SUBJECTS: Failures of the Morrison Government during COVID-19; school reopening; kids’ vaccinations; Labor’s policy agenda; rapid antigen tests; Federal election.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: The looming election could come down to the one key question - who will do the best job leading the country out of the pandemic? Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, joins me now. Albo, welcome.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, good to be with you, Patricia. And congratulations on the new gig.
 
KARVELAS: Thank you so much. Concession cardholders are eligible for 10 free rapid antigen tests from today. Doesn't that torpedo your latest attack line that it's easier to catch COVID than it is to catch a RAT?
 
ALBANESE: No. What it will do for so many pensioners is confirm it. Because they'll rock up to their local chemist and there won't be a rapid antigen test available. It's quite extraordinary that on the day in which pensioners are eligible to receive a RAT, so many of them won't be able to find one. And what we heard from Barnaby Joyce then was blaming the Australian people for the unavailability of rapid antigen tests here in Australia that his Government was warned about many, many months ago. We all knew that once we opened up, there'd be an increased number of infections, rapid antigen test would be an important part of the response to keep people safe. And the Government simply didn't do anything about it. They started ordering tests a couple of weeks ago. They got their ads ready before they ordered the tests.
Okay. But Barnaby Joyce, as you've just quoted, he says the Government is not Nostradamus, it couldn't predict Omicron. And also, that people in businesses have been hoarding, as you mentioned, these RAT tests. With the benefit of hindsight, what would you have done? He says the situation would have been the same.
I would have listened to the health experts such as the Australian Medical Association, to business, to unions, to everyone who was saying they needed to get their act together. Not in hindsight. They were was saying that way back in July and August and September. Rapid antigen tests were approved by the TGA in September. They came into being on November 1, they were available in Australia. And the Federal Government placed orders for rapid antigen tests in January 2022. They sat back. Something that characterises this Government is it sits back, waits for a problem to become a crisis, then blames others for the problem. In this case, Barnaby Joyce actually just blamed the Australian people themselves, and nonsense about hoarding, when he himself projected how many rapid antigen tests have been ordered to arrive from here on in, later on, after the problem has been there for four weeks. And it's so frustrating whether you're a pharmacist or a medical centre. What they have been doing is getting phone call after phone call as people search desperately to get a rapid antigen test. The fact is, in my local community and in so many communities around Australia, it is easier to catch COVID than it is to catch a RAT.
 
KARVELAS: So, Mr Albanese, you want rapid antigen test to be free for all, not just pensioners and concession cardholders. Have you costed that policy yet? And have you worked out how to ration supply to make sure that those most in need get them first?
 
ALBANESE: Well, you ration it through the Medicare system. The Medicare system, which we have said should be responsible for the distribution of it. It would be able to keep a record just as the Government is rationing the availability to concession cardholders to a number each month, you could do it that way. What we know is that the cost of not doing this has been supermarket shelves being empty, has been workplaces unable to have a proper workforce to keep going, aged care facilities where people can't visit their loved ones, is childcare centre which are closed. The impact of this failure of the Government following on its failures to properly trace and its failure with the first vaccination rollout and its failure that have any purpose-built quarantine has been consequences for the economy. And the lesson of the pandemic is that if you don't get the health outcomes right, the cost to the economy will be more. It will be more. And we're seeing that played out. People are voting with their feet by staying at home. People are unable to go to work. And that has an economic consequence, which is why we've seen less economic activity in recent weeks than we've seen at some of the heights of this crisis with lockdowns.
 
KARVELAS: Now, you say that the Government wasn't planning. The Government says they were ordering tests, the rapid antigen tests, from August.
 
ALBANESE: That's not true.
 
KARVELAS: And they say they were ordering them from August.
 
ALBANESE: You know that is not true.
 
KARVELAS: And they also say that the TGA didn't approve tests for use until the first of November.
 
ALBANESE: No. They approved it in September. And they came into effect from the first of November. And government purchasing appears on websites. It's not a secret. And when they purchased the sites in January, what they did when they purchased RATs in January, it appeared on the site that they had to have them because of urgent and unforeseen circumstances.
 
KARVELAS: Now, on schools, which is another huge issue, of course, schools are returning for the year, and students in New South Wales and Victoria will be tested twice a week. Do you think there are enough measures in place to ensure a safe return to face-to-face learning?
 
ALBANESE: Well, I certainly hope that there are. I know each state has different systems in place. And I listened to your interview with the New South Wales Education Minister before 7AM, where she outlined measures. It is important that students are able to return to school. It's an important part of the experience of young people. It's important for our economy and our workforce as well. But it's important that it be done safely. So, I would just encourage each state government to make sure that those measures are in place.
 
KARVELAS: Western Australia was keeping its borders shut indefinitely. That's despite just 24 cases yesterday. How long can WA's Labor Government keep the state shut off to the rest of the country? Barnaby Joyce says they should stick to the date they said that they would reopen.
 
ALBANESE: Well, I heard Barnaby Joyce's interview. He blamed the Australian people for the lack of rapid antigen tests. He said people aren't dying, when they're dying in record numbers. And he criticised the WA Government for its economic and health performance. The truth is that if you look at WA's performance on any of the indicators, be it health or the economy, they're leading the country. The WA economy has been able to keep going, people have been able to go to work, people are able to go to the pub, people have been able to go to the footy. And importantly, it's making a massive contribution to our national economy, which has been a large part of any growth that's occurred over the last 12 months. So, Mark McGowan's made a difficult decision. It's one in which I don't want to see any restrictions on anybody, on any activity, for one day longer than necessary. But state governments from time to time have made these decisions. And I haven't been critical of any of the state governments when they've done so.
 
KARVELAS: Labor clearly wants the election to revolve around the Government's management of the pandemic. But Josh Frydenberg says that we have one of the highest vaccination rates, lowest mortality rates and strongest economic recoveries anywhere in the world. Isn't that a good enough reason for voters to stick with the Government? Because that is what the Government will be hammering home all the way through to what will possibly be a May election.
 
ALBANESE: This Government is shooting for a second decade in office. In my first summer as Labor Leader, we had the bushfire crisis, where the Prime Minister failed to act and was complacent in spite of the warnings from the ex-fire chiefs, the warnings about climate change and the impact it would have. And during those bushfires, indeed, many people who suffered in areas like Eden-Monaro are still living in caravans, still unable to get support from this Government. The second summer, they sat back and said it wasn't a race when it came to the rollout of the vaccine. And this summer, they've stuffed up the rapid antigen tests. They don't have a plan for the economy. We have a skills crisis that just gets worse. We have a Government that doesn't have any significant social reform. And they haven't delivered on the promises such as for a national integrity commission that they promised before the last election. Why would you give this Government another crack? Is this as good as it gets? We need to actually build back stronger.
 
KARVELAS: You say that Scott Morrison never admits his mistakes. If you become Prime Minister, will you admit your mistakes?
 
ALBANESE: Yes.
 
KARVELAS: And what will that look like for voters?
 
ALBANESE: What that will look like, there's an old saying about John Howard, that he made every mistake, but he only made it once, that he learned from them. All governments make mistakes. And it's understandable during a crisis that mistakes would be made. But what we have from this Government is an extraordinary arrogance. And you have to learn from the mistakes. Had they perhaps conceded that they made mistakes with the rollout of the vaccine by saying that it wasn't a race, by dismissing the approaches from Pfizer to access vaccinations earlier here in Australia.
 
KARVELAS: So, you will own your mistakes quickly and apologise to people and reset? That will be your strategy?
 
ALBANESE: Yes. And then you learn from them. That's the important thing. We've all made mistakes in life. The important thing is - do you learn from them? And what we're seeing at the moment is that Australian companies are manufacturing RATs and they're being exported overseas at a time when Australians can't get access to them.
 
KARVELAS: We're out of time. Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, there.
 
ENDS