SUBJECTS: Vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine facilities; restrictions across Australia; state borders; Christian Porter’s resignation from Cabinet; blind trust; CFMEU protests.

NEIL BREEN, HOST: Good morning to you, Opposition Leader. 

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

BREEN: It's great to have you on the show, especially at this time. There's a lot going on with Federal politics. I'll get to it all shortly. Queenslanders are waking up to the news today, and yesterday, I was talking about this on the show, that our Premier is thinking about maybe 90 per cent vaccination rate across Australia before opening up, or at least here in Queensland. What is the Federal Opposition's position about the country opening up at what rate?

ALBANESE: Well, we support the national arrangements that have been signed up to by every state and territory. But of course, they allow for some flexibility for states to make decisions based upon protecting their citizens. And certainly, Queenslanders have been well served by Annastacia Palaszczuk over this period. So, we'll await those discussions. But we certainly don't think, for example, I'm here talking to you from lockdown in Sydney and my view is that I don't want to see restrictions in place for one day longer than is necessary. But of course, in Queensland there, you have the benefit of living, certainly, a much freer life than has been in Sydney or Canberra or Melbourne at the moment. 

BREEN: A freer life in terms of we can go to the pub and to the park, but it's not a free life at all because no one can leave Queensland.

ALBANESE: Well, we can't go anywhere, let me tell you, in Sydney. We can’t even visit other parts of New South Wales. So, these restrictions are here in Sydney. And I must say, if I had to look at where I'd rather be right now, it's Queensland, particularly over the next couple of weeks where there'll be at least three major events taking place at Suncorp, hopefully two of which will involve my South Sydney Rabbitohs.

BREEN: Some of the events have angered a lot of Queenslanders too because of the special exemptions that were given to so many NRL people to come into the state and cricketers to come into the state while Queenslanders can't return home. Surely, a Federal Labor Government, with the way that it leans politically, would like to see citizens of the state be able to return to it.

ALBANESE: What a Federal Labor Government would do, certainly as well, is to work with the states and territories, not seek to divide them. And that's unfortunate, but the National Cabinet processes led by Scott Morrison have been so broken down in recent times. It began, I think, with Scott Morrison politicising the issue during the Queensland state election last year, which is the last time he spent any considerable time in Queensland. And at that time, he was certainly campaigning for the borders to be opened, along with Deb Frecklington. And it's proven that Annastacia Palaszczuk's decision at that time was absolutely correct.

BREEN: So, you think backing that position will help Federal Labor in a Federal election? Because the situation in Queensland is the ALP has six seats and the LNP or the Coalition has 23. Katter has one. That's a long way behind you are in Queensland. So, do you think that sort of strategy will help you pick up seats in Queensland? Because COVID-19 is a political issue.

ALBANESE: Well, you have to not consider the politics. You have to consider the health of citizens. 

BREEN: We're only considering the COVID-19 health. We're not considering the mental health and mental anguish, small businesses, people on the breadline, kids not being able to see relatives. There is a lot to it.

ALBANESE: Unless you get the health outcomes right and don't allow the spread of this dreadful disease, then what you'll end up is having what you have at the moment in New South Wales, which is multiple deaths every day. What you have is complete restrictions. There are parts of my electorate which, until last week, had curfews on. I still can't travel. People here can't travel more than five kilometres from their home. There are severe restrictions. People are unable to go to work in parts of my electorate. You have absolute restrictions here. You can't have anyone in your home. They are the sort of severe consequences for people's mental health that are a result of these lockdowns. We do need to get through this. We need to lift the vaccination rates and certainly everyone is trying to do that. But supply was all what's the problem there. And the other issue is that of national quarantine. This outbreak we were dealing with at the moment, which has consequences for Queensland as well because tourists can't travel and people can't visit there, is a direct result of a failure to establish purpose-built quarantine. It comes from one single limo driver in Sydney, driving someone, a foreign air crew, to hotel quarantine, unvaccinated, without a mask, because you don't have appropriate facilities. And I applaud the Queensland Government to go it alone and to build the facility at Toowoomba, at Wellcamp Airport there, along with the Wagner's there. I've visited that site. It is an appropriate site. It should have been built some time ago. And I can't understand the Federal resistance to it. We need to now be planning for booster shots. We need to now be planning to open up safely. We need to plan to make sure that not just that 12- to 15-year-olds get vaccinated but that we put in place a plan for paediatric vaccines which are now being trialled in the United States and no doubt will be necessary down the track. We need to put in place as well the manufacturing of mRNA vaccines here. These are all things that we need to put in place so that we can return to normal. No one wants the current circumstances to be in place. And I know that the Queensland Government is working very hard to make sure that any restrictions which are there can be lifted as soon as possible. But they do need to prioritise keeping people safe. Because otherwise, you end up with more restrictions than if you just say the sort of rhetoric that we saw from Scott Morrison that New South Wales had the gold standard. And look it where that has ended up.

BREEN: Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has come out of the blocks since the Prime Minister got on the plane to Washington. He thinks Christian Porter should return to the ministry and leadership one day fairly soon. Your thoughts?

ALBANESE: Well, this is red hot, isn't it? This bloke hasn't been gone for 24 hours before they were talking about his return while the questions are still there. Barnaby Joyce could answer this simple question - who gave the money, up to $1 million? Why did they give it? How did they give it? How was this trust fund established? We have these rules for a reason. And they are so the politicians of whatever persuasion, or independent, know where the money's coming from if they receive a personal gift. This was a private legal matter whereby so-called anonymous donors have provided up to a million dollars. And Christian Porter says he won't disclose where the money's come from. That's unacceptable. It's unacceptable for any Member of Parliament, including Christian Porter. And it is just extraordinary that Barnaby Joyce says there's nothing to see here. But that says everything about the failure of the current Government when it comes to probity issues and to just be upfront about those issues.

BREEN: I agree with you on that. There's no way you could not disclose that. Before I let you go, Bill Shorten was on breakfast TV this morning. He's accused that crowd yesterday at the CFMEU in Melbourne of being a rent-a-crowd and that they weren't workers. I think he's wrong on that. They look like construction workers to me. What did you think about that crowd that protested yesterday?

ALBANESE: Well, I have spoken to some people who were there and many of them were.

BREEN: Maybe the ones who joined the line-up, but not at the start.

ALBANESE: Well, how was it organised? And what we've seen in Melbourne is groups, including far-right groups, infiltrating these demonstrations. We saw a violent demonstration on Saturday, and we saw it again yesterday. Violent demonstrations aimed at far-right political agenda. And it's of real concern. There's no doubt that there's genuine frustration, of course there is, with lockdowns. And I refer to the conversation we just had. That's the consequences of what happens when this disease gets out of control and you do have to have strict lockdown. And I know that's frustrating. But there's no doubt that there was infiltration of outside groups. That's what the Police Commissioner from Victoria, who I have watched on the 7.30 show last night, was indicating had occurred in Victoria. And that's a real concern.

BREEN: Anthony Albanese, Federal Opposition Leader. Thanks so much for your time this morning.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Neil. Good to chat.

BREEN: Good luck with the Rabbitohs.

ENDS