COVID cases increasing; Omicron variant; healthcare; Labor’s call for free rapid antigen testing.
 
FAUZIAH IBRAHIM, HOST: Let's bring in the Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, who joins us now from Sydney. Thank you so much for being with us here on News Breakfast.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Thank you for having me on.
 
IBRAHIM: Thank you for coming on the show. You have been pushing for free rapid antigen tests. We have state and territory leaders giving concessional card holders these free tests for the next few months or so. What is your response to that, is that enough?
 
ALBANESE: Well, this is too little, and it of course is too late. The AMA were saying we should prepare for this from last September, which is when the TGA granted approval. And what we have here is a Federal Government that once again has been caught being complacent, not putting in place the plans. If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail. And that is what we are seeing here. We are seeing Australians are anxious, they are concerned about the health of themselves and their families. They just want to do the right thing, as they have been doing for two years. And the easiest and simplest way is to make free tests available for all, just like PCR tests are available and free. But, of course, the reason why we have moved to rapid antigen tests is because of the failure to plan properly to stop the long queues that formed that caused such frustration in Australia.
 
IBRAHIM: I want to point out the fact that earlier in the week you had been calling for subsidised antigen tests. Now you have changed your tune.
 
ALBANESE: I didn't. At no stage did I do that.
 
IBRAHIM: Advocate groups have been calling for free tests. It's only now that you are calling for free tests as well.
 
ALBANESE: Well, that's just not right, with respect. I know that some journalists have suggested that. The whole way along, I have said tests should be available for people who need them and want them, and that income shouldn't be a criteria.
 
IBRAHIM: So, what we have now is a plan to be able to provide these free tests for people who do need them and where income is not a problem, and, you know, low income groups, vulnerable groups, groups from within the disability community, as well, pensioners as well, anyone with a concessional card will be able to get free tests. Are you satisfied with that plan?
 
ALBANESE: I am absolutely not satisfied with that plan. Nor is the Australian Medical Association. Nor are the people I speak to in the community.
 
IBRAHIM: Given there's such a crunch in terms of supply, you would want to provide tests for all of Australia? Given that there is such a shortage of supply?
 
ALBANESE: Well, the Government says itself that they reckon that they have fixed supply. They say it's all coming online. And of course, the issue of supply has been a real issue because the Government failed to plan for supply. But they now say that the supply is coming online. The simplest way to deliver this is to make sure that everyone who wants a test can receive one. The simplest way, as well, is to do it through Medicare, just like we deliver other health services through Medicare and we do so on a universal basis. That's the principle of Medicare. What we have here is small businesses crying out for their workers to be able to be tested. What we have here is businesses that aren't able to open because they can't get a workforce. And we have people now, as a result of the decisions made yesterday, people will test positive at home, not register in the numbers. That doesn't mean less people are getting COVID. What it means is that there's less transparency in the system and it's not clear.
 
IBRAHIM: I want to come back to the issue of supply. Now, you are calling for the Prime Minister to fix this supply issue. He did say for the next fortnight or so there will be a bit of a crunch.
 
ALBANESE: Correct.
 
IBRAHIM: However, we have been assured that the supplies will be coming within the next fortnight. I want to take you back to July last year when we were talking about the pandemic road map. And Labor got on board and joined the chorus to get the nation vaccinated. But Labor did not stress the need to assure there is an adequate supply for rapid antigen tests after the pandemic following the nation having been mostly vaccinated. Labor did not call for that either.
 
ALBANESE: With respect, that is complete nonsense. More than a year ago, we were talking about, this time if you go back at the end of 2020, we were talking about, making sure that you fix up the supply of the vaccines. That is the first thing we were saying. We were calling upon the Government to do deals with more companies for more vaccines to be available. The Government was complacent. Pfizer approached them and they got fobbed off. So, we had a delay in the delivery of the vaccines. In the first week of January this year, the Prime Minister essentially started with his, ‘It's not a race’. For the entire year we said it was a race. Then, throughout that year, we also called for preparation for the next phase, which is preparation in terms of boosters. If we'll had have received the vaccines earlier, we would have received the boosters earlier and would have also received, of course, boosters earlier if they had shortened the time between the second dose and the booster, which is something that Labor also called for. If you had of fixed the supply of the vaccine, we would have had boosters earlier, we would have had people protected more. The reason why we had moved from PCR tests to rapid antigen tests, as the go-to test, is because the Government wasn't able to deliver on the capacity for people who were getting PCR tests. That is why that has occurred. And, this is, at each stage, a failure by the Government to secure supply, to make sure they planned in advance. And Labor, at each and every stage, whether it was wage subsidies, whether it was purpose-built quarantine, whether it was securing supply of the vaccine, whether it was securing supply of the booster shots, whether it was decreasing the gap between the second stage and the booster shot, at each and every stage, Labor has called for action prior to the Government taking it. Because the Government has always been, always been, not as the Prime Minister says, ‘Shake and bake’, the Prime Minister is more likely to be characterised by set and forget. He says it's all okay, everything's cool, you are going to be back, it will be back to normal by Christmas, well, we have seen the consequences played out for Australian families. And most importantly, the consequences for those heroes in the health sector who are continuing to work hard under extraordinary physical and emotional pressure. The pressure on their mental health is there, they are exhausted. And one of the reasons why they are exhausted is because of this Government's failure to plan ahead and to always be playing catch-up.
 
IBRAHIM: I want to now take you to Labor's plan to beat COVID-19. And I'm getting this off your website that I checked this morning. Your official website says, ‘This is Labor's plan to beat COVID-19. 1. Fix the rollout, 2. Build dedicated quarantine facilities across the country, 3. Have an effective public information campaign, 4. Start making mRNA vaccines in Australia.’ Nowhere in there have you mentioned ensuring that there is adequate supply for rapid antigen tests. And also, this is a test that doesn't seem to be moving with a variant that's actually evolving across short months.
 
ALBANESE: With respect, what you haven't told your listeners and you have ignored, is the fact that was the plan that we put out a year ago in the first half of 2020. We were talking about the priorities being rollout of the vaccine, get the first and second dose, at that stage no-one had been vaccinated. The Government was failing to vaccinate people and it was too slow. Purpose-built quarantine still hasn't happened. Public information campaign, the Government itself as of June last year said it couldn’t have a public information campaign because they didn't have the supply of the vaccines if people came forward. And the fourth, of course, manufacturer mRNA vaccines, that's something that, according to the Government's own Industry Minister two ago, said would be manufactured in Australia by now, many months ago at the end of 2021. The plan shows that we were calling for that, well in advance, from the first half of 2021. It's something we continue to put forward. We were constructive. We put forward practical ideas the Government failed to deliver on those. If they had when we were calling for that at the beginning of 2021, if they had have called fix supply that they were calling for in 2020, way back, if they'd have built purpose built quarantine, which they still haven't done in a single location funded by the Federal Government up to now, more than two years into the pandemic, if they had had an effective public information campaign earlier, that would have been a good thing. And if we were producing mRNA vaccines here, which now, of course, could have been the booster shots, that would have made a difference as well. In terms of the production of mRNA vaccines, that would have fixed some of the booster problems. People weren't talking about rapid antigen tests at the beginning of last year. That's true. Because no-one was given rapid antigen tests anywhere in the world at the beginning of last year. And with due respect, that's something that we couldn't have anticipated. But at the time, if you look back, our record and our suggestions to the Government stand the test of time and are evidence of the constructive role that we have played. In addition to that, you might have added, the economic support that we were arguing for at that time, as well, which included, of course, our support for wage subsidies, through JobKeeper, which at the time Scott Morrison characterised as a dangerous idea.
 
IBRAHIM: Right. Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks for having me on the program.