SUBJECTS: Vaccine rollout; Respect@Work report; sexual harassment in the workplace; Tommy Raudonikis; asbestos; mesothelioma. 

JOE HILDEBRAND, HOST: Well, obviously, the other big story today, there are so many of them out there, is the delay or concerns around the AstraZeneca vaccine because of potential links to rare blood clots. And joining me on the line now is someone who has been highly critical of the Government's vaccine rollout for a long time. In fact, even before it began. Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese. Welcome to Afternoons. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: G’day, Joe. Good to be with you. 

HILDEBRAND: What is your concern about what is happening with the AstraZeneca vaccine now? Isn't the Government right to pause it for the under-50 cohort out of an abundance of caution? 

ALBANESE: Well, the Government is right to follow the expert advice now. But it's wrong to have not followed the expert advice and hedge bets, essentially mitigate risk by having five or six vaccines lined up as other countries in the world have. And the Government's also not right in the way that they've made promises and simply haven't delivered them. The promise that we were first in the queue, and we're actually at the back of the queue where we're struggling to be in the top 100 countries in the world for the rollout. The promise that there'd be four million people vaccinated by the end of March. We're now in mid-April and we haven't hit a million people yet. And then the promise that everyone would be vaccinated by October that they’ve walked away from as well. People just want to know when they're going to be vaccinated and want certainty here. 

HILDEBRAND: Isn't it fair enough, though, that it does appear that the EU is playing funny buggers with the vaccine and the Government has managed to smuggle out, if you like, about 700,000 doses from Britain, I mean, some of these circumstances are beyond the Government's control, it's fair to say that, isn't it? 

ALBANESE: Well, the fact is that other countries started doing deals over vaccines in March of last year. The Government waited until September before they started to do deals and then simply didn't do enough deals so that there's no deal over Moderna, which has been rolled out in North America and Europe, there's no deal over Johnson & Johnson. They essentially have had all their eggs in the AstraZeneca basket, and the chickens have come home to roost. Because when there's a problem, they haven't had other options, whereas in other countries, for example the UK, when they also have placed restrictions on the AstraZeneca vaccine being rolled out, they've been able to just slot in the Moderna vaccine and the additional vaccines that they had available to them. No one asked this Government to make the promises that they did. And we were warning last year, Chris Bowen, myself, we were saying, as were the medical experts, saying the Government needed to make sure they managed risk. 

HILDEBRAND: To try to get more options?

ALBANESE: That is right. It's just a bit of common sense. 

HILDEBRAND: So even if we say, ‘All right, fair enough, the Government should have done that. But the horse has bolted’, a lot of our listeners have written in to say, ‘Well, look, we are where we are, it's time to stop criticising and to try to find solutions’. What would you like to see the Government do and what will you support it in doing to try to remedy this problem? 

ALBANESE: Well, they need to get these deals done. They need to stop just saying, ‘She'll be right, mate, we're going well, we are first in the queue’, when we're not. They need to stop the hubris and the spin and actually be honest with the Australian public. Australians want to know what's happening. We have under 20 per cent of aged care residents have received the vaccine. They've stopped rolling it out to essential workers, including aged care workers who are being told now to go visit their GP. That's really not good enough. We need to make sure that this is done in a systematic way, to use an old-fashioned term, the Government had one job this year, and that was getting the vaccine right. And it needs to get it right. We've been constructive. We were saying last year that they needed to make sure they had access to more vaccines in case something went wrong. We know that the University of Queensland one, for example, fell over last year.

HILDEBRAND: And they were trying to do that as well, sure. I understand that. Now, the other big story, obviously, coming out of Canberra is the sexual harassment laws, or the new laws, which are going to make it clearer for employers to be able to terminate people for sexual harassment. Are you satisfied that they go far enough? Or do you share the concerns of the ACTU that this could in fact be used by employers to get rid of people? For example, employers are calling for exemptions from unfair dismissal proceedings if they sack someone for sexual harassment.

ALBANESE: Well, what I'm concerned about is primarily that Kate Jenkins' recommendations haven't all been adopted and that she's expressed her real disappointment. One of the things that we've been talking about in recent weeks and months is increasingly the need for us to listen to women and to listen to experts. Kate Jenkins, as the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, has made those recommendations. The Government waited for more than a year before they responded. There's no legislation. There's no money. There are just vague commitments.

HILDEBRAND: Do you think if an employee is sacked for sexual harassment, they should not be able to pursue unfair dismissal through the Fair Work Commission?

ALBANESE: Well, we'll look at any legislation that's put forward. We think that every worker deserves to be safe at work. Every worker. And there needs to be recognition of that. 

HILDEBRAND: Okay. And the other thing I want to ask about, speaking of behaviour, our listeners are absolutely furious with two incidents of the Deputy Premier in Queensland, I know it is not your jurisdiction, but he is in your Party and he is in your faction. Do you support him using the Brittany Higgins' alleged rape case in an argument with the Commonwealth about vaccines or using the death of Tommy Raudonikis to try to score points about WorkChoices?

ALBANESE: Look, I haven't seen all of those comments. I do know that the Federal Government have tried to pick fights with various state governments, including the Queensland Labor Government, over issues related to the pandemic.

HILDEBRAND: No one begrudges the argument or the fight, but using someone's death or using an alleged rape is not right.

ALBANESE: Tommy Raudonikis was a legend. I represent both western suburbs, the old Magpies region of around Ashfield, of course, and of course, Newtown. And Tommy Raudonikis was a fellow I had the privilege to meet a range of times. And my only comments about Tommy Raudonikis is to express condolences, not just to his related family, but his broader family that is many thousands of rugby league lovers. He was a great Australian.

HILDEBRAND: Well said, Albo. If only the Deputy Premier of Queensland had been so circumspect in his views. I also wanted to raise with you the case of James Wallner, which I know you're familiar with. He came on our show a couple of days ago, this is what he had to say.

JAMES WALLNER: I can accept the disease. What I can't accept is the buck-passing that's going on between federal and state governments. I am imploring the Federal Government to come forward, assist the ACT Government, come up with a proper scheme that takes into account the pain and suffering, the loss of income, the fact that they had no role in any of this, and assist the family I'm leaving behind. 

HILDEBRAND: Now, as you may have gathered, James is dying of mesothelioma from asbestos that he thinks he probably inhaled when he was a kid growing up in Canberra in one of the so-called Mr Fluffy houses which had asbestos for their insulation. Would you be prepared to take up the case for James Wallner to the Health Minister, Greg Hunt, who I know is busy and I know he's been engaging with James Wallner, but would you be happy to take the case to the Federal Government to try to make sure that James Wallner gets some kind of compensation before he dies for something that happened to him when he was a child that has now become a death sentence?

ALBANESE: Look, absolutely I would, Joe. This is such a dreadful disease. And a friend of mine acted for many of the victims of James Hardie, employees and others, who were impacted by mesothelioma. And one of the things that she really hit home to me was that many of the corporates were essentially trying to hold off compensation until people died. And the treatment of these people, they deserve respect, and they deserve compassion. And the Federal Government should step in here and make sure there is an appropriate support for people who fall outside the current schemes. And that's an issue I will be happy to take up. 

HILDEBRAND: Anthony Albanese, Labor Leader, thank you very much for doing that. And thank you very much for joining us on Afternoons.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Joe.

ENDS