SUBJECTS: COVID outbreaks and restrictions around Australia; vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine; Doherty modelling; national plan for reopening; children getting vaccinated against COVID-19; COVID-19 outbreaks in First Nations communities; state borders. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks for joining me. Yesterday in the Parliament, I spoke about Labor's plan for COVID. And there I spoke about the need for a speedy vaccination rollout, a safe end to lockdowns, protecting our children and preparing for the future. On speedy vaccination rollouts, Labor continues to argue we need incentives. A $300 incentive would increase vaccination rates. And we need to do everything possible to do just that. We need to secure booster shots now. Those people who received their Pfizer jabs at the beginning of this year are beginning to need booster shots, as is occurring around the rest of the world. We need to support vaccination leave. And we need to provide a safe end to lockdowns through fair access to vaccines before opening. We need to support the national plan but deliver an effective world-class national COVIDSafe app. We need to support businesses which want to protect their customers as well as their workers. On protecting our children, we need to include 12- to 15-year-olds in the targets, or if not, specify what targets are for them. We would vaccinate them quickly through a school-based program. And we need to prepare for under-12s vaccinations by securing a paediatric vaccine supply for the future. Joe Biden in the United States has signed a deal with Pfizer already for 65 million doses for under-12s for once it receives approval. What we need to do is to learn from the mistakes that have been made with the vaccine rollout here and not fall behind again. And we would prepare school-based programs now. And on preparing for the future, we need to manufacture mRNA here. We need to build purpose-built quarantine. And the Government should support an Australian Centre for Disease Control. This is international best practice. These are the four themes that we're putting forward constructively - for a speedy vaccination rollout, a safer end to lockdowns, protecting our children and preparing for the future. They are things that should be considered by the National Cabinet. It is important that we deal with those issues. Consistently, this Government has failed to learn from the mistakes that have been made. We need to learn by making sure, for example, that aged care workers can't work in multiple facilities. We need to prepare by not falling behind when it comes to access to vaccines. And I note that the Prime Minister will be announcing soon a further vaccine swap, further access to vaccines. We welcome any additional vaccines being made available here. But I make this point. If Australia was genuinely first in the queue, we wouldn't be in a position or wouldn't need to be doing swaps to bring forward vaccine supply because it would already be here. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, you said you support the national plan. Do you also support Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk when she says that every child under the age of 12 should be vaccinated before Queensland opens their borders or where she talks about 80 people dying a day? Or do you support Richard Marles who says he distances himself from those comments?

ALBANESE: Annastacia Palaszczuk is doing a fantastic job in Queensland. And today in Queensland, there are no deaths and no positive COVID people. In New South Wales, we have 12 deaths, tragically, today. That makes it 119 deaths. We have an additional 1431 cases. That brings it up to near 25,000. That is 25,000 people who have caught COVID since the Prime Minister congratulated Premier Berejiklian in not locking down. What we saw in Queensland, of course, was also an outbreak that was a Delta outbreak. Premier Palaszczuk took the right decision, shut down the area in accordance with the national plan that calls for short, sharp lockdowns. We're still in phase one. And Premier Palaszczuk is doing a fantastic job keeping Queenslanders safe.

JOURNALIST: She also warned about 2240 deaths per month. That number wasn't in the Doherty Institute report. Was she misleading with that number? 

ALBANESE: Premier Palaszczuk is doing a fantastic job keeping Queenslanders safe. That's why she has such strong support in Queensland. Our Prime Minister, the only time he's visited Queensland, really, in recent times, has been to campaign against Premier Palaszczuk to say, 'Open up your borders'. And that was rejected. Premier Palaszczuk has my absolute support in keeping Queenslanders safe, as do all the state premiers who've made decisions which are difficult, including Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia, at the moment are all COVID free. They're making decisions in the interests of their population. What we need to do is to increase those vaccination rates, get them up, make sure that we can go along with the national plan, which is supported by all state premiers and chief ministers.

JOURNALIST: The Chief Medical Officer today cautioned premiers from cherry-picking parts of the Doherty report and using the most extreme case of what could happen. Do you think Premier Palaszczuk should be careful with this language? Because it could really scare people here and you as the Federal Labor leader could actually have an impact on that language.

ALBANESE: Premier Palaszczuk continues to keep her state safe. And today, where would you rather be? In my electorate, where bits of it, on one half of it, a side of a street, you have curfews, on other parts you have lockdowns, you have a range of places that keep having to be shut down? My son has had to have four COVID tests because he works at a supermarket and people keep going in there and it keeps having to be shut down. Premier Palaszczuk is keeping Queenslanders safe. Just like Premier McGowan and Premier Marshall and Premier Gutwein have been able to do that. Premier Andrews, of course, had a COVID Delta outbreak in the beginning of June. He took action successfully. As it is now, Victoria is going through a difficulty. Overcoming Delta is very difficult. In New South Wales, we're worried about hospitals being able to cope. That's the truth of the matter. And nurses and people who I've spoken to, I've got Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on the edge of my electorate, it does a great job. And I want to pay tribute to the health professionals who are working such long hours under difficult circumstances.

JOURNALIST: Do you think the opening up should be delayed until after children under 12 can be vaccinated?

ALBANESE: The plan is there in terms of the national plan that's actually there, it is only on an A4 bit of paper. From some of the commentary that I see, they haven't actually looked at the national plan. The national plan under sections B and C, that we're not there yet, provides for, as the Prime Minister said, by the way, for each of the states and territories to reach those figures as well as the macro figure. It's a bit like a constitutional referendum like that. And we need to get there. But we're nowhere near there yet.

JOURNALIST: But are the under-12s a reason for delay?

ALBANESE: Well, we're nowhere near there yet. The national plan is the national plan. We support it. The national plan provides for short, sharp lockdowns, including in C, hopefully, not needed as often as what it provides for. And that is when you get to 80 per cent in every state and territory as well as a national figure. That's what the national plan provides for. And it seems to me that the Federal Government can't say they want people to support national plan, but then try and change what it is. I do say that what I think we need to do is be concerned and plan for the future. As I said, when it comes to under-12s, President Biden in the United States already has a deal with Pfizer for 65 million doses. What I want to know, and the question that you might like to ask the Prime Minister at his press conference, is what is the plan for under-12s? What planning is being put in place? That's what parents are worried about. Parents see pictures about children getting this disease. And they are worried about it. What they need is a plan from the Prime Minister of how that's going to be dealt with, as well as a plan for what are the targets of 12- to 15-year-olds? Are they going to be included in the national target? I saw one minister this morning say that the 12- to 15-year-olds are an addition to the 80 per cent and 70 per cent of the population. No, they're not. Because the 80 per cent and 70 per cent figures at the moment don't include 12- to 15-year-olds. We think they should. But if they don't, the Government needs to explain exactly what its target is and what its plan is.

JOURNALIST: Would you have any issue with the Prime Minister heading overseas this year for a Quad meeting?

ALBANESE: No, not at all. I think the Prime Minister needs to attend. I wasn't critical of him attending the G7. I think that as our national leader, it is important that our Prime Minister attend international forums. I haven't received any advice. But if he did, we've acted in a mature way. Compare that with the 43rd Parliament, where Prime Minister Gillard wasn't allowed to meet with the Governor-General to sign off on legislation in a way that's occurred since Federation at Yarralumla. And we had issues of just absurd issues where Prime Minister Gillard was refused pairs to attend international conferences. We don't act like that. I regularly grant the Prime Minister a pair whenever he's talking to an international leader on the phone or doing a Zoom, whenever any reasonable reason is given. We act in a mature way and in the national interest.

JOURNALIST: What percentage of vaccination are you prepared to accept in the First Nations community to move to phase B?

ALBANESE: Well, we need to do much better. One of the things that has happened is that the people who were the priorities have been left behind. And we say that with regard to aged care workers, disability care workers and residents, but also First Nations people. The figures are way behind the general population. And it's very clear, particularly from talking to my colleagues, Linda Burney, Pat Dodson and Malarndirri McCarthy and others, that this has been a major problem. It is a major problem in Western New South Wales. In the Northern Territory, a big effort was taken by the NT Government. And I congratulate Chief Minister Gunner on getting the vaccines out to communities. But the other thing that is needed is to talk to those communities. Linda Burney this week was talking about going door-to-door, knocking on doors, using community leaders as well. My friends Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell have been out there as role models for the Indigenous community, promoting vaccine rollout and encouraging people to get those jabs in their arms. That's important. And I'm very concerned that too many communities with high First Nations populations are falling behind. Thank you very much.

ENDS