SUBJECTS: India travel ban; vaccine rollout; quarantine; Federal Budget; Federal election; Aussies stranded overseas.

MICHAEL ROWLAND, HOST: Let's go back to our top story now. Of course, the Federal Government's Indian travel ban and the mounting criticism surrounding it. Let's bring in the Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, who joins us from Sydney. Good morning to you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Michael.

ROWLAND: We had the Deputy Prime Minister actually reveal on this program about 40 minutes ago that now nobody is going to be jailed if they try to breach the travel ban. Do you welcome that?

ALBANESE: I do. But I do question why it is that you make an announcement in the middle of the night about threats of five years' jail and considerable fines and then days later say that we won't implement the law. There is a separation, of course, of powers between law enforcement and lawmakers. But this is quite extraordinary, the fact that the Government made this announcement on, of course, late Friday night or Saturday morning after they had met with leaders of the Indian community on Friday, hadn't bothered to mention that this was coming, then on Sunday we had a further double-down from the Foreign Minister. On Monday, we had the Health authorities come out with a different story, saying it wasn't based upon advice, but of course they don't make the rules. And then yesterday morning we had Scott Morrison saying virtually no chance, almost zero possibility of implementing the laws. And then today on your program, it has now become absolutely zero possibility. This is a shambles. The Government should be getting the vaccinations right and it should be getting quarantine right. Scott Morrison said that Australians would be brought home by Christmas. And we know that more than 35,000 Australians remain stranded overseas.

ROWLAND: Okay. Separating out the fines and now the non-existent jail term, going to the thrust of what the Government announced, we are hearing this morning there was a 46 per cent increase in infections in quarantine if Australia in the month leading up to the imposition of this travel ban. Do you understand a place from which the Government came when it imposed that travel ban on Friday night?

ALBANESE: Well, look, I understand absolutely that we should have restrictions on who comes to Australia. But we should have brought people home earlier when the Government said that it would. We haven't used assets that are at our disposal, including the Air Force assets that are okay to fly Government ministers and jobseekers to Europe. We haven't used those assets. We were able to use Qantas charter flights to get people home from Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic, but we haven't used the assets that are at our disposal. There have never been more aviation assets more unused than there has been in the last 12 months. And Australia has let down our citizens by not doing what the Government itself said it would do.

ROWLAND: Okay. But do you support the ban in the first place?

ALBANESE: Well, I support, in terms of commercial flight restrictions, I support that.

ROWLAND: Okay.

ALBANESE: That has occurred in a range of areas from the UK to the US. We've had restrictions on people flying into Australia. But at the same time, we have obligations to Australian citizens. We should have been bringing people home. And we should have been ensuring that the Australian passport means something.

ROWLAND: Now, just a couple of other issues, turning to the Budget, the Financial Review this morning reveals that in the last 24 hours alone more than $1.2 billion has been promised by the Government in new spending ahead of the Budget. We do know that the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said there would be no austerity. He is prepared to spend, but it is not going so much be a cash splash but a cash tsunami next Tuesday night. Won't that make it hard for you in Opposition as we head into an election year?

ALBANESE: I tell you what it makes, Michael, it makes the Government's rhetorical position over the entire time I have been in Parliament, except for the last 12 months, seem quite absurd. This is a Government that used to speak about deficit and debt. This is a Treasurer that stood up proudly a couple of years ago, produced ‘Back in Black’ mugs prematurely when they never have produced a budget surplus and never will. They were elected eight long years ago on a promise of a budget surplus in the first year and every year thereafter. And just a month ago, the Treasurer was speaking about the need to begin to pay back debt and then the rhetoric changed in the last couple of weeks. This is a Government that has thrown out its economic playbook and is now promising a lot, but it is the delivery that matters, Michael. I noticed today there are promises of additional hundreds of millions of dollars for a new emergency response agency, which is amalgamating two existing bodies. They have got $4 billion they announced a couple of years ago in the Emergency Response Fund that includes money for resilience where they haven't spent a dollar of that fund. This is a Government that is always about big announcements, never about delivery and some of those announcements they are making begin on 1 July 2022. They are in Government now. There won't be an additional dollar for childcare for more than a year to come. It is quite extraordinary.

ROWLAND: Okay. Speaking of the election, whether it is this year or next year, we do know that last year the Federal Party intervened in the troubled Victorian branch in the wake of the branch stacking issue. As part of that, pre-selections are being fast-tracked. That has got a number of powerful unions off-side. There is talk of a Supreme Court challenge. This is the last thing that the Labor Party needs, isn't it, in a state where you are hoping to do well, Victoria, wherever the election is?

ALBANESE: We will do well, Michael. What we will be doing is making sure that all of our House of Representatives members are able to be pre-selected. That is a process that should be concluded at the end of this week. 

ROWLAND: It is getting pretty messy, though. It is pretty messy in Victoria.

ALBANESE: No, it is not at all, Michael.

ROWLAND: Isn't it?

ALBANESE: No, the position was adopted unanimously by the National Executive yesterday. We are getting on with the job. There will always be people who think that their position hasn't been recognised enough. That is politics. But we will be giving support to our House of Representatives members from Victoria. They have been doing a great job. And I want them re-endorsed as part of my team going forward to the election. I want that done as soon as possible. We are rolling out candidates around the country. Yesterday, I announced our candidate in Dawson, Shane Hamilton. Unlike the LNP who are still squabbling over whether George Christensen will get a big payout or not.

ROWLAND: Squabbles everywhere it appears. Anthony Albanese, thank you for joining us this morning.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Michael.

ENDS