SUBJECTS: National plan to reopen during the COVID pandemic; COVID outbreaks around Australia; lockdowns; vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine facilities; Doherty modelling; hospitals not being able to cope with COVID cases; Afghanistan. 

FRAN KELLY, HOST: Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, joins us from Parliament House now. Anthony Albanese, welcome back to Breakfast. 

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

KELLY: The Prime Minister has repeatedly assured us that the roadmap to recovery is a safe plan to reopen the country. But are our hospitals ready to cope with the national plan?

ALBANESE: Well, certainly the hospitals in Sydney at the moment are really struggling, Fran. And that's a real concern. The fact that people from Western Sydney are being taken to Royal North Shore. The fact that we have ramping of ambulances and people being treated in those ambulances. The fact that the paramedics and people looking after COVID positive patients can't, of course, enter into the hospital, can't use facilities because they're in their PPE gear is of real concern. We just have to hope that we get some better numbers out of New South Wales at the moment. But I think also, it's exposed some of the longer-term issues that are there as well, with skill shortages, particularly amongst nursing staff. 

KELLY: Well, that's the point. I mean, the hospital system is stressed already. This is before the opening that would happen under the Doherty modelling at 80 per cent. There'll be a lot more admissions to hospital. The Prime Minister promising last week to reinforce the health system. But the problem is, as you say, staffing. National Cabinet has reportedly been told the number of ICU beds could be increased across the country by almost a thousand. But at best, there are only about 350 staff to operate those beds. The current workforce is exhausted from dealing with this pandemic for the last 18 months. And now there's a report in The Guardian today that some nurses are increasing sedative doses for some patients to help manage workloads and keep patients safe. How do you see the states overcoming these staff shortages? And what can the Federal Government be doing here? 

ALBANESE: Well, Fran, it's a real challenge. We asked last week in the Parliament what additional resources for the public health systems will be available from the Federal Government. And what we got was just some more rhetoric back from the Government, no commitments for additional funding. Clearly, that will be required. We've got to remember here, Fran, that we're talking about real people. We're talking about people's mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, that are being impacted at the moment. And certainly, the figures from New South Wales last Thursday saw a large jump in the number of hospital admissions. There are currently over 800 people in hospital in New South Wales, and 126 of those are in ICU. And of course, all but one aren't fully vaccinated. And that shows a part of the key here is to lift those vaccination rates. 

KELLY: And if the public health system isn't ready, can't be prepared in a way, either with the workforce or the beds, will it be necessary to adjust the national plan, wait for even higher vaccination rates, particularly given they don't include children, before we reopen?

ALBANESE: Well, Fran, people have got to actually read the national plan on what's in there. Of course, there is some flexibility in there allowed for under all of the phases B, C, and D. One of the things that we've got at the moment, though, I think last week, was an attempt by the Government to change the narrative to talk about what's happening way, way down the track when there's a crisis right before us at the moment. Everything that Labor has pushed for 18 months has been to avoid lockdowns and to keep people safe. That's why we push for more vaccines earlier. That's why we continue to push for safe quarantine. That's why we continue to push for a public information campaign.

KELLY: But Australians want to look forward with some hope. And they want to look about the way out of this. The Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has written an op-ed in The Australian today. He warns of an 'unacceptably and unnecessarily high cost of lives and livelihoods' if the Labor states don't adhere to the reopening plan agreed to in National Cabinet as 'vaccination rates continue to increase, we have to change the national conversation from one of fear about getting the virus to one of living safely and realistically with it'. 

ALBANESE: But there you go, Fran, that's Josh Frydenberg writing an op-ed to his imaginary friend. No one wants lockdowns. And all of the states and territories have all signed up to the national plan. What the Government is seeking to do is to avoid discussion about how we got ourselves in this predicament now, which is the failure on vaccines, the failure still on quarantine, they're still not moving in areas in which they should. Queensland Premier Palaszczuk had to go her own way last Thursday and announce safe quarantine to be built and completed and opened by the end of the year in Queensland.

KELLY: We need to work out a way forward rather than just dwelling on what's happened incorrectly in the past.

ALBANESE: That is the way forward, Fran. That is the way forward. You need safe quarantine to bring people back safely. Remember, the New South Wales outbreak, Fran, came about because a single driver took a foreign aircrew to hotel quarantine. And one of the things that hasn't happened over the last 18 months is that this Government have not looked at where the mistakes have been and set about correcting them. They've been too busy with their spin and marketing to worry about that. Now Jane Halton, in her report to the Government last year in 2020, identified this as a real weakness. 

KELLY: All right, I'm sorry to interrupt you. But we do understand that point. And I think that Australians' anger has shown up in the polls to some degree about that. But we also need to look about what we do next. And building quarantine, as you say, Queensland Government's already taken that on. Do you add your voice, clearly, to Scott Morrison's to focus on how we live with COVID-19 rather than locking down against it? I mean, Bill Shorten has led that charge. Do you do that? 

ALBANESE: That's nonsense, Fran. We've been leading that charge for 18 months. For 18 months. We've been saying this is how you avoid lockdowns, this is how you keep people safe. That's been our whole focus from day one. We don't want to see the restrictions that are in place. It's working people who lose their jobs. It's casual employees and the vulnerable and the marginalised who are losing their incomes. It's working people in my electorate. In my electorate, I've just lost someone else in the latest figures yesterday. It was another death coming from a Summer Hill nursing home. And that death came about because an aged care worker was unvaccinated and working in multiple facilities. I'm very concerned. I'm very concerned about this, Fran, because this is having a real impact. People aren't able to visit their elderly relatives in nursing homes. Parents are struggling to do home-schooling. People can't go to funerals of their relatives. But there's no disagreement, Fran. 

KELLY: No, I understand. I understand there's no disagreement on that. But the WA Premier, we're trying to get this clear, how we all move out of this, Mark McGowan is mounting perhaps the strongest resistance to the national plan and all its benchmarks.

ALBANESE: But that is not true either, Fran.

KELLY: Let me just point this out to you. He says there would be one million unprotected Western Australians when the nation hits the 70 per cent vaccination rate and he will not, 'deliberately infect our citizens because people would die'. Is that fair enough from the Premier? Or should he recommit to the national plan for the sake of all those businesses impacted by lockdowns? 

ALBANESE: Where is that statement a breach of the national plan, Fran? 

KELLY: Well, the country can't open up until every state and territory is at 80 per cent and then they are supposed to open up and he says, 'well, that will still leave my state, which has no COVID infections, with 20 per cent, at least if not more, 30 per cent people who are vulnerable to infection and why would I do that?'.

ALBANESE: Fran, Mark McGowan has kept Western Australian safe. 

KELLY: By keeping the borders shut. 

ALBANESE: He's done an outstanding job. And the national plan does provide for, though, which we support, opening up, changing some of the measures at 70 per cent and then again 80 per cent and provide for just highly targeted lockdowns only.

KELLY: So would you support, if the country gets to an 80 per cent vaccination level, some states, whichever state, keeping its borders closed because they still don't want to allow outsiders who may be unvaccinated into their state?

ALBANESE: I support the national plan that every state premier and every chief minister has signed up to.

KELLY: And does that allow for a state to keep its borders closed?

ALBANESE: The national plan is the national plan, Fran. I suggest that people read it.

KELLY: You've read it closely. Does it allow for that?

ALBANESE: Well, it does allow for premiers to make decisions. It's silent when it comes to border closures. But it speaks about minimising baseline restrictions, adjusted to minimise cases without lockdowns. That's what it suggests. That's what it suggests in black and white that they have signed up to. I don't understand how, when you have a national crisis like this, the Federal Government are seeking to have arguments with state premiers, and in particular, to target those state premiers who've been most successful. And you don't hear about South Australia, which also has the same restrictions that are there, as does Tasmania at the moment, as the West Australian Premier. But what you have is Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison looking to distract from their own failures, to distract from the fact that they haven't responded to recommendations that had been made to them for things that they are responsible for, things like the aged care workforce being vaccinated, things like aged care workers not working in multiple facilities unvaccinated, things like the taking of a foreign aircrew to quarantine. It's no wonder that there's some frustration from the state premiers, be they Labor or Liberal, that had been taking action. Remember that this current outbreak as well, more than a week in, Scott Morrison was out there praising and urging no lockdown. And that's in spite of the fact that this breach, I say again, came from what Jane Halton described as a gaping hole in keeping people safe. And nothing was done to close that hole. 

KELLY: Can I just ask you briefly and finally on the important issue of Afghanistan, more than 4,000 Australians and local visa holders were evacuated before the emergency flights ended last week, how many are left behind? Have you received a security briefing on the latest? Will you be seeking that information?

ALBANESE: I have received a security briefing and I am therefore not in a position to release that information. I was fully briefed last Friday, along with other senior members of my team. Can I say this, Fran, that firstly, we owe a great debt of gratitude to those brave men and women who flew into what was a dangerous situation to remove Australian citizens and others who needed our support out. Secondly, I am very concerned, though, that because we didn't act soon enough, there are people who have been left behind. And we need, I think, the Government to release the figures of exactly how many Australian citizens and Australian visa holders and others who have sought our support have been left behind. One of the problems here has been the long delay that was occurring in processing applications, going back to relatives of those Afghan-Australians who are really doing a tough today. 

KELLY: They certainly are. Anthony Albanese, thank you very much for joining us. 

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Fran. 

KELLY: Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese. And we did invite the Health Minister, Greg Hunt, on the program. He was unavailable. We also asked the Foreign Minister, Marise Payne.

ENDS