SUBJECTS: COVID-19 pandemic across Australia; vaccine rollout; lockdowns; Government failure in securing vaccines in meetings with Pfizer in 2020; Federal election; Afghanistan.

BILL CREWS, EXODUS FOUNDATION: Hello, everybody. Welcome. I'd especially like to introduce or welcome Anthony Albanese. He's been a great mate here from the beginning. And as you know, we work with the poorest of the poor and those who are really struggling. And ever since this pandemic began, I've been fighting to make sure that the poorest of the poor get the support they need. Because in pandemics like this, often, those people, they all get forgotten about. And it's been a constant struggle to find masks first, then sanitisers, then vaccines, now instant rapid testing kits. It's been a battle all along the way. We have 11 different locations that we go to now to supply meals. And some of those places where we go to, you've got ten people in accommodation in a two-bedroom house. And they are struggling. What people don't realise is that the poorest of the poor are the most vulnerable. They're the ones who die. And they're the ones who get sick and end up in hospital. But they also become kind of a petri dish, and it moves out to society. So this disease affects the poorest of the poor and the billionaires. And we're all in this together. And at the moment, the poorest of the poor are the very ones who we try and look after, who somehow in all of this, get neglected. And I'd like to welcome Anthony because I'm going to lean on him a bit to make sure that those people don't get forgotten. Thank you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks so much, Bill. And it is my great honour to be back here at Exodus yet again. The work that Bill Crews and his team do are quite extraordinary here. Looking after people, particularly the most marginalised and vulnerable people in our society. And it makes a real difference. During the time of the pandemic, it is remarkable that this magnificent institution here has stayed open each and every day. And guess what? No government funding. No government funding, just hard yakka and support of volunteers. And I'd encourage people to make a donation to the Exodus Foundation. You can look online and give support to Bill and the wonderful work that they do. This week, of course, we've had a real issue with regard to revelations that what we were saying was right about the failure of the Government when it comes to vaccines. The reason why we're in lockdown today is because the Federal Government failed to roll out the vaccine effectively and failed to set up purpose-built quarantine. That's why half of Australia today is in Scott Morrison's lockdown.

Now, Scott Morrison talks a lot about hope. But when hope came knocking on the door last June, suggesting that vaccines could be available, they locked the door. They didn't have a meeting with Pfizer, even though two letters from Pfizer approaching the Government saying they were developing a vaccine, saying that would be available to Australia in 2020. And yet, they didn't even have a meeting, even though it suggested that the global leadership was prepared to meet with the Health Minister about access to the vaccines. Scott Morrison was asked whether Greg Hunt was right to knock back that meeting. And this is what he said. 'I'll let others make those judgments'. If there's anything that defines this Prime Minister's character and this Government's performance, it is that. Handing off responsibility, even for whether the Health Minister meets with a global company that is supplying vaccines to the world at the heart of a pandemic is, in Scott Morrison's words, 'I'll let others make those judgments'. It reminded me of, 'I don't hold a hose, mate'. This is a Prime Minister that never takes responsibility, even for the actions of his minister, in this case the Health Minister, about access to vaccines. And the fact is that this is a character trait. In 2019, fire chiefs warned about the coming bushfire crisis. And yet, Scott Morrison wouldn't have a meeting and then said, 'I don't hold a hose'. In 2020, at this time, Labor was saying you needed to do five or six deals, which was international best practice, to make sure that the vaccine wasn't dependent, all the eggs weren't in one basket, that you spread that around, that we should have been doing deals with companies like Moderna much earlier. In the end, we know that there wasn't a deal done with Pfizer until November, after more than 40 countries had done deals, and after many millions of doses had been already agreed to. The fact is that this Prime Minister also showed no responsibility when it came to the issue of Brittany Higgins and what occurred there, said no one told him for two years, even though we know that his office knew. When confronted about this yesterday, he makes a sarcastic comment about, 'Well, it's okay to consider these things in hindsight'. The truth is they weren't in hindsight. He was warned about these issues at the time, including on the need to secure deals with pharmaceutical companies. The truth is we know that Scott Morrison has a tin ear. He must have tin eyes as well. Because he never has the foresight that Australia needs to get ahead of issues and to take advice when advice was screaming out and when international best practice was occurring right around the world, which is why we ended up being last in the developed world for the rollout of vaccines. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). What should Government be doing to make healthcare more equitable? 

ALBANESE: What they could be doing is talking to my friend here, Bill Crews. Talking to him and others on the frontline who deal with the poorest and the most marginalised. We know that there's a real equity component to this, which is why we need to take vaccines to people. And I note that people were vaccinated here in Exodus. That took a long period of time. We need to make sure that we look after people because those people are the most vulnerable. If they get sick, they're the most likely to have an acute episode. If you look at the areas in this electorate, we've had at least seven deaths during the current outbreak. And they haven't been the wealthiest people, they've been the poorest. So there is a real equity component here. And the Government needs to bear that in mind in terms of the access to vaccines. Making sure, for example, that those people who are in category 1A, First Nations people, aged care workers, disability care workers, aged care residents, they were supposed to be done first and we know that just hasn't happened.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: This isn't an electoral issue. This is an issue of keeping people safe. And I want people to be vaccinated. I encourage people to be vaccinated. And I've done so from the very beginning. And one of the things that we've said is this time last year, we were saying, do more deals with more pharmacy companies to get more vaccines here sooner. Had that occurred, we wouldn't be in lockdown today. And we wouldn't have the sort of outbreaks that we're seeing with here in New South Wales approaching 30,000 cases and well over 100 deaths. This outbreak occurred and is putting real hardship on people. And we shouldn't have also done what Scott Morrison did in June by encouraging the Premier to not lock down. That was clearly a mistake as well.

JOURNALIST: Some have criticised the decision to parachute Kristina Keneally to the seat of Fowler. (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: The New South Wales branch will have its preselection processes and they'll do that. Kristina Keneally is a valuable member of my team. Kristina Keneally has served as the Premier of New South Wales. She serves in the Senate now. If she nominated for the Senate, she would be preselected at the top of the ticket, I have no doubt about that. But Kristina Keneally has some decisions to make. She has been approached by some people, including locally, encouraging her to run. And those processes will take place. If you want to look at preselections, right here next door, the candidate for Reid for the Liberal Party is being challenged. She's in her first term. The Liberal Party have challenges against a sitting Member for Reid and the sitting Member for Lindsay here in Western Sydney in their first term. It says a lot about the fact that the Liberal Party continue to be focused on themselves. Chris Hayes has indicated he won't be contesting the next election as the Member for Fowler. I wish him well. I'm certain we will have a very strong candidate.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: We will have a very strong candidate for Fowler and those processes will take place. 

JOURNALIST: You have a candidate that has really strong connections with the Vietnamese community as well as the support of the outgoing member. To put someone in that doesn't have those connections, do you think this is a mistake? Do you think it's a missed opportunity? 

ALBANESE: We will have a very strong candidate for Fowler. And Kristina Keneally is an important part of my team. I've been a friend of hers for a very long period of time. And she has enormous capacity. And in whatever form that capacity is offered, she'll be a key minister in the Labor Government that I hope to form after the next election.

JOURNALIST: Shouldn't you have a hard-working local MP on your side?

ALBANESE: Kristina Keneally is hard-working and is a good performer. Kristina Keneally has done enormous work for the people of New South Wales, the whole of New South Wales as a Senator and before then, as the Premier of this state. She'll continue to make a constructive contribution into the future.

JOURNALIST: Is this a missed opportunity for Labor (inaudible)?

ALBANESE: Labor has incredible cultural diversity in our ranks. When I first went into Parliament, I followed Jeannette McHugh, who was the first woman elected to the Parliament in 1983 from New South Wales. Before then, we had 83 years of just blokes. Every seat, every candidate across the board in the House of Representatives. We now, after the next election, will have 50 per cent female representation. Senator Penny Wong is our Senate Leader. We have in Western Sydney, people like Ed Husic, the first Muslim elected to the House of Representatives. And we have Anne Aly in the seat of Cowan. We have enormous diversity in our ranks. And guess what? At the next election there's someone called ‘Albanese’ running for Prime Minister. And in terms of diversity, that's a first too. Because if you look at the names who've run for the highest office in the land, of Prime Minister, they've all been people with Anglo-Celtic names across the board. I'm putting myself forward, very proud of my background and very proud to lead a party that has advanced multiculturalism, particularly in the post-war period. And since Whitlam, has been at the forefront of advancing multiculturalism and will be at the forefront into the future. Thanks.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). Do you think Australia should be sending more to that country?

ALBANESE: Look, I think that the Taliban made some big statements saying that they've changed. I see no evidence that they've changed. The Australian Government shouldn't have left it up to Cricket Australia to say that they wouldn't compete in a Test against Afghanistan, given the Taliban are refusing the right of women to play cricket. The Taliban said they would respect the rights of women and girls. I hope that's the case. There's no evidence that is the case up to now. Thanks very much.

ENDS