Interview with Allison Langdon, Today
28 August 2020
ALLISON LANGDON: Well, the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Victorian Premier seems to have disintegrated in recent weeks. So is it damage beyond repair? Let's ask the man at the top. Prime Minister, thanks for joining us this morning. We always appreciate your time. Can you two get on?
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Ally. Of course we can. I think all the commentary around this issue is usually overstated. We're both very professional leaders. We work together on so many different issues. There'll be some we disagree on. There are many we do agree on. What we want to get happening in Victoria is obviously continue to get the outbreak under control, get people out of lockdown, get borders open again, get people back to work and ensure we have a very solid basis to ensure that the outbreak won't recur in Victoria. So there's a lot to do and we'll get on with our jobs, he with his and me with mine.
LANGDON: But, I mean, we heard from him yesterday and he wasn't happy. Just take a very quick listen to this.
(EXCERPT FROM YESTERDAY OF DAN ANDREWS: If the Prime Minister has got the time to be focused on these matters, that's fine. That's entirely a matter for him. I don't.)
LANGDON: Yeah, I mean, you could hear it in his tone there. This is your plan to ban deals with foreign powers not in the national interests. It does spell the end for Victoria's Belts and Roads deal with China, doesn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll pass the legislation first and then we'll deal with each of these issues on its merits. That's the legal process. I'm not going to prejudice that one way or the other. It is my job to look after Australia's foreign interests, to promote our national interests around the world and ensure that everything that's happening in Australia is consistent with that, and to protect and defend Australia and to promote our interests and that's what I do. That's my job and it's state premiers jobs to continue to focus on the challenges they have with their pandemic and we're giving them unprecedented support to do that and we'll continue to do that and work closely together to achieve that.
LANGDON: It's hard to view this legislation as anything other than related to Belts and Road Initiative.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I wouldn't agree with that. I mean, there are 130 agreements and memoranda and various other things that we know of with 130 - sorry, with 30 countries. So there are many of these agreements that already exist. There are some that may be considered in the future and what this simply does is ensures that no foreign country can come and seek to undermine the foreign policy position of an elected Commonwealth Government by doing deals with other governments. I mean, it's common sense. It's the Federal Government's powers to do that and we're getting on with the job of protecting Australia's national interests, as Australians would expect us to do and, frankly, elected us to do.
LANGDON: Well, Daniel Andrews is unhappy. China even less so. Are you worried about retaliation?
PRIME MINISTER: No, what we've always done is just acted consistent with our interests and that's what I'll continue to do. It's not about whether I am happy or any other politician is happy. It's about doing the right thing, and that's what we are doing and standing up for Australia's national interests and to ensure there's a consistent approach. We welcome the relationship we have with all countries including China. They're our biggest trading partner and our trade is at record levels and we'll continue to work hard to ensure that happens but we won't trade away our interests, our national interests, with any country.
LANGDON: But, I mean, we now have tariffs on beef, barley; wine is now in their sightings. Industry is concerned: rightly so?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will address all of those issues that are with the Chinese Government but I can't speak for their actions. All I can do is speak for ours, and ours is to be consistent about what is in Australia's interests and to ensure that our sovereignty is respected here and protected here in Australia. And I would assume, and know, that that is certainly what China would seek to do as well. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. It's not a one-way street. China benefits from our relationship and Australia benefits. But in both of our cases, we have to have clear lines about where our national interest resides and whether that's on foreign investment or our technology or our national security or anything like this. It's my job to ensure that we have very clear positions on those and we don't compromise them or undermine them.
LANGDON: Okay. Can you explain why the Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck, walked out of questioning yesterday?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, he didn't walk out of questioning. The Labor Party was involved in making a whole range of statements in the House. He left the House - sorry, left the Senate to deal with issues in aged care, which he does morning, noon and night. There were some - there continue to be very serious issues there and he went to address those issues, as he needs to do each and every day.
LANGDON: Well, he needs to front the questions. It was a bad look yesterday.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, he and I and the Health Minister - over 75 questions we dealt with during the course of the week. But we also have to deal with the daily challenges. We're here at Parliament this week. We've had a vigorous parliament looking into these issues. There's a Senate inquiry that is looking into these issues. So the government hasn't walked away from any scrutiny here, but at the same time, it is his job to deal with issues that are happening in aged care centres, not to sit in the Parliament and just listen to speeches from the Labor Party.
LANGDON: So 18,000 Australians are currently stranded overseas. What is the plan?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, there's 4,000 who are coming home every week. And the caps that have been put in place at the airports, particularly in Sydney where the majority of flights come into, are there for an obvious reason. While we are in a sensitive period with the outbreak, then those caps make sense at this time and the Premier and I are reviewing those every fortnight. We're getting further assistance to those who are overseas and particularly those in most urgent need, and in emergency situations. As we saw with Beirut with the terrible disaster and explosion there, over 200 Lebanese Australians have come back to Australia and we've been able to get exemptions on caps to facilitate their movement and to support them in getting out of those very difficult situations. Now, our consular officials around the world do an amazing job. We've flown people out of Wuhan. We've had other flights that we've been able to arrange from many parts of the world. People are coming back on commercial flights. We understand and realise that that is restricted at the moment. But I would stress there's over - there's around 4,000 people coming back every week and there has been around 100,000 people who have gone through the quarantine processes and half of that has actually been in New South Wales. So we have to get the balance right here. We're giving additional support wherever we can to people who need it around the world and there are many cases where there are - you know, there is an urgent need for people to get home and we'll continue to seek to support them in the ways that we can.
LANGDON: Is there a plan to quarantine them in regional areas to take the pressure off the cities?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I'm not - unaware of what the source of those reports are. I mean --
LANGDON: Okay.
PRIME MINISTER: -- the Commonwealth Government, on many occasions, prepares a lot of contingencies for emergency situations. You will recall when we did the Wuhan flights early, we did quarantining at Howard Springs and on Christmas Island. They were one-off cases. In other cases, we've brought chartered flights back into Australia and they've gone through the normal hotel quarantine. But we don't want to put too much stress on that hotel quarantine. We know what happens when quarantine breaks and there isn't the tracing program to back that up. We've seen that, of course, in the terrible incidents that have occurred in Melbourne and the hardship that brings. So you've got to get the balance right here and that's what we're seeking to do.
LANGDON: Now, mosque terrorist, Brenton Tarrant, there is no legal basis for it but if the victims and the survivors want him moved to Australia and the New Zealand Prime Minister asks, will you consider it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, I would never speak his name, and he should never be out of any prison anywhere and he should never see freedom. I'm pleased that that decision was made by the New Zealand courts. The Prime Minister of New Zealand and I have discussed these matters. I mean, yesterday we were speaking, largely again for me to pass on our deep sympathies particularly to the families of those affected. I've met many of those families and particularly one, Farid Ahmed, who I've met on several occasions now, and we would want to do the right thing by those families, I think, both of us. She has made no request to do this but we're very sensitive to that request. It has a lot of other implications. Minister Dutton, I think, was referring to some of those earlier today. But we're very sensitive to it. I mean, we're family, New Zealand and Australia. We were horrified by this. So, you know, my message to New Zealanders and particularly those affected is kia kaha. We're with them. Stay strong
LANGDON: Yeah, beautifully said, Prime Minister. And just very quickly, you are heading to the bush today. For the large part, the drought is breaking. We're all visiting our own backyard. It is a bit of a bright spot for us at the moment, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll be - yes. There's still many parts of the country still in drought, I should stress, but when I drive from here today down to Cooma, I'm going to see a lot more green than I did previously when I was there not that long ago. And that's good news. But there's still a lot of challenges in the bush at the moment. The drought has lingering effects and, of course, we've had - much of the country were impacted by other disasters, bushfires and the like. Of course, the pandemic is hurting those parts of the country as well, particularly with the border restrictions and these borders can be very necessary but they should only be there as long as they have to. Having put a border in, you're always going to have problems. It's better ultimately to not have them and so I hope we can get to that position soon. I mean, Australia was not built to have internal borders. That was sort of the whole point. And I want to go back to the plan A on Australia which is to not have them, but I appreciate that at the moment there are many things we have to manage. So that is affecting a lot of border towns, in particular in northern and western Victoria and, of course, in northern New South Wales. And there have been a lot of heartbreaking cases, and I know you've reported on many of them and I know others have, and we've got to get back to the place where we live with this virus and borders aren't always the answer to that. Well, they're not the answer to that ultimately. Testing, tracing, outbreak containment, COVIDSafe living and an economy, downloading the COVIDSafe app, that's how we deal with it and live with it, and I think New South Wales has demonstrated you can do that.
LANGDON: I tell you what, Prime Minister, you've got a lot on your plate at the moment. We really appreciate you making the time for us this morning, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON: Always, Ally. Good to be with you. Thank you very much.
LANGDON: Karl.
KARL STEFANOVIC: What a terrific message to New Zealand. Well done, PM.
