SUBJECTS: COVID outbreaks around Australia; lockdowns; vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine facilities; vaccine supply; effects of lockdown in regional Australia.

DAVID EISENHAUER, HOST: Thank you very much for your time this morning. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. My pleasure. 

EISENHAUER: On a little bit of an overcast morning across the snowy valleys and the northeast Victorian districts today. We cover a big area. We were just talking off air there. What an interesting time in Australia, Mr Albanese.

ALBANESE: Certainly is. Of course, the fact that more than half of Australia is locked down as we speak, including myself here in Canberra. Of course, for the whole of New South Wales now and Victoria and Darwin and Katherine still having issues there is very frustrating, I know, for people. We were hoping that by now, we would have been in a different circumstance. I noticed President Biden in the United States today has announced booster shots from next month. So a third shot for Americans will be rolled out from September. Here we are still struggling to get to half of Australians having their first shot. And the problem there, of course, has been one of supply. And I'm particularly worried about Western New South Wales and the potential outbreaks in those communities like Wilcannia that we're hearing about. And we still don't have purpose-built quarantine facilities, which is where these outbreaks keep arising from. We should remember it was one limo driver from Sydney, unvaccinated, without a mask, taking someone to hotel quarantine who was a foreign air crew member. How that could be happening now, and that person wasn't breaking the rules, by the way, is just astonishing. And now we have yesterday 633 cases in New South Wales and bracing for a similar number today, I think. 

EISENHAUER: It looks that way looking at the news feeds that are coming through this morning. And Victorian listeners, we cover the Upper Murray district as well, regional, obviously, Victoria. But we're all, in New South Wales, watching this morning for, of course, our Premier at 11 o'clock, Mr Albanese, and to see what happens with these state-wide lockdowns. And that's something that I've mentioned many times on the floor that we shouldn't be at this level. 

ALBANESE: No. We shouldn't. I haven't been able to go home for nine weeks. 

EISENHAUER: Nine weeks?

ALBANESE: That is right. But many Australians are doing it much tougher than that. Five of my electorate have lost their lives in the last fortnight

EISENHAUER: You are a member right in Sydney.

ALBANESE: In the Inner West of Sydney. And some of those have been from a care facility in Summer Hill, which came about because someone, a worker who wasn't fully vaccinated, was working at multiple sites. It's just beyond my comprehension how that could be happening in July and August of 2021 given the outbreaks and the tragedies we saw through aged care more than a year ago, for us to still have people working unvaccinated and in multiple sites is just beyond belief. And the consequences are that people have lost their lives and many people throughout the entire aged care facility at Summer Hill, everyone got COVID. And most of them had to be hospitalised. It's just a dire situation for them. 

EISENHAUER: We're looking, and we must say a big thanks to the Member for Eden-Monaro, our wonderful Kristy McBain, who's been doing a mighty job, Mr Albanese, on keeping people up to date there. And we catch up and speak to Kristy once every fortnight. She joins us on a Wednesday morning for a chat from her electorate or where she might be at the time. But the social media side of things has been fantastic. Kristy's been doing a wonderful job.

ALBANESE: Kristy is a champion. I haven't seen a better local member than Kristy McBain. She has been working so hard right across the electorate, travelling non-stop since she was elected, but beforehand, of course, as well, with capacity, not just as the former mayor, but the role that she played in the Region of Councils as well. And I've been with you there in the studio with Kristy. She knows everyone. And she is really keeping up to date as well with the plight of small business. And of course, I really feel for the businesses in the Snowy. I am told that this is a bumper season in terms of weather conditions. And of course, it's a tragedy that they haven't been able to reap the benefit of that. This is seasonal work where the businesses located there, and I've travelled there with Kristy as well, rely on people during the peak seasons. And people aren't able to travel there at the moment from Sydney or Melbourne, or even from Canberra at the moment.

EISENHAUER: That's the big thing. I know we've noticed, I think, Cooma on the other side of the mountains from us, obviously, but I mean, we both have the same gateway, there's a lot less traffic. Now the resorts are putting in a lot of money into rebuilding snowfields for next year. But the operation, it's obviously not operational this year. But the main resorts like Perisher and Thredbo, it's going to be a tough haul for them over the next 12 months because they've missed their income. Their harvest is almost over. And there's been hardly a soul on the hill.

ALBANESE: Their expenditures will keep going but their income isn't happening. And Kristy has championed the need for more support for the tourism sector. This is a sustainable industry, it's good industry, it creates jobs, secure jobs. It creates, as well, real opportunities for career paths. And largely, we're talking about small businesses here that are really doing it tough. But also, I know towns like Batlow and Tumbarumba, as well as on the other side, they rely upon that through traffic. I mean, they're fantastic places to visit. And you're just not getting the through traffic at the moment. So all those BnBs in Tumut and other places that rely upon that traffic, they're really struggling at the moment as well. 

EISENHAUER: What are we going to do if, for example, today the Premier says, 'Right, we're going to go for a bit longer in the state. We're going to keep these little businesses not trading'. There's not the support levels, Mr Albanese, that we saw last year when we had a big lockdown. What's your thoughts there? What is the Labor Party thinking? What are they suggesting?

ALBANESE: There just needs to be more support. We said very early on, when originally, of course, the Government has always throughout the last period that we've been dealing with the pandemic, a bit like the bushfires, it is, 'She'll be right mate, it is okay' until there's an absolute crisis. And then there's action but it's too little and too late. When we suggested wage subsidies that became JobKeeper, we were told that was a dangerous idea, the idea that the Government would be subsidising, essentially, people's wages and keeping that relationship going between employers and employees. We know that it worked. Then it was withdrawn. And the Government said, 'Oh well, it is okay now. The economy's bounced back'. What we've had is exactly the same circumstances in terms of businesses not being able to receive an income. And we haven't had the same support there. People have fallen through the cracks. Kristy certainly has raised very directly with me and in the Parliament, the plight of small businesses in the Eden-Monaro region. But it is throughout the other regions that this radio station broadcasts to as well. We'll all be doing it very, very tough at the moment. There's not much traffic going up and down the Hume at the moment because they're not allowed to do it.

EISENHAUER: That's so true. And we all watch, as we said, with bated breath today to see what happens at the press conference. The state of New South Wales is to come out of lockdown this Sunday at a minute past 12. 200 days. We hit a milestone in Victoria. 200 days they've had lockdown for. That's too long for businesses to survive.

ALBANESE: Well, they've done it so tough. They're victims of this outbreak that began in Sydney and around Bondi, as is now New Zealand. 

EISENHAUER: Yes, as of yesterday.

ALBANESE: It has all come from the same strain. And just a few months ago, the previous Victorian lockdown came from a hotel outbreak in Adelaide. I'm not quite sure what it takes for the Government to recognise that hotels are built for tourists, they're not built for hotel quarantine. They're not medical facilities. They share ventilation systems. They're just not appropriate for a virus that spreads through the air with personal contact.

EISENHAUER: What would Labor do?

ALBANESE: We would build a purpose-built quarantine facility in every state and territory. You look at Howard Springs just outside of Darwin. Now, that's a facility that was built essentially as a labour camp. I have visited there. You have standalone cabin-type facilities, if you like, to put it simply, so that people are kept apart, they're not sharing the ventilation systems. The food can be dropped, and it is twice a day, three meals, but two drops a day so that you are keeping people safe. And there have been thousands of people go through that facility. That's where most of our Olympians are still at, at the moment as we speak. And it's been very successful. That's what works. We know that hotel quarantine has been the source of at least 28 outbreaks. And every one of them has had real consequences. But this one in Sydney has led to shutdowns in Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, Northern Territory, and of course now New Zealand. And the New South Wales one that's been going now for the best part of two months is showing no signs of getting better. It's just been expanded. The Government, cheered on by the Prime Minister, it has got to be said, didn't lock down early, didn't take action. There was the outbreak in Bondi, and we all saw hundreds of people at the beach and around the waterfront there. And I think that was just a very, very bad decision. And it's like the Premier believed her own rhetorical position that they were the gold standard, as Scott Morrison said, they didn't do lockdown unlike Victoria. Well, tragically, if you don't take action sooner, you'll end up having to take action, but it'll be more extreme, and it will last longer and it will have more dire consequences for the economy and for jobs. 

EISENHAUER: As you said, too little, too late. And it's going to be a very interesting couple of days as we go through this with numbers coming up there, 57 new infections in Victoria, three of those are mystery cases. The numbers just climb and climb. And of course, final comments on the vaccinations Mr Albanese? 

ALBANESE: Well, if you can get vaccinated, please do so. Whether it is Pfizer or AstraZeneca. We need shots in arms. Of course, supply has been a big problem. And people, I know, many are feeling frustrated because they want to get vaccinated. They try to get vaccinated. They hear politicians asking them to be vaccinated but they just haven't been able to secure those appointments. But hang in there. That is the key. And we will continue to advocate, including next week in Parliament, for purpose-built quarantine facilities to be built. There's not even plans for New South Wales, none at the moment. And there are facilities that could have been up and running, taking people coming back. There was a proposal from Premier Palaszczuk, last October, at Wellcamp near Toowoomba Airport. And they could have been up and running. I went there and met with the proponents. They said they could have it up and running and operating within a matter of weeks, 10 weeks. And it's just beyond my comprehension. We've got to get this right. The sooner we act, the better it will be. But just a big shout-out to people to stay safe and keep looking after each other. Australians have been magnificent during this period. They really, really have. That's what put us in a very strong position last year. But unfortunately, that strong position has been squandered.

EISENHAUER: And the numbers are continually growing. As we said, 13 of those 57 in Victoria were in the community while infectious according to the ABC. An interesting few weeks. Mr Albanese, you'll join us, no doubt, within the month again for another update. I'd love to talk more about what's happening in Afghanistan. But we're out of time. But thank you very much for joining us on the local station today. 

ALBANESE: My absolute pleasure. 

EISENHAUER: We'll catch up next time. 

ALBANESE: Stay safe, everyone. 

EISENHAUER: Thanks very much, Mr Albanese. All the best.

ENDS