SUBJECTS: Victorian COVID-19 outbreak; vaccine rollout; quarantine; Scott Morrison’s handling of COVID-19.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Richard Colbeck’s extraordinary performance before Senate Estimates today makes it difficult to know where to start on the critique of his performance. But this has been a rolling maul of incompetence now ever since he was in the portfolio. It's extraordinary that Scott Morrison had the chance to move him when he had the reshuffle but he kept him in this job, in spite of the fact that we know in previous performances before the Senate, he wasn't aware of how many deaths there'd been in aged care. Today, again, he repeated the line where he said that he is comfortable with where we're at when it comes to the vaccine rollout. That's an extraordinary comment. Australians aren't comfortable with where we're at with the vaccine rollout. That's very clear. Australians aren't comfortable with the fact that only eight per cent of staff in aged care are fully vaccinated. Australians aren't comfortable that only 355, or 1.5 per cent, of disability care residents have been fully vaccinated. Australians aren't comfortable that 21 aged care facilities in Australia are yet to receive the first dose of a vaccine and in almost 600 facilities, the residents haven't been fully vaccinated. Australians certainly aren't comfortable that this Government has been caught out time and time again fudging the numbers when it comes to the vaccine rollout. And Australians aren't comfortable with this Government leaving behind the older Australians who built our nation. This Government continues to say that the rollout of the vaccine and national quarantine facilities, that it's not a race. But the truth is there are real human consequences behind the Government's failure. It had two jobs this year. It had to fix the rollout of the vaccine and it had to have a national quarantine system. And what we've seen in both those areas is absolute failure. We've seen a Government that's been prepared to trumpet how well it's going, that we were at the front of the queue, that everything was all hunky dory. Greg Hunt, way back in January, remember when he said, 'The Eagle has landed; we're all set to go here', when we're not even in the top 100 countries when it comes to the rollout of the vaccine. We have aged care workers working in multiple facilities. We have aged care residents who haven't been vaccinated. And we have aged care workers who've been told, 'Just go off and get a vaccine somewhere, you're on your own'. The Commonwealth Government is responsible for aged care. The Commonwealth Government rollout of the vaccine in aged care facilities has been a debacle with human consequences. And today, we've learned as well that the outbreak in the Arcare facility in Melbourne is linked directly to the failure when it comes to South Australian hotel quarantine. So when it comes to this Government, the idea that you say it's not a race and then you back that up by saying that they're comfortable with how it's going, I don't know what it would take for this Minister to actually be uncomfortable. But I'll give him the big message. Australians are not comfortable with how this rollout has occurred in aged care facilities. Victorians aren't comfortable with being subject to a lockdown. Victorian businesses that continue to suffer aren't comfortable. And the Federal Government is providing them with no support. Of course, does anyone think that if this was the Marshall Government in South Australia, there wouldn't be support forthcoming from Josh Frydenberg, from the Federal Government, for businesses, for casual workers, for people who've been left behind as a result of this necessary lockdown? Happy to take questions. 

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, do you think that there needs to be an independent inquiry into whether Christian Porter is fit to be a minister?

ALBANESE: Yes.

JOURNALIST: Do you want to elaborate on that at all? 

ALBANESE: Well, it's very clear that Christian Porter's performance yesterday, where he attempted to spin what was a capitulation into somehow a victory, was quite extraordinary. There needs to be an appropriate, independent, arm's length investigation into whether Christian Porter is a fit and proper person to serve as a Cabinet minister.

JOURNALIST: What should be the criteria for such an investigation?

ALBANESE: The idea is it's an independent investigation.

JOURNALIST: What would the bar have to be?

ALBANESE: An independent investigation is one that isn't determined by politics.

JOURNALIST: But would it have to be… (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: I have answered the question.

JOURNALIST: What do you make of the fact that the Health Department itself, not even just the Government, the Health Department doesn't know exactly how many aged care workers in the disability sector have been vaccinated?

ALBANESE: Well, it just shows how diabolical it is that the Government is not even keeping records about these matters. This is quite extraordinary evidence today. And the Government has had well over a year to prepare for this. We were saying last year, Mark and his predecessor, Chris Bowen, were saying for a long time that we needed to get appropriate measures in place, the deals in place like other countries did. We were talking about deals with Moderna, making sure that we hedged our bets. There was a bit of risk mitigation to make sure that the vaccine was available. We've been talking about the need to look after people in aged care, residents. I visited with Josh Burns and Clare O'Neil, the Sacred Heart facility in St Kilda, now, more than a month ago. There, not a single aged care resident had been vaccinated. Workers are being told to go off and sort themselves out and none of them had been vaccinated either. It isn't like this is a new issue. This is an issue that's been known that Labor has spoken about for a long period of time, and the Government simply has had, like it does on so many issues under Scott Morrison's lack of leadership, it's always someone else's responsibility. It's always someone else who's to blame. It's about time that this Prime Minister and the Government took responsibility for things that they are clearly responsible for, not just always pass the buck. I mean, it's gone from, 'I don't hold a hose, mate' to 'We’re all comfortable' to 'It's not a race here'. And I think that 'It's not a race' is the 2021 equivalent of his 2020 quote of 'I don't hold a hose, mate'.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, do you think that aged care workers should be required to have a COVID vaccine to be able to work?

ALBANESE: Look, I think we should listen to the health advice on that issue. I might ask Mark to elaborate. What we know is that in a range of facilities and states, people have to have flu vaccines. We know that that's the case. So in terms of, listening to the appropriate health advice should be what we do.

MARK BUTLER, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: Well, that's right. Back in January, the advice from all of the chief medical officers to the Government was that there was not an evidentiary basis to make these vaccinations mandatory, unlike, for example, the flu vaccination. Now, the Government has asked that committee to have another look at the evidence based on updated clinical data from around the world. And I think that's the appropriate thing to do.

JOURNALIST: Are you disturbed by these numbers the Health Department has shared about aged care workers being vaccinated? Should the Government be doing more? (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: Look, this is just extraordinary. This is of real concern. And I've spoken to aged care workers. I've done press conferences with aged care workers. They're asking, pleading, to get access to the vaccine. And they were told, ‘Go see your GP’. When they rang their GP, of course, the GP wasn't in a position to give them the vaccine for a long period of time. These are essential workers. These are heroes of the pandemic. These are people who worked their way through 2020, a tough year, putting themselves at risk by doing so. They're committed to their work. They're committed to their fellow Australians, including some of the most vulnerable Australians who need that care. By definition, it's very hard to keep yourself in a position whereby you're physically distancing from people who you're looking after. You're picking them up, you're putting them into bed, you're looking after their care in such a physical way. These people deserve our respect. And they deserve our support. And what they've had from this Government is abandonment. How the Government could not put in place a system of making sure that aged care workers received the vaccine is beyond me. It isn't like we're saying that this week. We've been saying it since last year. We've been saying this for many, many, many months. This Government has had over a year to prepare. But they've been too busy slapping themselves on the back, doing these triumphal press conferences where they say that they're the best and they're at the front of the queue, four million would be vaccinated by March. When questions are raised about is that dependent upon any international issues that might arise, they say, 'No, we've covered all that off, no problem, nothing to see here'. Well, complacency and arrogance has caught up with this eight-year-old Government.

JOURNALIST: The Victorian state government has now had to actually step in and ask for aged care and disability workers to come forward and get vaccinated and give them primary access. Are they in a better place to take care of this than the Commonwealth? The fact that they’re having to go and take over what is a Commonwealth responsibility? 

ALBANESE: Well, it is a Commonwealth responsibility. And it's a Commonwealth fail. And the Commonwealth should have had its act together. They had a long time to do so. They failed to do so. I've answered questions and now I've got to go ask some. Thanks very much. Thanks.

ENDS