SUBJECTS: Christmas Day at Exodus Foundation; testing queues; Federal Government failures to plan; rapid antigen tests. 

CHRIS O’KEEFE, HOST: These testing queues, at the moment, I really, they’re just beyond farcical. You’re talking kilometres and kilometres, four or five hour waits, just to get a test. And Dominic Perrottet saying, “Well, if you haven't got symptoms, don’t get a test”. But tell that to the tens of thousands of people who either feel under the weather because they think they might have caught Omicron or have been deemed close contacts. But don't forget, too, if people are working they are still required by their workplaces to get a test. So this is a matter of putting food on the table, they've got to get a PCR test, produce a negative, so they can go to work. Now for more on this, I'm joined by the Labor leader, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Albo, Merry Christmas.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Merry Christmas to you, Chris and to your family.

O'KEEFE: And how was your Christmas Day, mate? 

ALBANESE: Oh, it was good. I spent it with Bill Crews at Exodus Foundation there. They fed some 2,200 people, did it in a difficult way this year, because of COVID. They had long queues, went for blocks, in order to make sure that people had got tested and, if not, they had to purchase themselves, rapid antigen tests, for people. And people who were unvaccinated got served on Liverpool Road in a different way. So, no one missed out. But it's just a terrific day to see kids who mightn't can get a present otherwise queue up and get their present from Santa and Mrs. Claus who were there. And to see people who might spend their Christmas Day by themselves, people who are homeless, people who just don't have families. And having that sense of belonging, to me, is really the spirit of Christmas. And well done to Bill Crews, once again, and to all of his volunteers, and well done to 2GB too, they always broadcast there on Christmas Day.

O'KEEFE: Special bloke, Bill Crews, isn’t he? And the Exodus Foundation, they do wonderful work. Now these testing queues, something's got to give. This is not sustainable.

ALBANESE: It is just diabolical. If you were on the Central Coast or in the Hunter yesterday there was no chance of you getting tested. And I have been contacted by people, one woman whose whole family is sick, they queued only to be turned away, told there's no chance. They can't get a doctor's appointment. It is just a dreadful situation. And once again, throughout this pandemic, it's been very clear to me that you needed to get the health outcomes right in order to then get better economic outcomes. It's not either-or, but it's always health first, because otherwise, the consequences are there. And we're seeing the economic consequences, because people are cancelling their dinners, their times out. The streets are pretty quiet, I've got to say, because people are reluctant to go out and mix, particularly if they haven't been able to get a test and they're not feeling 100 per cent. Or for many people, of course, they're required to get tests in order to go to work, and they can't get access to rapid antigen tests. You try and get them in a pharmacist and there's none available. It is just not good enough. Given that we have known that these circumstances were coming once we started to open up. The health ministers have been telling us this, the experts have been telling us this, and the Government has been just unprepared.

O'KEEFE: Well, it doesn't make any sense to me, because it's not like COVID’s new, we've been dealing with it for two years. But it feels like, with the testing queues we're seeing around Sydney and Brisbane at the moment, it’s almost like it's snuck up on us. 

ALBANESE: Well, the one, for example, at the International Airport has been shut down, it doesn't exist anymore.

O'KEEFE: What, so COVID takes a public holiday, does it? Because there's only one testing clinic in the Sutherland Shire, one testing clinic in the St George region for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and today on a public holiday. Look, I know people need to take a break. But, fair dinkum, this thing’s ripping through the two, throughout Australia at the moment. And there's doesn't seem to be any testing capacity.

ALBANESE: No, that’s right. And yesterday, I think people would have been very concerned with the comments of Brad Hazzard saying that, essentially, we're all going to get Omicron. And I think that it's not what people want to hear. People want to hear that we're doing our best to minimise the impact. We know that it's a difficult issue. No one's saying it's easy, but simple mechanisms being put in place, you know, the mass vaccination centres worked. When people got access, finally, to the supply of vaccines people are prepared to do it, people want to do the right thing, just like people want to do the right thing by their friends and families and get tested. Because whilst it would appear that the evidence is that Omicron has less of a health impact than the Delta variant, it still has a significant impact. And people want to know if they are positive. And it's just extraordinary that the mechanisms haven't been put in place. And this has been an issue now for weeks. It's not like it's just been over the holiday period.

O'KEEFE: It’s not getting better is it?  

ALBANESE: It’s getting worse. Because places like the Central Coast and The Hunter and some of the suburbs, St George, some of Western Sydney, are really struggling to get a test. And the frustration that's there for individuals that I know who've tried to get a test, driving round, trying to find somewhere with all of the queues that are there, it is a diabolical circumstance, and it's one that's leading to increased anxiety, increased impact as well on people's mental health. It’s just not good enough. 

O'KEEFE: Well, the answer is that rapid tests. That seems like the answer, if the best we can do is a 72 hour turnaround at the moment for the PCR. So the rapid tests are the answer, but they've been used in the UK now for the best part of 12 months. Yet for some bizarre reason, Mr. Albanese, you can't get any in Australia at the moment, they're not in the country.

ALBANESE: In the UK, for some time now, you've had packs of seven delivered to people's households for free. And here in Australia you have a really difficult circumstance whereby people aren't sure about what the rules are. I’m traveling in the next couple of days, going to Adelaide, and we're trying to work out whether I need to have a PCR test, or whether I get a rapid antigen test when I arrive, it's a bit complicated.

O'KEEFE: Good luck finding a rapid antigen test, though. You can't find them. It's like The Hunger Games trying to find one. It’s like toilet paper, but 2022.

ALBANESE: As you said, we are nearing 2022 with something that's called COVID-19. And the hint’s there with the ’19’. It's been around for a long time now. And we've done, through our scientists around the globe, including here in Australia. we’ve done quite an extraordinary job to develop a vaccine. The mRNA vaccines have been very effective. To develop one that's available for boosters, to develop these rapid antigen tests, surely, getting the science is the first step. The second is getting people to believe and to listen to the science and Australians have done that. They’ve gone out, they've got vaccinated, they're getting out, they want to get their booster shots. But the third element is to make it available.

O'KEEFE: But why is the Prime Minister refusing to do so? But why is the Prime Minister refusing to, and it's now on Dominic Perrottet and Dan Andrews, in Victoria, and Annastacia Palaszczuk in Queensland. They're the ones who are going to buy these rapid tests. And I would have thought it would make more sense for the Federal Government, through Medicare, to dispense them. They’ve all got our tax file numbers, they're quick to grab the tax off us when we need, when we owe tax to them. But they don't seem to want to send us rapid tests that will take a hell of a lot of pressure off all these queues we're seeing all around the country?

ALBANESE: Well, why did the Prime Minister say the vaccine rollout wasn't a race when it clearly was, and the rest of the world knew that? Why is that we still haven't had purpose-built quarantine facilities built so that we didn't have the breakout from our hotels. Why is it that when I called for, following the calls from Brad Hazzard in New South Wales and the South Australian Premier and other state leaders, Labor and Liberal, to reduce the time between the second vaccination and the booster shot Greg Hunt said that that was a bad thing to do and irresponsible? Less than 24 hours later, he announced exactly the same thing, and brought it forward to four months. 

O'KEEFE: If you were Prime Minister, would you be sending them to people's homes, these rapid tests?

ALBANESE: I’d be making sure that I put in place a mechanism so that they were available and so that no one couldn't get access. As a minimum, no one was excluded from access because of the income. 

O'KEEFE: Well, Mr. Albanese, Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. You’ve got a big few months ahead of you, and all the best for the campaign. And thank you for joining 2GB and 4GB.

ENDS