Interview with Samantha Armytage, Sunrise
28 August 2020
Samantha Armytage: Prime Minister, good morning to you. Not a very good look for Richard Colbeck to walk out of the Senate yesterday while this was being debated. Should the Aged Care Minister keep his job?
Prime Minister: Well, the Aged Care Minister left the chamber to deal directly with some very serious issues that were happening at a couple of centres, which is what his job is. And the Labor Party might want to be playing games in the Senate, but his job, he went to the Senate; he gave the presentation that he was asked to give by the senate. But this is a job he’s doing morning, noon and night, and so that’s the reason he had to leave the chamber. And that’s what he should be doing.
Armytage: Could that have waited, though? His performance over the last couple of weeks suggests he is a bit overwhelmed by this portfolio.
Prime Minister: No, I wouldn’t suggest that at all. What I’m suggesting is that he needed to go and urgently deal with a matter in a particular facility in Victoria. That’s what he was doing last night. That’s what he should be doing. That’s what he’s doing every night, every morning, and every day. This is a very challenging situation in Victoria – a situation that started because we had widespread community transmission of the virus in Victoria. Now, in Australia, about 8 per cent of our aged-care facilities have had infections amongst residents and amongst staff. In the United Kingdom, it’s been 56 per cent - seven times worse than what has happened in Australia. Now, in Australia, in every single case where we’ve had people who have died as a result of the coronavirus and in aged care, that is a terrible tragedy. But this Aged Care Minister is just doing his job, and last night, he had to go and attend to urgent issues in the aged care sector rather than sit there and listen to the Labor Party.
Armytage: So you 100 per cent stand behind Richard Colbeck right now?
Prime Minister: Of course I do.
Armytage: OK. Now, let’s talk about changes to foreign policy. You’ve announced new laws to review and cancel agreements made with foreign governments. And currently there’s 130 agreements between state governments, councils, and universities – mainly with China. Why did you decide to introduce these laws right now?
Prime Minister: Well, we’ve been working on these for many months. And some weeks ago, I also ensured that all state premiers and chief ministers were briefed by our senior security agencies on the challenges and the issues we face here. And so this has been a further change on top of the changes we’ve made to foreign investment laws, foreign interference laws. What we’re doing is protecting Australia’s national interests, and promoting those interests. Federal governments are elected to deal with foreign affairs, and we need to ensure that right across the country, that’s being done consistently with the foreign policy position that we set to keep Australians safe, to protect our national interests.
Armytage: OK. Daniel Andrews has been quite vocal about this, and it does look like his Belt and Road project will be scrapped with China. He says you should – you, the Prime Minister – should provide the list of alternative markets and trading arrangements for Victoria. Is that your job, to help Daniel Andrews come up with deals?
Prime Minister: Well, those arrangements don’t go to trade matters. But what we have done as a government is lifted the amount of trade that free trade agreements are covered in Australia, from less than 30 per cent to over 75 per cent. So, he’s got the list because we’ve been expanding our trade agreements. Indonesia was the most recent one; Singapore commercial digital commerce agreement. We’re now working on the European free trade agreement and the UK free trade agreement, so there’s no shortage of work that our government has done in opening up trade opportunities.
But this must be done in Australia’s interest. We can’t trade away our interests. We always have to put up for Australia’s national interests. And this is just a further step by the government, our government, to ensure that we do that, and we do it consistently across the country, whether it’s local and state governments, or, indeed, universities, in the cases that it applies to them as well.
Armytage: OK. Prime Minister, let’s talk about Victoria. It looks like a complete mess at the moment. There is unrest, protests, each night, at the moment, over the lockdown restrictions. You spoke with Daniel Andrews earlier this week about your concerns about the lockdown. What did you say to him on the phone?
Prime Minister: Dan and I usually text each other, and that’s what we did on that night. Look, I just relayed that that announcement that he made about the 12-month extension – we’d received a lot of concerning feedback about that. People, I think, hadn’t understood that that didn’t mean that the lockdown was going on for another 12 months, and urged that there be clarity given to that and that a cautious approach be applied to further decisions. And the Premier made further comments about that. I wasn’t the only one who raised those issues. People in the Labor Party raised those issues. The Premier and I just deal with the issues. And from time to time, we will disagree on things. But we’re professional leaders and we deal with the problems in front of us. We stick to our jobs and we get on with it. And today, I’m going about my job, he’s going about his. And in Victoria, that means continuing down the path of getting on top of this community outbreak that has occurred there, so we can get people out of lockdown, we can get borders open across this country, we can get people back to work and businesses open. That’s what I want to achieve, and I’m sure that’s what he would like to achieve too.
Armytage: OK. Prime Minister, while we have you, the New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister has demanded Australia take back terrorist Brenton Tarrant, who was sentenced to life in jail yesterday. Should we take him back? Will we take him back?
Prime Minister: Well, I had a discussion after the press conference I had yesterday with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and we were, of course, talking about the case itself. And I’m pleased that that terrorist will never be released anywhere, ever again. And we’ll have an open discussion and look at the issues around this. I think the most important thing, though, we discussed, we’ve got to focus on the families who are affected. And I spoke yesterday about an amazing man, Farid Ahmed, who lost his wife Hosne in that horrific terrorist attack. And he is an amazing individual. And he’s full of love and hope and forgiveness. But in this case, I know all Australians and all New Zealanders would want to see this character locked up forever and never see the light of day again. And I agree with that. Whether he’s held in New Zealand or Australia – look, we’re open to that discussion. That obviously has a lot of implications, these sorts of decisions, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and I, we’ll talk about those issues. But most of all, we’re concerned about what the views of the families would be, of those affected, and we want to do the right thing by them.
Armytage: OK. Prime Minster…
Prime Minister: But there’s been no request made for that, I should stress.
Armytage: OK. Alright, so for now, that’s not on your to-do list. Prime Minister, we’ll let you go. Thank you for your time.
Prime Minister: Thanks a lot. Good to be with you.
