E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AFTERNOON AGENDA
FRIDAY, 30 JULY 2021 

SUBJECT: Political Panel with Andrew Wallace MP; NSW Lockdown; Vaccine Rollout; Quarantine Failures; Economic Support for NSW.

DANICA DE GIORGIO, HOST:  Now it is time to discuss the day's top stories. Joining me live are Liberal MP Andrew Wallace and Labor MP Alicia Payne. Great to see you both, thank you for joining me. Let's get straight into it. Of course National Cabinet is currently meeting to discuss a threshold, that threshold for how many vaccinations it would take across the country until we are able to ease restrictions. Andrew, we'll start with you, that figure of 80% has been thrown up today in particular, if we do reach a threshold once decided upon by the end of the year, should lockdowns become a thing of the past?

ANDREW WALLACE, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR FISHER: Well look certainly that's the whole idea of it Danica. You know, we want to see lockdowns become a thing of the past, we need to get back to living our life as normally as we possibly can. The PM is working closely with the Doherty Institute, we'll take some advice from them. We'll also take advice from Treasury and the state treasury officials just to really try and nut out what that magical figure might be whether it's 70%, 80% time will tell over the next couple of weeks. But clearly, you know, we need, Australians need that something to look forward to and hopefully, the more people that we get vaccinated then the closer we are to returning to some degree of pre COVID normality.

DE GIORGIO: Absolutely. And I think that's the magic number that so many Australians are really desperate to hear. Alicia, the Prime Minister said this week that we won't have lockdowns after Christmas, do you think he's right?

ALICIA PAYNE, LABOR MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Well, the Prime Minister loves to make promises to us about what we'll have for Christmas, but we're often waking up on Christmas morning disappointed. Last year, he promised that all Australians would be home by Christmas and we've still got 38,000 people, including over 4000 vulnerable people and over 400 unaccompanied minors who are stranded overseas. So he's saying that we'll be vaccinated by Christmas. I hope that's true. But I have no confidence in that from the Prime Minister. We are currently in lockdown now, because of his Government's mismanagement of the vaccine rollout. If this had been managed properly, we wouldn't be in lockdown right now.

WALLACE: Of course, what Alicia's failed to point out there though, is that it's been the Labor members, the Labor Premiers that have halved the intake, the quota of people coming into the country. So they can't have it both ways. They can't, on the one hand, say, well we want to reduce the number of people coming into the country and then be crying crocodile tears for those people that we can't get back into the country for that very same reason.

PAYNE: Yeah, wow so what we've seen from Andrew there is the classic, not my responsibility of the Federal Government, which must be the lines that Scott Morrison's training them all to say. Those caps were reduced again, because people have not been vaccinated. If we had already that magic number of people vaccinated, we would be opening those borders. And in fact, if the Government had taken responsibility for national quarantine as they should have, we would also be able to bring those people in, in an orderly manner. In fact, the Howard Springs facility, our only purpose built national quarantine facility is currently operating with well under half the capacity that the Prime Minister himself said earlier this month that we would have, and that's in spite of those reductions in the international arrivals. So again, how is the Prime Minister, when is he going to step up and solve this problem? When are we going to see those people brought home. It's a Federal Government responsibility?

DE GIORGIO: If we look at the current situation across the country, we've got Victoria that's just come out of lockdown number five, they took a very hard and fast approach against the Delta variant. New South Wales now extending its lockdown by another four weeks. Andrew, New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has said that things are likely to get worse before they get better. Is this a lesson that perhaps the hard, short circuit breaker lockdowns are the better approach right now in this country?

WALLACE: Well, I think the only degree of certainty involved in the way that we're dealing with this pandemic is that there is no certainty, it would seem that in recent experience that a hard short sharp lockdown is the way to go. But look there are no there are no rules with this. I mean Delta virus has written its own rules, it's certainly been a lot more virulent than what we've seen in the previous iterations of this virus. So this thing continues to morph into other types. We've got to take the best advice that we can, the best health and economic advice that we can assisting those along. But look, you know it's very easy for the Labor Party as they've done pretty much since the second half of last year to sit on the sidelines and throw stones. 

PAYNE: Well, wow, so we've clearly seen that short

WALLACE: Once again, it's time for the Labor Party to really get on board and be working for the entire country rather than be playing this stupid, ridiculous, petty politics that they are doing.

PAYNE: Wow, okay so here was I thinking that the Federal Liberal Government was managing the vaccine rollout and national quarantine but apparently it was the Labor Opposition, silly me. I think we've clearly seen that short, sharp, lockdowns have worked. But again, all of this, you know, pitting state premiers against one another is a distraction from the fact that these are Federal Government responsibilities that have been shirked time and time again by this Prime Minister. And that's what we keep seeing from this Government. It goes back to the bushfires, 'I don't hold a hose mate'.

WALLACE: Well Alicia, you'd have to concede Alicia that that agreement was made by the parties in National Cabinet at the start of February of last year, the premiers and the Prime Minister agreed 

PAYNE: The vaccine rollout is a clear Federal Government responsibility, right?

WALLACE: Hang on no, you hang on hang on a minute, did, the premiers and the Prime Minister in National Cabinet around about March of last year agree that the premiers that the states would be responsible for quarantine? that is the fact. That is irrefutable.

PAYNE: No, it is clearly a Federal Government responsibility that the Prime Minister and the Liberal National Government has shirked time and time again. If the vaccine rollout, if we had a proper devised

DE GIORGIO: Just on that point, just on that point, Alicia, in the last two weeks or so, we've seen a bit more Pfizer doses come into the country. There's been a guarantee almost that we will see the vaccine rollout ramp up come October. Do you think that that's enough of a guarantee to suggest that perhaps the vaccine rollout is on track?

PAYNE: No, absolutely it's not. We are still not past Phase 1A, we still have aged care workers who are not vaccinated. Clearly if we had a proportion, a much higher proportion of people vaccinated we would not be in lockdown now. This is Scott Morrison's lockdown. This is a direct result of the bungled vaccine rollout and a failure to do national quarantine, a failure to manufacture mRNA vaccinations here and a failure to do an effective communications campaign right from day one.

DE GIORGIO: I just want to get final word from both of you just in regards to the payments that we've seen. They have obviously, additional government support been announced this week, Andrew Labor is is keen for a JobKeeper style subsidy scheme to be returned. Why has it taken the Federal Government so long to come up with these additional payments?

WALLACE: Well, I think it's important for the Government to do these things incrementally as the as the problem manifests itself. You know, we came out very quick and hard with JobKeeper when the virus first hit us last year. And you know, we had the Labor Party on one hand, saying that it was too generous. And they're still saying that JobKeeper was too generous. But now they're out there today saying it should be reintroduced. So once again, it's Labor speaking out of both sides of its mouth. The reality is.

DE GIORGIO: Alicia, I’ll just throw over to Alicia because we are running out of time Alicia, the Federal Government maintains that it's new payments that these streamline the approach, it's better long term than JobKeeper, so why is Labor still continuing with its pleas to introduce that subsidy scheme?

PAYNE: Yeah well, Andrew seems to talk a lot about the Labor Party, but he failed to answer your question Danica, which is why has it taken this long? JobKeeper was withdrawn too early in March and since then we've seen most states have a lockdown. Why has it taken this long for the Government to stump up some sort of economic support for Australians who are struggling?

WALLACE: They're getting the same support today, those that need it,

PAYNE: But why has it taken this long? Why has it taken this long?

WALLACE: The same support today then what they were at the peak of what they were getting under JobKeeper last year? So you know the argument doesn't wash Alicia.

PAYNE: Well, what about Victorians? They didn't receive anything when they were in an extended lockdown.

WALLACE: Well, I mean, that's not that is fundamentally incorrect. Are you saying they didn't receive anything? 

PAYNE: Well no it's not.

WALLACE: Are you saying people in Victoria didn't receive anything?

PAYNE: Well, they've had an extended lockdown since March when JobKeeper was withdrawn. It's taken until now for this to be announced. And because of the way this has been bungled

WALLACE: Alicia that is wrong to suggest that the Victorians did not receive anything. Victorians did receive economic support.

PAYNE: Then why is it being announced now? Answer me that Andrew. Why is it being announced now? Why is Scott Morrison announcing now?

WALLACE: What is being announced now is the Delta variant of this is seeing things like a longer shutdown, a much longer shutdown in New South Wales. When Victoria was shut down for months last year JobKeeper was active.

DE GIORGIO: Alright. Well, you know what, it's been a very fiery debate, but I think we can all agree that support is what is needed the most right now for many Australians struggling out there with these lockdowns. We do have to leave it there, what a terrific fiery debate we've had this afternoon. Liberal MP Andrew Wallace, Labor MP Alicia Payne. Thank you. We'll see you again next week.

WALLACE: Thank you. 

PAYNE: Thanks for having us.

ENDS
 
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