Interview with David Koch, Sunrise
16 August 2021
David Koch: Scott Morrison joins me now from Canberra. Prime Minister, these extra doses have come from an unlikely source, from Poland. What did it take to get the deal over the line?
Prime Minister: Well, there are a million doses of hope going straight into south western Sydney. They arrived overnight. I can tell you I was tracking that flight fairly carefully over the last 24 hours or more. And the balance will be going across the country because we can't be complacent in the rest of the country as well. The very urgent need in New South Wales. And that was the key issue that I raised with the Prime Minister when we spoke about two weeks ago. And we've been now working that through with our health officials, ensuring the cold state storage had been maintained. These are coming from the factory in Belgium, Pfizer's factory in Belgium. And we're very appreciative of the Polish government. I was able to strike up a bit of rapport with him over our recent OECD campaign, actually. And so working that through with our partners and our allies. You know, we have many friends, Australia. The whole world is dealing with this Delta wave and the many countries struggling with that. We've got our own challenges here. But there was an opportunity and we seized it.
Koch: How come Poland sent the doses to us rather than the sort of hundreds of other countries doing it tough? Did we, did we pay big bucks for it?
Prime Minister: We had a normal transaction on this, and these also have to be signed off by Pfizer as well, so I was also working that through with Albert Bourla and it was just important to line it up and to move quickly, which is what we did. Our DFAT officials did a tremendous job in identifying this opportunity. And we were very quickly on the phone. But because we had an existing relationship that obviously helped. And there's a great affection for Australia. And everyone knows Sydney is our biggest city. And I was able to say that Sydney was in lockdown, we got great support. I mean, it doesn't matter where you go in the world. People know people who live in Australia. That's the thing about Australia being a great immigration country. People have family all over the world and they know about Australia and they're very, very kind and supportive of Australia.
Koch: Well, it's certainly going to a hot spot in western and south western Sydney. Much needed there. A number of times you referred to New South Wales as the gold standard in fighting this COVID virus. Is it still the gold standard or is it now a failure?
Prime Minister: Well, one thing changed everything, and it's called the Delta strain. And Australia, in New South Wales in particular, has had the best contract tracing system in the world. But that's how strong Delta is. It overcomes that. And that's what we've seen occur. And we know that in other states and territories are also fighting lockdowns. I'm here in the ACT, in the middle of a lockdown. And there's one in Victoria which has been extended. The Delta strain changes everything. And I think Australians understand that. New South Wales did incredibly well over a long period of time, not having to lockdown in the past, having been able to overcome earlier ways and prevent them.
Koch: But should they have this time? Harder and sooner and followed a lot of the Labor states who go quickly and hard?
Prime Minister: Oh, I think the lessons of this are obvious and the Premier has already made that point. And I don't think there's a lot to be gained from going over that ground. I mean, what needs to be done now is focusing on what we need to do now. And that is, you know, getting those doses here, which we've done, people staying at home. I again say to our fellow Sydneysiders, just please stay at home. If you don't need to go out, don't. Stay at home. That's how we beat this thing.
Koch: Yeah. Just finally, Afghanistan, news overnight that Kabul has fallen to the Taliban. The Afghanistan President has fled the country. You were going to send a mercy flight this week to pick up the friends of Australia, the interpreters, the contractors who helped our troops there. Are you still going to be able to send it?
Prime Minister: Well, first of all, I can't really talk about operations, but what I can tell you is since April of this year, we've obviously been anticipating this situation. We shut down our mission in May of this year. We've already got out since April, 430 locally engaged Afghan employees, people working with us and their families. We've been moving on that programme with great speed over these many months. And we're continuing to work with our partners and our allies about the desperate situation that's there.
I'm also working with the New Zealand Government. I spoke to Prime Minister Ardern last night. The Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, is speaking to Secretary Blinken this morning. We are convening again, we did on the weekend, about the work we're putting in and the operations we're putting in. But let me remind everyone that the reason we went there was to trash Osama bin Laden, the reason we went there was to stop Al-Qaeda and to prevent them mounting operations from there. And so many Australians, 41 Australians have lost their lives in that cause and ultimately that's the cause of freedom. And for that, we are forever thankful.
Koch: So have you got all of them out that need to get out, these friends of Australia? Because if you don't, you're signing their death warrant, you're leaving them for dead, aren't you?
Prime Minister: Well, no. We will be moving everything we can to ensure we can finish the job that we started. Since 2013, we've got 1,800 people out of Afghanistan who have been working with us. As I said, 430 of those just since April. So we have been working steadily and swiftly and carefully to ensure that we’re able to achieve that. And we will continue to press forward in that very important task.
Koch: OK, to get the rest out. Prime Minister, know, you've got to go. Thanks for joining us.
