SUBJECTS: Visit to Tasmania; Federal election; vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine; Scott Morrison failing Australians during a pandemic; financial support during lockdowns; women in politics; Tasmanian Labor Party; dedicated hospice in Launceston; Medicare; climate change; net zero by 2050; DJ Albo.

BELINDA KING, HOST: We've got the Federal Leader of the ALP and our Opposition Leader federally. Anthony Albanese is joining us in the studio. Good morning. 

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

KING: And welcome to Tassie. You've been here a couple of days.

ALBANESE: I have. It is nice and warm in here.

KING: We turned it up just for you. 

ALBANESE: Thank you. 

KING: It's cold outside. Let's start with your trip to Tassie. I see you're not wearing a face mask. And a lot of Tasmanians who have been interstate in the recent school holidays have all been asked to mask up. Why are you not wearing one?

ALBANESE: I haven't been to any of the hotspots. I haven't been able to go home for more than a month. So I came directly here from Canberra, didn't even stop in Melbourne or Sydney. I flew to Hobart and drove up to the north and up to Devonport firstly on Monday and then I've been here in Launceston. I was at Deloraine yesterday with Brian Mitchell. And today after this interview, I'll drive back down to the airport and fly back directly to Canberra.

KING: So from COVID-free ACT to COVID-free Tassie.

ALBANESE: Correct. ACT been very, very fortunate. They haven't had a single case all year. 

KING: They must feel like the wagons are circling. 

ALBANESE: They have strict provisions like here does. But this is a dreadful virus. And the latest strain, of course, is very contagious. And we've seen this lockdown that we're seeing now with more than half the country locked down began with one serious error. Again, a failure of quarantine, someone driving a foreign air crew without a mask, without being vaccinated, to hotel quarantine. And we know that hotel quarantine has been the source of 26 separate outbreaks. And the fact that only 11 per cent of Australians are vaccinated means we're vulnerable. They were the two jobs Scott Morrison had this year. And he didn't deliver.

KING: If you were to take the reins of the country, and you'll have an opportunity in the next 12 months, what would you change in regard to our fight against COVID?

ALBANESE: Well, I would prioritise the rollout of the vaccine. I would have done more deals with more pharmacy companies for more vaccines quicker. It was a race. The problem here is Scott Morrison said it wasn't a race. And we see now the consequences of the fact that we're running last in the race to get people vaccinated in the developed world. No country has a rate as low as us in the developed world. And it means we're falling behind. We put all our eggs in the AstraZeneca basket. And unfortunately, the chickens have come home to roost. I noticed today the front page of the West Australian has a young woman getting a Pfizer jab. And that's a front-page story, someone getting a vaccine. That says it all, really. There was a spare leftover and rather than it being thrown out, she was given it. That's a good thing. But 18 months into the pandemic, that should not be a front-page story.

KING: We've seen world leaders, particularly President Biden in the last week, pushing back against the misinformation that is on our social media in particular. What role in that would Australia have under your leadership?

ALBANESE: Look, we need to counter some of the misinformation, unfortunately from some Members of Parliament, including Craig Kelly who has put out some of the conspiracy theories that are there, we need to reject it. The fact is that the vaccines have protected the world on a range of diseases, from typhoid to cholera to a range of more immediate diseases that have come in. And we need to get vaccinated. It's a key to opening up our economy and towards people being able to live their lives as we normally did. And we know even here in Tasmania, even though there are no cases, the lockdowns, of course, are having an impact here. We saw that when I was in Devonport with Chris Lynch, our candidate there, whilst talking to people. The lack of people coming across on the Spirit of Tasmania is having an impact on that tourist activity.

KING: You mentioned Chris Lynch. And he's been named up as your candidate for the next Federal election for the electorate of Braddon. And also, Ross Hart has been named for the electorate of Bass. Obviously, Julie Collins and Brian Mitchell are incumbent, and Andrew Wilkie seems to have a very firm grip on Clark. Is it a missed opportunity not to have fielded a female candidate for Braddon?

ALBANESE: We have four female Senators. We have a Caucus in Canberra of six people of whom five out of six are women. So I think the Tasmanian Labor Party, like the rest of the Labor Party, it's got to be said, are doing well on women's representation. We're pretty close to 50 per cent. And after the next election, we will be, if we're successful, will be well over 50 per cent. And the Parliament should be representative of our community. It's a good thing that not only that, but we have three Indigenous members of the Caucus. We're hoping for Marion Scrymgour being our fourth. I'm someone running for the position of Prime Minister who doesn't have an Anglo-Celtic name, unlike people who've run right across the political spectrum in the past. So we are much more representative of the community than the current Government.

KING: Keeping with the issue of women, we've had a recent situation in Tasmania where David O'Byrne stepped back from the leadership of the state Party here. How does that reflect on your situation federally? And what changes have been brought in the last 12 months, particularly in regard to dealing with past issues and redress?

ALBANESE: Well, we have a process that's rigorous, that's confidential, that's been established. And we established that before the Brittany Higgins incident of the reported sexual assault just metres from the Prime Minister's office that he says he didn't know about for two years. These are real issues. And Labor established a process of considering any matter that comes before it. That was dealt with by the chair of our Caucus, Sharon Claydon, who led that work. And it was adopted by the National Executive. We had adopted a process in 2018 but it's now a much-improved process. And here in Tasmania, I talked to Bec White, the Labor Leader, on Monday. She's a very good friend of mine. I think she's an outstanding person. I got to wish her well previously on the birth of young Hudson. And she's an experienced leader. She's someone who I think did very well during the election campaign, went into the campaign well behind the Premier, I think due to COVID issues, and held Labor's ground during that campaign.

KING: 18 minutes past seven on ABC Northern Tasmania. Anthony Albanese is our guest in the studio this morning. We've invited questions from our audience. I'd like to ask you to pop your headphones on for a moment if you don't mind, because we do have Barb Baker joining us. And Barb has been posing questions at a state and federal level for some time in regard to a dedicated at northern hospice. Barb, good morning.

BARB, CALLER: Good morning, Belinda.

KING: Your question? Would you like to pose your question, Barb? 

BARB, CALLER: Yes. Back in 2016, Mr Albanese, Ross Hart promised to develop Allambi into a dedicated hospice for Northern Tasmania and he was duly elected. And we think perhaps that decision helped him to be elected. He was defeated in 2019. In 2021, the recent state election, Dr. Bastian Seidel from the Labor Party felt that the proposal put forward by the Friends of Northern Hospice for a dedicated hospice in the Allambi building stacked up both financially and practically. So he took that as a commitment to the last election. Unfortunately, Labor weren't elected. Tasmanians, Northern Tasmanians, they are older, they are sicker, most of them live alone. They cannot or do not want to die at home. Sometimes there are no family members present to assist them. So what the Friends of Northern Hospice are proposing and have been for some years is a 10-bed, dedicated hospice in a home-like environment so that people can be cared for at the end of their life. They will be freeing up acute beds in hospital. 

KING: Barb, let's go straight to the question, please. 

BARB, CALLER: So will the Labor Government be supporting the establishment of a dedicated hospice in Launceston at the next Federal election?

ALBANESE: We don't, of course, just make commitments without going through a process. But it sounds to me as though Ross Hart is a very strong advocate of the project. There's no reason why someone like Ross Hart would have changed his mind. And I will have a chat to Ross about it. Certainly, the issue of caring for older Australians is an absolute priority. We think the Aged Care Royal Commission exposed the real weakness in our system, frankly, that's emerged, particularly over the last eight years whereby the interim report was titled in one word, 'Neglect'. Older Australians deserve dignity and respect in their later years. And it sounds to me as though the proposal would be perfectly consistent with the long-term approach that Labor has had. I'm a former Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors, but that was some time ago. But I'll have a chat with Ross about that. But it seems to me that if he was an advocate in 2016, he'll be an advocate again.

KING: Thank you very much, Barb. It is 21 minutes past seven. Karen has popped her question through to us from Facebook. 'What would your potential Government do about people living below the poverty line, including Medicare, health and healthcare in general?' 

ALBANESE: Medicare is a Labor creation. And Labor will always stand by it. We were incredibly concerned and remain concerned that on July one, the Government brought in 900 changes to the Medicare rebate. Now, what that means is that basic procedures are going to be more expensive for people. They don't know how much additional it will cost for things like a hip replacement or other essential surgery. We will always defend and extend Medicare. The Government, the Coalition, have a record of undermining it every time they are in office. And I know that access to GP services and bulk billing is another major issue here in Tassie, but right throughout the country, but particularly in the regions.

KING: Becky says COVID is crippling the Australian TGA approvals for medical devices, who have been at a standstill for some 18 months. Specifically, she's waiting on approvals for things like insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors for people like her child who lives with Type One Diabetes. What can you do to improve this situation?

ALBANESE: Well, we need proper resources for public authorities and for essential ones. This Government have been obsessed with contracting out privatisation. And in the end, it ends up costing more as well. The hollowing out of the public services is something that has got to end.

KING: Okay, what do we got here? This one is from Mark the painter. Now, he's asking, 'What would you do as a paid government employee to actually help the Prime Minister at the moment to get us back to normality?'

ALBANESE: Well, what we've done is always put forward constructive proposals. So for example, it was Labor that raised the issue of wage subsidies first, that the Prime Minister dismissed as a dangerous idea. That, of course, evolved into JobKeeper, which kept people in work. We advocated increasing JobSeeker. We advocated increased support for mental health. Now, at the moment, we continue to advocate for increasing the rollout for establishing dedicated quarantine facilities. And I visited Toowoomba a while ago at the site there. That's an appropriate site. We need to stop people being prioritised into hotel quarantines in the CBDs. And we've been advocating that for some time. We also have been advocating putting forward ideas for practical support, so people get through this crisis. I'm very concerned that people don't have enough income support who are currently locked down. There are people in suburbs in Sydney that can't move outside of their suburb. And they need more support. JobKeeper worked before, I can't see why at least that level of support, I don't care what it's called, but we need that level of support for people to get through this.

KING: 25 minutes past seven. I'll move to the environment for a moment. We've got a situation, again we'll cite the US President Biden, who has made a commitment to halving US greenhouse gas emissions to half of what the 2005 levels were, and doing it by 2030. How can Australia hope to match that? What can we do?

ALBANESE: Well, we need more action on climate change. We need to firstly commit to net zero by 2050. That's something I did as one of my first acts as the Labor Leader. The rest of the world are there. Every state and territory government, Labor and Liberal, including the one here in Tasmania, has committed to it. But the Prime Minister seems incapable of doing that. And then we need a path to get there. We need to join the rest of the world with action. Whilst President Trump was in office, that was going to be difficult, because he was a sceptic about climate change. But the thing about action on climate change is it will be good for jobs, it will be good for lowering energy prices, as well as being good for our environment.

KING: What about the future of coal in Australia?

ALBANESE: Well, the fact is that there won't be a new coal-fired power station built in Australia. This Government is currently funding a feasibility study for the proponents of a new power station in North Queensland. It has no prospect of stacking up. Because the market is telling us that the cheapest form of new energy is renewables.

KING: We heard a little bit of a whisper before seven o'clock that you're a bit of a DJ, bit of a radio DJ. And I'm going to sneak in a tiny, tiny piece of music before we go to the Bureau of Meteorology because we would like to test out your DJing skills.

ALBANESE: I have DJ'ed in Devonport in the past, and in Hobart, just for a bit of fun. I don't take myself too seriously, but I do like music.

KING: Fabulous. Right. Well, firstly, thank you very much for joining us this morning on ABC Northern Tasmania. And secondly, can you introduce a song for us? 

ALBANESE: How about Cold Chisel's Flame Trees? And a big shout-out to Jimmy Barnes and Jane and the family. They have been doing magnificent work online to keep people entertained during these lockdowns. And he is a great Australian. So Jimmy leading the way with Chisels.

KING: I think that passes. Anthony Albanese, thank you very much for joining us this morning. 

ALBANESE: Thank you very much.

ENDS