SUBJECTS: Fire at Old Parliament House; national cabinet meeting; booster shots; queues at testing sites; rapid antigen tests; Western Australia punching above its weight; purpose-built quarantine.

HARVEY DEEGAN, HOST: Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese. He joins us now. Mr Albanese, thanks so much for your time this morning.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Thanks for having me on the program. 

DEEGAN: You're very welcome. You've just got off the plane and ours was the first call you made, so we appreciate that. And that fire’s a bit of a worry in Old Parliament House?

ALBANESE: It certainly is. Old Parliament House is, of course, a very historic building. I had the great honour of working for Tom Uren in that building. It's used by school groups, it's used for educational purposes as well as for functions. It’s an important building and I just hope that there is only minimal damage. 

DEEGAN: Well, it has been put out. So we don't know yet that, of course, but I'm with you. And it has been put out fairly quickly by the sound of things. So maybe the damage is not too bad. At least we hope so, anyway. Mr Albanese, getting back to today's national cabinet meeting, what would you like to see resolved at the meeting?

ALBANESE: Well, what I want to see is a bit of national leadership. The Prime Minister before today has really gone missing. The last time the national cabinet met, we didn't really get any substantial progress on the issues that are of such concern to Australians. The booster rollout we, again, haven't learned the lessons of it being a race and where, we're below, at the moment, below Iceland, Chile, UK, Israel, Denmark, Ireland, all these countries where, in the advanced world, we are way down the bottom of the ranking, just about. Japan is below us but that's about it. We need to do much better on that. We need to make sure that we're getting booster shots to people in aged care facilities. There’s aged care facilities that have just missed out. Remember they were all supposed to be fully vaccinated by March last year. Now they're missing out on the booster. People in disability care are missing out. And we need access to rapid antigen tests. We know that the Victorian Government, for example has purchased many millions of tests. But we need Federal Government leadership. We need something more than the Prime Minister saying ‘it's not my job’. And we need more consistency when it comes to the rules that are in place. I certainly hope that that is one of the measures that comes out of today's meeting. But we need more clarity and certainty. That's what people are crying out for. On the way from my home, from the airport coming back from Adelaide, the testing sites before noon here in Sydney were closed because they’re full, two of the sites that I passed. So it's not good enough. People are anxious. And they're anxious because we are falling behind. And of course today's figures are again of real concern.

DEEGAN: They are, it was more than 20,000 nationwide. Don’t have the exact numbers and of course we haven’t factored in any that might come from WA. We hope that’ll be zero but we’re holding our breath on that one, Mr Albanese, to be honest with you. We’ve just got to get on top of this. And we just wonder how far it will go.

ALBANESE: That’s right. Well West Australians have been magnificent. They've made sacrifices. It's been difficult to be away from loved ones for many because of the travel restrictions which are there. But it has meant that life in WA, I tell you, has been a lot more normal than it's been on the East Coast. People have been able to go to work, children have been able to go to school, students have been able to go to university, people have been able to go to the pub and you even were able to have the AFL Grand Final there, of course. So in relative terms, you've been so much better off due to the leadership of Mark McGowan and his Government. And it has been a really good thing. Because that's been important to keep the national economy going as well, where Western Australia is once again punching above its weight.

DEEGAN: As we always do. Now obviously, Mr Albanese, you don't have a voice in the decisions made by the national cabinet, there might be those who think it would be a good idea if you did, given that there are Labor premiers, of course, involved in the national cabinet. I don’t know if you’ve got a view on that. Would you like to be invited?

ALBANESE: Well, that's a decision for the Prime Minister, is what I've said. But one of the issues with the national cabinet has been the Prime Minister playing politics. He, from time to time, of course, joined with Clive Palmer in the legal case against Mark McGowan’s Government to open up the borders at a time where the West Australian Government had made that decision to keep its population safe. And, of course, he referred to Western Australians as cave dwellers at one stage. So I think part of the problem with the national cabinet has been that it hasn't brought the country together in a unified way. It's often been divisive. I've been in South Australia for the last couple of days. Of course, there have been restrictions there as well. And many of them, exactly the same, for periods of time as had been in place in Western Australia and Queensland and Tasmania. But the Prime Minister, of course, has chosen to just be critical of the states that happen to be run by Labor premiers.

DEEGAN: Well, you're politicising the situation too, of course, aren’t you, Mr Albanese? And that's understandable because we'll have an election. We don't know when, we think it might be March or May. Can I ask you this hypothetical question, what would you do if you do inherit this problem in March or May?

ALBANESE: Well, I’d bring the country together by actually cooperating with all of the state premiers, whether they be Labor or Liberal. I'd make sure, as well, that you identified what the issues were in advance and put in place measures to make sure that you acted before there was a crisis. I mean, we have known for a long period of time that under the national plan there would be an opening up of state borders and that that would lead to a spread of COVID. And yet the booster rollout hasn't been put in place appropriately. By the end of tomorrow, there are supposed to be four million people have received their boosters, it’s about half of that figure up to this point. And with regard to rapid antigen tests, the Federal Government hasn’t put in place measures to ensure that they were available for anyone who needs and wants them, unlike what Joe Biden's done in the US or Boris Johnson has done in the UK. Once again, it's like the rollout of the vaccine in the beginning and purpose-built quarantine, the Federal Government has hasn't led and that has created major issues because we're always playing catch up footy. And when you're playing catch up footy, you're behind and mistakes get made. And that's what we're seeing at the moment. 

DEEGAN: It's obviously easy to take potshots from opposition because that has been going on for centuries, it would seem. But can I ask you one question? If you were the leader, if you were the Prime Minister, how would you improve quarantine facilities, for example?

ALBANESE: I'd have purpose-built quarantine. I would have purpose-built quarantine facilities. I stated that in my first Budget Reply, that that was necessary. And there just hasn't been the movement that was required and as a result, for example, the major lockdown that occurred in the second half of this year in New South Wales, that began around Bondi and spread to Victoria and spread to New Zealand and other parts, was as the result of an unvaccinated limo driver driving someone without a mask to hotel quarantine. And all of the breaches, there’s been more than 20, and each of them has had really serious consequences. Just like we, in advance, said that you needed to get the supply of the vaccine. And remember, at the time when we were saying that, Scott Morrison was saying it wasn't a race. Just like now we're saying we need to ensure that the supply of boosters is available. We've been constructive throughout this pandemic. I've called for a reduction in the time between the second vaccine and the booster shot just a little over a week ago. And that was dismissed by the Government and, less than 24 hours later, they did exactly that. Labor put forward the idea of having JobKeeper, of having wage subsidies. That was dismissed originally by the Government as a dangerous idea and they then, of course,adopted it. Throughout the process we've been constructive. And we'll continue to put forward constructive ideas. But we need to get this right. We need to get the boosters right. We need to look after vulnerable people in aged care and in disability care. And we need to fix the issue of rapid antigen tests being available.

DEEGAN: One final question, and again, thanks for your time today on the morning program, Mr Albanese. If you did have the power to build new quarantine facilities, where would you build them and at what cost to the taxpayer? 

ALBANESE: Well, I’d do them a consultation with state governments. One is of course underway in Queensland. That’s out at Wellcamp near the airport site. That's an appropriate facility I've visited. I'd talk with each of the state and territories about an appropriate site. As for the cost, the truth is that the costs of the shutdown have cost hundreds of billions of dollars. And if we got it right, in terms of appropriate quarantine facilities, getting people vaccinated, getting them their boosters, then what it will have is less economic impact. If you get the health outcomes right, then it has economic benefits. And one way that we've seen that, of course, is if you compare, the two strongest economies in Australia had been, in recent times, Western Australia and Queensland. And it’s because they've understood, Premier McGowan and Premier Palaszczuk, that you needed to concentrate on the health outcomes, as an end in itself, yes, but you got an economic benefit, as well. It wasn't either-or. You needed to do health in order to protect the economy. 

DEEGAN: Right. Well, thank you very much for your time, Mr Albanese. We appreciate it. And I'm sure our listeners will have some comments on what you've had to say. Thank you again. 

ALBANESE: Thanks very much. Could I take the opportunity to wish everyone a very happy and safe new year.

DEEGAN: Yes and the same to you and yours, Anthony. And good luck for the future. 

ALBANESE: Thanks very much. 

ENDS