Failures of the Morrison Government during the COVID-19; Labor’s policy agenda; Federal election; Better Future for Queensland visit; Novak Djokovic; rapid antigen tests; Beef Australia.
 
MADELEINE MORRIS, HOST: Now, millions more people could potentially leave isolation and return to work. But the advice says it should only occur when pressure on services is extreme, and it must be optional for employees. The meetings are also set to discuss plans for a return to school. There is plenty to discuss. And to talk more about with the Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, who joins me now from Rockhampton. Good morning to you, Mr Anthony Albanese.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Madeleine. It's a beautiful morning, I have to say, here in Rocky.
 
MORRIS: My hometown. It's always a beautiful morning there in Rocky. Lucky you to be there with the Fitzroy. Really big National Cabinet today. Let's deal with the expanded list of occupations. Looking at it is so long. It will be millions of workers. Is it reasonable to expand the changes to isolation rules to all these occupations?
 
ALBANESE: We need to have a proper consultation with working people. And it needs to be worked through. Like it was at the beginning of the pandemic, where the trade union movement and its representatives put aside wages, conditions, did the right thing to keep the economy going. What they need is a Government that is now prepared to back them. Working people have been saying that they needed access to testing, for example. For months after months, the Transport Workers Union wrote to the Government last September about supply chains and the disruptions that could occur if they didn't get access to rapid antigen tests. And now, we know this Government only ordered, on mass, rapid antigen tests this week. It's extraordinary their complacency. We have had a Grand Slam of failures from this Government, whether it's tracing, testing, vaccines and quarantine, on each occasion they wait until there is a problem becomes a crisis before Scott Morrison acts.
 
MORRIS: We are certainly at that crisis point now when it comes to workers in critical industries. We heard from the unions yesterday. They said they are concerned about the expansion. You are saying you want more consultation with workers. But we need to see changes soon, don't we, if not immediately, to enable society to keep functioning?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we do. How is it we have got to this point? The rapid antigen tests were approved last September. The national plan made it clear that once we opened up there would be an increased number of infections. And we needed to make sure we planned for it. We needed Scott Morrison to do his job. But he just went through saying, ‘We will all be together on Christmas and it will all be right’, without putting in place mechanisms required. And in the tender that was bought by the Government, some $62 million of RATs that have been purchased, it was because of urgent and unforeseen circumstances. That was part of the tender why there wasn't a normal commercial operation. Well, this was foreseen. It was predicted by the Australian Medical Association, by working people. People knew as part of the national plan that we would face increased number of infections and therefore increased pressure. But we have had now a circumstance whereby people can't get access to their booster shots. They can't get access to rapid antigen tests. And the Government said pharmacists should go out and find them themselves. An extraordinary comment, or position, for the Government to take. And of course, we know that there isn't food on supermarket shelves in places right around Australia at the moment. And parents are under pressure. Because they were told their children could be vaccinated at this time. And so many of them have struggling to get appointments.
 
MORRIS: As you point out there, we are struggling to get food on to supermarket shelves at the moment, it is clearly a crisis. But are you saying that the changes to isolation rules shouldn't be made until those rapid antigen tests are in the country and more available?
 
ALBANESE: Well, the point is they are in the country.
 
MORRIS: We haven't got them, though.
 
ALBANESE: Because the companies approached the Government and the Government said it wasn't interested. So, they are going offshore at a time when there are these massive shortages here. We need to make sure here that we get it right. If you don't get the health outcomes right and look after people, then you will end up with worse economic outcomes. That's the lesson of this pandemic that the Government keeps ignoring. It was the lesson of why we needed to get people vaccinated. It was the lesson of why we needed purpose-built quarantine. It was the lesson why we needed to get testing and tracing right as well. And now we have a circumstance whereby people out there are really anxious about circumstances that Australia faces at the moment. And we have a Prime Minister who is still oblivious to what's actually happening in communities, whether they be in regional cities like Rockhampton here or whether they be in our capital cities or our smaller towns.
 
MORRIS: Parents are certainly pretty anxious about whether school will be back on time, whether it's safe for kids to go back to school on time. Should other states and territories be following Queensland's lead and pushing it back?
 
ALBANESE: Well, Queensland, I think, is doing the right thing based upon health advice. Because what they anticipate is that the peak will be precisely when children were going to go back to school. And so, to me, it's common-sense based upon that health advice for the decision that Premier Palaszczuk has made. Other states need to make decisions based upon their health advice. But one of the things that has also happened during this is, in spite of the claims by the Morrison Government that everything is all Okay and people should just be going about their activity, Australians are voting with their feet, literally, staying at home. They are making their own decisions. And parents will make decisions in their interests of their children. They will make their own assessments. And the Government needs to have that health assurance that it is safe. I know as a parent, my son is not school age, he works in one of the big supermarket chains. I've been concerned about him and his health and making sure that he's now had his booster shot. I'm much more comfortable now with him as a student doing part-time work now that he's had that. Individual parents will be doing the same thing with regard to children going back to school. But how is it that we have got to this point? This is the third year of the pandemic. And consistently, the same mistake, essentially, keeps being made. A Prime Minister who fails to plan. A Prime Minister who doesn't do his job of thinking about where things are going to be, following the advice. He doesn't have to be Nostradamus here. He just needs to have listened to the health experts and acted.
 
MORRIS: I want to talk about what you are doing in Queensland. You have been on the stumps there, on the early stumps, and the unofficial election campaign there. You have a bit of a big job to win back Queenslanders to Labor. You only have one seat out of 30 federally outside of Brisbane and you hold six all together. How will you convince Queenslanders that they can trust Labor?
 
ALBANESE: By being concerned with their interests, by listening. I have spent a lot of time in Queensland as the Labor Leader, but before that for many years. I think Queenslanders trusted me to be able to deliver. Wherever I am, there are projects, like here, the flood plain road works south of Rocky that I as Infrastructure Minister funded saw and constructed that. It made a difference to people's lives. But we are campaigning on three big themes. A better life with working families, with cheaper childcare, with dealing with Medicare and strengthening it, not undermining it like this Government has done, affordable housing. The second issue is that of secure work. The same job, same pay in this region. Why is it that people can be working next to each other in a mine in this region, but some people paid $30,000 or more less than the person doing the same job because of dodgy labour hire agreements that are about undermining wages and conditions. And the third is a Future Made in Australia. One of the lessons of this pandemic is we need to be more self-reliant. We need more resilience in our economy. We need to make more things here. We are really good at ideas and science in this country, and innovation. What we haven't been good at is commercialising those opportunities. And I want a future made in Australia. And that's something that resonating with Queenslanders. And I'm very confident with candidates like Russell Robertson, here in Rocky, the candidate for Capricornia, and Matt Burnett I will be with today in Flynn down in Gladstone and Gracemere, we have candidates who will truly represent their local communities.
 
MORRIS: I know you will be making an announcement about Beef Australia should Labor win government, some more funding for Beef Australia.
 
ALBANESE: It's a big deal. And Australians know now how important beef is getting on table. And Beef Australia are providing that certainty and funding will really assist them.
 
MORRIS: Really quickly, I can't let you go without asking but Novak Djokovic. The clock is ticking for Alex Hawke to make a decision. Should he stay or go?
 
ALBANESE: Well, how do you get a visa in the first place? Australia has a policy of not allowing unvaccinated people into Australia. The Government is yet to explain how that occurred. And this has been a debacle yet again. A Government sitting back, waiting until a problem becomes a crisis before it acts. This is an international embarrassment for Australia. Everyone knew about Novak Djokovic and the Australian Open. It's not like we didn't know when the date was. It's been the leading sport story in the world for many months. How is it it's come to this?
 
MORRIS: We will have to leave it there. Anthony Albanese, enjoy my beautiful home state of Queensland. Thanks for speaking to us.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Madeleine.