Doorstop - Parkville, Vic
26 March 2021
STEVEN MARLOW: Welcome the Prime Minister to CSL. Such a big week, it's a massive week, it's a massive week for CSL, and it's a massive week for Australians. I would like to thank the Prime Minister. It's a busy time and today we've seen the time taken to meet with some of the individuals, some of the team members who have worked mornings, who have worked nights, who have worked weekend. I know they've cancelled holidays to make sure we've launched this on soil COVID vaccination campaign as well as could be done. So we are enormously proud here at CSL and Seqirus to make it happen. So, very pleased, very pleased to welcome the Prime Minister again. I'd just like to say more than 800,000 doses are being released this week. This is an enormous effort and I would thank every single person who's been involved in this at CSL, it is huge. Got nearly three million doses already filled in vials, they're all going through various levels of quality controls and they will never be compromised. This dedication to quality and safety is the number one priority for CSL and every single vaccine that leaves this facility has gone through numerous checks and we continue to do so. We're in really good shape. Over three million doses ready, going through final stages of productions, we're in really good shape. And we know it doesn't end there, we know there's a magic number of 50 million doses and we are committed, and we're dedicated to meeting that number so all Australians have got access to this vaccine. So, we're in good shape, we're very pleased where we are and we're very proud that we're making such an important contribution to this effort. And I'll leave it there, I'll ask the Prime Minister to say a few words and take questions. Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Steven and thank you Brian, and most all thank you to all the wonderful employees here at CSL and Seqirus. It's a great honour and privilege for me again to come here today at this very old site that is doing something quite amazing. You know, there have been great moments in our national history, and this is now one of them. What has been achieved here, and will continue to be achieved here, with the rollout of the Australian-made AstraZeneca vaccine is something that I think all Australians can feel extremely proud of. And the people who are doing it here, you can feel are extremely proud. They are national heroes, we've seen so many of those in responses to great disasters and Australia's great achievements. And those who are working here join those ranks because what they're doing here is getting Australia back on the path to where we want to be. In August of last year, we made a decision as a government. We took the view that Australia could not be left isolated from the vaccine production. It was a very serious decision and we had to turn to our scientific and commercial community that is involved in vaccine production in this country. And we had to ask them to get this job done. Back in August, as the pandemic was raging here in Victoria and it was locked down as we were going through that second wave, that's when that call was made. And I can't tell you the sense of pride that I have, Brian and Stephen and your team, both here and out at Broadmeadows, as I look down at those half a million doses today in that storage room where, I've got to say, the most important warehouse in the country is operating right now, with a wonderful team running it. And that was the realisation of that significant decision that we took together. Then it was a clear commitment that today it has turned into something very, very real, which is changing the life of this nation and is putting us back where we want to be.
There is still a long way to go on this road, as the vaccination program rolls out. 800,000 out the door and that will continue for us. Today, we should get to around 450,000 people who are vaccinated. By the time we start next week, we will have had a half a million, we anticipate, will have received the vaccines across the country. This just keeps building, every week, every single week. And now the supply is on, out of our Australian-made vaccine here. This has been a big game changer that we've been working so long and so hard to secure for our country. There's just over a half a dozen countries in the world that make this vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine. That is the small club we're in and we're leading that club. Of that small group of countries who do it, we're doing it the best. We're doing it the best because we've got the best people and we've got the best collaboration. It's been very pleasing to hear today about the wonderful collaboration that has produced this outcome for Australia. Not just the amazing people here, but the people at the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the people at the CSIRO. This has been a team effort of public sector and private sector coming together to achieve something that Australia had to achieve. There was no option other than to do this. There was no second best here that was available to this country. If we didn't achieve this, there would not be a vaccination program in Australia. That's how serious this task has been. It has been a gargantuan task and to just look at those, those packs today of doses ready to go. That is an extraordinary moment in Australia's history and I am so incredibly proud.
So we go from this point, we continue to ramp up what's being achieved. As Steven was saying, over three million of these doses, already in various stages of the process. But what's really important here, as you would have see what they're doing upstairs, is that quality control and that testing, and those protections. We're not just good at making them - we're great at making them - but we're the best in the world making sure it is safe. And that's why I can say to Australians that they can confidently go and take these vaccines and by doing so, working together, as a team, we will continue on the road where we are leading the world out of the COVID-19 pandemic and out of COVID-19 recession. One of the biggest team members in achieving that is CSL and Seqirus. Happy to take some questions firstly on the vaccination issue and then we can move quickly to other matters.
Just quickly on another matter I want to congratulate our AFP joint counter-terrorism task force and the great work they have been doing to disrupt these arrangements and tracking down these individuals who are working with overseas terrorists. This has been an extraordinary piece of work and I think that is a reminder that's while we've been dealing with pandemics while we've been dealing with now floods and I'll be on the mid-north coast today, with Premier Berejiklian, so we won't have too much time for a lot of questions. I'll be standing up again later today, because I need to get to the mid-north coast today and be there with those plans and the recovery response that is being put in place for those floods, so I hope you will understand. But all the big jobs that we have to do as a government, whether it's protecting Australia from terrorist groups. Whether it's responding to the floods, whether it's getting this vaccination rollout. Whether it's getting Australians back into jobs, more Australians in jobs now than before the pandemic started. The health and welfare and wellbeing and economic security of Australians. This is something that never, never departs for my gaze. This is a big job Australia has at the moment and let me tell you we are on it. Questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, some of the GPs are a bit concerned about not having enough vaccine and so forth. Will this roll out from CSL help that, with the roll out, the 1B Phase?
PRIME MINISTER: I met with GPs here in Melbourne last week, as you know. And I'm thrilled that we're doing this through the GPs. The GPs are the best people to do this through. And particularly as we go into this next group, we're into the next groups now some 16 million Australians, elderly Australians. The person you can rely on most when it comes to your health and that you turn to most is your GP. And that's the right place for us to ensure this is done. With all the appropriate care and attention on focusing on the individual health needs of those who are receiving this vaccine. And we've already got over a thousand GPs involved. The doses are already with all those GPs those 1000 and they'll be working through that as they have been over the course of this week. And that's why you're seeing the significant ramp up. We said we'd hit in those early phases around 80,000 a week. And we did. We said we'd stop the vaccination program in mid to late February, and we did. We said that the Australian-made vaccine would be ready to go and rolling out of this plant in March. And it has. We said that the GPs would be enlisted in this program and over thousand at first would be administering doses this month. And they are. And so we're going to keep working closely with the GPs. We're getting tremendous support from them. And wherever there are issues here or there, then we're attending to them and we're getting on with it. I would thanks the GPs of Australia. You're part of this amazing effort now when they leave the cold storage room here. One team from team Australia passes it on the next team in team Australia. And that's those GPs who are administering those doses and in the states and territories their work is being done through the great health workers there.
JOURNALIST: You must be pleased to see international travel resuming in Victoria. Are you confident that the hotel quarantine system will be right this time?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, only the Premier, or should I say the Acting-Premier, is in the best position to give that assurance. But I know they've been very careful about coming to this decision. And I'm looking forward to that occurring, because I'm trying to get Australians home. We've got a lot of Australians home and we still need to get more Australians home. And Victoria hasn't been be able to play their part in that pretty much since last July. And other states have been doing that heavy lifting, particularly New South Wales, bringing Victorians home through New South Wales or through Queensland or indeed through Western Australia and South Australia. I'm pleased that the Victorian government now is going to be able to once again take part in helping Australians get home, and in particular Victorians get home, and I'm sure they're very grateful to the other states and territories who have been carrying that load.
JOURNALIST: You said last night, that we would be happy to sit down with...
PRIME MINISTER: Okay, we've got to move to other issues. Are there any other questions on vaccines?
JOURNALIST: I do have one question on vaccines. Clive Palmer is being investigated by the AEC over flyers printed in his former party's colours questioning the vaccine rollout. Should he face consequences?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm going to ask Brian if he want to talk these issues more broadly about the importance of ensuring that we have the appropriate information out there. Our government is doing everything we possibly can to counter misinformation out there. This misinformation pure and simple. Don't listen to it, it's rubbish, it's complete rubbish. And there should be no politics in our vaccination program. This has got nothing to do with politics this has got to do with the health and well-being of Australians, because that is the continued ticket also to our economic recovery. And I don't have any part, or I will have no part in anyone who want to politicise and have a go at this program for political purposes. That's just not on.
BRIAN MCNAMEE: I would just like to reassure all Australians, only the highest level of quality, efficacy, potency standards. I mean, this is what CSL does: we make vaccines and make them make products for other diseases only the highest quality. This is this is part of our DNA. So Australians should be reassured. We should listen to the scientists. We should listen to the medical experts. And we have a world class regulator in the TGA. From my point of view, it's a very good vaccine, it's a safe vaccine and we should be confident in the vaccination program, and people should be confident to receive the vaccine and the back of the recommendations from the TGA.
PRIME MINISTER: So no other questions on vaccines? Well thank you very much Brian and Steven. Thanks to all the wonderful team here. It's a great team and I'm really proud of what they've done. Thank you for your tremendous leadership. Now we've got time for a couple, because I've got to get to the mid-north coast for the floods.
JOURNALIST: Just briefly, you said last night you'd be happy to sit down and have a chat with Brittany Higgins, will either you or your office make that approach today?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is effectively made. So we're happy to meet. I can understand Brittany's wish to meet, but she hasn't expressed that to this point, and I understand why and that's fine. I've always sort respect her privacy and her wishes on this. And I can appreciate why she may not want to meet at Parliament House, that would be totally understandable. We can arrange to meet under other circumstances.
JOURNALIST: So when do you expect that conversation to occur?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I can't tell you because really isn't how it works.
JOURNALIST: There has been a lot of talk about what's happened. What are you going to do to move forward now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me tell you what we've already done. Initially it was about getting the counselling support for those who needed it in relation to any incident that occurred. And we've already put that service in place for staff, that's already happened, that was the first thing we did. The second we did is we got all the parties together and we've set up the multi-party inquiry to look at how the systems and process can better support people in these situations. As well as also how do we deal with complaints that may not extend to things that are criminal in nature? Which in Brittany's case that certainly not what's involved and those matters are ultimately best dealt with by the police, as they should be. And after two years I'm very pleased that that matter is now before the police. The other thing though is how do we deal with harassment claims or allegations or complaints and how they are better handled within the Australian parliament. For members and senators of all parties, because I don't think anyone is suggesting that this is an issue that is confined to any one side of politics. That's certainly not my experience. And I know that's not the experience of the people who work at Parliament House. And so it's important that we get that process right.
The deputy secretary of my department is coming back to me very soon. With a report on how we can get such a complaints process in place even sooner than that. So we don't have to wait until the sex discrimination commissioner's enquiry is finished, which is much later this year. We need such a process much sooner than that, and that was one of the first things I initiated soon after Brittany took her story public. There's a lot more, as I said in the parliament this week we will be responding to respect at work enquiry before the budget. I have become directly engaged in that process with the acting attorney-general, Michaelia Cash, as well as the assistant minister to the attorney general, Senator Stoker, and we're working swiftly on those issues, but I do know of the 20 recommendations that were directly put to the Australian Government, because there were 55 recommendations in the Respect at Work report. Many dealt with not just the federal government, the states and territories, agencies, business and industry. As you'd expected, it's an issue that's not confined just to government. And of those 20 that directly went to the Australian Government, nine were responded to in the budget in October and we will be responding to them all.
But as I said last night, and not all of the interview I gave last night was with broadcast. It was a much longer interview. It was twice the time that Tracy I sat down. We were having a real discussion about this and I know Australians are having a real discussion about that. And we got to have that discussion. We spoke a lot about the need to have respect in our community and our society. And I'm deeply troubled by the way that social media is corroding respect and dignity in how we all deal with each other. I think this has a lot to do with the sort of attitudes and the way we engage with each other, and particularly that can feed the sort of disrespect towards women that can result in the most awful of violent acts.
And, you know, it used to be people would just say hateful things. And write it down on a post. People are saying these things to each other. Australia, we've got to fix this, and governments alone can't fix this. We've go to work harder on how we respect each other, because out of that well of respect will come respect for so much more. Respect for women, respect for the elderly, respect for Australians living with a disability. Respect for Australians coming from many different backgrounds from all around the world, we're the most successful immigration nation multicultural nation on the planet, but we can do better. Respect for Indigenous Australians. As Australians we've just got to work that bit harder on how we create a culture of respect in this country. Because from disrespect comes both the conscious and unconscious discrimination and humiliations that are placed on Australians every day, particularly women. So that is a task asking all Australians to join me on. That's what we're going to fix ultimately is a lot we've got to do and the legal system and further supports and one Australian women dies every nine days because of partner related violence. We know that figure, you've know that figure for a long time. A billion dollars has been put in under the National Action Plan to protect against violence against women, by our government alone. And that is the work that state governments do as well. We've all got responsibilities here, but we can't forget our own individual responsibility. What are we going to change? What am I going to change in my own life? What are we each going to change to create this better culture of respect in this country. Australians are amazing. We do amazing things, we've tackled amazing challenges, particularly in the last year. This is another one.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of Andrew Laming's reported comments to two women in his electorate?
PRIME MINISTER: I found them disgraceful. I called him into my office yesterday and told him to apologise and deal with it and he has.
JOURNALIST: And do you expect that this now means there's zero tolerance policy towards him from now on?
PRIME MINISTER: He's very clear about my expectations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, a whistleblower, says he handed over evidence to your office about alleged use of male sex workers at Parliament House. Have you conducted enquiries into whether any of your current MPs hired or used male sex workers?
PRIME MINISTER: This is a very serious issue, and I want to thank the individual who we reached out to and asked them through an intermediary to come forward and be able to give us some information. And with anything as sensitive as this it's important that it follows its proper process. So I'm going to let the people do their job, it isn't appropriate that I provide a running commentary on each step on of that process. But Australians should know that we're taking this very seriously and following up on all the information that has been provided to us. But it's important that that is done in a proper way. It shouldn't be done on Twitter it shouldn't be done in the media. It should be done through a proper process and investigation, which is now underway.
JOURNALIST: Will you be making a reshuffle to your cabinet this weekend?
PRIME MINISTER: When I'm ready to make announcements on those things I will.
JOURNALIST: Just in terms of JobKeeper, treasury estimates as many as 150,000 people will lose their jobs as a result of JobKeeper ending. What is your message to those people?
PRIME MINISTER: Today there are more people in jobs than there were before the pandemic hit. There are a million jobs that went or went to zero hours as a result of the pandemic. And within a year we've been able to get all those jobs back into the Australian economy. And each time we've changed JobKeeper and brought it down we've seen more jobs return to the Australian economy. The Treasury secretary made it very clear, he wasn’t saying unemployment would necessarily rise. Each month there's a lot of churn that occurs in the labour force and we see a lot of extra jobs created. The numbers you see are net jobs where some jobs are lost and other jobs have been created. That's what we've seen been occurring now for many months. This is the next big step. But, you know, when we put JobKeeper in place, we knew it would be temporary. We knew there would come a day when we would have to step back from it. That should be seen as a statement of confidence in the Australian economy and in Australian businesses because you can't run the Australian economy on tax payers' money forever. It was a brave decision, a very brave decision of our government to step up when Australians needed us with JobKeeper. And I don't think they could for a second doubt the level of support that was provided. JobKeeper saved livelihoods and it saved lives. It's also a brave decision and the right decision to know when it's time, when you need to allow the economy now that its recovering to be able to take on that load of getting people in jobs, keeping people in jobs. And our government is a fiscally responsible government. And we know that there comes a time when you have to then back Australians and back the Australian business community to lead our economy into the future. And that's what we're doing. See we know when we need to spend and we know what we need to stop spending. And I think that's why Australians trust our government so much when it comes to managing the nation's finances and managing the national economy. There will be others who will say that they'll want to spend forever, but that means that they want a tax forever too but that puts a burden on Australia and that slows our growth. So we know we know when to act and we did. We also know when it's the responsible thing to move to the next stage and that's what we're doing. So I'll ask you excuse me, because I think you get to the mid north coast. Thanks very much for your time. Thank you.
