SUBJECTS: Vaccine rollout; national quarantine; Morrison Government failing Australians during a health pandemic; Wellcamp quarantine proposal; New Acland; Tasmanian Labor.

ANTHONY CHISHOLM, LABOR SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND: It's great to be back in Toowoomba. And it's great to be here with Anthony Albanese, the Federal Labor Leader, and also Gen Allpass, our fantastic candidate for Groom. For 18 months, as we've been dealing with this pandemic, Queenslanders have been desperate for two things. One is to have proper quarantine facilities. And the other thing is to ensure that the State Government is supported on borders as well. And what we've seen from Scott Morrison as Prime Minister is, he's been fighting the State Government every step of the way. He's been fighting them on borders last year over keeping Queenslanders safe. And he has also been fighting with them on quarantine facilities as well. We've seen evidence over that. That he hasn't been prepared to look at these facilities Toowoomba and what they can mean to ensure that we have proper quarantine facilities across the state. And he also, instead of engaging with the State Government and working constructively with them, what he's done is actually moved the goalposts to actually make it harder. So, Queenslanders are sick of it. We've absolutely had enough of Morrison's mishandling of this pandemic and what it means and the repercussions for Queenslanders. So it's great to have Anthony Albanese here to hear firsthand about what this means, but also spend a week in Queensland so he can get a sense of how difficult it is to deal with the mismanagement of Scott Morrison's Government and the consequences that has for Queenslanders as well. So I'll hand over to Anthony.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks very much, Anthony. And it's great to be here in Queensland with yourself and with Gen. It's always good to be back in Queensland. And we've just had a very successful meeting with John Wagner out at the airport. At that airport, you have 777 aircraft parked. 777 aircraft are the ones that go from Sydney and Brisbane to Los Angeles. They are international aircraft. It's an airport that takes freight, as well as, of course, could take passengers internationally. And yet we have a Prime Minister who seems to be oblivious to that. We're here at Toowoomba Hospital, also a world-class facility that could also play a role in supporting that quarantine facility. And yet what we have is a Prime Minister in denial. A Prime Minister who has said that this great city of Toowoomba is a part of the desert when asked why it wasn't acceptable. A Prime Minister who has moved the goalposts and says now that quarantine facilities need to be on Federal land, without having any good reason why he says that. 

It's very clear that this Prime Minister had two jobs this year. To fix national quarantine and to effectively roll out the vaccine. And he's failed on both of them. And this compares with the need to, at a crisis, show leadership. Today's the anniversary of John Curtin's death. John Curtin planned for victory in peace while he was achieving victory in war. In 1942, he appointed Ben Chifley as the first Minister for Post-War Reconstruction, even while the war was raging. He made sure that Australia planned. This Prime Minister isn't capable of planning beyond the next press conference, which is why last Friday, we saw a so-called “four-phase announcement” with no timeline, with no targets, and nothing other than what he said last January at the National Press Club, which was that we should roll out the vaccine and it was the key to opening Australia up again. We know, indeed it is. But the Prime Minister's stubborn refusal to support a proposal that could be up and running in 12 weeks with 600 beds, and in 14 weeks have a thousand beds here, close to the airport, with the support of John Wagner, with the support of the state government, a plan that was first proposed last October. The other plan here in Brisbane, close to Brisbane Airport, should also be looked at. But it can't be up and running until 2022. 

The Prime Minister says that it's not a race. What Australians know, including those in lockdown today, they know that it is a race. It is a race to get the vaccine out. It is a race to get national quarantine facilities. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: This hospital is being outgrown by the population. What makes you think that this hospital can support a quarantine facility?

ALBANESE: Well, for the same reason that Darwin Hospital is able to provide support for the facility at Howard Springs. And there's no doubt, as part of the proposal, that you would need some additional support there. But there's no reason why the Prime Minister should rule out this proposal. The truth is that it's been on the table since October. The Prime Minister has stubbornly refused to do so. And he's done so on the basis that this is a desert. We're not in the middle of the desert. We're in the middle of a thriving, growing city here in Toowoomba.

JOURNALIST: Reports came out that emails had been leaked from freight carriers, showing that they had no issue with Wellcamp not having an air traffic control tower, which was one of the criteria that the Federal Government cited for why it shouldn't be selected or approved. Do you have a reaction to that?

ALBANESE: Well, this Federal Government's just been looking for excuses to not do things. This is a crisis. We had, last week, 12 million Australians locked down. We are 18 months into this pandemic, and the Prime Minister last Friday said we're at the beginning of phase one. Phase one, which sounded exactly the same as what he announced last January at the National Press Club when he outlined his priorities for 2021. It's not good enough. We need leadership. This proposal is a sensible one. And the Prime Minister should not be looking for impediments. He should be looking at how we make this happen. And we know that national quarantine facilities are necessary. We have a Prime Minister who has said that hotel quarantine is 99.99 per cent effective. Well, we've had 26 separate breaches from hotel quarantine. The Prime Minister, also, of course, is responsible for aged care. And today we learn that there's more people who have caught COVID as a result of not fixing up aged care and not fixing up the aged care workforce. The Prime Minister said that aged care residents and aged care workers would all be looked after by the middle of March, by Easter. And that hasn't happened. And there's no timetable whatsoever to vaccinate those aged care workers who work with the hundreds of thousands of people in homecare. None whatsoever. Now, those workers visit someone at home, then they go to another home, then they go to another home. If COVID is caught by someone who is dealing with aged care across the homecare sector, then by definition they will be spreading it to more elderly people, more vulnerable people, many of whom have not been vaccinated either. This is a major problem. The Government is responsible for aged care, both aged care residents and also people receiving aged care in the home. And this Government has no plan for it.

JOURNALIST: What you make of Brad Hazzard's description of the vaccine rollout being like the Hunger Games?

ALBANESE: Brad Hazzard has given a correct description. This is a New South Wales Liberal Health Minister saying that the rollout of the vaccine is like Hunger Games. That says it all. Eighteen months into the pandemic, I can understand how the NSW State Government, as well as the state governments and territory governments right around the country, are frustrated with the failure of the Federal Government for what they are responsible for. They are responsible for the supply of vaccines. They are responsible for rollout in aged care. They were responsible for the COVID-Safe app. Everything they have had responsibility for has been botched. They have failed at it. It's no wonder that state governments, Liberal and Labor, are very concerned about these failures.

JOURNALIST: How would Labor do the vaccine rollout differently, in terms of selection of various brands of vaccines and where would it go?

ALBANESE: We’ve been saying now, since last year, that the Government should have had in place a deal with Moderna. We were saying they should do more vaccines and greater quantity and sooner. That is what they should have done. All the advice was that was the case. You had a meeting with Pfizer last July and yet no deal until November. This is just a failure. The Government was too busy saying it was at the front of the queue. And last Friday, Simon Birmingham conceded that Australia was at the back of the queue. We are last in the developed world in terms of the rollout of the vaccine. And we are not in the top 100 of countries. For goodness sake, this is 18 months that this pandemic has been upon us. And you would think the Government had just begun. Which is why, last Friday, again, playing catch-up with a 24-hour media cycle, they made an announcement and hoped no-one notices that there is no detail there. There is no timeline, there's no targets. They now speak about horizons. And we know that horizons are never met.

JOURNALIST: Greg Hunt has just announced that the Therapeutic Goods Administration is considering an application from Pfizer for a vaccine could be administered to 12-to-15-year olds. What do you have to say about that?

ALBANESE: Well, the rest of the world is moving towards vaccinating younger and younger people, as we can't even vaccinate those people who are in vulnerable groups. So it's not surprising. In the UK, they're talking about over-50s in a couple of months’ time to be able to get their booster shot. That is their third shot. And here we are in Australia with people unable to get appointments, with people unable to get access to supply. The Queensland Government's application for more Pfizer rejected by the Federal Government. This is a Government that is way behind where it should be, and that is complacent, and frankly, is incompetent when it comes to the rollout of the vaccine. 

JOURNALIST: Just in terms of the Wellcamp proposal. Why won't you give up on it?

ALBANESE: Because it's a proposal that makes sense. It's a proposal that's on the table. And it's the only one that's there that can be up and running in 12 weeks. The fact is the planning for the Brisbane proposal hasn't been done yet. It's at very early stages. And the advice is that it's unlikely to be able to be up and running before 2022. We need national quarantine facilities now. We've been talking about national quarantine facilities for a year. And this Government continues to reject proposals, including the one at Wellcamp that was put forward last October.

JOURNALIST: You said you had a meeting with John Wagner. We spoke to him this morning. He said that the Wellcamp plan was likely dead in the water. Did he give any indication as to how frustrated he was?

ALBANESE: Well, he, of course, is frustrated at the failure of the Federal Government to come on board. And he doesn't understand why a proposal that has been around now, for eight months, this proposal has been around, it could have been up and running. We have more than 30,000 Australians who are stranded overseas. Go and look at the aircraft that are parked there at the airport. They weren't brought in by truck, they flew in. They are capable of flying out. And other large aircraft are capable of flying in. The Prime Minister should know that because he's flown in on his own large Boeing aircraft. So the truth is that had that occurred, the Prime Minister's commitment that he would have Australians home by Christmas could have been fulfilled. And we know that at Howard Springs there hasn't been a single outbreak. We know that model works. 

JOURNALIST: Is this a Federal Election issue?

ALBANESE: The Government's mishandling of the rollout of the vaccine and its failure to build national quarantine facilities is an election issue. It goes to the competence of this Government. It goes to a Government that is focused on itself, is focused on the 24-hour media cycle, and not focused on the national interest. Scott Morrison can't bring home the bacon because he's too busy rolling out the pork, with his Pork-and-Ride Scheme, with his other schemes that are focused on electoral politics rather than his day job, which is to keep Australians safe. And Queenslanders will know. They will remember when he visited during the Queensland State Election campaign, when he lectured Queenslanders and the Palaszczuk Government to open up their borders, open up the whole system, don't worry about keeping Queenslanders safe. They will remember that. And this week when I'm here, and in Cairns and Mackay and Gladstone and other parts of Queensland, will be reminding them of that.

JOURNALIST: The Tasmanian Labor Leader has resigned his leadership after allegations he sexually harassed a junior union employee. Was that the right thing to do?

ALBANESE: We have processes in place that ensure confidentiality and ensure that we don't discuss the details of it. But David O'Byrne has made that decision. And that has occurred. 

JOURNALIST: He's admitted to the allegations, though. So surely you have a message for the woman involved?

ALBANESE: Everyone knows, as I've outlined before, that we cannot comment in the interest of people's capacity to be able to bring forward statements. They are confidential. And part of that is to respect that process. 

JOURNALIST: And what are you going to do to assure yourself that the Tasmanian branch doesn't have a serious problem with sexual harassment, as has been alleged by a separate complainant?

ALBANESE: There are processes in place. We have a process, unlike the Liberal and National parties. We have a process that ensures confidentiality, that ensures that any issues can be examined. And that's appropriate.

JOURNALIST: The candidate for Flynn has come out today and said he backs the expansion of the New Acland Coal Mine. Is that a Labor-wide policy?

ALBANESE: Labor's position is, federally, that this needs to be sorted out in accordance with the appropriate processes. No one has an interest in delays. What needs to happen is that these issues need to be resolved. Thank you.

ENDS