SUBJECTS: G7; Barnaby Joyce elected Leader of the National Party; Vaccine rollout; national quarantine; Morrison Government failing Australians during a health pandemic; climate change; net zero by 2050; Great Barrier Reef; Michael McCormack; South Sydney Rabbitohs.

MURRAY JONES, HOST: We all know the focus of the G7 recently was certainly for all major players in the world to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The refusal so far of the Nationals to commit to such a commitment is likely to be a real challenge moving forward for ScoMo who wants to hold on to leadership. And the big news story of the last 24 hours is Barnaby Joyce knocking off McCormack and heading back to the Deputy Prime Minister position and Leader of the Nationals. As we well know, around about 75-85 per cent of Australians fully accept the science on climate change and want something done about it. Even from within the Nationals, there's been quite a few calls to basically put up or shut up, because I guess this is the will of the electorate. And as you might have gathered in the last 24 hours or so, even some of the females from within the Nationals say that Barnaby has got a real issue with women. Sorry, the women have probably got more of an issue with him. It's going to be a real challenge for ScoMo moving forward. But is it a double-edged sword in some ways for Anthony Albanese, the Leader of the Opposition? He joins me this morning. Good morning, Albo. How are you today? 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Murray. I'm very well.

JONES: Mate, a very interesting 24 hours in politics. As we just said, it is going to be a real challenge, because I guess there's some real issues and disaffected voters are likely to be the upshot of what's happened just yesterday with Barnaby Joyce. In a lot of ways, that does play into your lap. But some of those marginal areas where the next election might be decided, being the Northern Territory and Queensland, it might make things just a little bit tougher. What's your take on the latest? Is it a double-edged sword for you in some ways?

ALBANESE: Well, I tell you what, in a place like Queensland, where, particularly in your area of North Queensland and the Tropical North, where the Great Barrier Reef provides so many jobs and economic activity, the idea that you have someone who's a sceptic when it comes to climate change as Deputy Prime Minister on the very day when, of course, UNESCO overnight have said that they're considering classifying the Great Barrier Reef as being under threat. And that's an issue that is playing out that the Government is trying to respond to when you have a Prime Minister who can't commit to net zero emissions by 2050, even though the whole of the G7, every state and territory government, every major business in Australia, the Business Council of Australia, the National Farmers' Federation have all committed to it. The election of Barnaby Joyce just sends the wrong message. And what's more, what sort of operation is prioritising electing Barnaby Joyce and having an internal fight rather than dealing with the rollout of the vaccine and national quarantine that we need? We're still in a pandemic and you have a Government that is focused on stabbing each other rather than giving jabs to Australians.

JONES: It's likely to certainly cause a lot of turmoil within the Coalition moving forward. At the end of the day, I certainly accept what you're saying with respect to what's happening here in regional Queensland and that move by the UNESCO overnight to put the Great Barrier Reef onto the endangered list. At the end of the day, from your position moving forward, what is the best thing for you to seize on? Obviously, climate change is getting more and more of a head of steam here in Australia. But also, the vaccine rollout and whether it comes to the egos within the Coalition that have meant that this has been a bit of a booboo for Australia in a lot of ways.

ALBANESE: Well, it's time to end the circus. The fact is that this Government have now had, in eight years, they've had, of course, Abbott-Truss and then we had Turnbull-Truss and then we had Turnbull-Joyce, and then Turnbull-McCormack, and then we had Morrison-McCormack, and now Morrison-Joyce. It is a revolving door. They don't like each other. They're focused on each other rather than focused on their key jobs. And they had two key jobs this year: the rollout of the vaccine and to put in place effective national quarantine. And they've done neither. Scott Morrison travelled up to Queensland during the state election last year and told Queenslanders to open up their borders. He was critical of Annastacia Palaszczuk who did do a good job and was recognised by that with the result in the Queensland election. And yet he hasn't done the jobs that he had to do this year. This pandemic has been around for 18 months now. And we still are having meetings yesterday, emergency meetings, about supply of the vaccine. And we have a Government that's refusing to build national quarantine facilities when they're on offering in places like next to Wellcamp Airport at Toowoomba. And we've now had 24 outbreaks from hotel quarantine. Hotels are built for tourists. They're not built as medical facilities.

JONES: I've certainly seen in recent times you had an attack on the Government with respect to the AstraZeneca. At the end of the day, though, they grabbed what was available at the time. It was important to secure some vaccines for Australia moving forward, particularly at that really difficult time. Obviously, in retrospect, the AstraZeneca has not worked particularly well, and we got some uptake issues here in Australia. But at the end of the day, the Government did move fairly quickly to at least secure what they could of the AstraZeneca.

ALBANESE: We're at the back of the queue, Murray. Other countries were doing deals with pharmaceutical companies in March and April of last year. Australia didn't do its first deal until September and other countries were doing five or six deals. This Government put all its eggs, effectively, in the AstraZeneca basket and the chickens have come home to roost. They had a meeting with Pfizer in July of last year. And they sent along some junior burger who didn't negotiate effectively with them. And nothing came out of that meeting. Pfizer had offers clearly there for other countries to have many more vaccines. And the Government was complacent. They were too busy telling Australians we were at the front of the queue. And the truth is that we're way, way back. We're not in the top 100 countries re the rollout of the vaccine. Only three per cent of Australians have been fully vaccinated. And they still haven't vaccinated every aged care resident, aged care workers, disability workers, these people who were due to be the big priority in category 1A and they were told they'd all be vaccinated by Easter. It's now late June, and we're still not there.

JONES: And certainly, likely to be quite a few disaffected voters as a result of what occurred yesterday. Certainly, interesting times ahead. I was very surprised to see that move yesterday. And I did notice on television as well, you certainly gave a warm congratulations to Michael McCormack, because even though he is not maybe overly popular in some aspects of the Australian population, he has been, I guess, an upstanding Member of Parliament over many years now, Anthony.

ALBANESE: Michael's a decent man. And he deserved better than the treatment which his own Party gave him yesterday. He has done nothing wrong. There's nothing that was pointed to that he's done wrong, unlike when Barnaby Joyce resigned just a few years ago. And I think that his treatment is disgraceful. And I think he will remain a contributor. But I do think he deserved much better. I have very different politics from Michael, of course, I have different views and come from a different perspective. But I have respect for him as someone who's done what he thinks is the right thing. And I'm sure he was shocked yesterday, given the self-indulgence that it represented. And at the next election, I've been saying, as you know, that our theme is that Labor is on your side. If anything shows yesterday that this Government is just on its own side, it is this act of self-indulgence.

JONES: As we wrap up, and looking on a more serious note as well, speaking of getting a bit of a tough time, what about the prop from the Rabbitohs, Tevita Tatola? The Broncos didn't treat him too well on the weekend. It looks like he's out for a couple of weeks. You mustn't be too happy about that, though.

ALBANESE: No. And we are already suffering quite a few injuries from, of course, over the year. And then we've got a lot of players in Origin playing for both sides at the end of this week, so let's hope they all come through that okay. Dane Gagai got hurt in Origin One. So I just say to the South Sydney guys, be gentle to each other, particularly Latrell Mitchell and Dane Gagai marking each other. We hope they all come through unscathed.

JONES: Anthony Albanese, it has been an interesting chat this morning. Thank you so much for your time. It's been great to talk to you. 

ALBANESE: Always great to chat.

ENDS