SUBJECTS: Vaccination rollout shortfall; Andrew Laming; ALP Special Platform Conference; Labor’s National Reconstruction Plan; Federal Election timing. 
 
RECORDING: I live here in Marrickville with my son Nathan. But my story begins here, in a council house in Camperdown. Just me and Mum. She wasn't well. And it wasn't easy. But all things were possible. I had opportunities. When I went to uni, it was free. When I bought my house, it was affordable. Australians aren’t greedy. We don't want too much, just fairness and opportunity. Some people go through life not picking sides. I get that, but it’s not me. I learnt from a young age, watching my Mum deal with a health and welfare system that wasn't always on her side, just how that can hurt people. So, a long, long time ago, I did pick a side. I chose to side with those who believed every Australian should have access to health and education and affordable housing. I chose to side with working people who wanted a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. I chose to side with those who know that action on climate change is urgent and economically smart. I chose the side that believes everyone should have the same opportunities, regardless of their post code. And I've spent my life fighting hard on the side of those Australians. As the Member for Grayndler, and as Deputy Prime Minister, and now as Leader of the great Australian Labor Party. I did pick a side. Yours.
 
MARCUS PAUL, HOST: Alright, there we go. Look, it's very clear that Labor on a federal level is now well and truly on election footing. Anthony Albanese is the federal Opposition Leader. He joins us on Marcus Paul in the morning. Albo, good morning to you.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Marcus. Thanks for having me on.
 
PAUL: My pleasure. The Federal Government have missed it by just that much. We’ve fallen 3.4 million doses short of the four million vaccination target by, well, yesterday.
 
ALBANESE: Well, it's a shocker. The Prime Minister said very clearly that we would have four million people vaccinated by the end of March. And they’ve fallen so way short of that. Some 3.4 million short. And it's a bit like their JobMaker programme where they promised 450,000 people would be assisted and, as of last week, 609 had been assisted into work. This is a government that's very big on promises, but not so good on delivery. And for them to come out yesterday, as they did, and try to put in the media that it was all the states’ fault, when quite clearly the states have all responded, not surprisingly, very aggressively to that suggestion, whether it be Gladys Berejiklian’s government in New South Wales or Annastacia Palaszczuk’s in Queensland. They don't always agree but they certainly agreed yesterday. And I'm not surprised because we have circumstances whereby, for example, aged care residents have been vaccinated but the workers who look after them haven’t been. The government needs to get this right. And at the moment, they’re simply not, according to their own data and their own targets.
 
PAUL: Well, I saw yesterday the Health Minister of New South Wales, Brad Hazzard, and the Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, you know, for the first time in living memory for me, actually criticise the Morrison Government because they feel like they're being the ones hung out dry. New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the New South Wales Government was asked to roll out 300,000 vaccinations to its groups in 1A and 1B. Of that, we've done 100,000. The Federal Government is responsible for 5.5 million people and they have rolled out 50,000. The figures speak for themselves.
 
ALBANESE: It was an extraordinary statement from Brad Hazzard. But I'm not surprised. He was right. For the Government to always want to blame someone else. This is a Prime Minister who will never take responsibility. He said, of course, during the bushfires, “I don't hold a hose, mate”. And that's the approach that he seems to take to everything. The so-called National Cabinet process has really been a process of giving more responsibility than ever before to the states and territories. And, by and large, they've done a good job. But as soon as something goes a bit wrong, they look to point the finger somewhere else. They pointed the finger yesterday at their Coalition colleagues in New South Wales and Brad Hazzard and Gladys Berejiklian basically said, “We’re not copping this”. And I don't blame them.
 
PAUL: Alright, Andrew Laming. He's on an MP’s salary. He will continue to receive that money while he receives some counselling, some awesome understandings from experts on how to show empathy, how to behave himself. Should this man be shown the door?
 
ALBANESE: He should be out of Parliament and he should be out of Parliament today, just like the state member for Upper Hunter resigned yesterday as a result of there was a bit of leadership shown and his own colleagues said that his behaviour was unacceptable and he shouldn't continue to be a Member of Parliament. And nor should Andrew Laming. First we had the Prime Minister say, “Oh I've asked him to apologise, I’ve pulled him into the office”. So Andrew Laming went into Parliament on Thursday afternoon and apologised as one of the last things that happened before the Channel Nine story went to air. And then we had, in the next day, put up on Facebook, essentially, “I was only joking, I don't know what I apologised for.”
 
PAUL: Well, he just doesn’t get it, Anthony.
 
ALBANESE: Yeah. And then we had more revelations about upskirting, taking a photo of a woman bending over at work who, some of her underwear was showing, taking a photo of that, which is very clearly against the law. And then providing excuses, that he was just showing, wanted to take a photo of someone who was trying to put too many cans or bottles in a fridge.
 
PAUL: A challenging work situation. 
 
ALBANESE: Unbelievable.
 
PAUL: I would argue a challenging work situation is a visiting MP taking photographs when they're not supposed to of women when they’re actually working. I mean, I don't know whether any permission was sought. I doubt it. It shouldn't have happened. This bloke needs to go in every day he remains as an MP within the Morrison Government is another day that women around Australia can't take Scott Morrison seriously when he says he's on the side of women and that he gets it and that he understands. He quite simply does it. I mean, if Scott Morrison wanted to show to the people of Australia that he gets it, either he or his new prime minister for women would be showing this bloke the door. He has to go.
 
ALBANESE: Well, this bloke is going to be sitting in the Liberal Party room. It's just extraordinary. Scott Morrison says, “Oh I can’t interfere”. This is a Prime Minister who wrote a reference and a letter asking for Andrew Laming to be re-endorsed when some of his locals were onto him a while ago. This is a bloke also who has harassed online his own constituents, some of them for a period of years. He’s harassed the state MP up there, Kim Richards. She’s a very good local MP. He's actually put stuff up online offering prizes for people to basically stalk her and say where she is at particular times. I mean, this behaviour is beyond the pale. And Scott Morrison, if he thinks this will just go away, is very, very wrong.

PAUL: Well, just on that, I mean, you say the Prime Minister says his hands are tied and he doesn't want to interfere. Well, that didn't stop the Premier of New South Wales and the Deputy Premier of New South Wales interfering, if you like, in the issue surrounding Mr Thompson [sic] in New South Wales. I mean, at the end of the day, I think this bloke Andrew Laming, his days are numbered. Again, for people in Australia to take the Prime Minister at his word that he's listening and he understands, every day that Mr Laming remains as a part of the Government, as part of the fabric there in Canberra, is another day people just don't believe Scott Morrison.
 
ALBANESE: Compare that, Marcus, as well to the action I took when people weren’t, in my view, fit to remain a member of the Labor Party. I took action and removed them.
 
PAUL: I said Thompson, I meant to say Mr Johnsen. Now, just to some other issues, you held the national conference, the Labor conference, earlier this week. A suite of announcements were made in relation to battery storage, some incentives for people to buy electric vehicles in the years to come. It's a look forward toward the future. But importantly, Anthony, you do want to get our manufacturing back on side.
 
ALBANESE: I do. We announced a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund that will be available to provide loans and support to the private sector, including superannuation funds to make sure that we actually build back better. The pandemic has exposed some of the weaknesses in our economy. We need to identify areas in which we can have investment to grow jobs, to either transition existing industries through the use of renewables to cut their energy costs, or for new industries. We produce everything here that goes into a battery. Products like lithium and copper and nickel. We need to be making those things here and exporting them to the world. We had that opportunity. We should be taking it up, making sure we grow jobs, particularly in our regions. But making sure our economy is more resilient to shocks. Because we know that when the pandemic hit, we didn't even produce enough personal protective equipment
 
PAUL: Well, no. And we were importing things like masks, for goodness sake.
 
ALBANESE: That's right and we can make things here. We've been very smart over the years at new inventions, everything from new forms of solar panels, to WiFi, to cask wines, all sorts of things, screw tops, all sorts of things.
 
PAUL: Just on that point. You know, we're a country that brought world WiFi, yet we premiers around some of our states, including New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, saying things along the lines of, “We just don't make stuff well”.
 
ALBANESE: Oh, absolutely. Well the great example is trains that are being built in Maryborough for the Queensland Government at the Downer EDI site. They used to be built in the Hunter Valley. They are being built in Victoria. And what we have is importing trains that don't fit stations, can't go through tunnels, we're importing ferries that can't go under bridges along the Parramatta River and Sydney Harbour. It makes no sense. We should be producing these things here. We did for more than 100 years. We can make them here. We are producing, I've been up at one of the sites in the Hunter Valley where we're actually importing the carriages that go into to carry coal and natural resources to the port, and then they're being cut up and changed their size here, because they don't fit. We could be making all of those things here and making sure that we get the spin-off of jobs. This is a government of course that dared the car industry the leave.
 
PAUL: And it did. 
 
ALBANESE: And they did. They heard the message. We need to make things here.
 
PAUL: Just quickly, before I let you go, Anthony. Can you see Scott Morrison calling an election this year? I think we're probably now a year or so away, considering all of the drama and turmoil that's engulfed the LNP at the federal level.
 
ALBANESE: Well that’s a decision for him. But if he does call an early election, it's because he thinks that things are going to get worse next year.
 
PAUL: There we go. 
 
ALBANESE: So we are ready to go.
 
PAUL: I can tell. Thank you, Anthony, for your time. Appreciate it.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much.
 
ENDS