Media Releases
National Cabinet Statement
23 July 2021
The National Cabinet met today to discuss Australia's COVID-19 response, recent outbreaks of COVID-19 and the Australian COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy.
National Cabinet continues to work together to address issues and find solutions for the health and economic consequences of COVID-19.
National Cabinet again discussed the increasing outbreak in Greater Sydney and the additional measures introduced by the New South Wales Government to stop the spread of the delta variant of the virus as well as the lockdowns in Victoria and South Australia. National Cabinet has agreed to a suppression strategy for COVID-19 with the goal of no community transmission.
All leaders expressed their full support for NSW to get on top of the current outbreak. National Cabinet noted the Commonwealth's extension of the COVID-19 Disaster Payment support for Greater Sydney and Victoria, based on Commonwealth hotspot declarations.
Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 32,582 confirmed cases in Australia and, sadly, 915 people have died (not including the death today of an 89 year-old man in Sydney, which will be included in tomorrow's official figures). More than 23.6 million tests have been undertaken in Australia.
Testing has increased nationally over recent days with 1.1 million tests reported in the past 7 days.
Globally there have been over 192.5 million cases and sadly over 4.1 million deaths, with 526,634 new cases and 8,197 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge in many countries around the world.
Australia's COVID-19 vaccine roll out continues to expand. To date 10,850,993 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia, including a record 196,430 in the previous 24 hours.
In the previous 7 days, more than 1,044,184 vaccines have been administered in Australia. To date, more than 37.1 per cent of the Australian population aged 16 years and over have now had a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including over 61.6 per cent of over 50 year olds and 76.6 per cent of over 70 year olds. More than 15.4 Australians aged 16 years and over are fully vaccinated including more than 20.8 per cent of over 50 year olds and more than 35.1 per cent of Australians over 70 years of age.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly provided an update on current outbreaks of COVID-19 in a number of locations and of both the Alpha and Delta variants. Australia has successfully suppressed a number of outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic, built on strong health measures.
Lieutenant General John Frewen, Coordinator-General of Operation COVID Shield, provided a detailed briefing on the vaccination program. The vaccination program continues to expand.
National Cabinet received an update from the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on the four step plan to reopening and the progress of the COVID-19 Risk Analysis and Response Taskforce report and the Doherty modelling for the National Plan to transition Australia's National COVID Response. The Doherty modelling will be considered at the next meeting of National Cabinet.
All leaders reiterated the importance of Australians, especially those in vulnerable groups, to get a COVID-19 vaccination. Both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines are registered for use in Australia and are proven to be effective in preventing serious illness and death, as well as limiting transmission.
National Cabinet noted that in NSW State Clinics second dose Pfizer appointments will be extended to up to 6 weeks between doses, which is within the recommended dosage timeframe approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
National Cabinet agreed to meet next on Friday, 30 July 2021.
COVID-19 Disaster Payments
National Cabinet noted the significant support rolling out to individuals through the COVID-19 Disaster Payment.
As at midnight 22 July 2021, the total number of claims received for the NSW COVID-19 Disaster Payment is 713,266. This includes 422,275 unique claims received (120,463 in the 7 LGAs, 283,944 in the rest of Greater Sydney and 17,868 in Regional NSW which the NSW Government is funding). The total number of claims granted is 582,617. This includes 352,514 unique claims granted (99,294 in the 7 LGAs, 243,541 in the rest of Greater Sydney and 9,679 in Regional NSW which the NSW Government is funding).
National Cabinet noted that claims for the Victorian COVID-19 Disaster Payment opened at midnight 22 July 2021. As at midday today, Services Australia has had approximately 25,000 claims submitted, and have answered approximately 3,500 calls.
National Freight Movement Code
National Cabinet noted that recent changes to Health Orders by a number of jurisdictions have created inconsistent arrangements between jurisdictions for freight drivers.
National Cabinet requested that Transport Ministers work with AHPPC to ensure there is greater consistency in the application of health measures for freight workers under the Freight Movement Code so that the Code continues to support the safe and efficient movement of freight across Australia.
Quarantine
Quarantine
National Cabinet agreed to the Terms of Reference to the second National Review of Hotel Quarantine Arrangements. The Review will be led by independent reviewers Ms Jane Halton AO PSM and supported by Mr Graeme Head AO, drawing on professional and technical expert advice including Professor Peter Collingnon AM and Professor Andrew Wilson.
Interview with Ange McCormack, ABC triple j Hack
22 July 2021
ANGE MCCORMACK: I have Scott Morrison on the phone with me now. Prime Minister, it’s been a while. Thanks so much for joining us today on Triple J.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Ange, it’s good to be with you.
MCCORMACK: Prime Minister, young people have sacrificed a lot during this pandemic and we’re going to shoulder the economic impacts for decades. Our formative years are being spent in lockdown. What do you say to young people who are feeling pretty worried about their future right now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, I want to thank them for pushing through. This is the challenge of their generation. Australians over many generations have faced very difficult challenges. And this is the challenge faced by this generation and our generation more broadly. And it’s hard. It’s really tough. And the uncertainty has been great. I mean, I particularly feel for those year 12 students at the moment, in Sydney especially, but also now hopefully less lockdowns in Victoria and over in South Australia. You know, and I know many parents is, that’s my generation, whose kids are going through their HSC now. And I know it’s really tough. So that’s why we put that $7 million mental health package in place …
MCCORMACK: And we’ll get to that in a moment, Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the biggest question I’ve gotten today, what is going on with the vaccines? When will all young people be able to get vaccinated with Pfizer?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me say a couple of things about that. The first is we’re now getting a million doses administered …
MCCORMACK: It is a simple question, though. When will young people be able to get vaccinated?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, right now they can get vaccinated right now with AstraZeneca …
MCCORMACK: But that’s not the vaccine ATAGI recommends.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m just about to finish answering the question. In September, that’s when it’s designed for people under the age of 40 to get access to Pfizer. But what I’m telling you is that right now the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved by the TGA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and to be available people of ages of 18 and above. Now, I know since at the end of June, when I said that people can go and talk to their doctor and have informed consent to have the AstraZeneca vaccine, there’s been almost 80,000 …
MCCORMACK: I believe 40,000 of those had their first dose, so.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right. 40,000 in less than a month.
MCCORMACK: That’s not enough to get us, you know, towards the end of this race is it though?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s why we’ll keep increasing each week week. We’re doing over a million doses every week. We’ve got new pharmacies coming on board right now. By the end of the month, the number of pharmacists would have tripled, not just in rural areas. And I know in rural and regional areas and a lot of your listeners are out in those rural and remote areas. The pharmacists doing a great job, particularly up in Queensland, coming on early to support where there are no GPs and by the end of the year, and perhaps even sooner, everyone who’s wanting to get a vaccine will have had that opportunity to do that. Now, how high our vaccination rates are? Well, that will depend on everyone coming forward. But let’s not forget the AstraZeneca vaccine that was the workhorse vaccine for people in the United Kingdom and that’s seen them get to the rates they are at now …
MCCORMACK: It’s still not recommended for young people, though, and it doesn’t fill a lot of them with confidence. Prime Minister, today you called the vaccine rollout a marathon. A marathon is a race. Why are we coming last?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re not …
MCCORMACK: We’re not coming first though, are we?
PRIME MINISTER: And were rapidly moving up. And I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you where we’re not in that situation. And that’s …
MCCORMACK: We’re coming last in the OECD, though …
PRIME MINISTER: No, we’re not actually. And we’re moving up through those ranks. Australia’s vaccination programme is actually running on double doses at the same level as New Zealand. And on first doses, we’re well ahead and we’re moving up through those ranks because we are now reaching those million doses happening every single week. And we’ve had our problems early on in the programme. I’ve been very frank about that, but we’ve turned those around. And now the programme with the extra doses, a million doses of Pfizer coming in from this week, having those brought forward, there were 300,000 a week before, we’ve got that up to a million now. And that increases as we go through the rest of the year. And so we will see more and more people getting vaccinated. And that’s that’s that’s the task.
MCCORMACK: Right.
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve saved over 30,000 lives. We’ve got a million people back into work. We’re supporting people with those COVID payments. Very important those COVID payments, if you’re in a lockdown area, you’ve lost more than 20 hours of work week and $600 and less than 20 hours, $375 a week. Those payments, particularly for those in Melbourne, you can start and across Victoria, you can start applying for those tomorrow. And next week is when South Australia kicks in. So those payments are there to help people get through these hard lockdowns.
MCCORMACK: Prime Minister, you said that we’re not coming last in the OECD. We’re doing a great job, in your words. Are you happy with where we’re at in the vaccine roll-out? That’s kind of what I’m hearing, you’re happy.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I’m not happy with where we’re at right now. That’s why we’ve been turning it around over these last few months. That’s why I put Lieutenant General Frewen in to bring the whole of government process together to ramp up those vaccination rates. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen. You know, in the last month, we have tripled the level of double dose vaccinations in the country. We tripled it …
MCCORMACK: We should have been there months ago, shouldn’t we? Or was this the plan to be at this rate at this time?
PRIME MINISTER: At this time of the year, we’re about two months behind where we’d hope to be …
MCCORMACK: Is that good enough?
PRIME MINISTER: Two months behind where we’d hoped to be and where we’d plan to be …
MCCORMACK: Two months is a long way to be off when half the country is in lockdown, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: And that’s why and we’ve been picking up that pace over these last few months. I mean, there are things that happen within your control and things that happen out of your control …
MCCORMACK: But if we were on time and you’d done this roll-out properly, wouldn’t it have prevented the lockdowns potentially?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re assuming that the vaccination programme wasn’t impacted by three million doses not turning up from overseas, that wasn’t in the government’s control. You’re assuming that the advice that was made about the AstraZeneca vaccine didn’t slow down the vaccine roll-out, of course it did, that we had to adjust after that, and we had to adapt the programme, and we had to speed it up and we had to bring forward doses of Pfizer, which we’ve done. And we’ve turned it around over these last few months. And we’re now hitting the marks we needed to hit to get to the end of the year…
MCCORMACK: I’m sorry to interrupt, Prime Minister, but what really slowed us down in the first place was not ordering enough Pfizer back in November.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, everybody’s wise in hindsight, but remember, the Pfizer vaccine also had to go through approvals and we didn’t shortcut those approvals. I mean, many other countries, they rushed those approvals through. In Australia …
MCCORMACK: But it is a race now, you’ve conceded that. All right, Prime Minister …
PRIME MINISTER: We’re going as fast as we possibly can, and we’ve really turned that around. And that’s the encouragement I want to give to people listening in. I mean, yes, we have had problems with the programme. No one’s denying that. But you’ve got to focus on where we need to go now and what we’re doing now. I mean, as I said. We’ve tripled the portion of people with double dose vaccinations in one month.
MCCORMACK: Prime Minister, I’d like to move on because we don’t have much time, Prime Minister I have a question from a Hack listener. She’s a student on Youth Allowance, a hospo worker. She can’t go to her job right now. Prime Minister, Ali wants to know why isn’t she and others on Youth Allowance eligible for the COVID disaster payment?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, those COVID disaster payments aren’t designed to replace someone’s income …
MCCORMACK: But Ali is someone who would usually work, now can’t, she has to survive on 250 bucks a week.
PRIME MINISTER: And equally, someone who was previously working full time and getting an average wage is actually, with the COVID support payment, obviously getting a lot less income than they were than when they were working. And so when you’re going through a lockdown or these …
MCCORMACK: Sorry, you’re not answering the question. Someone like Ali is working. She isn’t working. Sorry. She’s surviving on two hundred and fifty bucks a week.
PRIME MINISTER: And that’s what the support payment that she’s on through the Social Security system is …
MCCORMACK: Is that enough? Usually she would top it up with work.
PRIME MINISTER: What I’m telling you is that the government isn’t replacing everybody’s income. What the government is doing is providing some basic income support for those who aren’t on the Social Security system, who don’t get any support from the government. And they’ve had their wages completely gone or reduced, massively, compared where they were before. And this helps them tide them over. It’s not designed to completely replace the wage you were getting before or the income you were getting before. It’s designed to try and help people through what is a very difficult time.
MCCORMACK: All right, Prime Minister, let’s move on. We’ve been talking about the pandemic and COVID. For young people, an even bigger threat is climate change. Why haven’t you committed to net zero emissions by 2050?
PRIME MINISTER: We want to achieve that as soon as possible. And what we’re doing now …
MCCORMACK: Would you like to commit to it now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are working on a plan as to how that could be achieved, because in Australia, people like to know what it will cost and how you’re going to get there. And that’s why we’re investing $20 billion in the technologies that can help you get there…
MCCORMACK: That commitment would mean a lot, Prime Minister. We’re lagging behind.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, we’re not, actually, because 20 per cent reduction in emissions is outstripping what’s happening in New Zealand and Canada and the United States and so many other countries, see what …
MCCORMACK: I’m sorry Prime Minister, young people want to know, why haven’t you committed yet to 2050 reducing emissions to zero by 2050? It’s a simple question.
PRIME MINISTER: Before I make a commitment, I have a plan to achieve it and I …
MCCORMACK: So is it not achievable yet?
PRIME MINISTER: I want to tell people how much it will cost them and what it means for their jobs and what it means for your regional listeners and the industries that they rely on and depend on for their jobs and their incomes and their futures. We want to achieve, I’ve said very clearly, we want to achieve Net Zero. Net Zero is going to happen into the future. It’s going to change the way the economy works, it is going to change the way technology works. And the way we get there is with technology. That’s why we’re investing $20 billion, but 20 per cent reduction in emissions is what we’ve achieved there and I think that’s really important for people to know. We’ve got the highest rate of rooftop solar take-up in the world and renewable investment…
MCCORMACK: I’m sorry to interrupt again, this one is really important to my listeners. When you last came on Hack in 2019, you said, I have made youth suicide my priority. Do you feel like you achieved that goal to make suicide stop?
PRIME MINISTER: It absolutely is our priority and continues to be and that’s why we invested $2.3 billion in the national suicide prevention plan that we’ve been brought together as …
MCCORMACK: Prime Minister, throwing money at critical care is one thing, but demand is outstripping supply.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not talking about critical care. I’m talking about the expansion of headspace.
MCCORMACK: Yeah, they’re rocking up to headspace and being met with 8 week waiting times.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m talking about dealing with the causes of anxieties and pressures that are happening on people with young families, those who are going through school and dealing with challenges early in their life and how they can adjust and have strategies to deal with that. That’s what our plan is to …
MCCORMACK: Prime Minister, we’re about to hit the news. Will you come back on Hack before you call the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, well, we’ll see how we go.
MCCORMACK: See how we go. We would love to have you back, Prime Minister, thanks for your time today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Ange, good chatting.
MCCORMACK: Thanks. That’s the Prime Minister there, of Australia.
Interview with Murray Jones, 4CA
22 July 2021
MURRAY JONES: Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Murray. Good to be with you.
JONES: You too. And, look, I should imagine, you know, when you’ve got this unity, bipartisan, working together, it is a reason for celebrations for the 2032 Olympics.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s true. And, you know, governments actually work together a lot more than I think is, sort of shows up on the nightly news. Of course, you know, when there are tensions and differences, they always get a lot more coverage. But, you know, so much of the time governments are working together. And, this has been a project just like that, a true partnership. It’s not just a funding partnership, it’s an actual partnership. So, it’s not like, oh, we’ll send you the, half the money for what you propose to do. The big difference between the south east Queensland, the Brisbane games, and the Sydney games is in Sydney that was basically done by the New South Wales Government. They paid for it, they did it. They did a tremendous job. The Queensland Government said to us that they wouldn’t be able to do that and to be able to go forward. So, they sought our help. So, it’s 50-50 on everything – who goes on the organising committee, you know, the scoping of projects, all of those things.
But, importantly for North Queensland, I mean, Warren Entsch has been making this point. This is a great opportunity for right across Queensland, the training base, the facilities for people to come and be there before games, all of that, and not just in the games year. I mean, people over several years before games will want to come and be, understand the conditions in Australia and set themselves up there and become familiar. So, there’s a lot of opportunities there. I know Warren’s pushing that. I mean, he was, you know, he was in Parliament when the 2000 games were on. So, he knows what the opportunities are. And, so, he’s pushing that, which I think, I think is really, really good. And, the tourism side of it, well, you know, who better than North Queensland to take advantage of that. I mean, that’s a great opportunity.
JONES: There’s no doubt about that. And, I guess Australia-wide, you know, there’s some really good options to have a lot of people – Tasmania, the whole lot. I guess we’ll have a lot of people coming to Australia.
PRIME MINISTER: Correct.
JONES: You know, when it comes to these type of things moving forward, it is, you know, a concern certainly of some people that it’s going to be very, very expensive. Let’s talk about some of the economic benefits and, you know, the possibility that it actually will be cost neutral.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, $18 billion or thereabouts is the estimate of social and economic benefits of the games themselves, and much of the infrastructure, over 80 per cent of what was involved, is, are things that are already in place or will be in place. So, it’s really building on an existing infrastructure base for what are growing populations. And, then, frankly, that’s true for North Queensland as well. In the recent Budget, you know, we had the $400 million for additional funding for the Bruce Highway, the $240 million for the Cairns Western Arterial Road duplication. So, all of the big infrastructure improvements, transport that’s going, you know, it’s $10 billion that investment overall in the Bruce Highway. All of that continues. I mean, the needs that are there in Queensland are still there, games or not, and particularly up in North Queensland where there are so many opportunities that we need to set up with this infrastructure investment. And, you know, it’s a big state and there are a lot of big challenges. And, we can, we continue to spend record amounts investing into Queensland, particularly transport infrastructure projects.
JONES: You know, we do have a bit of a flow since the pandemic of quite a few people, you know, moving to regional and rural areas in Queensland. Now, Robbie Katter yesterday put out a media release. It was actually titled, 'Dark ages descend on regions as Brisbane parties'. What guarantees can you give us that the 2032 Olympics will not create a vacuum whereby, you know, that regional federal infrastructure will actually be lost to the south east corner?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think, then just what I just said. I mean, in the Budget, that $240 million for example, for the Cairns Western Arterial Road duplication. I mean, that didn’t require the Olympics. And, we know what the needs are up there, and members like Warren and others are always bringing those projects to our attention. And, we get, we’re getting on with them. And, you know, there’s, whether it’s the, I know it’s a bit away from where you are, but, you know, the Kennedy Developmental Road between Lynd-Hughenden, I mean, Robbie would know all about that.
JONES: Sure.
PRIME MINISTER: And, I like Robbie, I often see him when I’m up there in western Queensland, out there in Cloncurry. But, you know, I think it’s important to be positive about this. There are big opportunities for the whole country. And, as you say, in North Queensland, yes. As the Prime Minister, I want to see opportunities for Tasmania, as you say, and other parts of the country. That’s what happened with the Sydney Olympics. It reached everywhere. The whole world looks at the whole country. Brisbane is where the actual games will be, but the whole country will be on show, and that’s a great opportunity. We saw that with Sydney 20 years ago. And, the same is going to be true, particularly for Queensland this time.
So, I’d encourage people to get on board, get positive. I mean, everyone can have a whinge, you know, having a whinge is the easiest thing to do. It doesn’t take much, you know. Everyone will listen to a whinge, too. And, you know, Robbie’s always been a very positive guy, and I just encourage everybody to get positive about this and look for the opportunities, work with their local governments, work with the State and Federal Government, and let’s make this a gold medal for North Queensland as much as anywhere else.
JONES: And look, you know, if I may say, some long-term projects, particularly an alternative route over the Kuranda Range, you know, we do need the Federal and the State Governments. There’s a degree of paralysis there. So, that’s certainly moving forward something that we need to, to earmark.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure, we’ll be happy … We’ll keep working on all of these things together, and that’s, I think that’s the key. We’re very sensitive to what the needs are up there, and Warren’s done just such an amazing job for North Queensland. And, and, you know, that’s why I’m so pleased that he’s, he’s going around again because North Queensland still needs him and, you know, the country still needs him as part of our team.
JONES: Well, look, PM, without going into finer detail, you’ve certainly been copping it the last 24 hours with respect to the vaccine rollout. And, look, you know, as you well know, we still lag behind Mexico, Colombia, Latvia with our vaccination rollout. But, I do accept that vaccination rates have increased dramatically over the, over the last week or so. So, we’ll move on from the gotchas overnight. But, you know, with the deepening concerns …
PRIME MINISTER: Well, just on that, before you go further, though, I mean, moving on from, sure, but it hasn’t happened over a couple of weeks. I mean, this has happened over months now that we’re building up our vaccine rates across the country. I mean, back in May we had 2.1 million. In June, we had 3.4 [million] In July, we’ll be over four million. We’ve got a million doses coming in from Pfizer every week. We’re now vaccinating people at the rate of one million a week.
JONES: Sure.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s higher than, that’s, that is the rate you need to be able to get this job done. So, as I said yesterday, I take responsibility. We’ve had a lot, we’ve had problems, many of them completely outside our control. But, at the same time, it’s also about how you fix problems. And, I’ve taken responsibility for that, too. And, this isn’t, we’ve still got a long way to go. And, I think we’ll be in that position by the end of the year where everyone who is seeking to have one will have that opportunity. There’s enough supply and points of presence for that. And, I’d encourage you, particularly if you’re in the older age groups, go and get that AstraZeneca vaccine. It’s your protection. And, you know, these, the Delta strain of this variant, this virus is highly transmissible, and your best protection is not to wait. Please go and get that vaccine now.
JONES: Well, look, as we do wrap up this morning, you know, speaking of the Delta variant, I am keen to talk about the options that are available to you federally with a 'no jab, no play' policy. Now, this vaccine hesitancy, along with some indulging in an anti-science, anti-vaccine nonsense, really presents a major internal threat to our communities, the economy and, of course, our health system. Do you have options with respect to to actual 'no jab, no play' policy here in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, they largely are all at the state level. I mean, you know, people attending venues, going to restaurants or things like that, they’re things states will have to ultimately determine. But, I do know this much. If you are vaccinated, you’re less likely to catch the virus, you’re less likely to transmit it, you’re significantly less likely to get serious illness, and you’re less likely to die. So, getting vaccinated protects you, it protects your family. We’ve had the terrible situations in Sydney in these, in these recent weeks where people who weren’t vaccinated contracted the virus, translated it to their elderly relatives, and they died, and it’s heartbreaking. The vaccine saves lives. It could save your life and it could also save someone else’s life that you come in contact with. So, that’s why it’s so important. I hear, you know, hear all the conspiracy theories about it, you know, it’ll turn your arm into a magnet and all these sorts of things.
JONES: Sure.
PRIME MINISTER: I mean, this saves lives. We’ve already saved more than 30,000 lives, and that’s based on countries just like us. If we’d had the same death rate of all those countries around the world just like us, more than 30,000 people would be dead right now in Australia. Now, we avoided that, and I’m keen that we keep avoiding it. And, the way to do that, particularly if you’re over 60, go and get that vaccine, please. There’s plenty of it there for you to go and get that vaccine. It’s very important for you to protect yourself and your community and your family.
JONES: Scott Morrison, been great to talk to you this morning. And I certainly acknowledge, you know, up to a million per week. We’ve got to that point. Let’s hope it continues. Have a great day. Actually, you’re in quarantine at the moment as well, aren’t you?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been in quarantine for some time. When I came back from overseas from the G7, we’ve had two weeks of quarantine here in The Lodge. I hadn’t seen my family for a month, so I went back to Sydney. So, I entered the lockdown there for two weeks with them. And, and now I’m doing quarantine so I can be in Parliament in two weeks. So, getting plenty of work done, though. I mean, it’s a, it’s a pretty efficient operation we’ve set up here. So, it’s good to be able to get on the phone and have a chat to you this morning, and give all my best up to everyone up there in North Queensland. I’m looking forward to coming up there again, you know, once we get through these sitting periods, I hope, and get myself back out on the road again. I love getting up there. Warren’s doing such a great job, and I appreciate all the support we get from people in North Queensland. And, thanks for all their help and helping us achieve what we have over these last 18 months as we’ve pushed through COVID. And, on the Olympics, it’s a great day for all Queenslanders. Up, up Queensland.
JONES: And look, as I said, I can certainly hear the quiet that’s in the background. So, enjoy the peace and quiet while you’ve got it. But, thank you so much for your time this morning. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, have a great day, cheers.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Murray.
Interview with Rebecca Levingston, ABC Brisbane
22 July 2021
REBECCA LEVINGSTON: How good are the Olympics?
PRIME MINISTER: How good. It is just tremendously exciting. I was just listening to that back end of the discussion you were having with Kieren Perkins, and it’s absolutely right. There’ll be kids down the Valley pool this morning, been there from very early. Parents bringing them along there. They’ll be up at Rockhampton and Townsville and, you know, up at Spring Hill, down in Brisbane. It’s so exciting. And they can look forward to a home Olympics. It’s going to light a lot of them, you know, aspirations and excitement about, you know, sport in Australia and just what it means to us.
LEVINGSTON: Who’s the first phone call you took or made last night?
PRIME MINISTER: I did call the Premier last night. I left a message for her last night, but obviously also got in touch with my Sports Minister last night. The first one, though, was John Coates. And anyway, look, it’s been a team effort and this is a real partnership. It’s very different to what happened in Sydney. I’ve got to stress, Sydney, the New South Wales Government put on those Olympics basically. Of course, the Federal Government supported it, but not not in this way. When Queensland came to us and said they wouldn’t be able to do it on their own. And then we put the partnership model in. So it’s not just about 50/50 funding, it’s about 50/50 decision making.
LEVINGSTON: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Everything from the organising committee to venues and how they’re planned and scoped and the procurement and the tenders will all be done together.
LEVINGSTON: Yeah and as you know, whether it is COVID or the Olympics, Australians really like it when levels of government seem to get along so that, you know, your fist pumping last night, does that guarantee 50/50 funding on all Olympic infrastructure?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s all the projects that we need to get done as part of this part of the bid and what needs to be delivered. And that will be delivered through that. We haven’t given a name yet, but a sort of Olympic coordination authority that is jointly owned by the Commonwealth and the State Government. And let’s not leave our local government here as well. I’ve got to say, Adrian and all the regional mayors from southeast Queensland, they were real drivers from this state. They were really there at the outset. And, of course, we came on very early. I remember meeting Dr Bach, when I was in Tokyo some years ago with John Coates and, you know, that was before there was even an official bid or decision in place. And so, you know, we were already there spruiking for Brisbane and Queensland at that time. And it’s great to see, you know, the partnership formed with the Queensland Government. I mean, levels of government work together, I think a lot more often than people appreciate. I mean, yeah, you see that the tensions and that gets a lot of, you know, coverage. And that happens. Of course it does. But we actually work together a lot all the time. And this was a good example of that.
LEVINGSTON: The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison on ABC Radio, Brisbane. My name is Rebecca Levingston. PM, the euphoria of the Olympics win is in stark contrast to the lockdowns of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. Long queues, frustration, anxiety that you’ve acknowledged from people worried about lives and livelihoods. To the solutions that you’re focused on, why doesn’t Australia use rapid COVID tests?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are and particularly using them down in Sydney at the moment. And we’re seeking to get further approval, medical approval for those tests. And that’s something that has been regularly pushed through the medical expert panel …
LEVINGSTON: But not to the scale that other countries are using them. Prime Minister, I mean, we’re still we’re still seeing queues of, you know, five, six hours. Are you saying we’re going to use rapid COVID testing en masse?
PRIME MINISTER: What I’m saying is we want to see that as part of the armoury of testing that we have available to us to be used in many different situations. That will, of course, be guided by the medical advice that comes through the medical expert panel that can give us the certainty and surety about the veracity of those tests. And there’s PCR test, there’s the saliva test, there’s rapid antigen testing. I mean, I’ve had them all. As a result of, you know, the various things I’ve had to be doing. And they also provide some support. They’re all different, they’re not as precise as each other, but they all have a role to play. But you’ve got to do it with the authority of the medical advice, backing up the use of those tests. And that’s what, you know, as a federal government, we’re very keen to see those views more and more widely.
LEVINGSTON: Prime Minister, will we have to have children vaccinated before you open the borders to international travellers?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the TGA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, is still considering that issue. So I don’t want to pre-empt anything that they might decide on that. And we’re waiting for their advice. And we have a Cabinet meeting of those involved in the COVID response today. And we’ll get further updates from Professor Murphy and Professor Kelly on that. And we’re working through those issues. But, you know, different countries have had different approaches on this. So the TGA is working through that. And I’ll wait to see what their recommendations are. But we’re already sort of working through those issues and have been for some weeks.
LEVINGSTON: Yeah, the concern from epidemiologists seems to be that, you know, even if we hit a certain target in the adult population, if we then open up and allow international visitors in, that children may be the most vulnerable and of course, you know, kids are always front and centre of your life, of family life. Yeah. I wonder, do you do you have a percentage in mind in terms of the population to be vaccinated before we do start to see lockdowns stopping and more freedom around the place?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first, on the last point, you know, well, we have been cautious when it comes to the approval of vaccines and ensuring that our proper processes were followed. And we’ll take the same approach here when it comes to the impact on younger Australians under the age of 18, under the age of 16. And, of course, we’re going to be cautious about that. That’s the reason we’ve been cautious is why we’ve been able to save over 30,000 lives. You compare Australia to other countries, similar countries to us. If we’d had their experience, more than 30,000 people would be dead in Australia right now because of COVID, so that cautious approach saved tens of thousands of lives. When it comes to the thresholds that we need to meet to be able to move to the next phase, step two of that plan we announced a few weeks ago out of National Cabinet. The Doherty Institute is finalising their modelling advice on the Delta strain to us this month that will be brought together advice from the various treasuries, including the Commonwealth Treasury and the State Treasury, the economic advisors, advice from the Department of Health, which looks at the health system capacity. And that will be able to give us a scientific way of determining what those thresholds are that we have to hit, not just at the headline rate, but for the vulnerable populations over 70s and so on. That will enable us to know what those benchmark thresholds are of vaccination that enables us to do all the things that you just said.
LEVINGSTON: PM, I know you’ve got to go …
PRIME MINISTER: No that’s fine.
LEVINGSTON: Oh really, OK. While I’ve got you then, in terms of what’s happening in the UK and opening up there. What are your thoughts on that strategy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, everyone in the world is watching closely. I mean, we have seen that the deaths and the hospitalisation and ICUs are rapidly rising. And this is a country with I think about 68 per cent double dose vaccination, predominantly with AstraZeneca. And so we are watching closely. Now, it is true that, coming into this, they already had high case rates already existing. I mean, in Europe and the UK, in the US, they lost the battle on suppression a year ago, more than that. And they’ve never been able to recover from it. Here in Australia. We have been winning that battle of suppression. But it is really tough at the moment with this Delta strain, as we’re seeing in the southern states. So we will be watching what happens very closely there in the United Kingdom. We hope for the best for them. We certainly wouldn’t want to see them realise what happened last time. What I do know, though, is with vaccination is you’re less likely to get COVID. You’re less likely to transmit it. You’re less likely to get a serious illness, very much less likely, and you’re less likely to die from it. So it is, if you’re vaccinated, you’re a greater protection for yourself, your family, the community than otherwise. And so that’s why it’s so important.
LEVINGSTON: And our strategy here is really to lock down any sort of cracks in the system. I had truck drivers calling me this week, Prime Minister, saying the rules in different states are really confusing. They’ve got unmanned testing stations that are dirty. They’re sort of appealing, saying we need a national strategy for truck drivers. What do you think?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there is a National Freight Code that was put in place, it was one of the things we took through the National Cabinet last year, it was one of those early areas of national cooperation to get as much consistency on that as possible. That was the former Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, through that, with all the transport ministers of all the states and territories. Now, you asked the question before about rapid antigen testing. You know, potentially these are things that can be used more often there. I mean, right now here in Canberra, I’m in quarantine for Parliament sitting in a fortnight’s time. We’re doing saliva testing here on a daily basis to enable me to keep doing the job I’m doing.
LEVINGSTON: Yeah, I guess what the truckies are saying is that there may be a national strategy, but in practical terms, it’s not working because they’re saying they’ve got to have multiple border passes. There’s different rule changes that often happen at night when they’re sleeping.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, look where that’s happening, I’d be expecting the transport ministers from right across the country to be, we have a transport subcommittee of National Cabinet that deals precisely with that. We’re meeting tomorrow again, as we do on Fridays. And I’ll certainly raise that with the other Premiers to make sure that the freight code and how that’s working is addressing those issues. But where there’s feedback, we welcome it and they should get on with it and fix it.
LEVINGSTON: Brilliant. The truckies of Queensland will be pumping their fist to that comment, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Can I thank them, though. I mean, they’ve kept Australia moving through all of this, the job that has been done by our truckies through some really difficult periods and even right now within states hit by lockdowns. Still getting food to the grocery shops, getting them across borders. You know, distribution centres in Sydney at the moment, highly affected. And, you know, just like we saw in Melbourne last year, their big distribution centres, that doesn’t just matter for Melbourne. They are distribution centres for the whole country, and so that’s really important. So to the truckies, thank you for keeping Australia moving.
LEVINGSTON: Prime Minister, we kicked off this conversation talking about the Olympics. You know, we’ve got 11 years lead up. Much will be talked about in terms of the legacy for you personally, Prime Minister. Tomorrow, you will surpass Gough Whitlam as the 16th longest PM. And there’s a series of quick successive milestones. You’ll surpass Turnbull next week, Gillard next month, John Gorton in September. If you serve a full term and win the next election, you could end up Australia’s fourth longest serving Prime Minister behind Menzies, Howard and Hawke.
PRIME MINISTER: You’ve certainly done your research. You’ve done a lot more than me. Well, there you go. But a lot of work still ahead. But, you know, in this job, you focus on what you’ve got to do right now. And those decisions have a lasting legacy as Prime Minister on any decision you take each and every day. So that’s why I am just focusing on the challenges we have right now.
LEVINGSTON: True. But I have got two quick questions for you. When is the next federal election?
PRIME MINISTER: Next year.
LEVINGSTON: What month?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’ll happen when we’re ready to make that announcement.
LEVINGSTON: What do you think you’ll be doing in 2032?
PRIME MINISTER: Attending the Olympics in Brisbane.
LEVINGSTON: Good to talk this morning. Thanks so much.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, cheers.
Interview with Neil Breen, 4BC
22 July 2021
NEIL BREEN: How good’s Queensland Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: How good, how good, that’s absolutely true, Neil. It was very exciting. It was great to see it all come together yesterday. It was a Team Australia moment. Of course, great for Brisbane, south east Queensland. But of course, all of Queensland and all of the country. I mean, that’s what Olympics do – they not just put that, you know, that city on the map, but they really do benefit the whole country, and it’s a time for the whole nation to shine. It means that, you know, boys and girls right across the country can be looking forward right now – if they’re out in the pool this morning or they’re out doing their Little Athletics this weekend or whatever they’re doing – they know in 2032 they could be competing in Olympic Games in their own country, and that is just so exciting.
BREEN: I suppose the big question that Queenslanders have and Australians will have will be the cost. And, we’re talking you know, I don’t believe this $5 billion figure. They’re going to be expensive. And, the venues and the upgrade of the venues has got to come with infrastructure. It’s a massive project and the Federal Government is committed to paying half of it. Will we get our money’s worth in the end?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re estimating, I mean, almost $18 billion of economic and social benefits for the country. And, you know, as someone from Sydney, I know how important it was to Sydney, what will, you know, 20 years ago, more than that now. And, it just keeps kicking on. I mean, once you’re an Olympic city, you know, that’s your Olympic city. You’re on the international map. And, and I think that really just boosts not only the economic activity, but the way this bid has been put together and the way we’ve worked together is we’re substantively using the planned and existing infrastructure, and infrastructure that south east Queensland and more broadly across the state they’re going, people are going to need. And, that was a key part of the bid, that people, that they understood that these were things we needed to build. And, and it’s not just a 50-50 funding partnership, I need to stress, Neil. It’s a 50-50 partnership, and that means shared decisions from scoping of projects to running of projects. It’s going to be very different to the Sydney Olympics. And, that was basically put on by the New South Wales Government and funded by the New South Wales Government, almost in its entirety. Queensland came to us and said that that wasn’t something they’d be able to do and they needed a partner. So, a partnership is where you share decisions, and that will go, you know, out to 2032. And, so, we’re building that arrangement to how that could be delivered. And, it’s a national benefit. It’s in the national interest, and that’s why I was there from the get go.
BREEN: The Premier didn’t share the decision about The Gabba, that did blindside the Federal Government. Were you disappointed that day?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is, this is the point. Decisions have to be shared. They have to be shared in a partnership. And, that’s how they will be. And, the Queensland Government understands that. They understood that as the basis of our arrangement. We were very clear about that, and that’s how this will run.
BREEN: Prime Minister, last night we were able to celebrate getting the Olympics, and I saw your presentation to Tokyo, and it was fantastic the way you delivered it from The Lodge. But, it only gave you a brief respite from the battle about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Do you feel as though you’ve been unfairly put under pressure about it, considering the recommendations and the advice around AstraZeneca? That’s the thing that’s confused the public. And, if without that advice, we would have been in a much better position.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, no doubt that we would have. But, I mean, look, we’ve had our challenges and, and we’re getting over those challenges. That’s the key point. I mean, no country in the world has got everything 100 per cent right in COVID – no one, no one has. But, you know, Australia overall, when you think about the fact that over 30,000 lives saved, a million people back in work, 3.5 million people – at its peak – we were providing income support to, to carry them through, and the biggest ever income support program the countries ever run. And, of course, now, the vaccination rates are hitting a million a week. I mean, that’s what we’re doing now. We keep hitting those rates. So, yeah, we’ve had our problems. But, you know, you get challenges, Neil. But, the question is, you’ve got to respond to them, change your approach, that’s what we’ve done. Lieutenant General Frewen – I put in there some months ago to bring it all together right across all of government. That’s had a great impact, and everyone’s working really well together. So, we’re hitting a million a week. We’ve got a million Pfizer doses now coming in every week, getting those brought forward. Our vaccination rates, Neil, you know, we’re at 14.5 for the whole population, but more significantly than that, over, for over 70s we’re over three quarters on their first dose now. For over, over 60s, sorry over 50s, we’ve got 60.45 per cent who’ve had their first dose. Of course, we’ve got every aged care centre in the country twice. And, while we’ve got these lockdowns running in three states, compared to what we were seeing last year in Victoria with that terrible second wave, so far that protection that we were able to put into our aged care community is proving to be very effective. And, I’m pleased to see that. It’s a tough time in the three southern states. But, you know, the protections we’ve put in place are being effective, particularly for those older populations in aged care.
BREEN: One of the things that’s confused the public is the advice. We’ve got the TGA and we’ve got ATAGI. And, this is, Ray Hadley told me to ask you this question because he wants the answer.
PRIME MINISTER: Right.
BREEN: Ok.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
BREEN: What’s the difference between the TGA and ATAGI?
PRIME MINISTER: The TGA is the independent body that approves the use of vaccines, medicines in Australia. And, they approved the use of AstraZeneca in Australia for those over the age of 18. So, that’s like you’re approved to use any, any medicine that you have in Australia, the TGA. You know, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or whatever it happens to be, they’re the ones who say you can safely use this medicine in Australia, stamp of approval, done. The ATAGI is the body, which, it provides the scientific and technical advice on immunisations. So, that’s once a medicine is already approved, they meet and they provide regular guidance about how it’s being used in the country. And, they’re very esteemed scientific medical professionals drawn from a range of different backgrounds and practices, and they provide advice to the country, particularly those who are administering the vaccine, GPs and the like, about how they believe that should best be done. And, that’s, that’s how it works. It’s a two, it’s a two-pronged system. Those who let the medicine into the gate and then those who decide and advise on how it’s then best applied across the population, once it’s been approved. So, important body. I respect the body, and we have acted consistent with their recommendations. And, you know, the suggestion that we might not accept their recommendations, well, I don’t agree with that. I mean, I would, when they say that they should consider the balance of risk, you know, like if when COVID cases are rising, now that means people have a greater likelihood of catching COVID, particularly older people, then, then the balance of risk changes, and I’ve just simply said balance of risk is changing, guys, so how is that impacting on your advice, and it’s time to think about that.
BREEN: That’s right, that’s right. Were you disappointed when our Chief Health Officer in Queensland Jeannette Young, her stance on AstraZeneca and pretty much killed it off as a, well, didn’t kill it off, but dented it big time right across Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, whether, rather than speaking specifically about that, what I’d probably more say is the impact of, of this advice over time has been for people to have some hesitancy. And, this is an approved drug by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. This is the, this is the vaccine that has substantially vaccinated the United Kingdom. This is the vaccine that has been approved for use in Australia. And, sure, ATAGI has made some suggestions. That’s why we say for those under 60, go and talk to your doctor, informed consent. Some 60,000 doses of AstraZeneca have been administered to people under the age of 40 in Australia since, you know, I made those comments a few, about a month ago. So, people are going and talking to their doctor, and that’s what should happen. It’s called informed consent. You know, we don’t mandate vaccines in this country. We don’t do that. That means we don’t prevent you from taking them if they’re approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration either, based on informed consent with your GP. But, in particularly in Sydney at the moment, you know, where the real challenge with outbreaks is particularly the most vulnerable. It’s, I mean, AstraZeneca has been available for those over the age of 70 right from, pretty much from the start. So, it’s from the start. So, it’s really important that they get vaccinated now. But, I’d be saying to everyone in Queensland, you know, don’t wait for what’s happening in another state to potentially happen in your state. I mean, this is the thing with the, with the Delta variant, it can move very quick and no system is 100 per cent foolproof. The whole world knows that. And, our system has been very strong. But, you know, you can’t guarantee across every single circumstance. So, please, for Queensland, particularly if you’re in the older population, please go and get that AstraZeneca. It’s a totally safe vaccine for you. The Therapeutic Goods Administration would not have approved it if it were not. Same, same body that approves the immunisations for your children is the, is the body that approved these immunisation vaccines for you.
BREEN: Righteo. Prime Minister, thanks for joining us this morning and thanks for paying for half of our Olympic Games.
Interview with 7NEWS Brisbane
21 July 2021
Host: Let's go to someone who played a big part in tonight's bid, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, if you can hear us amongst all this music. Congratulations. You must be over the moon.
Prime Minister: Well, now Brisbane will be shooting for the stars, how good is Brisbane, how good is Queensland and how good is Australia? The whole world's going to see it again and we're just absolutely stoked about this. Congratulations to everyone involved. To Coatesy, to Annastacia Palaszczuk and Adrian Schrinner. Everyone who's been involved here in pulling this together. The people of Brisbane, the people of Queensland. We're going to put it on. And this is a great ray of hope for us at a time when I think all Australians really need it.
Host: Prime Minister, now we've gotta ask you, this still has to be paid for. Just checking, you're still going to come to the party 50/50?
Prime Minister: Yeah. It's a 50/50 partnership, we're sharing everything in doing this together, that's what we said we'd do. Share the decisions, share the cost, doing all of this for the people of Australia and the people of Queensland and Brisbane and southeast Queensland. So an absolute true partnership. That's what brought this off. We said we'd do it together. That's what these Games are going to be about, Australians doing it together. And that is really what I think shone through, that partnership that we brought to this and get out there and celebrate Brisbane and do it safely, though. COVIDSafe, of course. But of course, enjoy the moment. It's a great time for the city of Brisbane, another Olympic city in Australia. How good.
Host: You beauty. Alright, we'll go you halves Scott Morrison, thank you very much for your time, Prime Minister.
History Made as 2032 Olympics Secured for Queensland
21 July 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Sport, Member for Fairfax
Australia will host the Olympics for the third time and Paralympics for the second time after Brisbane and South East Queensland tonight secured the 2032 Games.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said securing the Games was a coup for the nation.
“It’s a historic day not just for Brisbane and Queensland, but for the entire country,” the Prime Minister said.
“Only global cities can secure the Olympic Games – so this is fitting recognition for Brisbane’s standing across our region and the world.
“It also marks an important leap forward for Australia as we look toward major events that lock in economic growth and social benefits that will echo for years to come.
“We know the impact on Sydney more than two decades ago was transformative. We can now expect a repeat for Brisbane and communities across Queensland.
“It’s a proud day for Queenslanders and Australians everywhere.”
Minister Richard Colbeck said securing the biggest sporting event in the world offered a tantalising goal to any young Australian who dared to dream big.
“If you think of the young sports fans sitting at home today who aspire to be an Olympian – they now have something tangible to aim for – a chance to compete on home soil in just over a decade.
“It’s a huge opportunity. We saw it in 2000 when Cathy Freeman and so many others performed so brilliantly and inspired a new generation of sports stars.”
Minister Colbeck said the Morrison Government had backed the bid every step of the way and preparations for the event would now trigger considerable growth and investment.
“We will see Brisbane and Queensland deliver an Olympic and Paralympic Games which are affordable, beneficial and sustainable for Queensland and Australia,” Minister Colbeck said.
“In the coming years investment in infrastructure will continue to ensure transport and venues are not just fit for the purpose of the Games but support future growth in the region and remain shining examples of Australia’s success in staging some of the most important global events.
“Hosting the 2032 Games sets us working towards a common purpose, from those in the heart of the action in Brisbane, to people across South East Queensland and beyond.
“It will reinforce unity, health and wellbeing and celebrate Australia’s enduring love of sport.”
KPMG has estimated economic and social benefits at $8.1 billion for Queensland and $17.6 billion for Australia.
Ted O’Brien, who has served as the Prime Minister’s representative for the Queensland bid, said hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games will see “a decade-long runway paved in green and gold all the way to 2032”.
“Hosting the 2032 Olympics will not only inject billions into the economy, it will also create around 120,000 new jobs, including 90,000 jobs for Queenslanders,” Mr O’Brien said.
“Local companies and businesses right across Queensland should take the opportunities which will come over the next decade to contribute to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“For Queenslanders, this is our moment and it’s now up to us to make the most of it.
“We’ve just won the right to host the biggest show on earth right here on home soil, but this is far larger than two weeks of sport,” said Mr O’Brien. “It’s about two decades of transformation that only an Olympic and Paralympic Games can unleash – a decade in the lead up to the Games, and a decade beyond.”
“As the Games approach, Queensland will be well-positioned to host training camps and Olympic teams as they arrive and acclimatise prior to the start of competition and in the years before the Games.
“Construction, services, retail and hospitality will all be winners, and then there are the social benefits from health and wellbeing, social inclusion and improved accessibility for people with a disability.”
Minister Colbeck said the Olympics and Paralympics will be the crowning achievement in Australian sport, but well before the Olympic torch is lit there are other top tier events coming to Australia.
“From next year, we will see many of the world’s best competing right here in Australia in a range of sports, including, potentially, 4 of the top 5 largest sporting competitions in the world,” he said.
2022
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
FIBA Women’s World Cup
World Athletics Cross Country Championships
UCI Road World Championships
VIRTUS Oceania Asia Games (for athletes with an intellectual impairment)
2023
World Transplant Games
FIFA Women’s World Cup
2025
ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships
2026
UCI BMX World Championships
2027
Netball World Cup
Rugby World Cup (decision pending)
2032
Olympic Games
Paralympic Games
Interview with Ali Clarke, ABC Adelaide
21 July 2021
ALI CLARKE: Good morning, Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Ali.
CLARKE: Could you be really clear and concise, who will get the Federal Government money and when?
PRIME MINISTER: In hotspots right now?
CLARKE: Mm hm.
PRIME MINISTER: Right across, right across the state - the $600 and $375 payment. People will be eligible to claim that seven days from now. So, on the 28th of July, for work they lose, hours they lose this week. I was talking to the Prime, to the Premier last night, he'll be and the Treasurer will be making further announcements there today. As you know, in other states, we've been able to do that right across the state and we've had very positive discussions about that last night. But, I'll leave that for him to make announcements.
CLARKE: Isn't this the issue, though? It's actually not right across the state. The Chief Medical Officer, the Federal Officer, has only declared Greater Adelaide, Adelaide Hills and the Gawler regions. We've got people in lockdown all the way from Coober Pedy to Mount Gambier. So, do they really just have to wait for the state?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I know, that’s why I … That's what I, that's what I just said. The Premier and I had very positive discussions last night and I'll leave him to make those announcements.
CLARKE: Ok. Are you clear on how we, at South Australia, have got here? Are you clear on how this man in his 80s was allowed to go to Argentina and then return? Because when we put these questions to our state health medical officers, they say it's a federal issue.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they’ve come back through the quarantine process, and they've gone from, through several locations, as I understand it from the advice that I have received. But, that is the nature of the Delta variant and this virus. As we've seen all around the country, in fact, we're seeing all around the world, it is insidious, and no one's, no one's fully protected from it anywhere in the world, as we're seeing particularly overseas at the moment. I mean, the fatality rates in the UK are just gobsmacking. I mean, 94 people died yesterday. When I was there just over a month ago those rates were, you know, a quarter of that or less. So, you know, it is a very insidious and highly contagious strain of the virus, and, and it is having its impact like everywhere else around the world. But, you know, we're doing everything, everything we can right around the country - states, Commonwealth, working together - to ensure it doesn't take hold, and we are able to get, push through these periods. And, of course, states are being rightly very cautious about this because it is a very unpredictable variant.
CLARKE: It is unpredictable, and you've spoken about the fatality rates coming from this Delta strain. Then, are you willing to accept that the vaccination programme in this country has been less than ideal?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we've had our problems, I've openly confessed that. And, some of those problems, many of them have been outside our control, but the issue is you get on top of them and you fix them. That’s why I put Lieutenant General Frewen in there. That's why we're now hitting dosage rates of a million a week, just shy of that. And, that's why we're now on track to ensure that by the end of the year that everyone who is seeking to have a vaccine would have had that opportunity. And, that's put us probably now around about two months behind where we'd hoped to have been. But, we've been pulling back that that figure, you know, quite significantly over the last few months, and we’ll be well over four million vaccine doses delivered this month. I mean, many of the challenges we've had, whether it's the early non-supply from overseas and then, of course, the advice on AstraZeneca from ATAGI. But, equally, I mean, I think what we've seen is vaccination rates have increased at the moment when, when going through issues like these lockdowns, there's obviously a great awareness. In countries that have had low levels of COVID, like New Zealand, they have vaccination rates on double dose basically the same as ours, and our first dose rates are a lot higher. But, I don't think anyone is suggesting any, any failure of the New Zealand vaccination program.
CLARKE: Well, I guess it's just more, if we're taking it to South Australia, we've spent the last two days focusing on testing lines here, instead of vaccination lines.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
CLARKE: You know, 11 per cent of the entire population is fully vaccinated. Only one in four aged care workers is fully vaccinated, and only 43 per cent have even had their first dose.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, sorry, all those figures you’ve just said aren't right. It is higher than that, and the level of aged care workers now has increased dramatically above that, and that's what I’m saying ...
CLARKE: So, what is it? So, if those figures are wrong, what’s the figures?
PRIME MINISTER: I think we’re about, we’re about 12 per cent now on the, on the vaccination rates, and that's rising, and we've got over 75 per cent of those aged over 70. And, for aged care workers, now we're getting very close to half of them ...
CLARKE: Right. So, half of aged care workers are fully vaccinated?
PRIME MINISTER: On their first dose, yeah.
CLARKE: Yeah, okay. So ...
PRIME MINISTER: On their first dose, they’ve received that, and we've, and we're pushing that through that. See, this is the thing, the vaccination program, yes, in those, particularly in the first half of this year, it's had its great trials. I'm not disputing that. But, the thing is, we're getting on top of those, and now when you vaccinate people at a million a week and we've been able to bring forward the Pfizer doses - we're getting a million a week now. We were getting 300,000, and we keep pushing those numbers each and every, each and every month. You know, then, you know, we're improving it all the time. At least one dose is 43.3 per cent of first doses for aged care staff. That's where we've got to now. That's, you know, that's 69,700, and there's, sorry, 120,000 residential aged care staff have now had that first dose. So, you know, we continue to work with the sector to increase that every, every day, and particularly in this latest outbreak. I mean, we've been very fortunate so far that the fact that every single aged care facility in the country has had two dose visits is, we've been able to so far, and hopefully we’ll continue to be able to, to prevent fatalities in that area.
CLARKE: So, in hindsight, it really was a race, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, look, I think it's unfortunate that the comments that both Professor Murphy and I made at that time have been used in the way they have. We were talking about how cautious we needed to be when it came to the approval of vaccines for use in Australia. Now, I don't think anyone should have suggested we should have cut corners on that. But, look, I know how politics works and I know how people use things out of context about what you say, and that's what's happened. And, that's unfortunate.
CLARKE: Ok.
PRIME MINISTER: But, we've always had a high sense of urgency, but we’ve also applied a very professional level of caution to protect people's public health in Australia.
CLARKE: Prime Minister, can we speak briefly because we'll hit the news soon, about the idea of a nationally run quarantine process, when all of us here in South Australia are locked down because of someone who went to Argentina and then returned. Do you wish that you had done something differently? Do you wish that you would have had a nationally run quarantine process in place months and months ago?
PRIME MINISTER: We have a nationally run programme. We have a 2,000 bed facility in the Northern Territory, and that was what was recommended by the review of quarantine. The hotel quarantine system that has been run ...
CLARKE: But that hasn’t, but that has played out into every, Prime Minister, that hasn’t rolled out into every single state. We are having people come back from overseas into South Australia and we're looking after them - New South Wales, everywhere else. So, that one section clearly wasn't enough. Do you wish that you then ...
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Are you suggesting that a hotel quarantine system can be 100 per cent perfect?
CLARKE: No, I think that's the issue. People are saying that it can't be 100 per cent perfect. So, can we try to get something that would prevent entire states and more than 50 per cent of your population being locked down at this moment?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't, I don't accept that any quarantine system run at a state level or nationally can be 100 per cent perfect. And, Australia's quarantine system, which was run together with the states and territories, has had an infection rate within quarantine of one per cent. And, of that, there have been about just over half a dozen breaches that have resulted in community transmission. Now, when you compare that to the hundreds of thousands of people that have come through that system, I mean, you're looking at effective rates high in the 90s. Now, if I told you a year ago at the outcome of the pandemic that you could have actually put a system in place in partnerships with states and territories that could be stood up almost immediately and that would have prevented transmission into the community in over 95, and probably over 99 per cent of cases, you would have laughed at me. You would have said that was impossible. But, that's actually what Australia has achieved, and while more than 30,000 lives have been saved and a million people are now back in work, and at its peak over 3.5 million people were receiving income support from the Federal Government to get us through this. So, yeah, no country’s got everything right, and Australia hasn't got everything right, either. But, I tell you what, we've got a lot of things right as well, which save lives and save livelihoods.
CLARKE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, we have to leave it here.
Interview with David Penberthy and Will Goodings, FiveAA
21 July 2021
HOST: Prime Minister, good morning and thank you for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER: Very happy to be with you, boys.
HOST: PM, look there’s no doubt there has been a significant negative shift in the perception of your Government, the perception of your leadership, the perception of your management of the pandemic. We now have a situation where more than 50 per cent of the Australian population is in lockdown and just 11 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated. Do you still think the vaccine rollout is not a race?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no I don’t, I absolutely think we have to have the total urgency on this issue, and that’s what we’ve been applying to it. There’s no doubt that the program has had its problems in the first half of the year. But, what matters is that you fix those problems, and we’ve now peaking at around a million a week of vaccines actually done, we’re just shy of that – they were the figures that just came out yesterday. The Pfizer supply has jumped from 300,000 to a million a week, they were just being delivered just this week. We are over 10 million people, vaccines having been delivered. And, we’re on track to ensure that by the end of the year, everyone who wants to have a vaccine will be able to have it. And, that puts us from where we had hoped to be at the start of the year – when the programs were all run last year – it puts us about two months back from where we’d hoped to be. We’ve caught up several months over these last few months. Putting in Lieutenant General Frewen to bring a whole of government focus to how this was being delivered around the country has had a very big impact. And that means …
HOST: Do you regret saying that?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I –
HOST: Because I’ve got to say, in the last month we, there’s been a huge shift. We see it with the texts we get. We see it with the calls we get. We’ve been honest on air ourselves where it, it often feels like the national urgency that you should epitomise has just not been there.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, when that was said by both Professor Murphy and I at the time, what we were talking about was the regulation of vaccines and to ensuring that the vaccines that were being used in Australia had gone through their proper approvals authorities. Now, my political opponents and others have tried to use that. And, look, that’s what happens in politics. But, the fact is, is that we have been moving with that urgency and we’ve been increasing that urgency. I mean, I don’t think Australians wanted us to cut corners when it comes to the vaccines that were put in people’s arms that affect their health. I think they would have wanted us to have followed every proper process to ensure that that was the case. And, that’s what Professor Murphy and I were referring to. So, once they were approved, we’ve been going as fast as we possibly can and getting over the problems that we’ve had, and the ATAGI advice obviously on AstraZeneca was a big problem.
HOST: Yeah, sure, sure.
PRIME MINISTER: But, we’ve been getting over that and we’re now at a million a week, just shy of that. We’ve got the supply that we’ve been able to bring forward, and we went from 10 million Pfizer to 20 million. Then we got that doubled again, from 20 to 40 million. Then we got brought forward our supply, from 300,000 a week to a million a week, and they’re getting out there. The points of presence right across the country, they’re increasing every single week with doctors, and now we’re bringing on pharmacists with the supplies. So, yeah, Penbo …
HOST: Which is all great …
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve had our problems, but we’re getting over them.
HOST: Which is great, but the reason you’ve got 12 million people currently in lockdown is because you got it so wrong in the first place.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t accept that. No, I’m sorry, I don’t accept that. I mean, right now, there was no, there was under no plan was there any plan that said we’d be at 65 per cent, 70 per cent vaccination rates in this country, at no plan. There was no suggestion of that. Australia was always going to be in the suppression phase this year. I mean, right now in Singapore – vaccination rates higher than Australia – they’ve gone back into lockdown. Europe, they’re going back into lockdown. In the UK, they’re over 65 per cent – 94 people died yesterday. So, let’s, I understand that there’s great frustration. Believe me, I feel the same frustration. And, this latest Delta variant has thrown a completely new curve ball on this issue, which every single country in the world is wrestling with. Now, we haven’t got every decision right. No country has in this pandemic. But, after having saved 30,000 lives, got a million people back into work, the largest ever economic support programs – which at one point were supporting 3.5 million people in this country – we’ve got a lot of things right too, Penbo.
HOST: Do we have an issue in this country, though, Prime Minister, with chain of command? Because, it can sometimes look like the country is not being led from the top. Part of the problem is our federal system. We saw the other day some of the criticisms. Your, one of your predecessors as PM Tony Abbott made of the National Cabinet model. But, it sometimes feels like the country is not being led, and a good example of that is two weeks ago at National Cabinet you called in the state premiers and said, ’We’ve got to move beyond lockdowns,’ and here we are, two weeks later, we’re all locked down.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, two things there, David. First of all, the national plan is actually accelerating. The fact that vaccination rates are increasing means we’ll be able to get from this suppression phase to the next phase, I believe, sooner. So, that plan has not changed, and in the coming weeks we’ll be able to define what the vaccination rates are that enable us to get past this suppression phase we’re in, where you can get to the next one where you’re looking at hospitalisations and ICUs and that. So, that plan continues to go forward.
But, the virus writes the rules. Delta strain is is what has impacted New South Wales, Victoria and sadly now South Australia, and while we’re in that phase, then we need to use the tools that we have to try and suppress that to protect people’s health and try to preserve our economy. So, that continues.
The National Cabinet – if someone’s got a better idea than the National Cabinet, which actually gets every premier and every chief minister in the country together – on occasions, we’re meeting several times a day. We’re currently meeting every week. The issue about our federation is states are responsible for some things, Federal Government are responsible for others. My response is to get them in a room as regularly as we, as we need to get in that room to sort things out. You know, every Friday we do sort things out. Now, we’re a federation, it worked no different under my predecessors. And, we have met more often as a team of premiers, chief ministers and Prime Ministers than at any other time in the history of our federation, and that’s the only way you can work these issues through. We all have responsibilities. We’ve all got to exercise them. We all have our accountabilities. We all have to be held accountable for them, and we are.
HOST: You mentioned the path out is going to be determined in the next couple of weeks with regard to what the vaccination rate allows us to move beyond the suppression phase. Does the UK prevent, provide any sort of a roadmap out then? Ninety per cent of the adult population there have received a first shot. Two thirds of the adult population are entirely vaccinated. They’ve come out and had their freedom day. Is that a reasonable goal post for Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is why we’ve asked the Doherty Institute to inform us about what the levels of risk are at various levels of vaccination. I mean, there are few, if any, other countries I know, other than Singapore, that are actually sort of taking that scientific approach to understand the sort of rates you need and how you can match those against the restrictions that you can ease. And, that’s what we’re looking to do, that’s how we saved 30,000 lives, because we had that cautious approach when it came to how we manage things to ensure that people’s health is incredibly important.
HOST: So, we might need to go further than the UK?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ll wait to see what the scientific evidence is on this. We’ll match that with the economic advice we get through the various treasuries and, of course, our Federal Treasury. And, we’ll also look at the health system capacity, because that’s another important factor. Because, when you’re looking at managing hospitalisations and things of that nature, you look at the strength of your hospital system. Now, that’s one of the reasons why Australia has also done very well compared to many other countries. So, what I’m saying is, it’s a not one size fits all for the entire world. You’ve got to have plans that are designed for Australia and for very specific parts of Australia. I mean, in some parts of the country, you have, you have the capacity to, you know, provide health services in a way which is different in others. We have to be very mindful of regional areas of the country – our most vulnerable communities, particularly Indigenous Australians. And, I think one of the big achievements in Australia is how we’ve been able to ensure that, particularly for Indigenous communities, we’ve been able to keep COVID largely out of those areas. I mean, that was one of our biggest concerns.
HOST: Let’s talk about regional. We want to talk to you about regional areas, Prime Minister, because quite generously a good announcement today. Commonwealth income support is on the way for South Australian hotspots. You’ve declared SA, or large parts of metropolitan SA, and some of regional SA a COVID hotspot, meaning that people are going to get payments of $600 a week. We’ve got a lot of listeners in Mount Gambier, in Ceduna, in Port Lincoln and the Iron Triangle. They’re in lockdown, too. They’re not going to derive any income over what is hopefully just a seven day lockdown. We don’t know if it’s going to be extended or not yet. Why can’t they get any assistance from the Commonwealth?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there’ll be, the Treasurer in South Australia will be making some announcements later today. The Premier and I have been working on that last night, just as I was with the Victorian Premier last week and the New South Wales Premier before that. And, in all of that, in both of those states those payments go right across the state. So, I’ll leave that to the South Australian Government to make various announcements there. But, we work together to ensure that we can deliver the support that’s necessary. I mean, just to give you an example, up in New South Wales at the moment where the lockdown has been in place, we’ve already got $187 million dollars out the door, out the door – 388,921 claims actually paid. You know, the system is actually getting the money quickly. The payments are being made at the same level as JobKeeper was in the December quarter of last year, at $600 and $375. It’s a more targeted way of getting payments to people more quickly. We’ve got about a million extra people around the country have taken on a myGov CRN, which is how you access the payment. There’ll be many people in South Australia, I have no doubt, who’ve never had to deal with Services Australia before, particularly for receiving payments. And, you go online – that’s the best way to actually process it – on the 28th of July. So, after the seven days of, after a week, you can go online, you can make the claim. If you’ve lost more than 20 hours during that period, you’re eligible for a $600 payment. If it’s eight to 20 hours – one day a week to 20 hours – then you’re eligible for a $375 payment. And, those payments have been going out the door, and probably more so, more so than any other support payment I’m aware of. And, then, of course, there’s the business challenges, and I know the State Government will be speaking to that today. And if the, if – and let’s hope it doesn’t – the lockdown goes into a longer period, then we have a national program which shares the support for business, cashflow assistance as well.
HOST: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, thanks very much for joining us FiveAA this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, guys. Cheers.
Commonwealth Income Support on the Way for SA Hotspots
20 July 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Government Services, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience
Help is available for South Australians and more help is on the way.
The Morrison Government has activated income support payments of up to $600 a week for South Australians affected by COVID restrictions.
Our Government will stand by South Australians, as we will with other states and territories, in support of those communities that are facing the economic consequences of extended lockdowns.
Australia’s Chief Medical Officer has declared a number of local government areas a ‘hotspot’ under Commonwealth definitions, and the South Australian Government has declared a lockdown for the state for seven days.
Individuals will be eligible for the COVID-19 Disaster Payment if they have lost between 8 and less than 20 hours of work for a payment of $375, and for 20 or more hours of work for a payment of $600, during the period of the lockdown. There will be no liquid assets test applied to eligibility for these payments.
The payments will be paid in arrears for the lockdown and anyone affected can apply through myGov from Wednesday, 28 July. More information about this payment and how to claim, will be available on the Services Australia website soon at: servicesaustralia.gov.au/covid19disasterpayment
To get ready, South Australians should set up their myGov accounts so they can claim quickly and easily online.
Services Australia will make the payments as quickly as possible, with some payments being made in less than an hour following an application.
Anyone who is required to self-isolate by South Australian health directions is also eligible for payments of $1500 to support them to replace lost income. You can get more information on this payment at https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/pandemic-leave-disaster-payment
South Australians in the following local government areas can apply:
The cities of:
Adelaide
Burnside
Campbelltown
Charles Sturt
Holdfast Bay
Marion
Mitcham
Norwood Payneham and St Peters
Onkaparinga
Playford
Port Adelaide Enfield
Prospect
Salisbury
Tea Tree Gully
Unley
West Torrens
The towns of:
Gawler
Walkerville
And the council of:
Adelaide Hills Council
National Cabinet Statement
16 July 2021
The National Cabinet met today to discuss Australia's COVID-19 response, recent outbreaks of COVID-19 and the Australian COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy.
National Cabinet continues to work together to address issues and find solutions for the health and economic consequences of COVID-19.
National Cabinet discussed the outbreak in Greater Sydney and the additional measures introduced by the New South Wales Government to stop the spread of the virus. National Cabinet has agreed to a suppression strategy for COVID-19 with the goal of no community transmission.
All leaders expressed their full support for NSW to get on top of the current outbreak. National Cabinet noted the Commonwealth's extension of the COVID-19 Disaster Payment support for Greater Sydney and Victoria, based on Commonwealth hotspot declarations.
Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 31,632 confirmed cases in Australia and, sadly, 912 people have died. More than 22.5 million tests have been undertaken in Australia. Testing has increased nationally over recent days with 797,127 tests reported in the past 7 days.
Globally there have been over 188.8 million cases and sadly over 4 million deaths, with 559,490 new cases and 8,339 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge in many countries around the world.
Australia's COVID-19 vaccine roll out continues to expand. To date 9,806,809 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia, including a record 175,002 in the previous 24 hours.
In the previous 7 days, more than 935,237 vaccines have been administered in Australia. To date, more than one third (34.5 per cent) of the Australian population aged 16 years and over have now had a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including over half (58.6 per cent) of over 50 year olds and almost three quarters (74.5 per cent) of over 70 year olds. More than one in eight (12.9 per cent) Australians aged 16 years and over are fully vaccinated including more than 16.8 per cent of over 50 year olds and more than 29.2 per cent of Australians over 70 years of age.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly provided an update on current outbreaks of COVID-19 in a number of locations and of both the Alpha and Delta variants. Australia has successfully suppressed a number of outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic, built on strong health measures.
Lieutenant General John Frewen, Coordinator-General of Operation COVID Shield, provided a detailed briefing on the vaccination program. The vaccination program continues to expand with detailed planning underway to expand access points for aged care workers and to bring forward significant additional access points through community pharmacies in both rural and metro areas. National Cabinet further agreed to consider expanding access to vaccinations on weekends through different channels.
National Cabinet received an update from the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on the four step plan to reopening and the progress of the COVID-19 Risk Analysis and Response Taskforce report and the Doherty modelling for the National Plan to transition Australia's National COVID Response.
All leaders reiterated the importance of Australians, especially those in vulnerable groups, to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
National Cabinet agreed to meet next on Friday, 23 July 2021.
Commonwealth COVID-19 Disaster Payment
National Cabinet noted the changes to the COVID-19 Disaster Payment to standardise and streamline Commonwealth financial support when a public health lockdown occurs in a Commonwealth declared hotspot.
The rate the COVID-19 Disaster Payment will be paid to individuals who live or work in a Commonwealth declared hotspot at the rate of $600 per week if a person in paid employment has lost over 20 hours; or $375 per week if they lost between 8 hours and less than 20 hours of work, or have lost a full day of work. Hours lost must have occurred within the lockdown period.
If a lockdown is seven days or more, the Commonwealth will open applications for the COVID-19 Disaster Payment on day eight. If a lockdown is for less than seven days, and a commitment has been made by the State or Territory Government to provide significant economic support, for the same lockdown period, the COVID-19 Disaster Payment is open for applications seven days after the lockdown was declared. The $10,000 liquid assets test will no longer apply.
Business Support Payments
National Cabinet noted the new arrangement for business support payments in the event of a significant lockdown of greater than 14 days. The Commonwealth will fund 50 per cent of the payment if an agreement is reached with the relevant jurisdiction to fund the remaining 50 per cent. The support payment will cease when restrictions are eased or when the location is no longer declared a Commonwealth hotspot.
The support payment will be available to non-employing and employing entities, including not-for-profits, with an aggregated annual turnover between $75,000 and $50 million, if their turnover is 30 per cent lower than a relevant comparison period, and they maintain their headcount of full-time, part-time and long term casual employees as at a specified date.
Eligible entities will receive 40 per cent of their state payroll payments, with a minimum payment of $1,500 and a maximum payment of $10,000 per week. For non-employing businesses, such as sole traders, the payment will be set at $1,000 per week.
National Cabinet noted the existing arrangements jointly announced by the Commonwealth and NSW Governments on 13 July remain in place, with small and medium businesses impacted by the current lockdown supported by the new payment from week four of the current lockdown.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders' Summit
16 July 2021
At the invitation of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, tonight I will attend the virtual APEC Informal Leaders’ Retreat.
I commend Prime Minister Ardern for organising this Retreat to discuss the health and economic recovery of our region as we work to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
APEC has a proven track record of bringing the region’s economies together to bridge divides and enhance regional cooperation.
It is a critical time for Australia to engage with regional partners to promote free trade facilitation, in particular for vaccines and essential goods; build momentum for strengthening the multilateral trading system; and secure a sustainable and inclusive recovery.
I look forward to discussing the key role that APEC and businesses can play in the region’s recovery efforts and to build an open, dynamic and resilient Asia-Pacific community, for the health and prosperity of all our people and future generations.
Interview with Paul Murray, Sky News
15 July 2021
PAUL MURRAY: Scott Morrison, we have a chance to talk about so much today, including the two lockdowns, the financial support, the emotional toll on the country and yeah, schools. He's at Kirribilli House.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, COVID-19, particularly the Delta variant, tends to be rewriting the rules and all the way through this pandemic, you know, we've had to try and learn with the with the new strains and what it means. I mean, ultimately, those decisions will be taken by states and the territories. We have no direct involvement in those decisions. But we've been going through what we've been going through in New South Wales. A few weeks ago, we had that challenge down in Victoria, which thankfully they got on top of. And I think we want to avoid the sort of protracted, lengthy lockdowns that we've seen. So, look, Paul, judgement calls have to be made. And my hope is that now having made that decision, that it will be a very brief one and not an extended one. In New South Wales, the goal is to ensure that you get the cases, cases infectious in the community down to zero, not cases down to zero. You are never going to eliminate this thing. That's not going to happen at any time, anywhere in the world. And so what you've got to manage with this Delta variant, because it does move so quick. He's right about that. Our contract tracers, whether in New South Wales, Victoria, any other place, they've really gone to a whole new level over this past year. But this thing does move faster than the old one. So it's very hard to stay ahead of it. And that is very true.
MURRAY: Does that rewrite the rules about who pays for what and when? Because for obvious reasons, you don't want premiers to panic, then the Federal Government and the nation to pay for panic decisions. But conversely, when things are moving the way that they are, where Victoria's made the decision that they have based off the Delta variant, etcetera, etcetera, do we have to scrap the idea about what qualifies as a two weeks, three weeks, four weeks and further down the process? Because, well, I've sort of caught you in between Daniel Andrews speaking publicly and know that you guys speaking privately before tomorrow. Does there need to be a change to that from 11.59, we should be thinking about things, not how many days from 11.59?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, I've already made some changes early today, and that was really having looked back on what we've just gone through in New South Wales and the earlier lockdown that occurred in Victoria for two weeks there. And looking at how we structured those payments to support, we as a National Security Committee of Cabinet today considered all of those issues. And we made some decisions which said sort of going forward in principle, it would be over over a first week, you'd get paid the next week in arrears for hours lost more than 20, less than 20 the payments at that $600 level and $375, which is what was in place for the December quarter of JobKeeper last year, no liquid assets test. That all runs from day one with payments a week in arrears. And then after two weeks, we would put in place what we've designed with the New South Wales Government, which I think is a very good programme of business cash flow support.
This is the nub of it. If you're going to go have a shorter lock down, fine. But the Commonwealth can't be in this position of just providing a blank cheque to that. And there needs to be cost sharing for those earlier periods. And of course, in areas where the Commonwealth has deemed there to be a hot spot. And look, that's why I'm quite confident that we'll come to a common sense arrangement. The Premier and I, you know, we have a good working relationship. Always have. Doesn't mean we always agree on everything, but we're both leaders that have responsibilities. And I think everyone understands whether it's Victorians or the country more broadly, it's our job to sort this stuff out and make sure people get the help they need. But it's got to be done in a way that, you know, everyone has skin in the game here and the states have it and we have it. And I think that'll get us to a good outcome.
MURRAY: There's a certain frustration from those of us that are viewing it, so imagine what it's like to be living it. But there's this constant battle between state and federal and there's the political implications of that. And there is the team red, team blue stuff. And I know you want to try to rise above all of that, but let's just engage very quickly here. If Victoria doesn't get everything that it wants based off today's press conference, then tomorrow's story is somehow that you're dudding the people of Victoria. Let's lay it out there. The rules that you put in place for the greater Sydney lockdown would apply everywhere if its lock down went as long as what's happening right now in Sydney.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we announced today is we've brought forward some of those measures for future lockdowns. That's what we agreed to do today. I mean, first week it was each state does their own thing and we brought that forward to day one. And so that's what we're looking at going forward now. And we think that's a common sense arrangement. You've got to move with these things, Paul. It is a very dynamic virus. And we haven't been proposing that there'd be lengthy lockdowns. We knew there might be some short ones. And they were things that the states would be able to take care of. But the Delta variant is proving that that is more difficult to address and so we've got to adapt and that's what we've been doing and so we'll come to, but the point is it's prospective, whatever we agree, that will apply to all states and territories going forward. We agreed to put over a half a billion dollars a week into New South Wales. I mean, last year when Victoria was going through their extended lockdown, we were putting in three quarters of a billion dollars billion every week. So, I mean, you're right. I mean, last year there wasn't this team red, team blue thing about all this stuff. We just sort of worked together. And there wasn't, frankly, as much of that that toing and froing. I don't think it's very helpful. I don't think the public appreciates that. There's a lot of politics that's gone into that. Some people want to play themselves into a federal election when that's held next year. That's not going to solve COVID. That's not going to get anyone vaccinated any earlier. That's not going to do with providing all the support that they need. So I think people can leave all that stuff at the door. And let's just get back to working together again and doing the best for the Australian public and the people in each of their states.
MURRAY: Something, again, that as soon as you start arguing that grey in politics, it becomes difficult. But there's a lot of grey here. Right. Which is, of course, we know the difference between state and federal responsibilities. But today, according to vaccine roll out numbers, everyone over the age of 70, 75, 80, 85, 90 and 95, it's 72 per cent or higher have already had their first dose of the vaccine. So depending on the different variations in that age group. So does that start to put the brake on the urgency of lockdown? Or it seems that the state health officials are saying, well, because we've got a bloke in his 30s in ICU, it doesn't matter what's happening to people in their 70s, but we know that's the most vulnerable group, those with comorbidities or those of a particular age group.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, look, there's actually truth in all of those points of view, and that's the challenge of this virus. Yes, we're just just shy of seventy five per cent of those over 70 on first dose now and importantly, one in three eligible Australians for the vaccine have now had their first dose. It's over a third. And so, you know, those figures just show that we're continuing to make progress every month, every week. I mean, it was three and a half million last month. It was just over two and about two and a half the month before that. It was about 1.7 the month before that. So every month we're upping it. We're going harder. We're getting further. The same will be true this month in July as the supply comes in. So but that said, Paul, you know, if you've still got 25 per cent of those over 70 not having had a first dose, that's still quite a lot of elderly Australians who are quite vulnerable. So we've still got a distance to travel in all of that.
I do agree, though, they're the percentages that matter the most. And so, you know, when you look at what's happening in the United Kingdom, they've got an overall rate of vaccination of around 65 per cent. It's the second highest in the world. No other country has achieved that, by the way, other than Israel. The United States, they're in the 50s. Germany's in the 50s, many of the European countries in the 40s. So this idea that Europe is vaccinated or the United States is vaccinated, it's actually just not true. They haven't reached 65 per cent, let alone 75 or higher than that. So it is true that protecting your most vulnerable people is the most important thing. And that's what gives you the first licence, I think, to be able to be far less restrictive in these circumstances.
MURRAY: In Sydney right now, despite how many cases there may or may not be in your local government area, kids can't go to school. That'll be the rule in Victoria for the next few days. You've always been really strong on the school issue. It's a particular bugbear of mine, not just because of the selfish interest of my little girl who I want to physically be there. But we all know what the consequences are if kids don't go to school. You know, National Cabinet that'll be meeting tomorrow. Why can't they agree that kiss and drop off becomes the national standard? And so therefore this concern about parents mingling around disappears and we find a way to get kids back to school?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are two challenges with this. And you're right, I was very forthright on this. And I was right, frankly, because the the medical evidence was that in the earlier strains of the virus, particularly we're talking about at this time last year and indeed earlier then, it didn't affect younger people, it didn't affect children, and certainly not in terms of serious illness. And barely you could even detect its infection. And so that's why I took the strong position that I did.
Now, sadly, under the Delta variant, that isn't the same situation and it does have an impact on younger people in that way. And that's terribly unfortunate. And that just makes managing COVID all that more complicated now and so it's not as clear cut as it used to be. On the sort of kiss and drop and all of those sorts of things. I get those points and I think that's and states need to consider carefully taking that step, for getting kids going to school. The virus doesn't make its way from one person to another on its own any more than the vaccine walks down the street, knocks on your door and jumps in your arm. You've got to go it or you have to carry that virus from one person to another. So what the states are trying to do in these situations, whether it's here in New South Wales or what's happened in Melbourne, is just to ensure that if you reduce the mobility of people, then you won't see the virus transfer. Now, I don't agree that you can eliminate this thing. And anyone who thinks they can eliminate this thing is kidding themselves. And that is not the national policy. It's not the policy of National Cabinet, it is not the policy of my government. So that's what they're trying to do. But I must admit to you, Paul, at the moment, dealing with this Delta variant, there is a bit of a trial, trial going on here, a bit of trial and error going on here. Hopefully not too much error, hopefully a lot of positive trial. And we've got to work ways about how we can positively deal with this, because I'm not kidding. If this thing gets into the community like we've seen overseas, then people will die. I mean, in the United Kingdom, 50 people died yesterday. 50. 50. You know, there's 47,000 cases a day occurring in Indonesia. So we can't kid ourselves that this thing has somehow become not deadly anymore, it can't result in our hospitals being choked. This could happen if it gets out of control. And that's why we are working really hard. So everyone who wants a vaccine can have one by the end of the year. We get those vaccination rates as high as we can. And in the meantime, we've just got to work together to try and get the right balance in place to attack this thing when it rears its ugly head.
MURRAY: And you know, those that will deliberately misinterpret the concept of trial and error. They are misinterpreting exactly what you just said. But we'll wait and see where that goes.
PRIME MINISTER: The states are doing it, yeah.
MURRAY: Here's the issue, right, which is, so Australia has been good because we've been able to lock the borders, which means we haven't had those surges of cases, which means we haven't had the surges of deaths, which means we haven't had perhaps the surge of urgency to go to a vaccine like they had in the car parks of Los Angeles or the hospitals of the UK. Now, to be honest, I prefer to be in that position than the other way around. That said, a year on, 10 million people are in lockdown and we are four letters in to the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. So what do you say to the people that are locked down or live with the spectre of lockdown about the journey ahead?
PRIME MINISTER: Hang in there and keep pushing through because Australians never give up and Australians look after each other. This is the trial of our generation of Australians, you know, in generations past., Australians have had to deal with some some pretty tough things. And what do they do? They push through. This is our trial and it's not pleasant and it's not great and it's hard and it's frustrating and it's annoying and it makes you angry and it makes you want to point fingers and do all sorts of things. I get all of that, Paul. We're living it, too. But there's no alternative. You've got to push through. Australia, we've just got to keep pushing through.
MURRAY: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, exclusive conversation here on Paul Murray Live. Appreciate the time.
Interview with Sabra Lane, ABC AM
15 July 2021
SABRA LANE: We're joined now by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, from Kirribilli. Good morning, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Sabra.
LANE: This is in effect from next Monday. How many childcare centres could this affect and why is it opt in?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's around about 3,600 childcare services in the Greater Sydney area that this will be available to that will support around 216,000 families. And the experience we've done this on occasions before when we've been in this situation, the take up has been very strong. And so for families, for those centres, we expect a very strong take up of that. And what it simply means for those who may be listening on, is that if your child doesn't go to the childcare facility for a particular day during this lockdown, then you won't be charged a gap fee and the centre will continue to be supported and you won't lose your places in those childcare centres. So we've done this several times now. It's proved to be the most effective way of doing it. Families in the centres know each other very, very well and they'll come to those arrangements. And that's proved to be the most effective and flexible way to deal with the challenge.
LANE: Why is it opt in?
PRIME MINISTER: Because it's a relationship between the family and the centre. And as I said, this has worked. And, you know what, during COVID, what we do is we just keep doing things that work, Sabra, and we learn from each time we do these things. And this has been found to be the best way to do this programme.
LANE: Australia's biggest city is in lockdown. The second biggest city could. Alan Finkel's report into contact tracing last year found that in the event of an outbreak, every effort should be made to go hard and go early. That's from the report. Why didn't you encourage Gladys Berejiklian to do that?
PRIME MINISTER: The New South Wales Government, like every state and territory government, acts on the information they have available to them. And they went into lockdown on day 11. The second wave lockdown in Victoria went in on day 45. So, you know, there's been a lot learnt, I think, between that second wave lockdown in Victoria and this most recent one in Sydney. They responded to the information they had and they took that advice and they took the best decisions they had on that advice.
LANE: The Burnet Institute modelling, it's a respected Institute, shows that under the state's current settings, case numbers won't drop for about 90 days. Have you asked Premier Gladys Berejiklian about the state's own modelling on this to show what the current restrictions will do to case numbers?
PRIME MINISTER: We've worked through those issues and particularly on the detail on cases and what New South Wales is seeking to achieve is no cases infectious in the community. That's what they're seeking to achieve right now. And when we work together on these arrangements to support the lockdown here in New South Wales, it has been designed around a, you know, understanding what those timeframes are. And it's been extended for a further two weeks. And then they'll be looking further at what is necessary at that time.
LANE: And under the state's own modelling, case numbers won't drop for 90 days? Is that replicated?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm not going to go into the discussions I had with the New South Wales Premier or the advice that they have available to them. I mean, there are lots of people putting lots of numbers together. Many of those are not involved in the formal processes. Those who have to make decisions, those who are actually accountable for those decisions, call on that data themselves directly. And those who are providing it to them understand that there is a lot riding and there's a lot of accountability. It's not just a matter of producing a report and expressing opinion. The people advising the New South Wales Government have direct accountability for that, as does the Premier and everybody in the chain here. And so there's lots of information out, they're using the best information available to them to make those decisions, as you'd expect.
LANE: If the Federal Government had supported wages and business earlier, would New South Wales have gone into a tougher stage four style restriction earlier?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
LANE: If Melbourne goes into a lockdown, how quickly would the Federal Government be giving financial assistance there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we would look to work with them to provide that as soon as that was needed. I mean, we already did that in the last lockdown. For the first two weeks of the lockdown in New South Wales, in Sydney, it was exactly what we did in those two weeks in Victoria. And of course, last year we were putting in three quarters of a billion dollars a week, every week, during the course of that very long lockdown in Melbourne. And so, look, if Victoria has to go into that situation, let's hope they don't. I was listening to the responses of the business people you were speaking to on the programme. Let's hope they don't have to do that. But if they do, we have got models now that can move quickly. You learn a lot during COVID and you learn how to do things better each and every time. And if Victoria goes into this again, I think we'll have even better arrangements to support them through, if they have to go into that. One of the big challenges is how you deliver that business support. Now, I know there are people still waiting for cheques from from the last lockdown for the programmes being run from the State Government. Now, we would want to work with the state government to ensure that we can get cheques to people more readily, more quickly. And we believe we've been able to develop a good model in New South Wales that I think would work even more effectively in Victoria than the models that we've had before. As you know, we offered to go 50/50 with Victoria last time, Sabra, and that offer was rejected.
LANE: The whole nation is vulnerable right now because of a sluggish vaccine programme. Many voters believe that buck stops with you.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, the national vaccine programme is the responsibility of the Federal Government, and that's why - we've had our challenges with it - I don't doubt that. And there's been issues that we've had to resolve. And we've had a lot of shocks to the system, the early non-supply from overseas of AstraZeneca. And then, of course, we had the ATAGI advice that had a big, big impact on the rollout of the vaccine for AstraZeneca and its availability to the broader population. There's no doubt that that had a very significant impact. But we've been working hard to get those rates of vaccination up at the pace needed to get this done this year. We've got a million Pfizer doses coming in from next week, every week. We've got a vaccination rate running at almost a million a week now, and those numbers have continued to rise. I mean, if you go back a while ago, what we were doing in March, we did 769,000. That jumped to 1.4 million in April, 2.1 million in May, 3.4 million in June. And we're looking to get over four million in July. And those numbers will keep rising. And that means by the end of the year, everyone who was seeking to get a vaccine, we believe should have had that opportunity. And that would put us about two months back from where we initially hoped to be. And, you know, we have had a cautious approach in Australia on medical advice and all of those sorts of things. The alternative is to rush a TGA approval at the beginning of the year. And that was the main issue that we were focusing on, that we wanted to follow all the usual steps and processes to ensure that vaccines were appropriately qualified before they were used in the community.
LANE: Yesterday, you noted that the advice from the immunisation panel, ATAGI being cautious. And again, you've reflected on that today and that it slowed the rollout considerably. Have you reflected on the shortcomings of your own procurement policy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course. Of course. I mean, we make decisions ...
LANE: What would you have done better?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we made decisions to back vaccines that we could produce in Australia, which …
LANE: And that has been monumentally shown up as not working, relying on that.
PRIME MINISTER: And the reason for that is because the vaccine that we chose to roll out was also subject to some very constrained medical advice, which was not the case in other countries where that AstraZeneca vaccine was used …
LANE: ATAGI's co-chair, Allan Cheng, has told The Guardian today that ATAGI's role is to provide advice, but the Federal Government remains responsible for making decisions on the vaccine roll-out.
PRIME MINISTER: I agree with that, Sabra. So are you suggesting that the Federal Government should not have accepted the expert medical advice of ATAGI in the middle of a pandemic in relation to the vaccine? Surely you're not suggesting that?
LANE: I'm not suggesting that, but you seem to be blaming ATAGI.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm simply saying that we received medical advice that has changed on two occasions. And that medical advice is, as I made very clear to ATAGI at the time, was based on an assumption that the cases in Australia would remain low. Now, I never made that assumption, Sabra. I never made that assumption. And the balance of risk assessment that ATAGI are very clear about that, were based on low case numbers in Australia. Now, when the case numbers increase, as you've seen from ATAGI now, their advice changes now. People have understood that, but I think it has created some confusion in the public. I think that's the case. I mean, there are things we can control. And you're right, procurement. And that's why we've worked, when we had that situation, we were able to get additional supplies of vaccines. We went from 10 million Pfizer to 20 million to 40 million and then getting that brought forward to a million a week from next week. So getting all that done. And, yes, there are challenges there we had. I'm not walking away from that. And we're responsible for that. I'm not suggesting we're not, Sabra, but equally, when you take medical advice, then that will have implications on the rollout. And it definitely has.
LANE: And if you had your time again, what would you have done differently with your procurement policy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's interesting to be wise in hindsight. What matters is what we do now, what matters is the …
LANE: It does, but voters also want to hear from you. Many have told me that, that they want to hear what you would have done differently.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we would have foreseen the future better. And that's the problem with the pandemic. There's no roadmap. And certainly events don't always play out as you would like them to. But when those events play out differently to what you'd expected, then you take action, which is what we've done, and that's what we'll continue to do with every lockdown. Let's hope there are not too many more of them, but we will continue to try and improve the supports that we provide. What matters is putting in place arrangements that gets the job done. That's why I put Lieutenant General Frewen in charge of the vaccination rollout to coordinate it better across government and to coordinate it better with the states. And that is seeing the vaccination rates rise from two million a month in May to what will be around four million a month this month. So it's about dealing with the problem in front of you. We can't change what's happened in the past. What we can do is continue to respond in an environment which is highly fluid. It changes all the time in the pandemic. I think Australians understand that. And there are things that you might have done differently, well you try and improve them as you go forward.
LANE: A number of large disability service providers say they're concerned that many of their clients in group homes still haven't received even one dose of the vaccine despite being in Phase 1a. What's going wrong?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're about halfway through those residential groups and we've been having the inreach services, and particularly once we've been able to get two doses to every aged care facility around the country, that's improved that roll out amongst that group. There are highly disparate groups amongst the community, there in a lot of different places, and they're in largely, small numbers of groups in these facilities. And Linda Reynolds and her team, together with Lieutenant General Frewen, have been getting to those as quickly as we possibly can. But it's not a simple exercise. It really isn't. It's quite a painstaking exercise. We made a lot of progress over the last couple of months on that. And thankfully, what we've seen, particularly in our disabilities community, just as we've seen, I should say, in our indigenous community, I think one of the things that Australia, one of the things I was most concerned about, is we haven't seen the COVID virus impact those communities like we did. And that is a great tribute to all the health workers and all those who work in those sectors.
LANE: Prime Minister, thanks for talking to AM this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Sabra. Good to talk to you.
Childcare Gap-Fee Waiver for NSW Families in COVID-Affected Areas
15 July 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Education and Youth
The Morrison Government will provide additional support for New South Wales by allowing childcare services to waive gap-fees for parents keeping their children at home due to current COVID-19 restrictions.
Under current NSW restrictions child care services can remain open to provide care for those who need it, but we know that many parents choose to keep their children home.
From Monday July 19, childcare centres in New South Wales Local Government Areas subject to stay at home orders can waive gap-fees on the days that parents choose to keep their children at home. The gap fee is the difference between the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) the Government pays to a service and the remaining fee paid by the family.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said around 216,000 families across Greater Sydney that access childcare services could benefit from this measure.
“When gap-fees are waived families will not have to pay any out-of-pocket costs for those days that their children are at home during the current stay at home period,” the Prime Minister said.
“This is another measure that will make life easier for many families in Greater Sydney during these challenging times.
“This adds to the significant financial support we have already announced in conjunction with the NSW Government to back families and businesses, and provide additional mental health support.”
Minister for Education and Youth Alan Tudge said many in the sector had been asking for this change and were expected to offer the gap-fee waiver.
“This opt-in measure ensures children remain enrolled in care and the Commonwealth childcare subsidy continues to flow to the centre, providing a valuable, stable and certain source of revenue during this time,” Minister Tudge said.
“Previous lockdowns show that even when child care remains open, there is an understandably strong preference to keep kids at home.
“We are easing some of the pressure on families and encouraging them to keep their children enrolled, guaranteeing the continued flow of child care subsidy to service providers.
“Importantly, this means providers can keep their staff employed so business can continue as usual when the stay at home orders end.
“Today’s decision will also support Outside School Hours Care sector, which is under particular pressure while school students are learning from home.”
The measure builds on the existing gap fee waiver that is currently in place until 31 December 2021, where gap fees can be waived if a service is directed to close due to public health advice.
Families experiencing a loss of income, such as casual workers or those in self-isolation, may also be eligible for support through the Additional Child Care Subsidy (temporary financial hardship).
The Morrison Government has committed around $3 billion to support the early childhood education and care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Local Government Areas are: Bayside, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Burwood, Camden, Campbelltown, Canada Bay, Canterbury-Bankstown, Central Coast, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Hornsby, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Liverpool, Mosman, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Parramatta, Penrith, Randwick, Ryde, Shellharbour, Strathfield, Sutherland Shire, Sydney, The Hills Shire, Waverley, Willoughby, Wollondilly, Wollongong and Woollahra.
VIC COVID-19 Support Package
15 July 2021
Prime Minister, Treasurer
The Victorian Government today announced it was entering a five day lockdown.
Earlier today the Commonwealth Government announced proposed changes to the way economic support will be delivered to individuals and businesses, in partnership with States and Territories, in areas that are subject to a Commonwealth Hotspot declaration and to State or Territory lockdown restrictions.
This evening the Prime Minister and Premier of Victoria, supported by their Treasurers, agreed to these new arrangements with a further enhancement that where a lockdown has been imposed by a State or Territory Government for a period of less than seven days, (as has been announced by the Victorian Government), the Commonwealth will provide income support through the COVID-19 Disaster Payment as follows:
A Commonwealth Hotspot has been declared by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer.
The Commonwealth Government will provide income support for those who work or live in the areas declared as a Commonwealth Hotspot. The provision of income support outside of these areas will be provided where requested and at the cost of the State or Territory Government.
Individuals will be eligible for the COVID-19 Disaster Payment if they have lost between 8 and less than 20 hours of work for a payment of $375, and for 20 or more hours of work for a payment of $600, during the period of the lockdown. There will be no liquid assets test applied to eligibility for these payments.
A commitment has been made by the State or Territory Government to provide significant economic support, for the same lockdown period, to ensure cost sharing between the Commonwealth and the State or Territory Government.
The outcome of this arrangement will have the following implications for the statewide lockdown announced by the Premier of Victoria effective at 11.59pm this evening and the declaration by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer of Greater Melbourne, Moorabool Shire, City of Greater Geelong, Borough of Queenscliff and Surf Coast Shire as a COVID-19 Hotspot for the purposes of Commonwealth support, for an initial period of 5 days from 11.59pm 15 July 2021 until 11.59pm 20 July 2021.
Key information:
Eligibility for the COVID-19 Disaster Payment will be made available for the period of the Victorian lockdown (five days) as it applies to each area of the State.
The Commonwealth will fund the payment for those who live and/or work in the areas declared as a Commonwealth Hotspot and the State Government will fund payments provided to the balance of the State.
Payments will be made in arrears on application to Services Australia 7 days after the commencement of the lockdown (that is from Friday 23 July 2021).
Payments of $600 will be made to Individuals that lose 20 hours or more of work during the period of the lockdown (the next five days).
Payments of $375 will be made to Individuals that lose between 8 and up to 20 hours of work during the period of the lockdown (the next five days).
No liquid assets test will be applied to the payment at any time.
Information about the COVID-19 Disaster Payment can be found on the Services Australia website.
In addition, the Victorian Government has agreed to provide significant additional economic support to businesses, from day one of this lockdown period, satisfying the Commonwealth’s cost sharing requirements for this arrangement.
Should the Victorian lockdown be extended, the additional features of the upgraded and revised economic support arrangements proposed by the Commonwealth will be activated by agreement.
The additional support being announced today comes on top of the $45.4 billion of Commonwealth support that has already been delivered to Victoria.
Interview with Ray Hadley, 2GB
14 July 2021
RAY HADLEY: Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day, Ray.
HADLEY: Gee, you’ve had a week.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's been a lot of weeks like this. This time last year, Ray, we were in the middle of the Victorian second wave and dealing with some really terribly serious issues there. And, there's some familiarity between what we were doing then and what we're facing now. But, you know, we've learnt a lot since then and we're applying those lessons. And, that's what you saw in the package we announced yesterday, both direct support for people, if you don't mind just, if I can just say specifically what we did there.
HADLEY: Yeah, sure.
PRIME MINISTER: That means on, from this Friday, those first four local government areas that went into lockdown, and from next Monday for the rest of the state, we are increasing the direct payments to people who’ve lost hours because of this lockdown. So, if you've lost more than 20 hours of work a week, it doesn't matter whether you're part-time, casual, full-time, doesn't matter who you work for. If it's because of the COVID lockdown that you've lost those hours, you will get 500, sorry $600 a week. And, if you, it's up to 20 hours lost, you know, one day a week, eight to 20 hours, you get $375. Now, you get that by accessing Services Australia on 180 22 66, from next Monday. It's right across New South Wales, and I know you’ve got, you know, listeners right across New South Wales. And, because we appreciate, in the arrangement we came to with the New South Wales Government, the lockdown in Sydney is obviously affecting people outside of Sydney. We also announced a joint package of business support of between $1,500 a week to $10,000 a week for businesses up to a turnover of $50 million. That is around 40 per cent of their payroll on a weekly basis. And, that is on both payments from week four onwards, for as long as the lockdown has to run. That is commensurate with, you know, what we've done in the past. In Victoria last year, when they were in the lockdown, we were pumping in, without request, three quarters of a billion dollars every week to support the Victorian economy and to support Victorians. Now, in this package that we announced yesterday, it's $500 million a week, it's actually a bit more than that when you take the direct payments into account between the Commonwealth and New South Wales Government. As you would have heard today, the New South Wales Government is providing further business support on top of that, which is, you know, I think also well-designed.
HADLEY: Now, just, if we go through this. It’s $600 a week if a person's lost 20 hours or more, or $325 to $375 each week if a person has lost between eight and 20 hours. Now, the payment that’s being made by the Commonwealth or the State Government to the companies who’ve had turnover of less than $50 million, now, that's not like JobKeeper. It's not as if you're giving them money and they've got to then pay the people who are retaining their jobs. The money is for them to basically continue to operate and continue to employ people, if they can.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, that's right, and they may use it to supplement their wages as well. I mean, that's, we're saying that's their decision. It’s based on what we did a year ago. A year ago we did a whole bunch of things. There was JobKeeper. Now, that was a national program, cost over $90 billion, its scale was, you know, like nothing the country had seen before. And, so, we had to do it that way. This way we can make those direct payments to people straight from the Government. We don't have to go through the business, and that means it just happens more quickly. People can, as they’re already getting, we've already had about 130,000 of those claims made and processed, and people getting that money already in the lockdown to date. So, it's a more direct way of doing it. And, so, the business doesn't, if they have to reduce someone's hours, they don't have to make, you know, make that up. They should ring that number and they can get that support and remain working or connected to the employer. That's right.
HADLEY: Ok, I'll get a stack of emails and calls today from people. By the way, just as we talk, no new cases in Queensland, two in hotel quarantine, and only one in Victoria, but that's a primary, close contact, as I told you listeners.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, good news.
HADLEY: Now, this is an anomaly, and I don't expect you’ll have an answer off the top of your head, but it's one that I'll get through the day. ‘I wonder if you could help me. I don't want to ruin young families. I have a small business. In 2019, I only had two employees, monthly review of $40,000. By 2021, I've got five full-time employees and two part-timers. Now, we might have similar turnover this year. Do I, am I eligible for assistance?’ Because, you know, it's predicated on what you're doing in 2019 compared to what you're doing in 2021. Now, this is a business that’s changed in the number of people they employ and the way they operate from that two-year period. Is there any respite for people that have changed circumstances?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, look, I believe there will, and that was one of the key issues that Dom Perrottet and I and the Treasurer and Gladys was speaking about while we were working through it. I mean, you've got to put some basic rules in place.
HADLEY: Oh, sure. I understand that.
PRIME MINISTER: I know Services New South Wales, who'll be administering this payment, will be looking for ways to deal with those sorts of situations. So, I just encourage people in that situation, just register today and then you’ll work through the application process, talk to Services New South Wales, and I'm sure they are going to be able to work through many of those, many of those issues. I can't give an absolute guarantee on that.
HADLEY: Oh, I know that.
PRIME MINISTER: The New South Wales Government are running that program, but I think they'll do it very well. But, I would engage with them. I know the Premier and the Treasurer of New South Wales are already aware there will be situations like that and they’ll need to take that into account.
HADLEY: Now, I heard you yesterday afternoon go live with the conference with Don Perrottet and Gladys Berejiklian and you were at pains to point out that you just go and apply. This is, I'm talking about employees here, for your either, you know, $325, $375 or $600 bucks, and that will automatically flow. I guess there's got to be something, you know what it's like, you and I have spoken about this. It's only a rort if you're not involved - whether it's fire, flood or anything else, there's always someone trying to put their nose in the trough. Will there be some sort of check and balance to make sure people aren't inventing jobs they don't have?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, yeah, at the end of the day, people have got to declare this income, and so they can be assured that when they do this, that the Tax Office is aware of the claims that have been made at the end of the day. And, what has been effective with all of these payments, because it's the same thing we do, as you know, Ray, with floods and fires and and all of that, and the most recent New South Wales floods is a good example. Those payments were being turned around very, very quickly. And, and in those disasters, people, you know, ask for it when they need it. We're talking largely about people here who don't engage with the social security system. You know that. And, if you're already getting a social security payment, you're not eligible for this.
HADLEY: Right.
PRIME MINISTER: This is the people who’ve lost hours and haven't been on social security. They're not looking to be on social security. They want to work.
HADLEY: Sure.
PRIME MINISTER: And, so, what we've found with these nature of payments is that, you know, that the integrity of this tends to be at a higher level and we don't have as many of those issues. That's not to say it doesn't happen. I'm not naive about it. I’ve been an Immigration Minister and a Treasurer, I know what people try and do around systems, and a Social Services Minister. So, I've had the trifecta of those. I'm not naive to those challenges. But in a crisis like this, in a disaster, you have to lean in to try and get things out as quickly as possible. And, there's a great advantage to that, because it boosts confidence. It says to people, it gives them that shot in the arm - not, we need them to get two shots in the arm, one in the arm for the vaccine and and one for their confidence - to push through the weeks ahead. And, that's what this does. So, yes, there is backend compliance on this, just as there will be for the business payments. But, I must say, through the course of the pandemic, that has not proved to be the concern that it might ordinarily be.
HADLEY: Ok, look, I got some good news for you. And, this is on the back of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation meeting on Monday to discuss lowering the recommended age for AstraZeneca below 60. Now, and I won't mention the people for privacy reasons, but I've had two 25-year-olds and a 21-year-old, one of the 25-year-olds had AstraZeneca yesterday, the other 25-year-old will have it today. The 21-year-old will have it on Friday. And, funnily enough, they did this before this announcement, they just figured that, they all work in a high-risk area and they all are essential services. They said, nah, look, we've got to just get it, you know, and I guess run the gauntlet. But, I think the problem for you, as the Prime Minister, is the Australian Technical Advisory of Immunisation have been up and down like a fiddler's elbow in relation to AstraZeneca. And, I think that there was an overreach about, you know, 60 and 50 and 40 and all the rest of it. The simple fact of the matter is there's a risk with any vaccination you get, a very minor risk, a very minor risk.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, that is true, and that's why some weeks ago I was saying that the Therapeutic Goods Administration that regulate, you know, drugs in Australia, have approved AstraZeneca for persons aged over 18. And, I said that, you know, we made available extra money to the GPs to have consultations through Medicare to talk to people about, you know, their vaccines. It's not banned for people under 60 or 50, never has been, and around 20,000 young people under 40, since I made those comments a few weeks back, have gone and just done exactly as the people you've just mentioned.
Now, they shouldn't do it without talking to their doctor. That's all I said. Go and talk to your doctor. And, that's, you know, informed consent. It's a free country. They can decide to have it or not to have it when it comes to these things. And, so, people should be sensible about it. And, now, I know people, younger people who’ve done exactly the same thing. They're smart enough to make decisions about their own health and listen to good advice. And, some will say no, some will say yes. In the UK, of course, you know, people have been doing that and they've just clocked over 65 per cent of their, of their vaccination of their population there. But, I still note, 200, over 200 people died in the UK last week, and I think 50 yesterday, and their case numbers are running at over 30,000 a day. So, I know there's been a lot of references to the United Kingdom, but in Australia, you know, they've had more cases in a day than we've had in 18 months. So, I wish them well, particularly as they go into this next phase. But, it will be quite an experiment.
HADLEY: See, I know Craig Kelly’s not your problem anymore, but I identified two nights’ ago on Sky News, he said you're more likely to die by getting the vaccination than being unvaccinated. Now, I think …
PRIME MINISTER: That’s rubbish.
HADLEY: Well, I know it is, but a responsible Member of Parliament - he's not your problem - but I just think that he has to be called out every day of the week because it is rubbish. And, he's ably supported by Alan Jones who’s saying the same thing, my former colleague, and I'm getting criticised for identifying him as being basically an anti-vaxxer because he’s getting people on his program saying, ‘Don't get it because you're more likely’ - this is Kelly - ‘you're more likely to die with the vaccination than being unvaccinated.’ It's just, it's just ridiculous.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Look, the extremes of every debate, Ray, are completely unhelpful. There's no doubt about that. But, you know, most Australians are middle ground and sensible. Certainly those quiet ones, they understand these things. And, you know, Australians have one of the highest rates of vaccination, particularly child immunisation, in the world. We understand vaccinations. We have a very good regulatory system for vaccines. And, yes, I know ATAGI has been very cautious and that had a massive impact on the rollout of the vaccine program. It really did. It slowed it considerably and it put us behind, and we wish that wasn't the result but it was. Those decisions are made independent of Government, and should be.
And so, you know, if we want a system where drug control in Australia is not run by politicians but by the professional medicos, well, sometimes that means they'll be very cautious in circumstances like this. They didn't go down the emergency approval and advice path that they did in the United Kingdom. Why? Because people weren't dying every day as they were in the United Kingdom. So, you know, it's a two-way street. We want those independent medical advisers, then that can sometimes mean a very conservative, cautious approach, which is what has occurred here. But, for those saying that, you know, there's [inaudible], there's, you know, there’s the whole COVID thing's a conspiracy and it'll turn your arm into magnets and all this sort of stuff, this is just, this is just crazy nonsense, and it does put people's lives at risk. And equally at the other end, which says that, you know, we all just have to do nothing forever and that you can eliminate this thing. That's rubbish, too. And, we've always been in the centre ground on this, and I think that's where Australians have been as well.
HADLEY: Ok, I'll leave it this way. I’m just seeing a report on Sky News now, record numbers in Indonesia, which is a terribly troubling thing, but our neighbours in Fiji, I mean, the poor buggers. It started with one in April and now they're getting five and 600 a day. And, the Kiwis have lobbed over and said, ‘We'll try and help you.’ But, an island, you know, a group of islands like Fiji with limited resources, you feel dreadfully sorry for them, I mean …
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we do, and we're piling in the vaccines, all their vaccines they're getting from us. And, we’re piling the AstraZeneca vaccines into Fiji, and they continue to get more. We've had medical teams over there for months. I've been speaking with Prime Minister Bainimarama now for months about this. I've also been talking to President Widodo. We're sending further vaccines up to support them. You know, Australia, yes, I know, and particularly in Sydney, going through a tough time at the moment. But, if we just reflect for a second, we’ve saved over 30,000 lives. We've got a million people back in work. We’ve got a vaccination program that's now running at almost a million doses administered a week. We're going to get there, and we, and we're going to try and help those in our neighbourhood as best as we can. But, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but in Australia.
HADLEY: Ok. As always, thanks for your time. I appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Ray.
Interview with John Laws, 2SM
14 July 2021
JOHN LAWS: I have the Prime Minister on the line, I trust, Prime Minister, are you there?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, g'day John. Thanks. Thanks for the opportunity. That's all correct. What you've just said, obviously, but particularly for people with so many of your listeners in rural and regional New South Wales. These are direct payments to people who have lost hours of work from next Monday, they'll be able to access those payments. So it doesn't matter that they're not in Greater Sydney, they'll be able to access payment of $600 a week if they've lost more than 20 hours of work per week because of this lockdown or eight hours and 20 hours a week, they can access a payment of $375. They get that direct from Services Australia by calling either 180 22 66 or going to the Service Australia website.
LAWS: OK, but what intrigues me, and I'm sorry to interrupt, but what does intrigue me is it's quite complicated. But given the success of JobKeeper first time around, why didn't you just bring that back again?
PRIME MINISTER: This is even more simple. We don't have to make payments to businesses that then have to go and get loans from the banks to then then pay money to their staff. If you've lost 20 hours or more, you can go direct ring that number, now. There's no red tape. And you can get that payment on Monday. For those who are already receiving those disaster payments in the Greater Sydney area, they're already getting them. It's a very quick process. When we did JobKeeper, John, we had to do it over the entire country. It turned out to be a $90 billion programme. And so that needed a very different way of delivering it. We couldn't have delivered it this way. This way we can do it direct. If you've lost hours, it doesn't matter who you work for, it doesn't matter whether you're part time, full time, casual. You can access these payments and you can get them in rural and regional New South Wales from Monday.
LAWS: OK, tell me this. What are your feelings about the New South Wales Premier and how long this lockdown may last?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's hard to know. I mean, there's been a great improvement in the course of the past five days, or more, seven days, in the compliance with the rules that were set down. There was a real problem earlier when the lockdown started that there wasn't the compliance. People were still going to each other's houses. There were family gatherings. There were parties. And this was really, really not helping the situation. Now, I think they're getting on top of that now and it'll take another week or so for those benefits to flow through. So that's why when the Premier rang me last week early on, this time last week, and indicated that this is the problem that they had and this thing was taking a turn for the worst. First of all, we put the extra doses in the New South Wales for the vaccine. But secondly, we began work on that, on the package that the Premier and I, together with the Treasurers, announced yesterday. And the other part of that package, John, is that you're right to point out that this is a much broader range of supports being provided directly by the New South Wales Government. The hospitality and payroll tax relief and rent and things like that. But there's a cash flow boost payment, now this is what we did last year as well. So for businesses up to $50 million in turnover and it's right across the state, if you've had a 30 per cent downturn in your turnover, then you can access a payment of between $1,500 and $10,000 per week. That's more than we did in the cash flow boost a year ago.
LAWS: The taxpayers are being very generous, aren't they?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they are. But at the same time, I mean, in the national interest, because of the outbreak being, you know, quite dangerous, the Delta strain, as I'm sure you've heard, is a dangerous one. And if this thing gets out of control, then that can impact on the national economy more broadly. I mean, so far, we know as a country we've saved over 30,000 lives. A million people are back in work. And that's great news. And no other country, virtually no other country, only a handful can can claim those results. But at the same time, you know, you come up against this, you've got to come up with responses quickly, which we've done. And we're trying to make this is red tape free as possible. We're doing, the Commonwealth Government, the Federal Government, are doing the direct payments to individuals. That's that 180 22 66 number I was referring to. The State Government, through Services New South Wales, will be delivering those business payments. You can register, they tell us from today, and they've told us they believe they'll be able to get payments out before the end of the month. But you can go to your bank now if you're eligible for those payments. And we spoke to the, Treasurer Frydenberg, spoke to the banks yesterday and just as it was with JobKeeper and other things, you can go to your bank, they know those payments will be coming and the banks are saying they're going to be able to, in most cases, if not all, cover the difference.
LAWS: The, Victoria, I know that you're going to run out of time in a minute, and I don't want to hold you up. The Victorian Government has reacted very strongly to the support for New South Wales. They argue that they've been left begging for scraps. Now is Daniel Andrews playing politics, or do you prefer dealing with a Liberal Government in New South Wales? Is there a problem there?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's total politics. When Victoria was in big lockdown last year, John, you know the big second wave lockdown about four months long, we were put we were pouring in, without the Victorian Government asking, three quarters of a billion dollars every week. Three quarters of a billion every week. And we did it for months on end. In the most recent lockdown they had in Victoria, which only went for two weeks, Victoria got exactly the same thing that New South Wales got in the first two weeks. The issue in New South Wales is, it has gone on for longer. Now, if Victoria had gone on for longer, we would have worked together on this. At the time, I offered them 50 per cent cost sharing on business support. They knocked me back. I took it to the National Cabinet, sought to get support for sharing the costs on business support and they said no. But here, New South Wales was supportive of the cost sharing arrangement. So we've been able to work practically together. I work with every state government. But it's just simply not true to say. I mean, when Victoria needed the rest of Australia, the rest of Australia was there for Victoria and now New South Wales has that need. And we're doing exactly the same thing. Victorians, John, will just want New South Wales to get through this. They don't want, I'm sure see New South Wales suffering more, and certainly New South Wales people, you know, it was very hard to see what Victoria was going through and they strongly supported that support that was provided to Victorians at that time.
LAWS: The thing that bothers me, is we're one country, we're supposed to co-operate with each other and make sure that the country is right, not just state by state.
PRIME MINISTER: I agree with that. And look, there has been a bit of argy bargy with states every now and then, John. You've been covering politics a lot longer than I've been in it. And you know that the federation is a bit like that. But I've got to say, I mean, we've met 56 times, I think, something like that, sorry, 46 times or thereabouts. It's more than the states and territories and the Commonwealth had ever met together in our entire history. And so, you know, nine times out of ten, we are getting those things right. But occasionally, unfortunately, we have this sort of politicking. And I just think it's very unfortunate. Because people just want us to solve the problem and give support. The other thing we announced yesterday, John, and particularly want to say this to people in rural and regional areas, we are increasing the support for mental health support for the organisation, whether it's Kids Helpline, Lifeline, Beyondblue foundation.
LAWS: That's good.
PRIME MINISTER: We did the same thing in Victoria. And I'm really worried about Year 12 students, John. They're going through HSC. It's a stressful enough time. It's a long time ago for me, but it is a stressful time for families and to be going through lockdown and HSC. I know that's tough. So Headspace, a great organisation that's there to help people. So it wasn't just the economic support, it was the mental health support yesterday we announced and we put $12.25 million into that and the state put $5 million.
LAWS: The Australian Government is closely tracking a Chinese surveillance ship making its way towards Queensland as part of some sort of large scale military exercise. Do you trust the Chinese?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we support is freedom of navigation in international waters ...
LAWS: No, Prime Minister, with the greatest respect to you, you didn't answer the question, do you trust the Chinese?
PRIME MINISTER: I'd only just started, John.
LAWS: Oh I see, so it's a long answer. Well, I'll wait.
PRIME MINISTER: What I'm saying is that, you know, they're allowed to be there and the law says they can be there. The law of the sea, just like the law says, we can be up in the South China Sea. And so we would just simply say that we think the same tolerances and the same appreciation of those international laws should apply. And, you know, we're wary. I've got to tell you, John, we're very wary. But you know, they're in an area where they're allowed to be and we know they're there and we're keeping a close eye on it and we know why we do.
LAWS: Okay. Well, given that answer, I would suggest that you are concerned about them being there
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we wouldn't be watching them if we weren't. Of course we watch them. We're aware of that. And they're watching us.
LAWS: Yeah. And you don't necessarily want to talk about it.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think what's important is that everyone does their job and our agencies do their job. But my point is, is we have no objection to them being there. I mean, it's international waters. They're allowed to be there. So we don't we don't raise any issue about that, just like we don't think any issue should be raised, when whether it's us, or the Americans or the British or the French or anyone else, is sailing through the South China Sea.
LAWS: The fact that your Government has barred a Chinese company from building Australia's 5G network, that would suggest to me, and maybe I'm too cynical, that is a possibility, but that would suggest to me that you don't trust the Chinese.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, national security interests will always come first in those decisions, John and I appointed David Irvine when I wasTreasurer to head up the Foreign Investment Review Board. And David used to be our Ambassador in China, but also used to head up ASUS and he used to head up ASIO. And so these things, these issues have become matters of national security in a way that we've never seen before. And I was very aware of that more than five years ago when I was Treasurer. And I've kept a very close eye on these things, and Australians, I think, can be very assured that I'm very conscious of the tensions that are in the Indo-Pacific. I was just over, as you know, in the United Kingdom working with the other G7 leaders, and they were very interested in how Australia was faring under the pressures that have been applied to Australia. And they were very, very congratulatory about the strong stand we've taken for our sovereignty because, you know, freedom, free countries, when they stand together are always stronger.
LAWS: That's very true. Well, Prime Minister, thank you, I don't think you enjoyed that interview very much.
PRIME MINISTER: I always enjoy talking to you, John.
LAWS: Flattery will get you everywhere.
PRIME MINISTER: Go well.
LAWS: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. And I hope we talk again soon.
Interview with Allison Langdon, Today Show
14 July 2021
ALLISON LANGDON: A show of unity yesterday, the Prime Minister standing shoulder to shoulder with New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian, announcing a multibillion dollar rescue package to help Sydney survive an extended lockdown. But then hours later, a Victorian government spokesman issued an astonishing statement accusing the Prime Minister of double standards for making Victoria beg for, and I quote, "every scrap of support." The Prime Minister joins me now. Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Ally.
LANGDON: Well, let's talk about that statement first, because it was incredibly strong language. Was it a fair point?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it wasn't. At the, during the Victorian lockdown, the Commonwealth Government, without request, was providing three quarters of a billion dollars a week, every week for months on end into Victoria and in the most recent lockdown they had, which just thankfully only went for two weeks, for Victoria, they got exactly what New South Wales got for those two weeks. So New South Wales is now going into week four of a lockdown, and that means the challenges are escalating. And what I announced yesterday is exactly what every other state and territory would get in week four of a lockdown. Let's hope there is no week four of lockdowns in the other states and territories. But I think people, frankly, want to see just governments working together. The Victorian Government has been strongly supported by the Commonwealth, particularly last year during those terrible lockdowns. And I have no doubt that people in Melbourne and across Victoria just want to ensure that Sydney can get through this and that they don't have to look at a lockdown that was so devastating that we saw in Victoria. But as I said, last year, we were putting three quarters of a billion dollars every single week into Victoria while they went through that lockdown. And on top of that was the further support for mental health support, very similar to what we announced yesterday for the mental health support here in Sydney. We've just got to fix the problem. And when Victoria needed the Commonwealth, we were there and when New South Wales needed the Commonwealth, we're here again and we'll continue to be there, particularly those payments where it starts this Friday. You can already get a $500 and $325 payment, now. There's been 130,000 claims that are already getting those payments from this Friday for those first four LGAs. $600, if you'd lost more than 20 hours a week. $375, if between eight and 20 hours a week. And for the rest of New South Wales and Greater Sydney, that's available from Monday on a recurring basis for as long as the lockdown goes.
LANGDON: Let's just talk about that rescue package, because when it was announced yesterday, it sounded pretty good to me. But I spoke to a couple of small and medium sized businesses last night to get their take on it. And to be honest, I was surprised by their responses. One described it as tokenistic and another said it was too little, too late, while another says we're sinking and the five grand available to us, will pay the accountants and lawyers to wind up business. Have you underestimated just how dire the situation is?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't believe so. What we've done is actually more than what we did a year ago with the cash flow boost, which is what this particular payment is based on. That's the payment we're doing together with the New South Wales Government. But don't forget that on top of that, there's a further support package that the New South Wales Government is putting in to the tune of a further $3 billion. And, and so we welcome that support from New South Wales Government as well. We've welcomed the support from the Chambers and the Business Council and the Federation of Australian Industry and the other groups that have been very supportive of this package. It's targeted to the support. It provides that cash flow boost, a thousand dollars for sole traders. $1,500 minimum for businesses with a turnover as low as $75,000 a year. And then that goes up to $10,000 payments and 40 per cent of your payroll.
LANGDON: We actually had Innes Willox on the show a little earlier and he said that this package is not enough to save some businesses from going under. Why was bringing back JobKeeper such an issue? Had you backed yourself into a corner there? Because that's what most businesses are saying. You had a programme that worked brilliantly. Why aren't we seeing it now?
PRIME MINISTER: Because this isn't a national programme. This is a targeted programme for New South Wales and in particular for the greater Sydney area. And we are providing exactly the same payments to individuals that were being provided under JobKeeper. It's $600 dollars a week. That's what JobKeeper was paying in the fourth quarter of last year. That's what …
LANGDON: We wouldn't be in this situation if our vaccine rollout was on track.
PRIME MINISTER: No, that's not true because there's only one or two countries in the world that are above 65 per cent on their vaccination rates, which is the United Kingdom, which should clock over that mark in the next week or so, and Israel. The rest of the world is not at those rates of vaccination and Australia was not going to be at those sort of rates of vaccination at this time of the year. So that's just simply not true.
LANGDON: Few countries would be talking about single digits when we're talking percentages and we're at nine percent.
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, we're above 10 per cent. So that's just not true. A third ...
LANGDON: Where exactly are we right now?
PRIME MINISTER: We're at about 11 per cent. We've got over 30 per cent, a third of Australians have already received their first dose. Well over 70 per cent of over 70s and well over half of those over 50. And we're scaling up now to almost a million doses a week. And at this rate, we will get this job done by the end of the year …
LANGDON: Are you happy with 11 per cent right now?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, we want it to be higher. That's why we want people to go and get vaccinated. But we're about two months behind where we'd hope to be and where we'd plan to be as a result of the ATAGI advice on AstraZeneca and, of course, the early issues we had with accessing those AstraZeneca supplies before our manufactured product was available. So we're in no way disputing the fact that we had those challenges in the first half of this year. But we've made up that ground. Lieutenant General Frewen has got us to the point now where we're getting a million doses of Pfizer from the 19th, is our advice, and that will continue to scale up. And so we were always going to be in the suppression phase at this time of the year, Ally. And most of Europe, all of Europe is still at around 50 or sub-50 per cent vaccination rates. You know, last week in the UK, more than 200 people died. 200 people died of COVID in the UK last week, and they're running at over 30,000 cases a day. Do you think if that was happening in Australia today, you'd be saying that was a success?
LANGDON: It's look, it's an entirely different situation here. And you've got businesses on their knees saying they're not going to survive this lockdown and people with elderly relatives who can't get vaccinated. It's a very different situation. You've just got to look at, I don't know if you've seen the pictures this morning of the queues of people waiting for a test in Fairfield in Sydney's south, just showing them to you now live, I mean, this is disgraceful. You've got people being told to get tested. People are doing the right thing during this lockdown. We've seen it during lockdowns previously, too. These are people here who have come off a 12 hour shifts, they're then waiting six hours for a test. You've got people doing the right thing. How is this good enough, the situation we're seeing in Fairfield this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm sure the New South Wales Government, that is running the testing regimes there, will get on top of that. Of course, there's a big demand and I'd correct you on one thing. Australians over 70 have been able to get the AstraZeneca vaccine since the start. All residential aged care facilities have had two-dose visits for the vaccine. So it's not true to say that older Australians haven't had access to that vaccine. They have had access to that vaccine for many, many months. And we've been encouraging Australians to go and get that vaccine, as you know, particularly those who are aged over 70. Our vaccine rollout is running actually ahead of where the New Zealand rollout is on first doses and on two doses, it's running at about the same. They've only got Pfizer. We've got Pfizer as well as AstraZeneca. And that's what will see our vaccination rates increase. I don't dismiss the fact that we've had challenges, Ally. We have had challenges. The changes in the medical advice on AstraZeneca, dealt the programme a heavy blow. But equally, we have the most, I think, the safest pharmaceutical regulators in the world. And that caution has also saved a lot of lives, particularly when we're looking at last year. So Australia is making our way.
LANGDON: I think that changing advice has really confused people when it changed yesterday, saying you can now get it under 60 AstraZeneca if you live in a hotspot, if you don't have access to Pfizer. I think people are wondering, what's it going to be, what's it going to be next week? And the question most people want to know, is it safe or isn't it safe?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the TGA has already said it's safe. I mean, it's approved for people over the age of 18. And I understand that that can be confusing when the medical experts, which, as you know, are independent from the government, what they've said is, is when the case numbers are extremely low, which is what they have been largely in Australia, then they they say on the balance of risk, they make that assessment. But when the risk of getting COVID increases, which is what we're seeing in particularly south west Sydney and more broadly, they're saying the risk favours being able to use that vaccine. Which is why in the UK they pressed ahead with AstraZeneca because people were dying every day, every single day. And that's still happening in the United Kingdom. And we don't want to see that happening here in Australia. And that's why it's important that those people, particularly older Australians who have had access to the vaccine for a long time now, we encourage them to go and get that vaccine.
LANGDON: OK, well, Anthony Albanese has labelled you incompetent and has said that the vaccine failures have endangered lives. Your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, if negativity was the answer, then Labor would be the solution. But that's not the solution. The solution is working together and getting this done, not undermining and seeking to score political points.
LANGDON: Do you think the New South Wales lockdown, what Sydney is seeing at the moment, do you think it goes hard enough? We had the CEO of the Burnett Institute on earlier say that it's too soft. Your thoughts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are a lot of, there are a lot of people expressing opinions about these things, but there are only a very small number of people who have the responsibility of making decisions.
LANGDON: Would you have gone harder?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, New South Wales went into lockdown, I think, on day 11 of this outbreak. In Victoria, on the second wave, they went into lockdown, I think, on day 45. And so a lot has been learnt from that. And the New South Wales Government, as always, has been making decisions based on the best possible medical advice. Now, that lockdown now, I think has particularly had some strong effect over the last four or five days. What was more concerning was the lack of compliance in those early parts of the lockdown. I think that's been well addressed by the community and by the government now. And what we announced yesterday, which I stress again, of those payments between $1,500 to $10,000 a week. Now, that is more than what we were doing a year ago with the cash flow boost, which this payment is modelled on. And that was very effective when combined together with the direct payments now, which we've always done with JobKeeper, now has been done direct. It would take longer to get those payments directly to people if we weren't doing it the way we're doing it now. We can move more quickly to get those payments direct from the government to people when they ring that number 180 22 66 or go to the Services Australia website. And for the business support, you go to Service New South Wales for those business payments. Registrations open on that today. The New South Wales Government tells us that they'll be able to receive applications and process payments this month. And in the meantime, the banks have said to us Ally, this is very important, those businesses can go to their bank knowing that there will be support payments coming to those businesses, and the Australian Bankers Association have told us that the banks will be supporting small business to cash flow that for them in the meantime. So that's exactly how JobKeeper worked the first time around. It's a partnership between employers, the banks and the Government.
LANGDON: All right. I'll tell you what, it's all a bit grim in Sydney at the moment. But one thing we can hold on to, is there'll be a Blues whitewash tonight, won't it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll be watching like everyone else. And hopefully that will bring some cheer to people in New South Wales. And hopefully they'll have a strong result. And I'll certainly be cheering it on, as I always am.
LANGDON: Yeah, they need to win, don't they? Prime Minister, thanks for your time this morning. We always appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Ally. Good to be with you.
Interview with David Koch, Sunrise
14 July 2021
DAVID KOCH: We're now joined by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Prime Minister, appreciate your time.
PRIME MINISTER: G'day David.
KOCH: No sign of the New South Wales lockdown going to end any time soon. Will this package be enough to save businesses and keep people's jobs?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this package will continue for as long as the lockdown continues. And you're right, it is a significant package. This support is designed to do two things. Help people who have lost those hours. As you said, those payments will go up to $600 a week from Friday for those first four local government areas that went into the lockdown and from Monday for the rest of the state. But I do stress that even right now, David, you can access those payments of $500 a week and $375 a week right now by calling 180 22 66. Now, when you reapply on Friday and Monday, that payment will not only come to you at $600 and $375, it will be a recurring payment. So you won't have to go back and apply each week. You will get it each week until the lockdown finishes. And if your circumstances change, then obviously we would want you to inform us of that.
KOCH: OK, so it's ongoing. For a small business, who has lost more than 30 per cent of their turnover and you're comparing it to the same two week period last year, can they cut their staff back rather than retrench them or get rid of them, cut them back more than 20 hours a week so they qualify for the $600 and the business still gets the $10,000 relief.
PRIME MINISTER: Correct. Obviously, that has to be done consistent with the industrial relations law, but if you are a permanent employee, if you're a part time and full time, part time, if you're a casual, permanent casual arrangement, you can access those payments. So if you're working in one of those businesses and you come to an agreement with your employer in saying, look, I've got to cut you back to 20 hours a week or lose a day or something like that, then you can ring that 180 22 66 number. You can do that even right now for the current payments and from next week for those higher payments. Next week, it's all of New South Wales. And that's as through the support of the New South Wales Government. That's what the arrangement we came to, to extend it right across the state.
KOCH: And you get payroll tax relief and all that sort of stuff from the state thrown into it too, which is really important. Is that the reason why this payment to New South Wales small businesses is better than what was offered to Victorian small businesses? Because the New South Wales Government has come more to the party with its own relief?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, I mean, there are two different situations. The Victorian lockdown went for two weeks. What has happened in New South Wales is exactly what happened in Victoria, it is the same support provided by the Commonwealth to New South Wales and Victoria during that two week period. We're now going into a longer lockdown. When Victoria needed the rest of the country last year, when they were in that very long lockdown on the second wave, the Commonwealth was putting in three quarters of a billion dollars into Victoria every week, $13.4 billion of direct support to employers and employees in Victoria over the many months. In Victoria, there was more JobKeeper provided to Victoria than any other state. When Victoria needed Australia, they got the support.
KOCH: Because you're accusing of not being fair?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's nonsense. It's not true. The numbers just don't bear it out. When Victoria needed Australia, they were getting three quarters of a billion dollars of support from the Commonwealth every week. This package, together with the New South Wales Government, is delivering half a billion a week. And the Commonwealth component of that is quarter of a billion. And then on top of that, we're paying also that household, that individual support of the $600 and the $375. There's already been 130,000 grants of those payments already made, David. But we expect that to increase in the days ahead. And that's, you go to Services Australia for the individual support. You got to Services New South Wales for that payment of between $1,500 a week and $10,000 a week, which maxes out at 40 per cent of your payroll.
KOCH: OK, every little bit is helpful to small businesses just trying to get through this.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, it's a cash flow boost.
KOCH: Yeah. Yesterday. you had a call with community leaders in Sydney. What did you discuss with them?
PRIME MINISTER: Just thanking them, first of all, for the leadership they're showing in their community to support the New South Wales Government to get those messages out. Whether it's been through church leaders or community leaders, local doctors setting up practise as the the vaccine, additional rollouts that are occurring there. Getting the message out there, those phone trees working down in south western Sydney, encouraging people not to have those household gatherings. And we've seen a real change over these last four or five days in New South Wales. The Premier spoke to the same group last week, and I've spoken to them this week. And we're just continuing both of us, to encourage them and encouraging everyone, not just there, but right across greater Sydney and indeed the state as they push through this.
KOCH: Did Gladys Berejiklian get it wrong, going with a soft lockdown rather than a hard one?
PRIME MINISTER: New South Wales has responded as they always have to the best information they have. And New South Wales, went into lockdown on I think, I think on day 11, David. In the second wave in Victoria, we didn't go into lockdown into over day 40. This strain is far more virulent. This is why they've gone in early. And so they've gone far earlier than we saw in those other cases last year. And, you know, you learn from that experience and there's been a lot of learning from the second wave in Victoria. I mean, there are some pretty big failings that occurred there, as we know. But the support came. The other thing I note in New South Wales is even though they're going through what they're doing now, they are still taking half of the international arrivals into Australia. They are still carrying that load for Australia. And I think that's, that's a great thing for them to do.
KOCH: Prime Minister, I know you've got other commitments. Appreciate your time. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, David. We'll get through this.