SUBJECTS: Stage three tax cuts; extension of lockdown in Sydney; vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine facilities; Scott Morrison failing Australians during a pandemic; Federal Government failing on delivering; public health advice should be public.

MARCUS PAUL, HOST: Anthony Albanese, good morning to you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Good to be with you, Marcus. 

PAUL: Nice to chat as always to you, Albo. Have you had a change of heart in relation to tax reform and negative gearing? What's the background of this policy shift earlier in the week?

ALBANESE: The background is what I said when I became Leader, we went through a review process. We determined that you can't pretend that you're the government when you're in opposition. We had, for example, on the different stages of income tax cuts, we attempted to amend stage three out of the package in 2019. We weren't successful, and what I'm determined to do is to ensure that I look to the future rather than relitigate the past. I'm about talking about jobs, the need for a National Reconstruction Fund, the need for cheaper child care. We need to invest in public and community housing, the need to address skilled work, same job, same pay, the need to address the crisis in our aged care system. But of course, also, the need to get it right at the moment. I mean the Prime Minister yesterday, I cannot believe that he used the term 'going for gold' when it comes to the rollout of the vaccine.

PAUL: I think it is personally insulting and it's another opportunistic slogan, comparing what is going on in Tokyo to what is happening in Sydney. We have people dying, we have livelihoods being destroyed. We have governments that just fail and refuse to release health advice to the public. We know why they're making the decisions they're making to lockdown Sydney and yet the Prime Minister says, 'Oh, it's all good. We've won a gold medal'.

ALBANESE: It's extraordinary, given that this is a Prime Minister who insisted that the rollout of the vaccine wasn't a race. He said it repeatedly, “It's not a race. It's not a competition”. That was what he said over and over and over again. The truth is it was a race and the consequences of us running absolutely last in the developed world are being felt in Greater Sydney today by all those people who now, particularly those suffering from the very hard lockdown who aren't able to go to work, in most cases, people now in Campbelltown, in the Georges River area, and in Parramatta joining, of course, Canterbury-Bankstown and others.

PAUL: There are eight local government areas in Sydney, Albo, eight of them which are local government areas where we've had the most harshest restrictions placed on a population in our country's history. This morning, I've had read out information and I've spoken to people on the open line, they are frustrated. Now, your colleague in New South Wales, Chris Minns, they're calling for the public or the publication, if you like, of the health advice. These are the most restrictive prohibitions that have been placed on a population in our nation's history. We don't know why these decisions are being made. We have to respect them. We have to understand that it's being given on health advice. But there's been enough in some of the press conferences, whether it's from the Prime Minister, whether it's from the Premier of New South Wales, to suggest that there's a bit of infighting going on. Even the Deputy Premier of the state this morning basically threw his hands up in the air and said, 'I don't know what the hell's going on'. He said that on national television this morning. So, my question to you, Anthony, is, do you concur that the health advice from Dr Kerry Chant and others in New South Wales should be made public so that we know why the hell these decisions are being made?

ALBANESE: Well, leadership is about two things. It's about leading. It's about making difficult decisions. But it's also about bringing the community and the public with you. And what has upset so many people, and I had another Zoom call with small businesses, people who aren't able to operate their businesses in my electorate again yesterday, and it is the confusion, which is out there, the different messages. And there's a need for transparency. And we in so many ways have simply not got that. We have a Prime Minister who, from press conference to press conference, essentially says, 'We're on track' and 'She'll be right, mate, just hang in there'. Well, Australians are hanging in. They've been magnificent. They're making sacrifices. But we're not on track. This isn't on track. This has been a debacle, the rollout of the vaccines and the failure to have national quarantine. We had the 28th breach yesterday from hotel quarantine and we still have a Prime Minister who insists that we don't need dedicated national quarantine facilities. They haven't dug a hole for a new one. Not dug a hole and they've had 18 months. We've been 18 months into this pandemic.

PAUL: So, that is a yes to that question? You agree with the New South Wales Opposition, Anthony, that the health advice given to the Premier of the state and her so-called secretive Crisis Cabinet should be made available to everybody? The public, the opposition parties, to all of those MPs, because so many MPs, I've been told, Albo, from a state and federal level are being inundated with questions by their Australian constituents that they simply can't answer. They can't answer because the information isn't being made available. It's not good enough.

ALBANESE: The hint is in the title, Marcus. Public health advice. Public. It needs to be made public and you need to bring the public with you. I know that the chief health officers and people in the senior positions have a really tough job. I'm very sympathetic. This is a difficult time for people who have to make these decisions. I am sympathetic. Chris Minns has been very constructive during all of this. I have to say, when I've rung Brad Hazzard over issues, he has immediately contacted me as soon as he can, on a couple of issues. I've done that. And I thank him for that. But we need to get this right.

PAUL: Well, that's right. And look, it's hard to give 100 per cent bipartisan support to the restrictions that are in place, including lockdowns, when you're not given the full story. I mentioned to a caller this morning, you wouldn't sign off on a mortgage without reading the fine print. Where's the fine print, Gladys? Why can't we see it? I think now that these extreme restrictions are going to continue in Sydney for a further month, we need to see the fine print, we need to know what the health advice is, what they're saying. And a really good example as to why we need to know what's being said behind closed doors, if you like, and what the health advice is - A: The Deputy Premier has almost thrown his hands up this morning in disgust, not knowing what the hell's going on. And then you've got Dr Kerry Chant when she was quizzed a week or so ago in relation to the shutdown of the construction industry saying, 'Oh, well, don't look at me. I didn't tell him to do that'. But the Premier is acting on the health advice. But the health advice was not to close down the construction industry. That's why we need transparency, Anthony.

ALBANESE: Well, we do, Marcus, and no one expects cabinet discussions to be public. It is important that cabinet is able to have those discussions. But public health advice, of course, should be public. It should be transparent and that's the way that you bring the community with you. And I know that community leaders have had great difficulty providing information because it's changed so often. Parts of my electorate are in Canterbury. My office, we've been trying to ring as many people as we can, being proactive. I've got people doing that and I've been doing that myself personally, ringing people in the electorate and checking if there's anything that we can do. This is a really tough time but these are the consequences of not getting it right, those two jobs that Scott Morrison had. The rollout of the vaccine and national quarantine. And the problem here is with national quarantine, of course, because it hasn't commenced to try and build another facility in New South Wales. When it comes to the vaccine rollout, we've had the delay of 51 million doses that were due of another vaccine that hasn't arrived here yet and now won't arrive until 2022. 

PAUL: Anthony, I need to leave it there. Thank you for your time this morning, as always. We'll talk in a week's time.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Marcus.

ENDS