Media Releases
Entries Open for Prime Minister's Literary Awards
26 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts
The 2021 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, which recognize Australia’s outstanding literary talent, are now open for entries.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison strongly encouraged writers to put their unique stories forward for this year’s Awards,
“Last year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards again highlighted the diverse literary contributions we have in Australia,” the Prime Minister said.
“The Awards provide us with the opportunity to celebrate the significant contribution literature, history and poetry have in connecting us to Australian voices and our story as a nation. “
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, Paul Fletcher, said the Awards pay homage to the valuable contribution Australian writing makes to the nation's cultural and intellectual life.
“The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards identifies Australia’s pre-eminent writers each year, showcases their works, and provides national recognition for their talent,” Minister Fletcher said.
The Awards are presented in six categories – children's literature, young adult literature, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, Australian history – with a total prize pool of $600,000.
Entries, which close on Friday 26 March are sought for books published in the 2020 calendar year.
For more information about the Awards and entry guidelines, visit: PM's Literary Awards
Prime Minister's Spelling Bee
26 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Education and Youth
Schools are being encouraged to get involved in this year’s Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee to promote literacy in an entertaining and engaging way.
This year the spelling bee, hosted by Kids News, will be conducted through a digital format rather than face to face.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged all schools to get involved and register.
“Literacy is so critical to a young person’s education in Australia. It provides the fundamental base to develop other skills, and the tools to embrace the joy of reading and writing,” the Prime Minister said.
“This is free competition that is fun and exciting and will help students learning literacy build their confidence.”
Minister for Education and Youth Alan Tudge said the spelling bee would help nurture a love of words in students.
“Spelling bees are not only great fun, they have wider benefits like helping kids develop confidence and discovering new ways to learn,” Minister Tudge said.
“I urge parents, teachers and our young people to get behind the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee and I encourage all schools to take part.”
The Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee was due to commence in 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. The Morrison Government has provided over $345,000 of funding to support the initiative.
The national spelling bee will run in Term 1, 2021 for children in Years 3 to 8. Schools can now register. It will be held at school level in March, with finals for each state and territory taking place in April.
Schools can register and find more information on the Kids News website. Registrations will close on Friday, 24 March 2021.
Papua New Guinea Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare
26 February 2021
Australia extends its deep condolences to the Somare family and the people of Papua New Guinea on the passing of Grand chief Sir Michael Somare.
Sir Michael was a towering figure in the history of Papua New Guinea.
As a driving force in the development of Papua New Guinea’s national constitution, and the nation’s first and longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Michael has an unparalleled place in the history of Papua New Guinea.
As Prime Minister for 17 years, over four separate terms, Sir Michael became a long-standing and respected friend of Australia, working alongside Australian Prime Ministers Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Howard, Rudd and Gillard.
He was a vital partner who staunchly defended Papua New Guinea’s independence, but always appreciated Australia’s unstinting commitment to his country.
Sir Michael believed deeply in the Westminster system of government – with its separation of powers, independent judiciary, and strong democratic processes and institutions.
That commitment made Papua New Guinea’s path to Independence, secure and enduring.
I know Sir Michael will be deeply missed by his many friends in Australia and across the region.
Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour and one of our dearest friends.
On this sad day, we honour a nation that is family to us.
To Lady Veronica and the entire Somare family, I extend my heartfelt condolences and the condolences of the Australian Government.
Step Forward for South East Queensland 2032 Olympic Bid
25 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services
Queensland is a step closer to hosting an Olympic and Paralympic Games for the first time in the state’s history following a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to enter into exclusive negotiations for the 2032 event.
The decision is a game-changing development for the Bid which has long been supported by all levels of government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has welcomed the decision from the IOC and reaffirmed the Commonwealth Government’s support to host the Olympic Games for the third time, and Paralympic Games for the second time.
“Since we announced our early support for the Bid in 2019, we’ve been working with the state and local governments, the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympics Australia to put forward the best possible case for Queensland to host in 2032,” the Prime Minister said.
“I was pleased as part of our support for the bid to directly pitch Australia and Brisbane’s case to IOC President Dr Thomas Bach during my last two visits to Japan. On each occasion I received a good hearing and walked away confident there was strong interest in Brisbane hosting the games.”
“Today’s announcement from the IOC is a positive development but we still have a lot of work to do.”
“Particular credit must go to the Member for Fairfax, Ted O’Brien who has campaigned heavily to bring the event to the Sunshine State. It will see Queensland beamed around the globe, while delivering an economic and jobs boom.
“We saw how Sydney 2000 brought our nation together and took Australian sport to a new level, and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do again if we’re successful in hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games again in 2032.”
Federal Minister for Sport Richard Colbeck said Australia has an enviable reputation for its ability to hold world class international sporting events, having recently hosted the AFC Asian Cup 2015, the Sydney 2018 Invictus Games, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
“You don’t have to be a sports fan to understand the profound impact hosting these major events can have on host cities, regional areas and the nation,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Just next year Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the FIBA Women’s World Cup, and the UCI Road World Championships.
“Last year we also successfully secured hosting rights for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which will be co-hosted with New Zealand, and we are actively working with Rugby Australia to submit a host bid for the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027.”
Member for Fairfax, Ted O’Brien said Queensland was ready, willing and able to host the Games in Australia in 2032.
He said Queensland is well placed in this regard, with more than 80 per cent of the venues existing or proposed to be delivered through temporary solutions.
“These Games will be a legacy event—affordable, beneficial and sustainable for Queensland and Australia,” Mr O’Brien said.
“This is a great milestone, but the real prize lies in being announced as the host ideally later this year. That would be an enormous shot in the arm to ‘brand Australia’ as we continue our economic recovery effort.”
Minister Colbeck and Mr O’Brien will continue to lead the candidature process on behalf of the Commonwealth Government with the IOC and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in partnership with the Queensland Government, the South East Queensland Council of Mayors, the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympics Australia.
Finalisation of the candidature process is a matter for the IOC.
Doorstop Interview - Australian Parliament House, ACT
25 February 2021
Prime Minister: Happy to take a couple of questions.
Journalist: Prime Minister to the rollout of the vaccine, there were some issues yesterday, we’re now hearing the issues that syringes have turned up, haven’t turned up at the right home, doses aren’t getting to the right places, there’s only 500 staff for 240 homes, is there a problem trying to roll this vaccine out from a federal level?
Prime Minister: This is an enormous vaccination that we're doing across the country as we said, it's unprecedented in scale and scope. And the people who are working on this are the best in the world. And I have great confidence in the vaccination programme. The incident that occurred yesterday, I'm pleased that the individuals that were involved in having that higher than, higher level dose are well and they are proceeding well. That’s the report I’ve received overnight and I think it’s important that we continue, and all leaders do, to demonstrate the importance of this vaccination programme and its effective rollout. It is a large scale vaccination and where issues come up, and the scale of this exercise they are going to be quickly addressed. We are in the very early phase, it starts small and then it becomes quite large in the months and weeks ahead. And I look forward to it continuing on. I congratulate the nurse who was on duty on that day. She did a great job. In our health system each and every day there will be challenges relating to human error, it happens in any part of our system. And the vaccination programme, will have to deal with those as they occur as well. There are systems in place to deal with that. And I look forward to the vaccination programme continuing to roll out because it is so important. It is so important I think for all of us to get behind it as I have as I said putting my shoulder to the jab, and I’m sure millions more Australians will in the months ahead.
Journalist: Have you spoken with Senator Reynolds this morning, can you give an update on her condition and when she might expect to be back at work?
Prime Minister: Yeah I spoke to Linda last night, a couple of times yesterday, in fact, and I can tell you that she's much, much improved, from where she was the night before. And under doctor's instructions she’ll remain under observation for a few more days yet. And she's looking forward to returning to her duties and getting on with the job. She's doing a great job. And particularly on a morning like this morning, I want to be able to say she's doing a great job more and more often in the future.
Journalist: Is her position as Defence minister still tenable?
Prime Minister: Of course it is. Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be? She's doing a great job and I have great confidence in the work that she's doing. And I thank those colleagues, whether from the government or elsewhere, that have expressed their support for Linda and she certainly has mine.
Journalist: [inaudible] chose not to inform you of the Brittany Higgins matter because it was an operational matter, shouldn’t he have told you as soon as he found out?
Prime Minister: The Minister for Home Affairs is regularly briefed on sensitive investigations across a whole range of issues. That is the process that he is engaged in. And that can happen on a weekly basis. And it’s his operational practise, which I know is supported by officials to receive those briefings. And they’re matters for him. As Prime Minister, if any agency, whether it be the Australian Federal Police, whether it be ASIO or any of the other many intelligence agencies, or others, believe that the Prime Minister must be directly briefed on such matter then they will arrange that briefing and the Minister for Home Affairs operates on that understanding. That was not done on this occasion. The matter was being addressed and had been addressed by police. And that's what the minister was advised.
Journalist: Prime Minister in your own investigations into what people in the government knew about Brittany Higgins’ allegations have you personally asked your Ministers if they knew and when they knew before, I imagine it’s part of Mr Gaetjens investigation as well. But have you personally asked your ministers?
Prime Minister: There have been wide conversations, particularly over the course of the past week and Cabinet have discussed it on many occasions. But let me say this, what happens when people become aware of whether it's in this building or anywhere else, the advice I have from the Commissioner of the Federal Police is that if someone wishes to make a complaint or someone possesses information regarding the allegation, whether it be of sexual assault or any other criminal activity, what you do is you take it to the law enforcement body, the police who is authorised, experienced and capable of dealing with those complaints. That's where they should go. So that's what my Ministers did. Those in the first instance, whether it was Minister Reynolds or even more recently in February, was to assure themselves that this matter had gone to where it should go and that is the federal police.
So in my case, had it been the case that that was brought to my attention at an earlier time, my action would have been the same as those ministers’ actions. And that is to say, has the matter been drawn to the attention of the police? The answer to that question was yes, it had. And my other question would have been, is the individual - in this case Brittany- but is the individual, have they been provided with the support and access to the services to assist them and support them in this circumstance? They are the two actions and they are the actions that were undertaken at the time. Now we have a broader ranging review that is dealing with were those supports adequate enough, legitimate question- this is a complex issue and there are no simple or straightforward answers, as I was just discussing with the Sex Discrimination Commissioner. That's important. But they are the actions that you take and they are the actions that were taken and they are the actions that should have been taken, and how we can improve that system so people can be confident to take these matters to the people who are equipped and authorised to deal with them. That is the police. That is how our system must operate. That is where those issues should be dealt with as a matter of law and support and protection for all Australians.
Journalist: Prime Minister a couple of quick ones- the $90 billion submarine project, is that sunk? And Brisbane, 2032- is it on?
Prime Minister: No, in relation to your first question.
In relation to the second question, I'm very pleased that very early on my government went in with both feet to the Brisbane Olympic bid. I was very excited about it. We quickly committed more resources to an Olympic bid than any federal government had ever done before and to work with the Queensland Government and Premier Palaszczuk. On two occasions, I took up the case directly with the president of the IOC, Dr Bach. And I know how enthusiastic they were about working with Australia. So I'm very pleased that we've got to this next step. We’ve still got a long way to go. We are effectively the preferred provider of the Brisbane Olympics, the Olympics in 2032. But there is still a lot more to do. I look forward to working with the Queensland government to achieve that. But it is, it is an exciting day, I think, for Queenslanders, for Australians, and particularly for the people of Brisbane and south east Queensland. And I'm so pleased that has been able to progress to that level.
But I have to go now, thanks.
Morrison Government Commits Record $9B to Social Security Safety Net
23 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Families and Social Services, Minister for Employment Skills Small and Family Business
The Morrison Government is enhancing our social security safety net by increasing support for unemployed Australians while strengthening their obligations to search for work.
From March the Coalition Government will progressively introduce a series of permanent measures to ensure that job seekers have the best opportunity to secure employment as our nation continues to recover from the economic challenges of COVID-19.
These include:
permanently increasing the rate of working-age payments by $50 a fortnight from 1 April 2021, benefiting 1.95 million Australians;
permanently increasing the income-free earnings to $150 per fortnight for JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) from 1 April 2021;
temporarily extending the waiver of the Ordinary Waiting Period for certain payments for a further three months to 30 June 2021;
temporarily extending the expanded eligibility criteria for JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) for those required to self-isolate or care for others as a result of COVID-19 to 30 June 2021.
There will also be changes to the Mutual Obligation Scheme:
job seekers will be required to search for a minimum of 15 jobs a month from early April, increasing to 20 jobs per month from 1 July;
an employer reporting line will be established to refer Jobseekers who are not genuine about their job search or decline the offer of a job;
some job seekers will be required to participate in work for the dole after six months;
job seekers can choose to participate in an approved intensive short course instead of participating in work for the dole;
job seekers return to compulsory face-to-face services with Jobactive providers;
increased auditing of job applications to ensure job seekers are making genuine applications.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the plan for working age payments is fair and sustainable – for both unemployed people and taxpayers who fund the support.
“Welfare is a safety net, not a wage supplement. We want to get the balance right between providing support for people and incentives to work,” the Prime Minister said.
“The actions we have taken this year successfully cushioned us against the impact of the pandemic and mean that we no longer need to rely on the emergency supports which have sustained us over the past 12 months.”
“Now is the time to set our nation up for the future and build on our successes which will see Australians once again emerge stronger, safer and together.”.
The $9 billion commitment is the largest ever Budget measure for working age payments and is the single biggest year on year increase to the rate of unemployment benefits since 1986.
Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business Michaelia Cash said the changes to mutual obligations would provide better support for job seekers in their search for work.
“We know that most job seekers are doing the right thing and trying to find employment, however, a small minority are actively trying to game the system The new employer reporting line will be set up from April to help ensure those doing the wrong thing are identified,” Minister Cash said.
“Job seekers who have been unemployed for at least six months will also be required to participate in an activity, such as a short training course or Work for the Dole, in addition to their job search activities.
Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston said the Government has stood side-by-side all Australians during the pandemic and would continue to do so through permanent changes to strengthen our income support system.
“Since April 2020 our comprehensive payment system will help to deliver more than $33 billion in emergency income support payments including the Coronavirus Supplement and four economic support payments, the last of which will start flowing to our pensioners from next week,” Minister Ruston said.
“Our Government has always made sure that the rate of income support payments has kept pace with the cost living through twice yearly indexation but this announcement marks the first real increase in the rate of unemployment benefits in more than 25 years.
“What we’re announcing is significant but also sustainable because we must make sure our social security safety net is available into the future should our children fall in tough times”
For more information about the changes, visit http://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/job-seekers
First COVID-19 Vaccinations
21 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Aged Care
Aged care residents, nurses and doctors, disabled support residents and hotel quarantine workers, were among the first Australians to receive a COVID-19 vaccine today in Castle Hill, New South Wales.
They were joined by personnel from the Australian Defence Force and Australian Border Force alongside Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer and the Prime Minister in getting vaccinated.
The COVID-19 vaccination program was officially launched today ahead of the formal national rollout across Australia on Monday.
Aged care resident Jane Malysiak, 84, from Marayong New South Wales, was the first person in Australia to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was a landmark day in Australia’s comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have always made our own Australian way through this pandemic and have done so with considerable success compared with so many other countries around the world,” the Prime Minister said.
“This vaccination program launches us down our path out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
“Every Australian will be given the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, free of charge that has been proven to be safe and effective by our own medical experts.
“Our first priority is to protect our most vulnerable Australians and the frontline workers who are protecting all of us, and getting vaccinated does just that.
“As we rollout the COVID-19 vaccines across the country, we will be asking as many Australians as possible to come forward to be vaccinated, to protect themselves, their families and their communities from this highly infectious disease.”
People living and working in aged care and disability care, and quarantine, border and frontline health workers, will receive the COVID-19 vaccine first.
The Australian Government has a comprehensive plan to offer COVID-19 vaccines to all Australians by the end of October 2021.
The plans starts on Monday with around 60,000 Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses to be administered to priority populations.
Under the Australian Government’s plan, quarantine and border workers and aged care residents are on track to be vaccinated by April 2021.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt said, “Vaccines are being prioritised so those most at risk, and those most vulnerable, can get access first.”
“The Australian Government has given clear advice on the phases showing who will have access when.”
“Today we have released a simple eligibility checker. It lets you answer a few questions and find out the phase in which you’ll be able to access vaccines. You can find it at australia.gov.au,” Minister Hunt said.
Under the Australian Vaccination Strategy the COVID-19 Vaccine rollout begins with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and will include the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine from March 2021.
The Australian Government has secured more than 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. Over 50 million doses of AstraZeneca ordered by the Government will be manufactured in Melbourne.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be administered through hub and spoke hospital vaccination clinics in each state and territory, and in aged care and disability care facilities across the country.
The number of hospital-based vaccination clinics will increase as more doses of our approved vaccines arrive in Australia.
Vaccination teams will go into aged care facilities – 240 of them across 190 locations nationally this week – to deliver the vaccines on-site.
People will initially get the AstraZeneca vaccine at GP respiratory clinics, general practices that meet specific requirements, Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Services, and state-run vaccination clinics.
Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines require two separate doses for a person to be fully immunised – Pfizer/BioNTech 21 days apart, and AstraZeneca 12 weeks apart.
For more information www.australia.gov.au or www.healthdirect.gov.au.
Funding to Support Surf Life Saving Across Australia
20 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Minister for Sport, Member for Mackellar
The Morrison Government is providing $9.7 million in additional funding to Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) as it continues to protect beachgoers and improve volunteer lifesaving skills.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the additional funding would help save lives and builds on a further $21 million over the next three years for the Water and Snow Safety Program.
“Our surf lifesavers play such a vital role at our beaches saving lives and dealing with emergencies in the water and on the beach day in, day out,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
“This additional funding will ensure our local clubs will have the ability to purchase vital equipment and medical supplies that they need to keep Australians safe on our beaches.”
From July 2019 to the end of June 2020, there were 248 drownings in Australia with more than half of the fatalities occurring in coastal areas.
The Morrison Government will invest $3.1 million through the Water and Snow Safety Program, to support SLSA’s Beach Safety Equipment Fund aimed at preventing fatal and non-fatal drownings.
It means surf lifesaving clubs will now be able to access up to $10,000 per annum over the next two years to purchase new or replacement patrol equipment such as rescue boards, life jackets, rescue manikins, inflatable rescue boats, all-terrain vehicles, defibrillators, and first aid and medical supplies.
The new funding also includes $6.6 million over two years to continue providing vocational education and training (VET) to volunteers and build on SLSA’s capability.
SLSA is the largest volunteer movement in Australia with more than 173,000 members and 314 affiliated surf clubs across the length and breadth of the nation.
Minister for Sport, Senator the Hon. Richard Colbeck said the training offered by Surf Life Saving to club volunteers and members provided them with transferrable skills beyond lifesaving.
“As well as being able to use new skills learnt during VET training for the purpose of life-saving, around 25 per cent of SLS members believe these new skills helped them gain employment,” he said.
“This funding will also help upgrade SLSA’s technology to enhance the training it offers, cut red tape and expand its recruitment and recognition of supervisors, trainers and assessors at clubs.”
Member for Mackellar, Jason Falinski, said the funding would be vital for Surf Life Saving clubs like Collaroy where volunteers, who have already performed 5000 patrol hours this season, rely on the best skills and equipment to keep beachgoers safe.
“The efforts of our Surf Life Savers should not be underestimated,” Mr Falinski said. “Every day during the summer season, thousands of dedicated volunteers are keeping swimmers safe.
“With this significant support, the Morrison Government is ensuring clubs and their members across the country can continue to do what they do best – saving lives.”
The additional funding for SLSA’s Beach Safety Equipment Fund brings the Government’s investment for this initiative to $9.1 million from 2018–19 to 2021–22.
The Morrison Government’s additional investment in VET training for SLSA brings its total commitment to this program to $16.6 million between 2016–17 and 2021–22.
TGA Approves AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine
16 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Aged Care
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has today approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use in Australia following a full and thorough assessment process.
The vaccine has met the required standards for safety, quality and efficacy and will be provided free to Australians.
This means Australia now has two safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines available.
Initial supply into Australia will be imported from overseas. In the coming months, the AstraZeneca vaccine will be manufactured in Australia. Australia is one of a small number of countries in the world that can manufacture its own COVID-19 vaccine.
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is provisionally approved in Australia for active immunisation to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, in individuals 18 years of age and older.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed the announcement.
“The TGA has found the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to be safe and effective and I welcome their thorough assessment process,” the Prime Minister said.
“Safety is our number one priority and our own medical experts have carefully made their assessments before giving approval of the vaccine.”
The TGA has reviewed all of the available evidence and determined that two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine can be safely administered to an individual 4-12 weeks apart.
Drawing from the advice of the TGA and also from the implementation of the program internationally, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation has determined that to create the very best immune response, ensure the most effective clinical protection and maximise broader community coverage, the two doses of the vaccine should be administered 12 weeks apart.
However, if this preferred interval is not possible, for example because of imminent travel, cancer chemotherapy, or major elective surgery, a minimum interval of 4 weeks between doses can be used.
The AstraZeneca vaccine can be handled and stored like most other vaccines. For a large country like Australia, this provides some distinct benefits in relation to distribution and storage, particularly in rural and remote areas, including Indigenous communities.
Today’s announcement follows a rigorous and independent assessment of the vaccine’s safety, quality and efficacy by the TGA. The approval is subject to certain strict conditions, such as the requirement for AstraZeneca to continue providing information to the TGA on the safety, efficacy and quality of the vaccine.
Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said the AstraZeneca vaccine will help save lives and protect lives.
“Data from clinical trials tells us that the AstraZeneca vaccine will stop people becoming seriously unwell with COVID-19. This is – and must – be our first priority. It would be irresponsible of us to put anything ahead of this,” Minister Hunt said.
“The global evidence is of overwhelming protection against serious illness, hospitalisation and loss of life.”
Overnight the World Health Organization said, “This regimen was shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations more than 14 days after the second dose.”
On the 3 February 2021 the Lancet Journal said, “COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca confirms 100% protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death in the primary analysis of Phase III trials.”
Minister Hunt said, “Importantly the TGA has conducted a full and thorough, and world class assessment process.”
“As the rollout begins, the people in priority groups who need the most protection will receive a vaccine first. This includes aged care and disability care residents and workers, frontline healthcare workers, and quarantine and border workers.”
The Australian Government has secured 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with 50 million doses being manufactured here in Australia.
Every safety and regulatory box has been ticked for provisional approval – and further ones will now be ticked in the lead up to March.
The Pfizer vaccine remains on track to be rolled out from 22 February 2021.
Further details are available at aus.gov.au
Doorstop Interview - Australian Parliament House, ACT
16 February 2021
PRIME MINISTER: I’m sure you’d all agree that what we witnessed from Caitlin was incredibly overwhelming and as a government we’ll continue to do everything we can to further the cause of the fight against Ovarian Cancer. I wanted to make a few brief remarks and happy to take questions on the events of the last 24 hours.
I said yesterday in the Parliament that we had to listen to Brittany. I have listened to Brittany. Jenny and I spoke last night, and she said to me, "You have to think about this as a father first. What would you want to happen if it were our girls?" Jenny has a way of clarifying things, always has. And so, as I've reflected on that overnight, and listened to Brittany, and what she had to say, there are a couple of things here that need to be addressed.
The first of those is it shatters me that still, in this day and age, that a young woman can find herself in the vulnerable situation that she was in. Not her doing. And we have to do more, whether it's in this workplace, or in any other workplace in the country, to ensure that people can work safely in their place and be at their best and do what they went into that job to do. Brittany talked about it being her dream job. We are all privileged, whether it's members of Parliament, the people who work in our offices and indeed those who work in the gallery and do what we get to do in this place. It is a privilege, and we should be able to go about that important work safely. There should not be an environment where a young woman can find herself in such a vulnerable situation. That is not OK.
The second - and I'll address the actions after I've made these comments - the second is, and I must say despite what were the genuine good intentions of all those who did try to provide support to Brittany, that clearly, by what she said last night, at the end of the day, she did not feel that way. And that is not OK. Then there is the issue of the matter of the investigation and the police matter that needs to be attended to, and that has always been the view of those who have had knowledge of these matters, that that matter should proceed to that level, and it should, and of course, the police would get every cooperation and should get every cooperation. But there are issues that Brittany raised about why that may not have been progressed. Of course, we want to respect the agency, particularly of women, in these situations, to make their own choices about how to proceed. But all options must be there for them, and they must feel they're there for them. That is incredibly important.
So there are a number of things we can do immediately, and I'll be speaking about this in our party room today. The first of those is we must continue to address the environment of this place. Now, I believe, over the last few years, since this occurred, there have been changes and there have been improvements, but I'm not naive enough to think, and I don't think you or anyone else in this place is naive enough to think, that that is not a position of vulnerability that can still occur. Whether it's here, or, frankly, in so many other workplaces around this country. So I hope Brittany's call is a wake-up call for all of us from that point of view. I've asked Celia Hammond, the Member for Curtin, previous Vice-Chancellor of Notre Dame, who has had experience of dealing with these issues in institutional settings and offered herself to assist me with this overnight, to lead a process, working with our chief whips and our whips to work with colleagues, ministers, members, in the Government, in the Coalition parties, to identify ways that standards and expectations and practices can be further improved so that professional behaviour in this place does not involve a young woman finding herself in the situation that she found herself i, that is unacceptable. We all have a role to play in that. I do. The members of this place do. Those who work in our offices do, in senior positions. Those who work in other offices in this place, all have that responsibility. And I'm looking to Celia to provide support and advice to her colleagues and to me, working with colleagues, and of course if Anthony Albanese and his team wish to have their process or engage in that, of course we'd welcome that, and that's an open invitation as to how that might proceed.
Secondly, in relation to the support that was provided to Brittany, and there is a good record of what all of this, and indeed, in those initial phases, Brittany had expressed her appreciation, particularly to a staff member, for the support she had provided. But clearly over time, she felt more alone in dealing with this and the trauma of this event and the way that that progressed clearly was not handled sufficiently. And so I'm going to ask Stephanie Foster, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to assist and advise me on how better those processes can work to support people when incidents of this nature arise. Now, one issue I'm going to ask her to look at, and I don't think we should jump to a conclusion here, I think it should be well thought through, is that where there are incidents that involve alleged assault, particularly alleged sexual assault, then we should consider that such a matter be immediately, by matter of process, be referred to the Department and for the Department to step in so there is an arm's-length arrangement in terms of how the individual - in this case, Brittany - would be able to fully understand and be supported, completely outside that office, or any other office, for that matter. Because, at the end of the day, Brittany did not feel that that occurred. And that's what matters. That's not to reflect on the genuine efforts that I know were undertaken by Minister Reynolds and others, but at the end of the day, Brittany has said what she's said and that's what we have to deal with.
In relation to the police investigation, I'm advised that the videotape of that evening was provided and has been retained at the request of police and is still in the possession of Parliamentary Services, as is appropriate. There's been a bit of commentary around that, but they are the facts and Parliamentary Services and others can give you the details on that element. But, at the end of the day, I want to make sure that any young woman working in this place is as safe as possible, just as I would like my own daughters, if they ever chose to go down that path, or in whatever workplace they were working in, that they could have that confidence of their safety and, as a father, I could have that confidence of safety.
Happy to take questions. Sam?
JOURNALIST: In relation to Brittany Higgins, you said yesterday, a spokesman for your Government said it was not appropriate that she was called to that meeting in that room in Linda Reynolds's office. Will you now offer her an apology for that?
PRIME MINISTER: Happily. Happily. I mean, that should not have happened. And I do apologise. That shouldn't have happened. That is one of, I suspect, many process issues that Stephanie Foster will, I hope, identify and ensure that those improvements are made.
JOURNALIST: Overnight, the Department of Parliamentary Services have given a statement to News.com confirming there was a police investigation into the decision to send in the cleaners to the Defence Minister Linda Reynolds's office within 24 hours of this incident occurring. Now, they say that the police investigated that and because they did not know at the time it was a potential sexual assault, that no criminality was involved, but they did investigate it, but whether or not it was involved in trying to essentially conceal evidence of a crime. Are you happy, do you think there needs to be more questions asked or investigations into how Parliament dealt with this at the time?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm happy for those investigations to take place and they should be done transparently and with full cooperation. That shouldn't lead to any assumptions about any acts that were undertaken. I mean, cleaners go through offices every morning, as people know, and at that point, at that precise point in time, as I understand it, and I'm fairly recent to these events, there was, you know, not full knowledge of what had actually occurred. So to suggest that something had been done to interfere with the environment, I don't think that's established either. But I'm very happy for those matters to be fully investigated.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you talk about setting up an arm's-length process through DPS...
PRIME MINISTER: It would probably be through the Department of Finance, I would think. But yeah.
JOURNALIST: Yes. Would it still not be the case that unless there was a cultural change, where alleged victims didn't feel they had to make a choice between their job and lodging a complaint, that even an arm's-length process may not solve the situation?
PRIME MINISTER: That's why the first point I made today, Phil, was ensuring that we continue to strive to have an environment in this place, in which every single person who works here has a responsibility in creating, from me down, and I accept that. We've made changes in how ministers' behavioural codes are operating over the last few years. I believe that's had a positive impact. I think there are changes to be made here as well and I would welcome that as well. So yes, I do agree, Phil, that that is clearly a contributing factor. No member of staff, and particularly a young woman in this situation, should feel even if it were not the case, as I believe it was not the case on this occasion, that her employment would ever have been threatened. After the election, and we were successful, she was employed in a new role and worked there for some years. What saddens me is that over time, and I think there were communications issues here, that she felt increasingly alone to deal with the trauma of what had occurred. And that's where I think the ongoing supports have not been successful and as a result she found herself in the situation she has. You know, listening to her talk about how she, you know, had to go through those security gates and the reminder of… I mean, that is, I understand that, and that is tremendously upsetting. So I get it and that's why I think understanding how that process could better work. But equally, I don't want the situation to be such that a young woman or anyone else in that situation would feel that they'd be reluctant to come forward on something like that, if it meant triggering a whole range of things that they felt uncomfortable about. We cannot, we cannot ignore the importance of the issue of agency of women in these situations. They need the power in these situations to make the decisions that are best for them, and we clearly have to do better about that.
I'll keep going around, Sam. I'm happy to come back to you. Yes?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you started your prime ministership with issues over Julia Banks and Ann Sudmalis, and we saw allegations against some ministers last year on ABC’s Four Corners and now we've seen this claim from Brittany Higgins aired very publicly yesterday. Does the Liberal Party have a problem with women? And what are you doing to make it a comfortable place for women to be employed here and to run as members of Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: I think I've already addressed that in the comments I've already made today. I think anyone in this place who thought these issues were specific to any one party or any one element of how this building operates I think would be being very naive. This is an issue that I think goes right across the span of all political parties, all offices, including, I suspect, even in the media. So let's not kid ourselves here. This is a problem we all have and all must address together. Certainly I'll be doing that as Prime Minister and leader of my own party.
JOURNALIST: When did you first know about the Brittany Higgins allegations?
PRIME MINISTER: 24 hours ago.
JOURNALIST: Have you spoken to Linda Reynolds about her handling of this case? And why hasn't she apologised for holding that meeting afterwards in the same room where the alleged assault happened?
PRIME MINISTER: I've just done that now and I've done that on behalf of myself and of the Government. Linda and I have had a conversation about this and, in fact, we discussed it as a Cabinet last night as well,
the seriousness of this and I will discuss it also with my party room today. So I don't want there to be any doubt about particularly that point and I suspect where there are others that arise, we'll address those as well. Sam?
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask in relation... Obviously your office was involved in managing this situation from the beginning as a security breach, as a security incident, with two staffers in there overnight. Now, the person who was the Chief of Staff in that office was seconded briefly from your office…
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's actually not right, Sam.
JOURNALIST: She's now back in your office and after that event, Brittany Higgins says your Chief of Staff and his EA were in the office dealing with the aftermath of Fiona. Not in relation to a sexual assault, but with the issues with the office, of dealing with, you know, the security breach and so on. So given that you have at least two or three or more people in your office that were involved in this in the beginning, and certainly Linda Reynolds was aware that there was an alleged assault back in April 2019, she never told you? Do you have some sort of ‘don't ask, don't tell’ policy? Why did you not know until recently that there was an alleged sexual assault?
PRIME MINISTER: That is a very valid question and I can assure you that there is no such policy and I'm not happy about the fact that it was not brought to my attention, and I can assure you people know that. I can assure you people know that. Now, in relation to the involvement, as you suggested, of some who are now employed in my office, at the time they were employed in Minister Reynolds's office. They were not seconded from my office. They were actually employed in that office. They came to work in my office at a later time. And the initial incident which was, to the best of our knowledge, at that point, was a security incident, was dealt with swiftly. Let's not forget there's an alleged perpetrator here. There's an alleged perpetrator. And I do not want us to lose focus on the fact of the justice issue here that needs to be addressed. That this alleged perpetrator has undertaken these things and you've all heard the accounts, but it's a matter for a proper investigation to deal with that. Then, ultimately, accountability rests with those who seek to perpetrate these acts.
JOURNALIST: Is there a structural issue…
PRIME MINISTER: And that person was sacked.
JOURNALIST: You said this conversation really hit home when you had it with Jenny and thought about it as a husband and a father. Shouldn't you have thought about it as a human being? And what happens if men don't have a wife and children? Would you… do they reach the same compassionate conclusion?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, in my own experience, being a husband and a father is central to me, my human being. So I just can't follow the question you're putting.
JOURNALIST: Well, didn't you think yesterday, as a leader of this country, that it was abhorrent? It had to take being a father?
PRIME MINISTER: And I did. And I said so yesterday. In reflecting on what she said last night, I hadn't seen her account until last night. I didn’t get to see it because I had events and other things I was dealing with until late last night and I had the opportunity at that point to see. I had discussed it with Jenny. She had seen it and we discussed it. That's how we deal with these things. I think Australians know that I'm pretty honest about these matters and I seek to deal with them as human a way as possible and my family helps inform that, as I suspect it does most people.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you one on the vaccine, please?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to deal with that later, but yes, if you like.
JOURNALIST: What do you say to Australians who, they're not anti-vaxxers but they're genuinely concerned about getting the vaccine, so much so, now that they're refusing to get it, they don't want to get it. What do you say to them to put their mind at ease?
PRIME MINISTER: To listen to the medical advice. We have the best medical experts in the world. They are the ones who are making decisions about what is safe to take and whether it will be effective to support their own health. These are the same people that make decisions about the vaccines that we take our children to have vaccinated with. These are the same people. It is another vaccine, admittedly at a scale that we haven't seen in this country before, but they're the same people, the same experts, that you've trusted with your own children. They're the same people you can trust when it comes to this vaccine. And they're the people I'm trusting, both with me, my family, my mother, my mother-in-law, for their health and for their safety and all of those, particularly at the outset, those front-line workers who will be first in that process.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I just understand your process a little better that you’ve outlined this morning? A number of women who have run into difficulties in this building, from trivial to very serious, say that departmental officials already have the scope to investigate complaints.
PRIME MINISTER: They do.
JOURNALIST: But they have no power to take action. Or recommend changes that are implemented. That is a structural flaw that goes to the way that staffers are employed in this building. Can you explain to me whether that process will not only be arm's length from the Government but have the capacity to make concrete recommendations that are then acted upon by the people with power in the building ie. yourself and your colleagues?
PRIME MINISTER: This is what I'll be asking Stephanie to undertake, that process, and provide me with that advice. I ask my Department for advice every day and I'm in the habit of taking action when they provide that advice. That's why I'm asking them to do this. And I would expect them to address many of the issues you've just raised and I hope they do. We all want the same thing here. I want the same thing that you do. I want young women, in particular, but women, men, to be able to come and work safely in this place and do the important work we do in this place. That's what I want. I know that's what Australians want and I'm committed to achieving it. Thank you very much.
First Pfizer Vaccine Doses Arrive in Australia
15 February 2021
Joint Media Release
The Hon Scott Morrison MP
Prime Minister
The Hon Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care
More than 142,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have arrived at Sydney airport in a major milestone in Australia’s response to the pandemic.
This is the first shipment of 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine the Government has secured as part of Australia’s COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Strategy.
The doses have been securely transported from the airport. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will batch test the vaccines to ensure they meet Australia’s strict quality standards.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the country was on track for the first and most vulnerable Australians to start receiving the vaccine from 22 February.
“The vaccine has landed and we’re stepping up our fight against the pandemic,” the Prime Minister said.
“Once the final safety checks are completed we can start rolling out the vaccine to our most vulnerable Australians and to our frontline border and health workers.
“The hard work of Australians has meant we’re in an enviable position in our fight against the pandemic so we’ve been able to take the time to properly assess our vaccine decisions and give our world-class regulator the time they need to review the safety of the jabs.
“While we’re taking the time to get the rollout right, I am confident all Australians who wish to be vaccinated against COVID-19 will receive a vaccine this year.”
Approximately 80,000 doses will be released of the Pfizer vaccine in the first week. Approximately 50,000 vaccines will be made available for the states and territories for hotel quarantine and border workers and frontline healthcare workers. Approximately 30,000 vaccines will be made available for the Commonwealth vaccine in-reach workforce to aged care and disability care residents.
It is expected that of these, at least 60,000 will be administered by the end of February with others to be continually administered thereafter.
Subject to TGA approval and shipping confirmation of the international AstraZeneca vaccine, it is expected these numbers will double from early March. Phase 1a remains on track for first round doses to be delivered within a six week period.
In lessons learnt in rollouts around the world and on the advice of experts, approximately 60,000 vaccines will be provisioned to ensure consistent supply and sufficient stock for second doses. The second dose of the vaccine will be administered at 21 days after the first dose.
The Phase 1a priority groups will ensure our quarantine and border workers, frontline healthcare workers and aged care and disability care residents and staff that the most vulnerable will receive priority access to the vaccine.
Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said, “The Pfizer vaccine will save lives and protect lives.”
“Australians can be reassured this vaccine has gone through rigorous, independent testing by the Therapeutic Goods Administration to ensure it is safe, effective, and manufactured to a high standard,” Minister Hunt said.
“These vaccines will now go through further batch testing to further check for quality and efficacy, ensuring all Australians have confidence in the vaccines they receive.”
The Pfizer vaccine will be delivered through hospital ‘hubs’ across Australia, and in residential aged care and disability care facilities.
Logistics company DHL has been engaged to support the distribution of the Pfizer vaccine across Australia.
The company, along with a network of 200 ultra-low temperature portable freezers, will ensure Australians across the country, including in rural and remote areas, are able to access the Pfizer vaccine, which needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees.
By following the medical advice, Australia has maintained a diverse portfolio of vaccines, and are constantly engaging with international counterparts and vaccine sponsors to access the best available information on vaccine developments worldwide.
Pending TGA approval, the Government has also secured 53.8 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses and 51 million doses of the Novavax vaccine. Each is sufficient to vaccinate every Australian who chooses to be vaccinated in 2021.
The Australian Government has also signed up to the international COVAX facility, which provides access to a range of vaccines to immunise up to 50 per cent of the Australian population.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the first vaccine to receive provisional approval for use in Australia by the TGA. The TGA bases such decisions on the safety, efficacy and quality of the vaccine candidates.
Interview with Neil Mitchell, 3AW
12 February 2021
NEIL MITCHELL: Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning Neil.
MITCHELL: I assume you've had discussions with the state government. Do you think a lockdown is likely?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they're still working through those issues now. They were last night. They are again today. And as you just said, they'll make statements later today, and they’re assessing all of those options. I think your point, Neil, about the traumatising impact of last year's lockdown is a very good one. It's very real. I mean, here in Victoria, the rest of the country, having gone through what Victorians went through, through the second half of last year. And so the risk of, you know, facing those sorts of those things again, is very understandable. The short, sharp, sort of proportionate response that we saw in a couple of other states dealing with similar challenges proved to be quite effective particularly up there in Brisbane, I’ve got to say. And that was when the uncertainty levels around these new strains were way higher than they are now. They got through that. We gave the contact tracers a head start over the weekend and then they were back at it the following week.
MITCHELL: So your optimism would be if we do go into lock down it’s a short term one?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think proportionate, targeted responses, I've always believed are the most effective way to deal with this. And we saw that work in Brisbane, it worked in New South Wales. And you've got to give your contact tracers, though, as you were just describing, you have an incident where someone was out of place and you want to get on top of that. Understand it. It was a similar thing up in Brisbane and they did. And then they could move on again. So, you know, a precautionary, targeted, proportionate response is sensible.
MITHCELL: Okay. Just to get- just get it clear, though. Have you been briefed that lockdown is on the table?
PRIME MINISTER: No, not at this stage, no. The health minister, Greg Hunt, has been in touch with his opposite down here and they've been talking overnight. And so will, our chief medical officer is working with theirs. But there's a lot still going on. So I don’t want to pre-empt any of that and it’s for the Victorian government to make those final calls.
MITCHELL: Fair enough. But it’s obvious hotel quarantine seems to have failed again in Victoria more than it has in other states. When will you step in and run it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’re not. We’re not going to be running it. It’s run by the Victorian-
MITCHELL: It couldn't get to any stage - it couldn't get to any stage where you would take it over? This is the second failure in our system. And you know what happened last year, and the system’s failed again?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there are rings of how you contain outbreaks, now in New South Wales they've had quarantine breaches, there've been quarantine breaches in other states-
MITCHELL: Not at this level. Not at this level.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm sorry. In New South Wales there have -
MITCHELL: This year Victoria has had far more than any other state combined.
PRIME MINISTER: Well there've been breaches Neil and hotel quarantine is never 100 per cent failsafe, and to suggest it ever will be, is just not realistic. The issue is how you deal with it when it occurs and the contact tracing that then puts in place and the testing system and the response of Melburnians particularly, that once again, tremendous. And that's how you get back on top of it. But it is, we've had 220,000 people Neil, go through hotel quarantine around the country, 220,000. And-
MITCHELL: So you're happy with the way it's working in Victoria?
PRIME MINISTER: I want it to always be constantly improving. Of course I do-
MITCHELL: So you’re not-
PRIME MINISTER: And you learn- no it's not a binary proposition. What you do is you can constantly learn from every single incident-
MITCHELL: Okay.
PRIME MINISTER: And the states share the information about what's happening in their quarantine systems and it gets better and better. That doesn't mean it can't fail, of course it can fail, any system can fail.
MITCHELL: Yesterday, your own minister, Peter Dutton, accused Daniel Andrews of being a spin merchant around this. Now, we don't need spin. Do you agree he’s a spin merchant?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my job as Prime Minister is to support the states, not to score them.
MITCHELL: Okay, hey you’re in Melbourne. How quickly are you going to get out of town, you don’t want to be stuck here?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I have some commitments this morning and we were scheduled to leave today and that's what we'll be doing. But I'm out at CSL today, with Greg Hunt, and looking at the progress that has been made on the AstraZeneca vaccine production here in Australia. And the good news on that is that it's on track. And that's great to see, this is a great Melbourne story, let alone Australian story-
MITCHELL: Can CSL produce other vaccines? Some of the epidemiologists are arguing, we should look seriously at this Sputnik vaccine from Russia because it's got a very high efficacy rate. Can CSL produce other vaccines as well?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they were, they were gearing up to produce the one out of University of Queensland actually and, of course, that that didn't proceed. mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Novavax vaccine, and things like that. You know, these things at this stage are not areas where that capacity exists. But I should stress AstraZeneca and the production of that vaccine, there's only a handful of countries that can produce that, we are one of them, all the other countries are dependent on it being produced somewhere else. We made that decision last August because we didn't want to be dependent on the international supply chains for the delivery of our vaccine. So that was a good call. But we had to pay over the odds for it, but it was worth doing.
MITCHELL: Have you had a report on the Sputnik vaccine?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that's not one that our team, I think, has been looking at. But they've been looking at Novavax and a range of other ones, as well. Novavax, that’s a protein based vaccine, the Pfizer one is mRNA. So there are a lot of vaccines that have been in the mix. And that's why and I leave that to Professor Brendan Murphy and his expert teams are to decide which ones they should look at, which ones should be in our portfolio.
MITCHELL: I sense a level of public confusion and even a little bit of, fear is too strong a word, but that sort of attitude around the vaccine, do you agree there’s some confusion, you agree people are not 100 per cent convinced it's a good idea?
PRIME MINISTER: I think Australia, I know Australia has one of the highest rates of vaccinations in the world, particularly for children. And I know that Australians think positively about the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which is one of the best regulatory bodies in the world when it comes to vaccines. I do know also though Neil, the vaccine, because of the nature of COVID-19, the global pandemic, there is a much greater awareness and a lot more conversations happening around dinner tables about this. And there's a lot more thirst for information about it. And that's exactly what we're going to meet as we roll out the vaccine around the country. So I think they're fair questions. I think people have a legitimate request and they want to know more about it. And we're going to meet that demand through our health experts.
MITCHELL: Jane Halton is in Melbourne at the moment, who’s really the quarantine guru. And it's about time she was here. She is here. What do you think and a lot of people are asking this question about the possibility of moving? Is there any way, any circumstances under which you look at moving the quarantine facilities out of metropolitan areas?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's not what she recommended. What she recommended is that we set up this facility up in the Northern Territory as a supplement to the hotel quarantine-
MITCHELL: What about- times have changed, we’ve got a problem here in Melbourne. What do we do about it?
PRIME MINISTER: I spoke to Jane two days ago, about this very topic-
MITCHELL: What’s the answer?
PRIME MINISTER: ...about this very topic. And there has been no change in her view.
MITCHELL: What about in your view? Should we be looking at moving to country areas?
PRIME MINISTER: No, because then you're creating another set of risks, another set of risks. You've got transfer risks. You've got a workforce that you have to have in place in those situations. You're further away from major, big hospitals. I mean, it isn't just a function Neil of a room and a bed. It's like saying, you know, the way to fix hospital waiting lists, is to just go down to the bed factory and buy more beds. It's the medical support and other systems you put around this that actually creates the place and the consistent advice from last March when we all agreed to do it this way and to continue to do it this way, which we just said the other day, it was only a week ago at National Cabinet, that that remains the most effective way to, you know, we're trying to get home 5-6,000 people a week. And to do that, you think you can sort of do that at a range of, you know, facilities out on the outskirts of town and still do that safely and well? Well, that is that is a stretch.
MITCHELL: I'm afraid the department of health has just tweeted there are 5 new locally acquired cases to midnight last night, which isn't good. And I mean I guess it depends on whether they’re community transmission or what's happened with them?
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. And the details of that are not yet through to us. One of the things we did at the last National Cabinet meeting was over the course of this year, the risk of all of this is going to change. It's going to change quite a lot in the months ahead. And that is because systems obviously continue to improve. They're better than they were 6 months ago, they are better than they were 12 months ago. But also with the vaccine being introduced into the population very soon, then what that vaccine does is significantly reduces the risk of serious disease and serious disease then obviously leading to fatality, and particularly amongst vulnerable people. And so when you get that vaccine into the population, the worst case scenario becomes a risk that is largely addressed. That is, IC units full of people dying of COVID. That's what we were facing last year. I mean, it wasn't a flu, it was a very serious virus which has led to over 2 million people dying. The vaccine removes, not entirely no vaccine can remove entirely that, just like the flu vaccine can't do that, but it means that the virus changes in the risk it presents. And so then you're not so much talking about cases as you are talking about the risk of serious disease in the community.
MITCHELL: So in a few words, what's your message to Victorians? Hang in there? What is it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is it. That is it. And they need to get on top of this quickly, and I believe they will because other states have and that it should be proportionate and Victorians have showed enormous tenacity and patience. I mean, you said it yourself, Neil. There's no other option. And I would think that they should be able to get on top of this, as other states have, and that would avoid any anything like you saw last year. But I do understand absolutely the sensitivity to the prospect of that in Melbourne, if that is true there more than any other part of the country. But look at Perth, look at Brisbane, look at Sydney, proportionate, short term responses and they’re back on deck.
MITCHELL: Still generally in the area, are you satisfied with the WHO report on the origins of the virus? The Americans aren't, they didn't seem to probe too deep. Is it enough or do you want more?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they haven't finished yet. And they are still doing work. And the report isn’t finalised-
MITCHELL: What's your reaction so far? The Americans said we won't trust this, we will use our own intelligence?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to wait to see the final report. That's my reaction.
MITCHELL: Fair enough. The UK’s talking about boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics. Should we?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, the AOC makes a decision about whether they- thats the Australian Olympic Committee, about whether they go to the Olympics. And so I'll leave that with them. And that's what I've said to John Coates, when we've discussed it.
MITCHELL: China is attacking our universities as providing low quality education, is this the next weapon they're going to use against us, like trade?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not going to, I'm not going to bite on every piece of bait.
MITCHELL: Who’s, am I throwing up the bait? Or is it China?
PRIME MINISTER: No no. I’ll let you commentate on that.
MITCHELL: Who’s baiting the hook?
PRIME MINISTER: Look Neil these sort of things have been said before, Australia has outstanding education. We all know that. And that's why that's we have so many students want to come here and use our educational institutions. So the quality of those institutions is not in question.
MITCHELL: Yeah, but I'm not baiting the hook am I?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, I didn't say you were.
MITCHELL: Well who is? Is China?
PRIME MINISTER: Ah Neil next questions thank you.
MITCHELL: Okay I understand. Economy, and Treasury says the end of JobKeeper is going to cost 100,000 jobs. Is that right?
PRIME MINISTER: Let's go back to what happened in September. That was the first gear change. We’ve just had another one in January, JobKeeper was dropped down. Employment went up by 180,000 JobKeeper again changed at the end of December. 100,000 people came off JobSeeker in January. What we're seeing is the economy change when we make each of these changes. You can't run the Australian economy on taxpayers money forever. And so we'll continue to make those changes. But, you know, I was out I was out near Berwick yesterday and out there we're seeing with the HomeBuilder programme 82,000 applications approved, all of this support. $250 billion dollars of support has been going into the economy in a record period of time, all sitting on household balance sheets, business balance sheets-
MITCHELL: I understand - I understand, and I think you and Josh have done the right thing. I understand that entirely. But there is pain ahead, isn't there? I mean, if we're going to have 100,000- and I realise you can't pay forever, but is there that sort of pain ahead for 100,000 people?
PRIME MINISTER: What I think will happen based on what has already happened is that as the economy continues to strengthen, it'll pick up those who will find themselves in a difficult spot. And the JobSeeker programme, that remains, the social safety net isn't going anywhere in Australia. It's always been there. We strengthened it during the COVID response. So that is there for people. And that's why I was very encouraged that 100,000 people who were on JobSeeker at the start of January got off it by the end of January. So our economy is strengthening and that means that is the ultimate safety net for people because it means that the jobs are being created. And if you lose one in one place, then the goal is to make sure they are picked up elsewhere. And that's what we've seen happen.
MITCHELL: So is that 100,000 jobs going? Is that pessimistic or realistic?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll see what ultimately happens. But when jobs are also lost, jobs are also created, so there’s a churn effect. And so some people, you know, they will find themselves just like we saw back in October, just like we saw in January. But then we see the same people get jobs in a new place.
MITCHELL: The report today that we could cop an extra $44.5 billion on the interest bill. We're heading for a $200 billion dollar deficit and there's talk of structural change. Now, what does that mean? There will have to be expenditure review and cuts somewhere won’t there?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, that's not on our agenda-
MITCHELL: Really? No spending cuts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well right at the moment the government is providing a very critical role in the economy and we're going to continue to do that. The Treasurer made that pretty clear after last year's Budget about our role going forward. And but, on the issue of interest. I mean, the Reserve Bank governor has been pretty clear. I mean, globally, let alone in Australia, interest rates are going to remain very low for quite a period of time. I mean, the global financial settings such as that. So, you know, his advice to us has been that the fiscal and the investments we've made in all of these programmes have been quite wise and made possible by those broader interest rate settings, which we expect to be in place for quite a while.
MITCHELL: A couple of quick things, if I may. Crown's donated to the Liberal Party. Crown is now on the nose. Will you give the money back?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it's a matter for the party and at the moment where this all ends in terms of that company and what it's doing well I’ll wait to see where that ultimately goes-
MITCHELL: Do you know how much it involves?
PRIME MINISTER: To the Liberal Party?
MITCHELL: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't. I don't sort of follow that very closely Neil. I mean, you wouldn't expect the Prime Minister to be following that.
MITCHELL: Peter Dutton-
PRIME MINISTER: What I mean by that is these things don't influence my decisions one way or another at all Neil. And so that's why I have a habit of keeping a separation between what I'm doing every day and how the party conducts those affairs. That’s appropriate.
MITCHELL: Peter Dutton seems to have been caught pork barrelling with security cameras, now surely you shouldn't be playing politics, giving the political reasons for taking security cameras into certain seats. Has he been pork barrelling? Has he been caught?
PRIME MINISTER: People have made those- there's nothing that’s in front of me which says he's done anything outside of the rules of those-
MITCHELL: Are you going to have a look at it?
PRIME MINISTER: As I said, I mean-
MITCHELL: Are you going to ask the question? It's a pretty serious allegation?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s an allegation that hasn’t been backed up, by any breaches of any rules that have been alleged. I mean, it’s just the Labor Party throwing mud it is what they do.
MITCHELL: The figures are pretty damning when you look at them? Have you had a look at the figures?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm aware of them and I'm not aware of any breaches of any rules or regulations in relation to the administration of that programme. If the Labor Party thinks there has been then they should actually make an accusation with substance rather than just throwing mud around, which seems to be all they can do these days.
MITCHELL: Here’s another baiting of the hook. China's banned the BBC. Do you think they'll ban the ABC? Or are they too Maoist?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, that's that's wickedly enticing to answer Neil. But I think I will exercise diplomacy.
MITCHELL: I noticed they are saying in France that being woke, we are too woke and that's affecting democracy and debate, do you think we are too woke?
PRIME MINISTER: I think there's a lot of talk about all this. But you know what? Right now, what people care about, and what I care about is their health and their jobs.
MITCHELL: True.
PRIME MINISTER: And I'm just focussed on that. And if people want to talk about woke- and if they are woke enough or not woke enough, or they're too woke or, you know, who cares? I just want people in jobs and I want them healthy. I want to get the vaccine rolled out there. That's what I want to do. And everyone else can talk about who's woke and who’s not.
MITCHELL: Take care. Thank you for speaking with us.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot Neil, cheers mate.
Doorstop - Williamtown, NSW
8 February 2021
Gabby Costigan, CEO BAE Systems: Good morning everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today. We’ve had a fantastic morning here with the Prime Minister of Australia, the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Defence Industry, celebrating a truly fantastic milestone in the journey of the F-35. We welcome the first F-35 aircraft here today at BAE systems Australia’s hanger and the most exciting this about this is this is the beginning of a 50 year journey that is going to bring hundreds of jobs to the region and further boost and help the local economy, but also provide skilled jobs and opportunities for exports for our nation. So it is a very exciting day and I would like to welcome the Prime Minister and ask the Prime Minister to say a few words.
Prime Minister: Thank you, Gabby. It is great to be here with the Defence Minister, the Defence Industry Minister. Of course, Senator Hughes who looks after this area well for us on the ground from the Government’s point of view and, of course, the Chief of the Air Force. This is a very exciting day. This is what sovereignty looks like. It is right behind me. But it is not just this incredible new aircraft, of which Australia is invested in for Australia's sovereign defence. But it's everything that goes into it. It's the technology. It's the know-how. It's the Australian jobs that now sit behind it. It's the Australian componentry that forms a part of every single one of these joint strike fighters. This is the demonstration, not only of Australia's capability, but it's the demonstration of Australia's partnership with so many around the world. Whether it's our alliance partners in the United States. Whether it's in our commercial partners in the defence industry, particularly BAE, as we are with them here today. Whether it is the many, many suppliers and the subbies and the others involved in not just delivering what is done here on this base, but also those who are beyond this base. Those bringing forward the next generation of engineers and technicians and others who will be involved in the jobs here, not just for one generation, but for generations and generations to come. This project, like so many in our defence industry all around the country, are delivering the jobs on the ground that are supporting regional Australia. But it is also what is actually delivering the sovereign capability that keeps Australians safe in an increasingly uncertain world.
Our Government is absolutely committed to the defence of our nation, but doing what is necessary to make that a reality. And that means young boys and girls going to primary school here in the Hunter know that in the future, they can train to work right here and to be the best in the world at what they do. Earlier today, I met those workers here in the Hunter who had lost their job with Jetstar and have now found employment here in the defence industry. I met technicians who have trained overseas and have brought those skills. I reckon they taught the Americans a thing or two as well. But they came back here and now they're going to be training a whole new generation of technicians to deliver on this important capability into the future. And then I met our amazing men and women in our RAAF, Chief, and I know you're incredibly proud of them, as the Ministers are. But they are Australia's best, and all that we can say is thank you for your service. Meeting Junior up there before, who has spent a lot of time in these F-35s, and he's putting the others through their paces now. It gives me a lot of confidence about what's happening here. But I particularly want to say to people here in the Hunter - we are so committed to what's happening in this region. It wasn't that long ago that I was up here in Varly Industries out there at Tomago at the smelter and the important jobs that make this region what it is, and we are investing in securing its future. From training people up, by supporting the industries that we know will continue to deliver great prosperity and a future for the people of the Hunter and that's why I'm thrilled to be here today with my ministerial colleagues and I'll ask Linda to say some words as well and then we'll hear from Melissa.
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. Today is a great day to be the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Defence Industry. This is as the Prime Minister said, what sovereign defence industrial capability looks like. It is the 100th anniversary next month of the Royal Australian Air Force and yet again, they have risen to the occasion. The joint strike fighter is on time, it is on budget and it is simply a superb fifth generation multirole fighter jet. It is doing exactly what we need it to do. In fact, the Chief of Air Force in December last year declared initial operating capability, which means that these 30 that we have are now ready for combat operations. So can I just commend the Royal Australian Air Force and the squadron here at Williamtown who have got us to this point today. But can I also say thank you very much to all of the Royal Australian Air Force men and women who are supporting this capability. Also, a great thank you to BAE Systems because they and their staff will be maintaining this capability right here in Australia until at least the next 50 years. So as the Prime Minister said, that is world-leading technological capability being sustained by kids who have not even yet been born here in the Hunter region. So thank you very much. This is a very proud day for our nation. Thank you. Thank you, Prime Minister.
The Hon. Melissa Price MP, Minister for Defence Industry: I'm just going to say a few words, thank you. Thanks. And today really is a celebration and an acknowledgement of the global competitiveness and also the global capability of Australia's defence industry. Whether it's Marand vertical tails or Lintek circuit boards, the only ones that make them in Australia by the way, this is an example of what we've been able to build here. A sovereign capability which is critically important. But not just sovereign capability, but something that we can build upon, more jobs in the region. And it's so wonderful today to have met the ex-Jetstar workers who, through no fault of their own due to COVID, lost their jobs with Jetstar, and I really congratulate BAE. They've been able to take on 25 ex-Jetstar employees. Highly qualified, highly skilled, and we need them in our defence industry. So I just want to give a shout out to the ex-Jetstar workers who are now proudly working in the defence industry. We need their skill and we're just so pleased to have them. Thanks very much.
Prime Minister: Thanks Melissa. Now, I'm happy to take questions on many issues but could we just focus first on the joint strike fighter and where we are today, because we've got Gabby and the Chief of the Air Force who are here with us. And once we've dealt with those, happy to move onto other matters.
Journalist: Prime Minister, are these aircraft well enough protected from enemy attack in our northern airbases?
Prime Minister: I'm going to let the Chief of Air Force speak to that.
AIRMSHL Mel Hupfield, Chief of Air Force: Yes, absolutely, and this is a good example of what you see behind you is a wonderful platform. But to operate as an Australian Defence Force, as a good part of the overall joint force, we've got infrastructure, we have support systems, networks that all come together to deliver an air combat capability for the protection of this nation. It's a full system, and that's what we're building and continuing to develop and upgrade and ensure it meets what our security requires.
Journalist: So are there plans to upgrade storage facilities for these planes in our northern bases?
AIRMSHL Mel Hupfield, Chief of Air Force: We have upgrade plans already underway ahead of schedule at bases like Tindall and we're making sure that we can deploy them in appropriate ways to other bases as well.
Journalist: The joint strike fighter has been described by a lot of people as having a lot of problems. Are you confident our [inaudible]?
Prime Minister: Absolutely, but again, the Chief is best placed to talk to the capabilities of the joint strike fighter, or indeed, the Minister.
AIRMSHL Mel Hupfield, Chief of Air Force: Actually, the Minister explained before, the heart of this aeroplane is the multirole capabilities. It's highly competent in air-to-air engagements and also in strike missions. An early test pilot on the F-35 program, a Marine Corp test pilot, said that the F-35 replaces nothing and changes everything. This is a key capability that can integrate across the whole of the capabilities that we already have in the ADF, and indeed, continue to integrate over that 30 or more years of service as we upgrade and continue to develop. It will work with our existing Super Hornets, our Growlers. It will integrate with the E-7 Wedgetail, a world leading capability.
Journalist: [Inaudible]
AIRMSHL Mel Hupfield, Chief of Air Force: The problems are the ones that you read about in the commentary. The stuff that you don't see. The stuff that you don't see is what we see at the classified level, and the level of capability our pilots get to operate. They're the ones who know the system the best.
Journalist: And what do they say?
AIRMSHL Mel Hupfield, Chief of Air Force: They are very confident in the aircraft and they know what it can do and what it's able to do with our overall joint force. No doubts at all.
Journalist: Prime Minister, the residents of Williamtown affected by PFAS say that they feel trapped, that they’ve been on a political roundabout for years with very little compensation or fair compensation. Will you be meeting with them today, while you are here given you are so close?
Prime Minister: No, I don't have plans for that today. The $86 million that we've already put into the various packages of support as a result of that process that was initiated, that is a process we engaged in with good faith and that we followed through on. And I'm pleased that we were able to get to that point where we're able to come to making those contributions. But the contributions we're doing in so many other areas, which the Minister can speak to, whether it is the science and research that we continue to do, or the direct support we're putting in around water systems and things of that nature, they will continue. Linda?
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: Thank you, Prime Minister. Here in Williamtown and everywhere else, where we are dealing with impacted communities for PFAS, public safety and health is our absolute priority. Whether it's the four billion litres of water that we process locally here in Williamtown. Whether it is the thousands of tonnes of soil, we are doing everything that we can with the local community as part of our remediation plan and we will continue to do so.
Journalist: You mentioned this morning that you would be meeting with somebody and getting a briefing today, especially about the clean-up. Has that happened? Will you still be doing that today?
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: I will, yes.
Journalist: Who are you meeting with?
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: Local officials here, defence officials yes.
Journalist: [Inaudible]
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: I understand, and certainly, Minister Price, who has been dealing with this, we understand that it is a difficult situation for the locals. But we are doing everything we possibly can to do that. Nationally, we've spent over $400 million doing remediation. We have come to a settlement here in Newcastle. So we will be here as long as we need to be to do the remediation here for the local community.
Journalist: Prime Minister, I had a question regarding quarantine.
Prime Minister: Sure.
Journalist: There was a bit of an issue today. Do you feel like all states should have a 16-day rule?
Prime Minister: We'll take the medical advice, as the states will also. The length of quarantine has been a topic that we have dealt with on many occasions. It wasn't that long ago that some were suggesting that we should be shortening the amount of quarantine time. Now, we took a decision that that wasn't the wise thing to do and we maintained that buffer on 14 days. Now, the medical evidence will guide the decisions that we make about the length of quarantine. And so that is something that I know is under constant review by the AHPPC, the medical expert panel, and if they were to make recommendations along that line, then I'm sure that you would see the states and the Commonwealth move in that direction. But at this stage, that is not the advice of the medical experts.
Journalist: [Inaudible]
Prime Minister: I'm going to let Linda respond to that because she's very involved in that.
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: I can confirm that Defence are in talks with the Newcastle Airport Authority, and in fact I met their Chief here this morning. Defence is funding the defence component of the runway upgrade and that work will start mid-year. So we're having very cooperative discussions with the Newcastle Airport, but we will fund the defence component of that and the Newcastle Airport are seeking funding for their component of that so we can do the works together later this year.
Journalist: [Inaudible]
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: Yes, we're working very closely together. And again, I had that reconfirmed this morning with the CEO of the airport here. So we are fully funding our component of that. And Newcastle Airport is seeking funding for their component of that plan. And if we do the works together at the same time, it minimises impact here at the airport for both, and of course, reduces costs as well.
Journalist: Do you think that Newcastle [inaudible] submarine maintenance?
Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence: Look, I'm not going to speculate on that. It's still a matter of discussion within the National Security Committee. So I can't speculate on that, it's too early to speculate.
Journalist: Prime Minister, what do you make of polling that has been publicised showing that the Liberal Party significantly ahead in the Paterson and Shortland electorates?
Prime Minister: I'm just very focused on getting Australians into jobs and particularly here in the Hunter, as I am right across regional Australia. And these sorts of investments, whether it's these, the infrastructure investments, investments we are putting into energy, transmission grids and all of these things. That is securing jobs here in the Hunter, as it is in so many other parts of regional Australia. So that's our focus. Our focus is on the jobs of people here in the Hunter, just like it is of people in regional Australia and right across our nation. You know, 90 percent of the jobs we've lost through COVID have come back already by the end of last year, and we're seeing the Australian economy continue to step up as we step out of the COVID-19 recession. And that is what we're focused on. That, the vaccine rollout, continuing to ensure our economic recovery plan gets the results that it is getting to guarantee those essential services that I know people in the Hunter here depend on. Our health services, our education services, keeping Australians safe, as you see demonstrated behind us, and caring for this amazing country.
Journalist: Just a question for Nine. Are you concerned about the AstraZeneca vaccine? Apparently there is some concerns about a recent study suggesting that it has minimal protection from the South African strain?
Prime Minister: There are many studies, some of which and many of which at this point... I think that they are just asking you to move back from the cameras. You guys right? I think you just need to… there. We take our advice from Professor Murphy, who heads up the vaccines science and technology taskforce and they look at the peer reviewed science and they make the recommendations to us. And as recently as just the last few days, it continues to be very positive. We're waiting for the Therapeutic Goods Administration to give their approval to the AstraZeneca vaccine, and we met with Professor Skerritt on Friday, the Premiers were there also and he gave a very good report. And we're already seeing in quite a number of countries where the vaccine is being rolled out, that not only is it delivering real results in preventing serious illness but also, we're seeing some early signs which is encouraging about its impact on preventing transmission. Now, that's what the vaccines we're hoping for them to do. On the first one, that means that the virus in Australia could become just like many other viruses, ie that means that you know, they exist, but then don't lead to the serious illness that we have seen from COVID-19. There are many diseases and viruses that are in the community that don't require the response that we have had to COVID-19 over the past year. The vaccination program, which is my Government's top priority because it not only underpins the health of the nation, but it supports the economic recovery of the nation and that vaccination program is on track.
Journalist: Just coming back, Prime Minister to talking about security for communities, Port Stephens has a very small hospital, a growing ageing community, and we don’t have good services here. We have, you know, two hour wait for an ambulance [inaudible] John Hunter. When it comes to health, we’ve got the opportunity to invest in that locally and I don’t see that happening.
Prime Minister: Well, as you know, the state governments run our health systems here in New South Wales. And where the State Government wants to raise those issues with us, you know, I always engage very constructively with the Premier. They're rolling out very big investments in health all around the state and we're aware of that and we partner with them on many. So very happy for the Health Minister and the Premier to raise those matters with the Commonwealth in the way that they normally do. Our job is delivering Medicare. Our job is delivering the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Our job is to roll out the $6.3 billion, $6.3 billion vaccination program across Australia. You know, in the last 12 months, $21 billion from the Commonwealth Government invested directly in boosting our health services, mental health services, hospital supports, partnering with the states, to get Australia in the position that we're in today, which means that in Australia, we have one of the best records of protecting our country against both the health and the economic impacts of COVID-19 and we've done that by working together.
Journalist: Did you ever stop to think what would happen if the virus were to arrive and the boats were still arriving? [Inaudible]
Prime Minister: Many countries are seeming to learn many things from Australia at the moment. Whether it is on the successful immigration policies of the past and that we continue in place today and how we've managed that. Or how we've managed COVID-19. How we've managed our economic recovery. How we work together in defence partnerships. I'm looking forward to later this year joining the G7 leaders as we work through many of the things that are confronting, particularly, Liberal democracies around the world today. And Australia has a very strong story to tell. Leaders of nations, I don't think, have been speaking to each other as frequently as we have over the course of this last year. And I've got to say, in most cases, they're asking Australia, "How are you getting this done?" And my answer is pretty straightforward - the Australian people are amazing. OK, thanks very much, everyone.
Next Milestones in Australia's F-35 Program
8 February 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Defence, Minister for Defence Industry
The first F-35A aircraft has been inducted into BAE Systems Australia’s (BAESA) maintenance depot as part of the next major milestone in the Joint Strike Fighter Program.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the F-35A fleet was now 33 strong and ready to deploy on operations.
“This is about protecting and securing Australia’s interests but it’s also creating jobs and driving investment right here in the Hunter and across the country too,” the Prime Minister said.
“This induction demonstrates the world leading capability of our local defence industry here in Australia.
“We want to give as many opportunities to Australian companies as possible which is why there’s already more than 50 local companies sharing in $2.7 billion worth of contracts as part of the F-35 Program.
“As we recover from the COVID recession a key plank of our Economic Recovery Plan is our $270 billion investment in Defence capability over the next decade and our $65 billion commitment in air capabilities which includes the Joint Strike Fighter Program. This investment is keeping Australians safe and secure while creating more jobs and more opportunities for businesses.”
After being selected as the maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade depot for the Southeast Asia region, the BAESA facility will host Australian F-35A aircraft and in future other nations’ F-35 aircraft.
The Program is progressing on budget and on schedule and the aircraft is undergoing routine structural modifications to improve the airframe, ensuring it reaches full life, and align it with newer aircraft.
Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds CSC said up to four Australian F-35A aircraft were expected to undergo routine maintenance at BAESA’s facility this year, demonstrating the significant boost the Program was having on the local Hunter economy.
“The Morrison Government is unashamedly committed to building a robust sovereign defence industry,” Minister Reynolds said./p>
“We are building our sovereign defence capabilities. We now have 41 fully trained RAAF pilots, nine of whom trained on home soil at RAAF Base Williamtown. We also have more than 225 trained technicians as the RAAF’s F-35A maintenance capability continues to develop.”
This progress is being supported through the sovereign Training Support Services contract awarded to Lockheed Martin Australia, worth approximately $70 million. It will see more than 70 personnel employed at RAAF Base Williamtown and RAAF Base Tindal.
“This demonstrates the extraordinary opportunities this program is providing for Australians and the economy, especially as it continues to bounce back from COVID-19,” Minister Reynolds said.
Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said the program had helped the people of the Hunter region weather the impact of the economic impact of the pandemic.
“In 2020, job losses in the aeronautics industry due to COVID-19 resulted in the closure of Jetstar’s aircraft maintenance facility here in Newcastle, and many other regional facilities,” Minister Price said.
“BAESA recently hired 25 former Jetstar employees who had been made redundant as a result of the pandemic.
“Not only have these technical workers been retained in the local Hunter aviation industry, but they will also help Defence build its sovereign sustainment capability as the fleet continues to grow.”
More information about the F-35A Lightning II is available at: F-35A Lightning II and Capability Acquisition & Sustainment Group
Interview with John Laws, 2SM
8 February 2021
JOHN LAWS: Prime Minister, good morning and welcome to the programme.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day John, good to talk to you and Happy New, first time on the programme.
LAWS: OK, well, is it really? We’ve been neglectful. We should have done it before because it's always good to hear what you've got to say. You're the boss. And Australians care about what you say, they don't care too much about what Craig Kelly says. What your thoughts on Craig Kelly?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we dealt with that last week, I think that got enough oxygen last week.
LAWS: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It didn't get oxygen here.
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t know about your programme, but in many other places. So I think we should stick with that.
LAWS: In other words, you're avoiding the question, Prime Minister. That's very unlike you.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm just saying, John, I think, you know, it's very important that we focus on the facts. That's what the Government is doing. And I took some action on that last week and we focused on getting this vaccine rollout and it is exactly as you say, I continue to encourage Australians through the information we're getting out there, the medical advice that we're receiving. I mean, we're seeing already some really good results coming out of places like Israel where there's been, you know, they’ve been able to move very quickly across the whole population. We're seeing some good results there. So it’s promising news, but we're not getting ahead of ourselves. We've been preparing and planning for this inoculation of the country now for some time, getting everything from the vaccination certificates worked out and how that will be delivered, working with the GPs and the pharmacists and the hospitals and the states. So we’re getting ready to go and it won’t be long now.
LAWS: Well, I'll tell you what, Prime Minister, you're a master at it. You've got me right off Craig Kelly. I need never return again. Listen, you’re very clever that, you know, 10 out of 10, that's very good because you weren’t going to let it get on with the Craig Kelly thing. That's very clever. Good on you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s important to get the information right, John.
LAWS: That's true. That's very, very important. But the Australian, just before we finally do get underway and I see what you are trying to do. The Australian reported this morning that Craig Kelly has gone on Facebook again about, after reportedly you reprimanded him for his spruiking bogus theories about the treatment of COVID-19. He’s gone back onto Facebook?
PRIME MINISTER: He's not talking about vaccinations, he’s talking about other treatments, but the Chief Medical Officer’s advice to me is clear and only treatments that are approved should be used.
LAWS: You know, we live in a world which is dominated by social media. How dangerous are platforms like Facebook and Twitter to the vaccine rollout? Are they damaging it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they can also be used to help it and[inaudible] pushes the official government sources information out there. And it is important that people only go to the official government sources of the medical advice regarding these things. You know, these are people who have responsibility for outcomes. Every man and his dog can have an opinion. But what matters is those who have accountability of those opinions, and that's the Chief Medical Officer, the Secretary of the Health Department, that's the head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Professor Skerritt. These are people who have the trust and responsibility of getting these calls right and that's why we listen to them.
LAWS: If the vaccine rollout is successful, will that mean an absolute return to pre-pandemic lifestyle in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ve got to wait and see. There are two things that the vaccines hopefully address. The first one, we’ve a lot of good evidence on that, and that is it basically deals with the issue of serious illness and fatality. I mean, people die of the flu.
LAWS: Yeah, true.
PRIME MINISTER: But in terms of the increased incidence of fatality, is the increased incidence for serious illness. We know that the vaccine is very effective against that. What we're still waiting for the mail on, is whether it is also preventing it transmitting from one person to the other. Now, we saw some data last week which was very encouraging down that path and so we'll be waiting for a bit more data to come in. It's one of the good things about letting others in some countries where they're in rather desperate situations to have a front row seat to see what they're doing, because if we can prevent the transmission and we can ensure that the virus doesn't have the tools, our ICU departments, the terrible outcomes in aged care facilities or the elderly or the vulnerable population, it's managing the virus and like managing any other virus in the community, and that's where we want to get to. What's not clear yet, John, is how quickly we get to that. That's what we'll be updating very, very regularly. But I'm very hopeful because the early signs are positive.
LAWS: Gladys Berejiklian has called for a specific travel bubble. Will the vaccine allow for opening of international borders to low risk countries?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re [inaudible] with that and she would know from months ago, we opened up to New Zealand and New South Wales was one of the first to go down that path and we are working [inaudible] on countries like Vanuatu, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Fiji and so on, because we also have a lot of seasonal workers, which a lot of your listeners would know about and were really frustrated in not being able to get workers out there in rural Australia. Largely because backpackers aren't here in the same numbers they usually are. And we don't have full confidence yet that they are just going to a complete what's called a green lane as we to New Zealand to be done for those other Pacific countries. But we're working with them to ensure we can just lift that confidence. We’ll be seeking to support them with their testing over there and I hope we can make some real progress on that soon. I'd love to see a Pacific bubble. One of the things I'm concerned about is Australians going there and, you know, we don't we have little, if any, community transmission in Australia. And so the risk of us infecting those Pacific nations, I think has significantly lessened over recent months. If the virus got into one of those Pacific countries, John, as you know, their health systems aren't the same as ours.
LAWS: No, it would go like wildfire.
PRIME MINISTER: It would go through those countries and that would be devastating. I think one of the great successes of COVID in our part of the world is, you know, we're all very concerned about our own indigenous populations here in Australia, our first nation's people and we've been very effective in keeping COVID out of those communities. And in the Pacific, we've been very effective there in Papua New Guinea. They've had more of a challenge. I talk to Prime Minister Marape directly and there are a lot of talent and I think they're doing pretty well.
LAWS: Good. Can the economy survive if JobKeeper comes to an abrupt end in March? I mean, is there some sort to extend the current scheme? I mean, you’ve currently got a strong vote support right across the country. Don't you think it might be a smart idea to get on with an election so we do know where we're going?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, I think Australians see through that sort of stuff, John, as you would have seen over many, many years. The election is due in 2022, we’ve still got a lot to do this year. The most significant things are making sure we come through this pandemic and we get people back into jobs. I mean more than 90 per cent of the jobs that were lost are already back. We've already gone through two changes on JobKeeper and we've seen more people come back into work and the economy strengthened. I'm sure people would agree you can't run the Australian economy on taxpayers money forever. We said it would be temporary, we said it would be proportionate, we said it would be targeted and it was all those things. It saved 700,000 jobs and particularly have kept our airlines in business, which has been very important. But we have always recognised that in terms of sectors, in particular parts of the country, where there is something that can be positively done to alleviate in specific ways that we've never been opposed to that. And we've done things like for travel agents, we put a big programme in $128 million. They had a very specific problem and we sought to address that. But the states have got to do that as well and that's the discussion we had last Friday with the Premiers, that this is something that needs to be done with the states. I mean, I can't run a tax system that says people in one part of the country pay a different rate tax to another part of the country, that's against the Constitution. The states have a lot of flexibility in how they can deliver some of their support and if you add up everything, all the states have done and I acknowledge particularly New South Wales and Victoria, they've done quite a lot. You add it all up, the Federal Government’s support on these things is more than twice all of the states combined. $251 billion plus, over $20 billion investing in our health systems to combat the pandemic. We've been doing our fair share of the heavy lifting, I think.
LAWS: An editorial was published in the China Daily saying a verbal olive branch from Australia to mend diplomatic relations has been knocked back. Have you heard any official update from the Beijing government?
PRIME MINISTER: There is no agreement to any ministerial level exchanges, you know, not at the price of conceding Australia's sovereignty. But, you know, our position on all of these things is very clear and we've been very upfront about it. We love to be trading and, in fact, we are still trading. I mean, look at prices and volumes coming through our two way trade, but at the same time, we will stand up for what we believe in and we'll have a respectful and an honest relationship between that. But we are just going to ensure that we continue to do that in a way that's consistent with our national interests and obviously we will respect their sovereignty too, but we have to be who we are and will always do that.
LAWS: Do you think we have to treat China with caution?
PRIME MINISTER: I think with the Indo-Pacific, the whole region, you know, this is where we live and there's quite a bit of instability. And you look, you know, down through the South China Sea, the Taiwan Straits, all of these places. And, you know, China has changed a lot in the last 20 years and particularly in the last five. I mean, most of the increase in our trade with China, particularly a lot of these other commodities, you know, that's really come on only in the last five, seven years and 10 years ago, you know, the volumes of things that were going up there weren't happening. And that's why it's important to ensure we have good diversity of where we're selling what we sell. That's why, you know, we’ll look to conclude those agreements with the United Kingdom and the EU and we've been spending a lot of time on that. That's Dan Tehan’s biggest job at the moment. And I think through this crisis, we've seen Australian companies really start to diversify and not be reliant on any one market. We all know you can get yourself too exposed there that, you know, that comes with a risk. And we all have to manage risk, whether it's in government or in business.
LAWS: Many people suggest, well, not many, but a number of people have suggested to me that we should be frightened of China. Should we be frightened of China?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that's not the approach I take. I think we need to be constructive, aware and know what our values and to pursue them confidently. And, you know, we’re building and have over many years. I mean, we are 70 years this year of the anniversary of the US-Australia, the ANZUS Alliance. They have been an incredibly important partner for us, but also that alliance, which President Biden said to me the other day, you know, is the basis for peace and stability in our region and he's right, and that's why it's so important. I had a conversation with him about that ongoing relationship and how it would continue to affect the stability positively in the region, how we engage with other countries in the region, particularly India and Japan, which is called the Quad and working together. But at the end of the day, we would just like to see the Indo-Pacific go on and get along and trade with each other and respect the peace and democracy and freedom of peoples. And that's our simple, honest objective.
LAWS: OK, I am aware you have more important interviews to do.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m on my way to Williamtown, John.
LAWS: That’s good. That's a good part of the world. But very quickly, China is reportedly planning to build a city on Daru Island. Now, does that pose a threat to Australia's national interests?
PRIME MINISTER: I file that under speculation. I mean, lots of noises get made around these sorts of things. I speak pretty regularly to the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, and we have a very good relationship. And he well understands, you know, our relationship and the importance of our other partners and I couldn't see Papua New Guinea being terribly hasty on anything like that. We'll work closely together with them and many other issues. I mean, the fisheries, I mean, I had the meeting with all the Pacific leaders last week and one of the biggest deals for them is their fisheries and they talk about themselves as blue countries. I visit the Asian countries. They’re massive on that scale, the land is very small. Protecting the fisheries is incredibly important to them as a source of revenue and sustaining them and that's why we, you know, we've built and provided the patrol boats and we support them in policing their fisheries, and that's been very effective and they're very grateful the support Australia gives them to protect their livelihoods. And it's why we're working with them also in countries to ensure we're not dumping plastics in their oceans, which can kill their fish. It's just a very practical thing.
LAWS: It is. But particularly back to the Daru thing. Could you do anything to prevent it [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, John, I honestly think it is so, it is just speculative. It is just, you know, people flying kites. And I'm not going to overreact to the noise that is flying around out there. These things happen from time to time. There's nothing substantial before anybody on that.
LAWS: OK. Well, it's as usual been a pleasure talking to you, Prime Minister. You're always very generous with your time to us for which we're very grateful. I hope you have a good day.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, John. Always great to talk to you. Look forward to doing it again soon.
LAWS: Thank you very much indeed. Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
National Cabinet Statement
5 February 2021
The National Cabinet met today to discuss Australia’s COVID-19 response, the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Policy and management of Australia’s borders in the context of the emergence of new variants.
National Cabinet continues to work together to address issues and find solutions to the health and economic consequences of COVID-19.
National Cabinet also received a detailed briefing on the economic and jobs outlook by the Commonwealth Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy outlining how the Australian economy continues to recover as we head into 2021.
The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, provided an update on the latest epidemiological data and medical advice in relation to COVID-19.
There have been 28,842 confirmed cases in Australia and, sadly, 909 people have died. There are currently 9 people in hospital. More than 13.1 million tests have been undertaken in Australia.
To date Australia’s existing systems built around social distancing, testing, tracing, local health responses and quarantine have effectively mitigated the broader spread of COVID-19 virus and new variants of COVID-19 into the Australian community. COVID-19 vaccines will further strengthen Australia’s ability to control the virus.
Australia has done well on both the health and economic fronts compared to most countries around the world. National Cabinet noted the significant increase in COVID-19 cases in many countries and the comparative strength of Australia’s effort in addressing COVID compared to most other developed economies. Globally there have been over 104 million cases and sadly over 2.2 million deaths, with around 489,000 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.
National Cabinet reaffirmed commitment to the Australian COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Strategy and the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Policy, which sets out the roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth, states and territories in rolling out COVID-19 vaccination.
National Cabinet will meet again on Friday 5 March 2021.
Australian COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy
National Cabinet received a detailed update from Adjunct Professor John Skerritt, head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Professor Brendan Murphy, Chair of the Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group, and the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly on the Australian Vaccination and Treatment Strategy and noted detailed roll out plans developed by states and territories for COVID-19 vaccination.
Professor Paul Kelly outlined the importance of new COVID-19 vaccines in preventing severe disease and potentially transmission. A COVID-19 vaccination program which prevents severe diseases will ensure Australia can manage the virus in the same way as we manage other common diseases in society and will change the risk environment in Australian to COVID-19.
Professor Brendan Murphy reiterated the latest guidance that the COVID-19 vaccination rollout is on track to commence in late February 2021.
National Cabinet further noted that the Commonwealth Government had entered an Advance Purchase Agreement with Pfizer/BioNTech for an additional 10 million vaccines in 2021. Australia now has access to over 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, with spare capacity (after Australians have been offered vaccines) to be made available for partners in the Pacific and South East Asia.
National Cabinet further welcomed the extension of the free access to COVID-19 vaccines for all visa holders in Australia. It is vital that we offer vaccines to all people living in Australia in order to achieve a maximum level of coverage for all Australians.
New Taskforce to assess the risk environment of COVID-19 in 2021
National Cabinet agreed that in order to bring together economic and health considerations and to provide increased certainty and confidence to the Australian community, all States and Territories will establish a taskforce to work together to provide recommendations to the National Cabinet about consistent and coordinated COVID-19 responses across jurisdictions in the new risk environment.
The new Taskforce will consider the changed risk indicators associated with new strains of the COVID-19, alongside the strength of risk responses to date and in the future, including most significantly the impact of the vaccine rollout commencing in late February 2021. The Taskforce will be led by the Commonwealth Secretary of Prime Minister of Cabinet Mr Phil Gaetjens and his counterparts in each state and territory.
The Taskforce will report to National Cabinet at each meeting.
Quarantine Arrangements
National Cabinet noted the update on implementation of recommendations to the National Review of Hotel Quarantine arrangements and the continuous improvement to processes and procedures surrounding hotel quarantine.
To date over 211,000 people have returned to Australia through hotel quarantine since March 2020. The system implemented under state and territory public health orders has to date successfully mitigated the broader transmission of COVID-19 into the Australian community.
National Cabinet agreed that hotel quarantine will continue to be the model used to quarantine returning Australians. The Centre of National Resilience at Howard Springs will continue to operate as an emergency national facility for quarantine as per the National Review of Hotel Quarantine undertaken by Ms Jane Halton AO PSM and agreed by National Cabinet.
To date there have been a small number of instances of COVID-19 linked to hotel quarantine in Australia. Recent positive cases of quarantine workers in Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria have to date not seen seeding events into the local community. This highlights the continuously improved hotel quarantine processes and procedures, including daily testing and mask wearing.
The Commonwealth and the Northern Territory agreed to work together on options to increase quarantine capacity through an expansion of the Centre of National Resilience at Howard Springs quarantine facility. The Commonwealth and Queensland Government will work on further defining the Queensland proposal for a bespoke facility in Toowoomba. Any other changes to quarantine arrangements would be conditional on the work undertaken by the Taskforce led by the Commonwealth Secretary of Prime Minister of Cabinet Mr Phil Gaetjens.
International Passenger Arrival Caps
National Cabinet reaffirmed a shared priority to supporting Australians to return home through increased international passenger arrival caps.
National Cabinet agreed that caps would return to pre-8 January levels in New South Wales (430 per day) and Queensland (1000 per week) as planned from 12:01am on 15 February. The current cap in Western Australia (512 per week) will remain in place pending further review. From 12:01am on 15 February the cap in Victoria will increase from 1120 to 1310 arrivals per week with additional increases to be considered, and South Australia will increase from 490 to 530 arrivals per week.
National Cabinet noted that the agreed arrangements for international passenger arrival caps would continue until 11:59pm on 30 April.
Greater Access - Additional 10 Million Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccines
4 February 2021
Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care
The Australian Government has secured an additional 10 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine on the advice of the Scientific Industry Technical Advisory Group on Vaccines led by Professor Brendan Murphy.
Through the Government’s Advance Purchase Agreement with Pfizer, this additional 10 million vaccines means Australia will now receive 20 million Pfizer doses in 2021.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Government is committed to providing safe and effective vaccines free to everyone in Australia.
“Securing the additional Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines is another positive step in protecting Australians from COVID-19,” the Prime Minister said.
“We now have access to over 150 million vaccine doses, ensuring we remain a world leader in the fight against the virus.”
The vaccination program remains on track for commencement of delivery in late February to people in the first priority group, Phase 1a.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said making safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines available to everyone in Australia is a key priority for the Australia Government.
“I encourage people to get vaccinated when their turn comes – every vaccination helps us defeat the virus,” Minister Hunt said.
“Australians understand that vaccines work. They save lives and improve lives. They protect lives. We can be confident that every COVID-19 vaccine approved in this country will be safe and effective.”
“Australia is a vaccination nation—we have one the highest vaccination rates in the world.”
As the rollout begins, people who need protection the most will get the vaccine first. This includes aged care and disability care residents and workers, frontline health care workers, and quarantine and border workers.
The priority groups have been determined based on the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) which oversees Australia’s highly successful immunisation program.
The Australian Government is also extending free access to COVID-19 vaccines to all visa-holders in Australia.
This will include refugees, asylum seekers, temporary protection visa holders and those on bridging visas. People currently residing in detention facilities will also be eligible, including those whose visas have been cancelled.
“It is vital that we offer vaccines to all people living in Australia to achieve the maximum level of coverage.” the Prime Minister said.
Australia has entered into four separate agreements for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, if they are proved to be safe and effective. Combined, these agreements will ensure access to approximately 150 million doses.
The Australia Government, states and territories, regulators and the health and medical sectors are working together to finalise arrangements under the Australian Vaccination Strategy and detailed roll out plans. Further information about the Australian Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine National Roll-out Strategy can be found at www.health.gov.au/covid19-vaccines
Interview with Sam Maiden, news.com.au
4 February 2021
SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Well, good evening and welcome to news.com.au live tonight. This is part of our ‘Our Best Shot’ campaign, which is designed to answer all of your questions that you may have thought of and some hopefully you maybe even haven’t thought about the Covid vaccine and to get to the bottom of those questions, without mucking around, going straight to the top. We're very pleased tonight to be joined by the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Welcome.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Sam, thanks for doing this. I think this is a great opportunity for Professor Murphy and I just to talk directly to people about what the vaccine means. I'm sure there's plenty of questions, very important for the whole country. So thanks for the opportunity. Look forward to answering those questions.
MAIDEN: That's great. And Professor Brendan Murphy, who many of you would have seen on your screen throughout the year, talking about Covid, first of all in his capacity as the chief medical officer and now he's running the health department, of course. Welcome to you as well, Professor Murphy.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: Thanks, Sam, good evening.
MAIDEN: OK, so let's start at the beginning with the basics. What can this vaccine do and what can't it do? Prime Minister, can you tell us how will our lives change when this vaccine rollout is complete and throughout the year?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Brendan will add to what I have to say, but I think we've got to be careful to understand that not everything changes the minute the vaccine starts. There are many things we still have to learn about this vaccine. One of the key things is whether it actually prevents the virus transmitting from one person to another. Now, that doesn't mean it doesn't. It just means at this stage, it's not clear that it does that job. What it certainly does is that it protects people from very severe disease. And so it protects us from those awful circumstances of large numbers of deaths and people finding themselves in those acute situations and requiring very serious medical care. And not just for all the older people, too. That means for younger people as well. So the vaccine will start slow, we anticipate, and Brendan heads up the expert group that is advising us on all the purchases and the administering the vaccines we anticipate this month. And it will start with those priority populations of our most vulnerable people, people in aged care, those working in our health care, frontline worker systems, in quarantines, in hotels and other places where we're doing that and then it builds up over time. And so by October, we anticipate that we would have worked right through the population. If it indeed does stop transmission between people, then that could be quite a game changer. But that will not be evident for some time yet. But, Brendan, you can probably add to that, I think, at a medical level.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: Thanks, Prime Minister. So I think, as the Prime Minister said, what we do know about these vaccines, the two that we're getting and rolling out initially and the third one which we'll get later in the year, is that they stop clinically severe Covid disease. So the important thing is our aim initially is to protect the population, particularly those vulnerable people, from getting clinical Covid disease. As the Prime Minister said, we think that they will. It's in all likelihood they will have a significant effect on transmission and we're seeing some early evidence of that coming from the UK. If that's the case, then they should allow progressively over the second half of this year, some relaxation of - the health advice will change - some relaxation of border measures and other measures. But we just have to wait and see. Target one is to protect the population and that's such an important target. None of us want to see, we're so lucky in Australia, we haven't seen those terrible scenes that we've seen from overseas. And then we will evaluate the data. There's new and better data coming out of all of these vaccines as they're being rolled out and we're going to be updating our clinical advice to government the whole way through.
MAIDEN: OK, so for some people that's going to be a tough sell, this idea that the vaccine will protect you but we need to have more information about whether you can still transmit. And that obviously has impacts in terms of hotel quarantine. And we're already getting a number of questions through on that. One of the questions that we had from one of our readers was being allowed to travel was the primary reason for me to get vaccinated. So if that's not clear that the board is going to lift right away, why should I bother now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there’d be two reasons. First of all, building up that vaccine amongst the population over time builds up the herd immunity for everybody. So it protects everybody. But I make the same point. Everyone's at risk of quite severe disease on this, potentially. We've had very young people affected by this. We've had obviously more of those in the elderly population experience the fatal impacts of this. But that is not limited to those we and we're seeing with more virulent strains as well and Professor Murphy will say more about that. I mean, it's in everybody's interest together over time to build up the vaccination right across the country, and that's true all the way around the world. Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: Yeah. So if, as we suspect, these vaccines are effective at preventing transmission, the sooner we get the population vaccinated, the sooner people stand up. Not only will they be protected, but then we will get on this path towards good herd immunity and that will speed up the return to international travel. So it's in everybody's interest to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, both initially to protect themselves and protect their family, but also to get that journey towards herd immunity, which we think we will get eventually. It's just that we don't know when and how quickly, but the sooner we all get vaccinated, the sooner we will get there.
PRIME MINISTER: Just on that, just to pick up another point, the policy approach, say when Premiers are looking around about how they have restrictions and so on, one of the things we've always been concerned about is that if the virus takes hold and it were to move rapidly, then the worst case outcome of that is seeing what we've seen in the UK. Now, a thousand people dying a day is what we've seen in the UK. That's more than has happened in the whole year in Australia. But if we have greater confidence that the impact of any potential breakout will not lead to that because we know people are vaccinated, then that gives us a greater confidence about the risks that exist when breakouts inevitably occur.
MAIDEN: OK. This idea of herd immunity, this has come up a lot in the debate about AstraZeneca, and some of our readers have been asking us and one of the questions they asked is can I choose one vaccine over the other? Because there's been this debate that has started about the Pfizer vaccine versus the AstraZeneca. Why don't we have Moderna now? If AstraZeneca can only deliver an efficacy rate of 70 percent or 75 percent, is that really going to get us to herd immunity? And what are the implications of that in terms of how many goes we would have to get that vaccine to actually build that immunity?
PRIME MINISTER: Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: So all we know at the moment, Sam, is that both Pfizer and AstraZeneca are effective at preventing disease. We don't know how effective either of them is at preventing transmission. It could be that AstraZeneca is more effective. We just don't know. And the data on AstraZeneca is still evolving. There's still any early data on both vaccines. My strong view is that both vaccines are very good at preventing disease and both vaccines are probably close to equally good. And we'll get more data on these vaccines over time. The AstraZeneca vaccine still has perhaps less data than the Pfizer vaccine, particularly for some age groups, and we're getting more and more data as more and more trials come. So we will generally be rolling out vaccines. Most of the population, including me, I'll be getting an AstraZeneca vaccine and be lining up for it with great enthusiasm.
PRIME MINISTER: I want to mention across many different vaccines that are done in many different areas. I mean, the sorts of effectiveness figures that we're seeing on this one are quite common, actually, for vaccines on a whole range of different conditions where we readily go and get these vaccines, whether it's for our kids or ourselves at any other time.
MAIDEN: Yeah, I mean, the point has been made to me that the COVID vaccines, whatever one you want to look at, they're far more effective than the flu vaccine. We happily get the flu vaccine. It doesn't have the efficacy that these COVID vaccines are looking at. But you've ticked off on Pfizer. AstraZeneca is imminent. I know there's an important meeting on Friday. Can you just take us through, Professor Murphy, how far off are we of ticking off AstraZeneca? We've had more countries in Europe restrict it for over 65’s. Do you think we will? And what's the Plan B for all the over 65’s in Australia if AstraZeneca is not a goer?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: So I think we have to wait for the TGA to do their evaluation. The European Medicines Agency and the UK have registered it for over 65's. The TGA and the advisory committee on vaccine had a meeting today and they'll be seeking more information from AstraZeneca. We think the TGA will make its approval of AstraZeneca in the coming weeks. We don't rush the regulatory authority. They go through their independent, absolutely rigid process. Government and I don't don't try and influence that at all. But by the end of this month and hopefully sooner than that, within a couple of weeks, we hope we'll get a registration decision on AstraZeneca.
MAIDEN: OK, a quick question here. Marcus Dunn wants to know if someone gets the Pfizer vaccine, can they get a booster with AstraZeneca. They need to stick with Pfizer, don't they?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: All the evidence would suggest that you're better off having, you need the same vaccine for the second dose to give you the best immune protection. It would be silly to mix and match. That doesn't mean that if you might have a two dose course of one of those vaccines and if it turns out that in a year or two we still need boosters, then you could have another one. But at the moment, with the primary course, it is two doses of the same vaccine. And we are planning our roll out to make sure everyone has access to two doses of the same vaccine.
MAIDEN: Are you getting the AstraZeneca vaccine or are you getting the Pfizer vaccine? When is this going to be televised? And one of our readers wanted to know whether you’re going to make Criag Kelly get it?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re for that a little too enthusiastically. No, I'll look, I'll be taking the advice of Professor Murphy and Professor Kelly. And at this stage, I would say that would be the Pfizer vaccine and heading down here to Canberra Hospital, I'd be assuming, to take it there. And I think that's very important that we show, that I personally show, that this is something that we should do and this is something I've always been in favour of. Australia has very high vaccination rates. But the point you're making about the double dose, I was just going to say on that, Sam, our rollout programme is being done to ensure that you go to the same place, because that's the best way with how we register and all the rest of it, you can be sure that you get the two doses and that we're covering that on both ends, both from your end and from the clinician who's involved in actually administering the vaccine. So we're encouraging the system to give both doses and people to go back to the same place.
MAIDEN: Yeah. And will you be taking along Craig Kelly to get the vaccine with you when you go to the hospital or do it by yourself?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think it's important he waits his turn along with everybody else. I mean, personally, I'm doing it to demonstrate as Prime Minister as many other leaders have around the world. And I'll be happy to do that and I think that's important.
MAIDEN: All right. This issue around public trust in vaccines has obviously really blown up today with the Craig Kelly issue. He's had a bit of a confrontation in the hallway with Tanya Plibersek. That's what happens, I suppose, in politics sometimes. Let's have a look at how it played out on the video.
(RECORDED AUDIO PLAYED)
MAIDEN: So let's ask the Prime Minister. You've had one conversation with him yesterday, then you've apparently hauled him into the office that you are sitting in this morning. What is it about what Craig Kelly's been saying about vaccines that you don't agree with?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's actually the issues that he's been raising have been about treatments, actually, with Hydroxychloroquine and there's been many posts that he's done that have reference to other issues. There's been comments about state chief health officers and a range of. I mean, Craig has had a bit to say about a whole range of issues. My simple point is this. The person that I take my advice from in terms of what's appropriate for Australia, well, one of them is sitting on this call right now, Professor Murphy, and Professor Kelly is the Kelly that I listen to when it comes to what we should be doing with our vaccines and with our broader medical expert advice and that's what I expect of all of my government members. And the reason for this is important. Look, I think this issue has been exacerbated. It's been an issue of great sort of public interest and there's been a lot of drama and theatre around it, which I know that is something that obviously catches people’s attention. But if you want to know what you should be doing about the vaccine, listen to the guy who's on this call right now. Professor Murphy.
MAIDEN: Professor Murphy, not Kelly, you’ve got Kelly on the brain.
PRIME MINISTER: No, Sam, Professor Murphy runs the expert advisory group on vaccines. Professor Kelly is the Chief Medical Officer. Professor Kelly is the deputy chair of the Expert Advisory Group on Vaccines. So they are the two that are principally responsible for advising me and frankly, the entire government, as well as the National Cabinet when it comes to these issues. That's who I listen to and that’s who Australians should listen to.
MAIDEN: Can we just deal with this so we can dispose of the issue? Why did it take you two calls? You had a conversation with him yesterday and then you've had to haul him in this morning. Was it just watching that on television, that interaction that made you decide that it had gotten too big? And why didn't you have that conversation with him weeks ago or months ago?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, the issue escalated over the last 24 hours. I mean, there's lots of information out there on Facebook and frankly, I wouldn't be paying attention to most of it if not other than that's been provided by official government sources. And I didn't see any reason to draw attention to these things. But the matter had been escalated in the media and it was important that I addressed it as firmly as I did today. So the matter is done.
MAIDEN: Fair enough. OK, so will he be taking down those posts from Facebook?
PRIME MINISTER: He's taking the actions that he needs to take and he's not having anything further to say on those issues, as I understand it, and that's I think that's helpful.
MAIDEN: OK, so getting back to our reader questions then, and this goes to the issue of public trust in vaccines. A lot of people asking us what are the side effects, what's normal? What can we expect? Professor Murphy, should we plan a day off if we're having the vaccine? Or is it more likely that you have side effects with the second dose? What can people expect?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: Well, all the data we've got so far is that side effects for both of these vaccines and the other vaccines that have been trialled are relatively mild. There have been a very, very small number of people who've had the Pfizer vaccine who've had a more severe reaction, what they call an anaphylactic reaction, which is why we're planning the initial doses in situations where there's medical supervision. But the vast majority of people tolerate the vaccine very well. They might have sort of some minor symptoms, a little bit of local symptoms from the site of injection or occasionally a little bit of a headache or some general symptoms. But I certainly when I have the vaccine, I won't be planning to take a day off, like I don't when I have a flu vaccine or any other vaccine. I think that for most people it'll be well tolerated, but some might have some short-lived side effects, which won't be too bad.
MAIDEN: OK, of our friends on Facebook Tom Lee wanted to know, though, what about people with allergies? Because there are people that have EpiPens or anaphylactic reactions that maybe shouldn't take the vaccine or should maybe be careful. What's your advice there?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: Yeah, I think if people have a severe allergy syndrome where they have had anaphylaxis, probably they should make, particularly if they're getting the Pfizer vaccine, make people aware that they have a propensity to allergy because we have seen a little bit of allergic reactions. But in the main, the components of these vaccines are unlikely to promote a severe allergic reaction. But as I said, there have been a small number of cases with the Pfizer vaccine.
MAIDEN: Yeah. And we also had that research from Norway and that early on was suggesting that there was a bit of concern with older people with AstraZeneca. Then they came out and said, look, there's not necessarily any link between the vaccine and the deaths. These people were older and, in fact, infirm and so on. But it has triggered a big debate about your vaccine strategy. Now, I've seen a lot of people, there's a huge emerging industry and armchair epidemiology of people who think that basically you should be able to just go out and say, hey, I'd like to buy 25 million of Pfizer to vaccinate everybody and I'll have the same amount of Moderna and the same amount of AstraZeneca so we can get all the vaccines that we can. The way it is being described by some economists is ‘option’ all of these vaccines. Now, can you go out and get 25 million Pfizer vaccines tomorrow if you wanted to?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY: Sorry, Prime Minister, I was going to say that our vaccine purchases have been advised by this expert technical advisory group that the Prime Minister mentioned before and we have carefully considered a range of factors. The vaccines that are most likely to be effective, having a strategic stake in all the types of vaccines. And particularly important has been the capacity for onshore production, which we've got with AstraZeneca vaccine. You've seen already international supply chain issues will be important. We will have guaranteed rapid rollout of AstraZeneca when it comes off the CSL production line in March and that is a really powerful position that many countries are not in. That expert advisory committee continues to meet regularly. We continue to look at our vaccine profile. We have access to the COVAX facility that is an international buyers club where there are many vaccines that we can get more of, including mRNA vaccines. We are continuing to evaluate the best vaccine supply for our country and we think we've got a good strategy. We're rolling out two really good vaccines initially and we will continue to review.
PRIME MINISTER: So we’ve spread our risk, Sam. That's the point. And we've taken the expert advice about where you're placing our orders and initially, it was many months ago. I mean, the idea that pretty much almost all of them, with the exception of the one that we were trying to develop up at the University of Queensland have been proving to to be coming off. Now, that was not a strike rate, that we had anticipated at the outset. So it's exceeding our expectations in terms of the ones that have been proving effective. But I think one of the key decisions we took was to enable ourselves to be able to produce AstraZeneca here in Australia. I mean, I meet with leaders all the time and they are very envious of our production capability here in Australia. I mean New Zealand won’t be starting their vaccination programme until, April and they don't have that capability as many other countries don't. I've met with all the Pacific leaders today, and we're supporting their vaccinations, working first with the COVAX facility, which we've made a big investment in there to support them as well. But on top of that, we've just announced today an $200 million dollars to support how we will be vaccinating in places and assisting that in places like Fiji and the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea and so on. So we're taking a responsibility here within our region, which I know Australians feel similarly about. I mean, that's our family. That's our responsibility to help out here in our region as well.
MAIDEN: Now, I wanted to ask you about that, because there’s good reasons to be selfish, if you like, about the vaccine, because it does protect you. And you've talked about the fact that we don't know fully yet about transmission. But there is this emerging debate amongst doctors and scientists about this idea that we run the risk if we don't vaccinate the world of new and mutant strains emerging, that we'll end up with a situation where, sure, Australia's vaccinated or the US is vaccinated or the UK is vaccinated. But some country in the world where it's not vaccinated, you're going to have a mass outbreak. You're going to have new mutant versions emerging as they have in the UK and South Africa. And then we're going to be back to square one with a never ending pandemic and a vaccine that doesn't work. How possible is that scenario Dr Murphy, Professor Murphy?
PROFESSOR MURPHY: Do you want to go Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: I might because I've been, that’s I’ve been talking to President Macron about and Boris and a range of others. I mean, we're all focussing on our sort of areas of responsibility, if you like, as advanced economies and countries. And for us, that's the Pacific and South East Asia. And so whether that's giving some support to places like Indonesia and so on, we are doing that. And that process has already begun. And as I've already said, what we're doing across the Pacific. This is important I mean, we have got 140 million doses that we've provided for here in Australia, and that's enough to vaccinate Australia several times over. So we will have the direct capability to support both with the vaccines and the technical know-how and support to deliver those in the Pacific, as well as doing that similarly within South East Asia. Now in Pacific, for example, we're doing that at the same time with the French in French Polynesia and the United States when it comes to the Micronesian states and those further to the north, that's already begun, places like Palau and places like that. So the large countries are doing their bit. But I said today, and this was very important to the Pacific leaders, we're not going to have vaccines dumped in developing countries. The vaccine that the people get in Fiji or Papua New Guinea has to have the same safety as the one taken in Australia. So it is important that we do that, that we ensure its quality, its safety and its delivery. And same for developing countries, as developed countries.
MAIDEN: Don't worry that bell you can hear ringing is the Senate, not the House of Reps so you’re great. I want to move through some questions pretty rapidly now before we run out of time. First of all, I don't know how honest you'll be, but try and do it quickly if you can, Prime Minister, how hard did you have to push to get CSL to manufacture these vaccines? Did you consider that you might have to slap them with some sort of order because everyone's happy families now, but they weren't necessarily thrilled to do it in the beginning were they?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Brendan and I and Greg Hunt, are very charming, charismatic, persuasive people, Sam, as you know, and you know there has been a national interest in all of that and whether it was producing masks early on or getting access to reagents for testing and the work that Twiggy Forrest did there and others, you know, there's been a call to arms for Australians here and CSL understood that. I mean, they’re a commercial venture as well. So, you know, those things have to be respected. But I'm very grateful to what we've been able to achieve with them, not just for this vaccine, because we're now sort of invested in their production capabilities across a much broader range of vaccines. So through this pandemic, we're taking the opportunity to build our medical supply chain, sovereign capability more broadly, not just for vaccines. But Brendan can be persuasive when I need him to be.
MAIDEN: Maybe you can tell me the full story, some other time because I’m not sure we got it tonight, but just we've only got about five or six minutes left, so we’ll just move through these relatively quickly. Samantha [inaudible] wanted to know, will workplaces be allowed to make this mandatory, i.e., no jab, no job?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, I mean, the vaccine is not mandatory from a public health point of view. The medical expert panel, which Professor Kelly chairs, has already considered whether for aged care workers, for example, that would be a requirement of someone working in one of those facilities. And they haven't concluded that that would be at this point. Remember, a flu vaccine is and so- or measles vaccinations is a requirement to work in an ICU or something like that or emergency centre. So this is not uncommon, but it's all about what the role is and whether there's an overwhelming health requirement for that to happen. And if that is the case, public health orders would be put in place by state governments consistently across the country to give the legal basis for that to occur where there is a need. Now beyond that, as it goes through the other workplace as well, that is not something that has come up at this point. And frankly, it would be many, many, many months before we're in the balance of population vaccine inoculation where those issues might arise. But the legal position on that is an employer just simply to carte blanche require it of an employee, there would need to be a strong reason for that. And that's why public health orders would be used to ensure that there was complete certainty about what the requirement was, and the legal basis for it.
MAIDEN: OK, presumably you could put it in a work contract though, so what about this case in Melbourne-
PROFESSOR MURPHY: Not necessarily.
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, not necessarily.
MAIDEN: Not necessarily?
PRIME MINISTER: No, not necessarily not- but you would- it would have to be backed up, say, on a health ground by a public health order. And that's why the states would take that action in concert and would do that through the National Cabinet on the advice of the medical expert panel.
MAIDEN: OK, PM, were you alarmed by that story today out of Melbourne of this idea that essentially COVID has been floating across the hallway? This is a hotel quarantine situation where you had a family of five and this suggestion in Victoria that there was so much COVID that it was flooding across the hallway. Now, that's not necessarily something that we've thought of before. Does this tell you something that we didn't know about COVID before? Is it a bit of a worry? What do you think?
PRIME MINISTER: It tells me that there's a lot of speculation about these issues and I’d just say where theres amateur epidemiologists there is also amateur commentary on a whole range of things. I don't speculate about this sort of stuff. I ask the other bloke who is sitting on this call, and Professor Kelly. So I think it's best for him to give a medical view about that rather than, you know my opinion, is frankly not that relevant to something like that. Only the medical opinion is relevant.
PROFESSOR MURPHY: So I think I think there's been a lot of speculation about this sort of idea of aerosol transmission over distances. Often when it's suspected, we often find that there was contact between people, like I think the Western Australian case there was speculation it might have been through air handling. And it turns out that the guard apparently did take some food to the door of a person. So I think this is speculation on the basis of what the Victorians have. And I think they're all they're doing is suggesting that they haven't yet found any evidence of contact between the two groups of people. And that's a suggestion, I think we need to wait for them to complete their investigation. Most COVID is transmitted by fairly close contact.
MAIDEN: OK, now to wrap it up, I'm going to ask you to give a prediction. Prime Minister. Everyone still wants to know whether they'll ever get to go overseas again, sometimes for fun, but often to see their to family as well, what's your best advice, your best guess right now about how long it will take before the international borders are reopened?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I can't, I can't tell you. I can't give you an estimate on all that. I think what's really important through this pandemic Sam is that I and Brendan and Paul and Greg have been very upfront with people about what we do know and what we don't know. We make decisions based on what we do know. And at this point, at this point, we can't give any timetable on that and it would be unwise to do so. The key thing that I think is going to impact on that decision is going to be whether the evidence emerges about transmissibility and how the vaccine protects against that. And until we know something about that, I'm not going to lead people on. But, Brendan?
PROFESSOR MURPHY: Yes, I absolutely agree with the Prime Minister. I think it would be if we have really good efficacy in the vaccine, we could start to see some recommendations about restrictions lessening progressively over the second half of this year. But beyond that, I wouldn't want to make a prediction either.
MAIDEN: OK, and just one last question that doesn't involve COVID Prime Minister, I know you've been involved in the Mito foundation and this is an issue that's going to coming to the fore, this idea of using IVF treatment to help women that carry the gene for some of those diseases to have babies that are born healthy and happy. Is that something that you think you're going to be supporting? There’ll obviously be a conscience vote on it by the sound of it. What's your view on that issue?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I am very supportive of this. I have seen just the awful outcomes of what mitochondrial disease does to people. Young Kara Crawley, she lived in my electorate, her mother, also has mito and is in their family. And it is just the most heartbreaking of conditions to see people basically just degenerate before your very eyes. Kara was a young, beautiful, beautiful soul. And we lost her and we lost so many people and where we can, doing all things as ethically right as we possibly can. I would hate to see that suffering and I hate to see it in others. So, you know, we're going through a very exhaustive consultative process here. There will be a free vote on this, and it's for each member to ultimately make up their mind. But I do hope we can go forward here where the science allows us to do this. And as you know, I'm a person who has strong religious beliefs as well but it presents no difficulty for me on this issue. And I think the compassionate thing to do here is to find a way where if we can avoid that horrific, horrific suffering then I believe we should.
MAIDEN: Yes. And hopefully that's what we can do with the vaccine rollout as well. So, Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time today. And thank you very much, Professor Murphy. And good luck with the vaccine rollout. Hopefully, we'll hear more about what happens with AstraZeneca vaccine in the next couple of days. But thank you for your time tonight. And I hope we've answered some of your questions and hopefully we can do it all again at some point in the future.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Sam. Thanks Brendan.
PROFESSOR MURPHY: Thanks.
MAIDEN: Thank you. And good night. And if you have any more questions for us, get them through to News.com.au as part of our best shot campaign, we will be putting more stories up, answering your questions so if there is an issue we haven't covered. Get onto it. And don't forget, as the Prime Minister is holding up the material there get onto the health.gov.au website for all of the information on the COVID vaccine rollout as well. Thanks, guys.
Pacific Islands Forum
2 February 2021
On Wednesday 3 February I will join my fellow Pacific leaders at the virtual Pacific Islands Forum Special Leaders Retreat to discuss the region’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia’s security and prosperity is intertwined with that of the region.
The economic cost of the pandemic has been severe for the Pacific region. Australia is proud to be supporting our Pacific family to maintain a resilient, sustainable and secure region as we also manage the impacts of the pandemic at home.
Australia has committed $200 million to help deliver the roll-out of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to protect our Pacific neighbours. This is in addition to $80 million to the Gavi COVAX Facility’s Advance Market Commitment, to provide vaccines to the highest-risk groups in eligible countries, including in the Pacific.
I look forward to discussing with the 17 other Pacific leaders how we can work together to continue to manage the health impacts of the pandemic, deliver vaccines to Pacific communities, and drive post-COVID-19 economic recovery in the region.
Doorstop - Manuka, ACT
2 February 2021
Prime Minister: It was great to reflect at the service this morning at the beginning of a new parliamentary year, just as we did yesterday afternoon at the War Memorial. As the pastor said this morning- the reverend said this morning, it's uncertain times they’re interesting times, but it's great to start the year with thankfulness and I’m especially thankful to all Australians for the tremendous efforts they've put in and I know they will again this year as we make our Australian way through this these difficult times.
Journalist: Prime Minister, did you speak- when you spoke to Angela Merkel did you speak to her about the EU’s export controls on vaccines and was she able to offer any kind of assurance that there’d be no impact on ours?
Prime Minister: Well those matters are done through the EU. And our advice and the responses that we've had and the advocacy we've made over these last few days leaves me in the same position I was saying yesterday at the National Press Club, at this point we're on track for being able to receive those vaccines and to start the process at the end of this month. But there are often disruptions to this, as I was pretty upfront about yesterday. But at the moment, we're not expecting that. Last night's call with Chancellor Merkel was a very warm call. We spoke about many, many issues, whether it was on energy or hydrogen in particular, because we've been working with them on that for some time now. We obviously spoke about the OECD that we took, we particularly spoke about the rather distressing situation in Myanmar as well.
Journalist: Prime Minister are you concerned by the delay in reporting to the Commonwealth from Western Australia, of that positive virus case?
Prime Minister: Oh look I’ll allow those matters to be dealt with at the AHPPC and through the normal processes.
Journalist: You’ve said it’s preferable to get to net zero by 2050,
Prime Minister: It is.
Journalist: Why won’t you set that as a target yet?
Prime Minister: Because when I know how we can get there, then I can tell Australia when we’re going to get there. Because if you don't get there by technology, you get there by taxes. And I will not make Australians pay higher taxes to get to net zero. Thanks very much.