at this time. This is not the time to be cutting JobKeeper. It's not the time to be attacking the pay and conditions of Australian workers.
CENATIEMPO: Zed, are the conditions of Australian workers being attacked, with particular reference to the gig economy? These things have been set up as contractor based businesses. Why? Why are we trying to change that?
SESELJA: Well, look, it's unclear how the Labor policy would apply, what it would mean, what kind of a cost to business and to jobs there would be. One, one thing that emerged over the weekend with Sally McManus confirming that the Labor policy in relation to casuals would actually see them forced to give up that loading in order to get access to other benefits. Now, what we want to do for casuals is give them the choice after they've worked for a certain period of time. If it is a regular type of employment, they could have the choice to go on to permanent employment. But of course, there's a trade off isn't there between casual loading and all of the other benefits that come when you're a permanent employee. The Labor Party seems to want to force casuals to do that. That's what they've announced and what Sally McManus confirmed. So a lot of people choose casual employment. It's remained about constant over the last 20 years or so about 20 to 25% of the workforce depending on how you measure it. So we think that that casual choice is important. But we've got a bill that would actually give people the option to move to permanent, where their job looks and feels a lot more like a permanent job.
CENATIEMPO: Alicia, I want to focus on JobKeeper for a moment. Surely you agree that it has to stop at some point?
PAYNE: Of course, it has to stop at some point. But I don't think that point is now and when I talk to businesses in Canberra, they're saying that particular sectors and industries need this support. For example, some areas are going okay. And that's wonderful. But there are many parts of the economy that are not yet back on their feet, particularly industries, tourism, hospitality, the cinema, independent cinemas is one that has had a week of action last week, because they've obviously been particularly hard hit with not only all the restrictions on operating, but also the fact that no movies are coming out. People are unable to hire staff, under the current JobKeeper rules. So it needs to be revisited and extended for particular industries, it needs to be specific help for particular parts of the economy continuing I think.
CENATIEMPO: Well, Zed that's a good point. I mean, I don't advocate continuing JobKeeper. But certainly there has to be some sort of targeted and, and tailored provisions for certain industries that are going to continue to struggle.
SESELJA: Well, I accept that point. But that's not I mean, it's contradicting what Alicia was just saying. I mean, she was saying JobKeeper needs to be extended, but then particular supports need to be directed. I think it's true, that there are of course, a number of industries that continue to be affected. And the Government, just as we've done all throughout this pandemic, stands ready to work with those industries to try and assist them and assist those workers in those industries. But we always said, that JobSeeker and JobKeeper in their in their current form would would be phased out or job JobKeeper would be phased out and JobSeeker of course, we'll be looking at at how it is going forward. But there's no doubt that it was never going to go on forever, it can't. So we'll look at the targeted support. And we should be very proud of the fact that so many people are coming back into work, because our economy is recovering that will continue. But of course, we'll be very mindful of those people working in industries who are still doing it tough.
CENATIEMPO: Alicia, I'm gonna let Zed be a little bit self indulgent at the moment and talk about his new role as Minister for International Development of Pacific. It must be, I guess, a difficult job to settle into given the way that our relationship with China is going at the moment and particularly our role in the vaccine rollout in the Pacific.
SESELJA: Well, the vaccine rollout is really critical in the Pacific. So we're obviously we're focused first and foremost on Australia. But we've made it very clear that we're not going to leave our Pacific neighbours and friends behind. So we have committed to working with people like countries like New Zealand, the United States and France to ensure the entire Pacific is completely vaccinated, has access to vaccines. I think that's important, as good neighbours. But I think it's also in our own interest to make sure that our region recovers very, very strongly in a number of those countries that we like to visit. We haven't been able to visit places like Fiji and Vanuatu and others have been not hard hit by COVID. Because they have done very well to keep it out. But they've been massively hit in their economies because of the lack of tourism. So yeah, really important that we continue to work with them. It's a real moral responsibility. They're they're part of our neighbourhood. They're part of our family. And we'll work very closely with them.
CENATIEMPO: Alicia, just quickly before we go, are you concerned about China's inroads into Papua New Guinea?
PAYNE: Well, I think it's obviously a situation we need to monitor and, you know, yes, I think that's something that the Government needs to carefully manage. Absolutely.
CENATIEMPO: Thank you for your time this morning. Alicia Payne and Zed Seselja.
SESELJA: Thanks very much, guys. Cheers.
PAYNE: Thanks. Thank you, bye.
CENATIEMPO: Alicia Payne, Labor Member for Canberra. Zed Seselja, Liberal Senator for the ACT.
ENDS
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