SUBJECTS: National Cabinet meeting; Omicron variant; booster shots; masks; QR codes; COVID testing; Christmas.

JAYNE AZZOPARDI, HOST: Well, there is plenty to discuss from yesterday's National Cabinet. Lots of recommendations. But the real decisions on masks, QR check-ins and traveller COVID tests are still being left to the individual states.

CLINT STANAWAY, HOST: Let's head straight to Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, who's in Marrickville in Sydney. Good morning, Merry Christmas, Albo.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Merry Christmas to you both.

STANAWAY: Let's get straight stuck into it. The PM is recommending wearing masks but no mandate. Do you think he is sitting on the fence with this one?

ALBANESE: Well, he keeps giving this sunscreen analogy, which is a rather absurd one. Because if I don't choose to wear sunscreen, it doesn't mean you get sunburnt. Whereas with protections against COVID, what we do is protect ourselves but we are also protecting people we come into contact with and people we happen to be in the supermarket with, or happen to be in the workplace with, or in any particular venue. So, it is quite extraordinary, the fact that we had an emergency National Cabinet called yesterday, but all the decisions kicked down the road. This Prime Minister always is too little, too late. And he never makes a decision if he can defer it to someone else or he can blame someone else.

AZZOPARDI: What about testing queues? We are seeing long testing queues in many states. A lot of that is being put down to travellers having to take tests. Will you be having a word with Annastacia Palaszczuk about perhaps getting rid of that requirement?

ALBANESE: This is a classic example of Scott Morrison trying to blame someone else and defer an issue to say, ‘Look over there’. I have been in Queensland, had a few days off there. A wonderful place, Central Queensland, near Bundaberg. And guess what? People are getting about their lives. They are checking in with QR codes. They are wearing masks where it is appropriate, inside, such as in supermarkets and indoor areas. And they are getting on with life as they have over the last year. One of the ways that they have done that is because Annastacia Palaszczuk has protected Queenslanders. She deserves praise. So, any time I talk to Annastacia, it is just to say how well she is going on behalf of Queenslanders and Australians.

AZZOPARDI: Albo, there is lots of people waiting in hours in queues in Sydney and Melbourne because they want to go to Queensland. They have got no symptoms. 

ALBANESE: It is not because of that. Overwhelmingly, people are waiting in queues because the Federal Government shut down a whole lot of the testing areas. The Federal Government, of course, when it comes to roll-out of vaccines and when it comes to the testing regimes have known that this period was coming for months now, and the preparation simply haven’t been put in place. I know close to me in Stanmore the queues have been overwhelming. And a vast majority of people in those queues aren't waiting because they are going overseas. All the figures show that. Even the Prime Minister's statements show that is the case. What we need to do is to make sure that there are more testing sites available, that there are more vaccination sites available as well. It is only yesterday that the Government reversed its decision to cut the payments to doctors and pharmacists so that we get more sites. I got my shot by a pharmacist, Emma McBride, happens to be the Member for Dobell, gave me mine in a pharmacy on the Central Coast. We need more sites. We do need people to get their booster shots. We know that the preparation hasn't really been done properly. And once again, we are falling behind in terms of the rates of booster shots are way behind the rest of the world. It is like we haven't learnt the lessons from when the Prime Minister said the original vaccine rollout wasn't a race.

STANAWAY: So just on booster shot, should that five-month wait be cut, do you think? ATAGI has the decision in their hands now.

ALBANESE: Quite clearly, all the medical advice from overseas and the experience that we have is that it should be. And I am sure that ATAGI will come up with that recommendation, as I am sure it is inevitable as well, as it is overseas, that in order to be considered fully vaccinated, that third shot as a protection against Omicron is particularly important. One of the benefits that we have had here in Australia, due to our location where we are this, this island continent with natural protections due to our distance from the world, is that we can see, as we did with the first and second waves, we can see what is happening in the rest of the world and anticipate it and get ahead of it. We need to do that. We need to stop playing catchup, which is what this Prime Minister consistently does.

AZZOPARDI: Anthony Albanese, thanks for your time this morning. You better enjoy your Christmas. Because you are going to have a pretty busy time after that in the run-up to the election.

ALBANESE: It will be. And Merry Christmas to all your viewers. And stay safe everyone. I hope that people do get to spend some time with their family and their friends at what is a very holy time for many people of faith, but a wonderful time for all Australians.

AZZOPARDI: Merry Christmas to you too. Thank you.

ENDS