SUBJECTS: Vaccine rollout; need for purpose-built quarantine; COVID restrictions across Australia; Aussies stranded overseas; Christian Porter’s resignation from the Cabinet; disinformation around COVID-19; Australia’s relationship with France; Scott Morrison’s trip to Washington.

LEITH FORREST, HOST: Anthony, appreciate your time.

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

FORREST: Hey, can we start with the vaccine rollout? Your thoughts? We've been discussing this all week while I've been sitting in for Leon. It was described as not being a race. But still, here we are in what? The end of September. We have lockdowns. We still haven't got this under control.

ALBANESE: Well, it was always a race, which is why the Government's failure to secure enough supply early enough has been a major problem, as well as failing to fix quarantine. Now, we need to learn those lessons and get ahead of it. We need to plan for securing booster shots for example. We need to make sure that we get people vaccinated as soon as possible. One way that we can do that is by making sure that vaccination leave is available. We need to look at incentives. I proposed a $300 payment as both a reward and an incentive to encourage those vaccination rates. We need to make sure that we can open up safely, including with a proper contact tracing COVIDSafe type app, or one that actually works, across the country. And we need to plan as well for children to be vaccinated. Paediatric vaccines have been approved in the US and we need to make sure that we plan for that. And we need to prepare for the future. We should be manufacturing mRNA vaccines right here, right now. I noticed in your lead up, you'll be talking about the international borders opening up for Christmas. Of course, this Government promised that Australians would be home before last Christmas. And there are still now more than 40,000 Australians who are stranded overseas who can't get home and their loved ones are desperate to see them.

FORREST: Are you confident that the Prime Minister and the Government can do the things that you are suggesting there?

ALBANESE: No, I'm not. Because if you look at the gap that's there between what they promised and what they actually deliver, it's a huge gap. They said we were at the front of the queue. And the truth is we were last in the developed world at one stage. We're just receiving Moderna vaccines for the first time now. Other countries have been rolling it out six months ago. We planned for pharmacies to be used, and of course, they weren't used until very recently. Category 1A was supposed to have aged care workers and disability care workers, aged care residents, people who are vulnerable, all vaccinated before Easter. And of course, they still haven't been vaccinated now and we're in September. So, there's always been a huge gap between what this Government promises and what they actually deliver. And the consequences are, as we speak, half of Australia, including where I am now in Sydney, is still in lockdown.

FORREST: I have a friend in the aviation industry, Anthony, and he was mentioning the other day that he heard that there was a gigantic plane, one of the big major passenger jets that flew from an international destination into Australia, that had seven passengers on board because that's all we were able to take in quarantine from international. Imagine a plane with just seven people on it. How have we not fixed this quarantine?

ALBANESE: It is a disgrace. The Government has refused to accept its responsibility that is in there in this little document called the Constitution, to look after quarantine. You needed purpose-built quarantine. We've been saying this for a year. Queensland has now gone by itself and is building one near Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba. And the Federal Government haven't even approved the landing of international passenger jets there at the airport, which would see people put into quarantine just as people are flying into Darwin and using Howard Springs. There hasn't been one breach at Howard Springs near Darwin because there aren't shared ventilation systems, there's a system operating that keeps people safe and keeps people separated. And common sense tells you that when you have people in quarantine in hotels in the centre of CBDs, there have been breaches. One fellow came back from India, of course, he survived India okay, but caught COVID in an Adelaide hotel. It, quite frankly, defies my comprehension that the Federal Government haven't responded to this and continue to stubbornly resist the need for purpose-built quarantine.

FORREST: I want to get on to Christian Porter. In a word, though, does he know to rein in some of the members of his Government, the PM, for spreading conspiracies? Because I see all this crap on Twitter about different medications and 'don't take vaccinations'. Should he be reining them in?

ALBANESE: Look, it is a disgrace. The Prime Minister needs to control people who are members of his Government. These are Government backbenchers, people like George Christensen, who not only are spreading some of the conspiracy theories that are out there with regard to vaccine, but have even encouraged some of the demonstrations that we've seen that do nothing except potentially spread the virus and endanger people's health. The Prime Minister has a responsibility. And the acting Prime Minister, in Barnaby Joyce, yes, he is the acting person running this country at the moment, believe it or not, he has to act like a national leader and not just say, 'Well, you know, people can say what they like'. This has real consequences. And for the people who are working 14-hour shifts, some of them, on the health frontline, looking after COVID patients, wearing full PPE, working in our health system, they deserve our respect, our thanks, our gratitude, but they deserve something else as well. The whole of the country, particularly our leaders, to actually back them in.

FORREST: I am going to get to a break shortly. Let me just run through some other topics if you can, please, Anthony, on that. Are you calling for Christian Porter's resignation?

ALBANESE: Absolutely. Either that or he has to pay the money back. It's just not on for a Member of Parliament to receive. He won't even say, contrary to what Scott Morrison said on Sunday, we don't know how much he received. We know it's up to a million dollars from anonymous donors. This is just red hot. It's an open and shut breach of our pecuniary interest obligations, which are that if anyone who's a Member of Parliament receives a private benefit of any substantial amount, it varies in terms of what the gifts are, but starts at $300, they have to declare it. And there's an obvious reason for that. Because that opens people up to corruption, to all sorts of problems, if people can just accept private money for what is a private legal matter when you are a Member of the Parliament of Australia. If Christian Porter is allowed to remain in the Parliament without declaring where this money is coming from, or to pay it back, then it will render the register of pecuniary interest completely irrelevant. And that just opens up our whole political system. No wonder this Government has done nothing to create a National Anticorruption Commission.

FORREST: Does Australia owe France an apology?

ALBANESE: Well, I just find it extraordinary that now Joe Biden, President Biden, has apologised and the ambassador to the United States is going to return this week. Quite clearly, I don't think we've had a satisfactory answer to why it is that Australia had these meetings with France and didn't give them any heads up at all, including, we had meetings where, as part of the declaration just a couple of weeks before the announcement, it was stated that everything was all on track. Of course, Australian Government ministers were standing in the Parliament saying that everything was on track and it was all on budget, on time, everything was ready to go. Since then, they've been out there saying that wasn't true, that the subs were behind, that everything was a major problem. And I just think that France is an important relationship. Yes, we have to put our national interests first. And yes, I support the broad direction in principle of where the Federal Government has gone with this. But you need to treat allies with respect. And it is understandable that there's been a failure of diplomacy here. And Prime Minister Morrison needs to speak to President Macron. They are important players in our region in the Indo-Pacific. And it's an important relationship for Australia to have with the European Union going forward.

FORREST: And finally, there are states in lockdown in the country. We've seen riots throughout Victoria. Our Prime Minister is overseas catching up, as you mentioned, with President Biden and also Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Should he be in the country?

ALBANESE: Look, I think it is entirely appropriate for the Prime Minister to meet with world leaders. That's part of his job. And I support him doing that on behalf of the country. It is the important relationship, not just with the United States and the UK, but of course, the meetings in New York coincide with the United Nations meetings that are taking place. Australia is a middle power. And it's important that we engage with the world. It's increasingly a globalised world. And I support the Prime Minister undertaking the visit, which he is.

FORREST: Appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much for talking with us.

ENDS