Interview with Jim Wilson, 2GB

28 July 2021

JIM WILSON: And in a very positive move, Scott Morrison has listened. Now, today's major economic announcement is welcome news, and the Prime Minister joins me on the line. PM, welcome back to Drive.

PRIME MINISTER: G'day, Jim. Yeah, I wish it was better news today, but I think we were all probably expecting that a bit today. But, it's still pretty brutal.

WILSON: Well, you've announced more financial support. Good on you. Ok, so in simple terms for all of my listeners this afternoon, what have you announced today for struggling businesses and individuals across our state?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, let me just start by saying we've been doing this all the way through this pandemic. Already, before what we announced today, Jim, 463,500 people in New South Wales we've already provided a $411.7 million to. That's the COVID Disaster Payments that have already gone out, already in people's bank accounts. And, up until now, there were two payments - a $600 payment if you'd lost more than 20 hours, and a $375 payment if you'd lost between eight and 20 hours a week. What we're going into next week is we're going to increase that $600 payment to $750, and the $375 payment to $450. Now, if you're already registered and receiving those COVID Disaster Payments, you don't have to do anything. Next week, after this week's payment, next week you will just get the extra $750 and the $450 - that will come straight through. But, if you aren't receiving those payments yet, you can apply. You can go to Services Australia, to their website, and make the application there. And, it's a very quick process. We've had payments approved, processed and paid within half an hour.

Now, the other thing we've done today is if you're on a welfare payment - if you're on a pension, if you're on JobSeeker, Parenting Payment, Youth Allowance, things like that - you're obviously continuing to receive support from the Government. You can access a $200 COVID Disaster Payment if you've lost more than eight hours a week. So, that means we'll extend it to those groups next week. You can apply from next Tuesday. You will already have a Customer Reference Number for myGov.au - my.gov.au. And, so, you'll be able to go on from next Tuesday, make that if you've lost more than eight hours a week, and you'll get that $200 payment, in addition to, say, your JobSeeker payment, which is about $315, but it will also be in addition to your pension payment or your Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment or something like that.

WILSON: Ok. JobKeeper was a huge success during the height of the last COVID outbreak. I mean, this new $750 payment, Prime Minister, for individuals, is at the same level of the original JobKeeper.

PRIME MINISTER: Correct.

WILSON: Now, the New South Wales Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has been pushing for JobKeeper to be reintroduced. So, when you look at those numbers, the fact that they're $750 bucks - the original JobKeeper - $750 bucks from next week, why not just bring back JobKeeper?

PRIME MINISTER: Because, it's complicated. It doesn't go direct. It doesn't go to casuals. It doesn't go, it depends on who your employer is. The business doesn't have to go and borrow the money and pay it to you. It comes direct to you. It's not flexible enough. It can't be targeted to particular states. It has to be done across the entire country. In other words, JobKeeper was the right answer last year. But, this year you need something far more targeted, far more, far quicker. And, you're dealing with this year's problem. You don't play last year's grand final this year. You play what you have to play for this year. And, so, JobKeeper was a great program, but it was designed to run nationally for six months across the entire economy. We've got a particular problem in New South Wales. It needs targeted support. And, what we're doing is we've got those payments that we're doing which are going direct. And, in addition to that, what we also announced today with the State Government - they're managing this payment - that you can be a sole trader and you can get support of a $1,000 a week, or you can be a company with a $250 million turnover and you can get payments of up to $100,000 a week. And, that, at the top end, represents about 15 per cent of your payroll. Others will, would have their payments maxing out about 40 per cent of their payroll. So, you put those two things together. The businesses are getting carried through. The individuals are getting carried through. It's far more targeted. And, certainly for the individual payments it's far quicker, because, as I said, we've already got $411 million out the door and in people's bank accounts.

WILSON: Were there too many rorts in JobKeeper?

PRIME MINISTER: No, that wasn't it. It was just a different scheme for a different problem.

WILSON: So, categorically, it's not coming back? JobKeeper will not be ...

PRIME MINISTER: No, there's, well, there's no need for it. This is better, is my point.

WILSON: Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER: This is actually much better. And, you know, it's being able to get to more people. Many casuals who are out there, they had to go, the way we had to deal with it back then is they went and went on to JobSeeker, and we had the COVID Supplement, you might remember that. And, we supported them through that mechanism. This way we can deal with both in the same system.

WILSON: Your business support seems to be based around a figure of 40 per cent of their weekly payroll. Are you confident that's enough?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, because those who've had their hours reduced, we're paying them those amounts. See, the way JobKeeper worked is the business didn't get any money to keep the business going. It was, that's not what that did. The businesses got money to pay to their employees. Now, we're doing that direct. So, what we're doing is paying money to businesses to keep them going, and that means they can get through these, these next few weeks, over the next month, and on the other side be in a strong position to come out of it and to restore their business, open their doors again and get going again, and getting people back to work again.

WILSON: Are you worried, Prime Minister, that the problems in New South Wales, the health crisis right now that we're confronted in this city, will extend to other parts of the country?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, but the other states and we're working together with all of them to ensure that that doesn't happen, including New South Wales. That's why it's so important to stay home. I mean, when I hear reports of people, you know, going past out of Sydney and going to the snow, well, I get obviously disappointed. That's not what the rules say. The rules say stay at home. I said it at the press conference today, none of us like the lockdown. You know, I'm in Canberra at the moment. I'm in quarantine at the moment. I've been in quarantine or lockdown for the last six weeks. None of us like that. But, it's what we have to do to get through this, and the sooner the lockdown works, the sooner we're out of it.

WILSON: Do you think we would be in this position if New South Wales had pursued a hard lockdown earlier?

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, you know, there'll be plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks on this. There'll be plenty of hindsight. The Delta variant is, has been unpredictable and everybody's been trying to work out how's the best way to deal with that. So, you know, I'm not going to get into that, Jim. Well, we've got, what we've got to focus on is what we have to do going forward.

The Government made the best decisions they had on the information available to them in the best interests of the state. I mean, the New South Wales Government has done a great job over the last 18 months. I mean, last year the New South Wales economy didn't fall over to COVID. That kept the entire national economy going. This year, we've got a problem now and we're dealing with it. As Commonwealth, Federal Government, we're putting in three quarters of a billion dollars a week into New South Wales to keep it going, three quarters of a billion every single week.

WILSON: Are you at odds with the New South Wales Premier, Prime Minister? The New South Wales Premier says vaccines are the answer to get out of this lockdown, out of this mess. You suggest lockdowns are the key out of this outbreak. Can you just clarify, are you at odds with the, she says vaccines, you say lockdown. Where does it, where do you stand?

PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't think that's how to characterise it at all, Jim, and with great respect, I think that verbals us both. Both have a role to play, with both saying that. But, the principal thing that is going to get us through here is making sure the lockdown works. Vaccines help, there's no doubt about that. That's why we've sent not only 200,000 additional - well, actually it was 350 [000] additional vaccines into New South Wales, which included 200,000 Pfizer doses - but on top of that, the Pfizer doses have increased up to 90,000, by 90,000 this week, on top of everything else. They were the scheduled increases. So, those supplies are increasing. And, the AstraZeneca, I applaud the New South Wales Government's walk-in AstraZeneca clinics. We've got the, we've got the new ATAGI advice, the medical advice, which is encouraging people across all age groups to take that AstraZeneca vaccine and to have informed consent. We've provided financially for GPs to be able to give people information and have a consult with them if you want to ask further questions. So, they both, they both help. But, it's not a substitute for the lockdown. The lockdown has to work. If the lockdown doesn't, if we don't all make the lockdown work, well, you can't lift the lockdown. And, that's why we've all got to comply with those rules.

WILSON: Businesses have been reporting problems accessing the money. Has that now been fixed, Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, you'd have to put that to the New South Wales Government because they're managing that program. We're managing the COVID Disaster Payment to individuals. And, and my, when we first announced that - the Premier and the Treasurer and I in New South Wales a few weeks ago - they said that the applications would open this week and, and money would start to flow by about the end of this week. So, as best as I know, they're on track for that.

WILSON: Ok, just on the vaccination rates. We're now at 30, almost at 39 per cent for those with the first dose of the vaccine. This is in the total population. More than 17 per cent are now fully vaccinated, 17.19 per cent.

PRIME MINISTER: Correct.

WILSON: What percentage will we be at by Christmas, do you think?

PRIME MINISTER: I can't tell you, but I do know that by, we will have enough supply and the distribution to ensure that everyone who wants one will be able to have got one. So, now it's all of our job. And, so, with that being available, it's up to all of us to get that vaccination rate as high as we possibly can. But, what I'm, if, what we're running at now at more than a million doses every single week, that puts us on track to achieve, you know, a vaccination rate across the eligible population like we're already, well, like we're seeing overseas in the most advanced vaccinated countries. But, it won't happen by itself. The vaccine won't come and knock on your door and jump in your arm. We need you to make the appointment - AstraZeneca, for Pfizer.

Our GPs, they're doing an absolutely amazing job in rolling out this vaccine program, particularly in New South Wales. The GP program there is really doing the lions, it's doing the lion's share of the work. But, it has also been doing predominantly AstraZeneca vaccines up until now, and it has the highest rate of GP vaccinations in any state or territory of the country. So, the GPs in New South Wales, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

WILSON: Before I let you go, Prime Minister, we do appreciate your time. You're from Sydney. You said you're at The Lodge and in Canberra with, in quarantine. Your family is in Sydney at the moment.

PRIME MINISTER: Correct.

WILSON: What is your message to the millions of people currently in lockdown listening to the program this afternoon? We all need a bit of hope.

PRIME MINISTER: Hang in there. We're going to get through this and we're going to push through, just like our Olympians are over in Tokyo. I think they can inspire us. We've just got to hang in there and push through. Stay forward, look, keep looking forward. I'm looking forward to the time when I can reunite with my family. That's going to be at least a month away now because I need to be in Parliament and I need to quarantine for Parliament. And, so, that means I won't be back home for some time. But, that's, look, that's, everyone's going through far harder than that. I'm not complaining about it. I'm just saying, we've all just got to push through, and we push through together and we get through together. On the other side of this, Jim, once you come out of the lockdown, what we know is when you put these economic supports in that we've been talking about, it enables the businesses and the employees to be able to bounce back very quickly. We saw that after the COVID-19 recession last year. We got a million people back to work. We had more people in work than we had before the COVID recession. The economy was bigger than it was before the recession. So, we know that these economic supports work. They just don't get people through each day. They enable the economy to, to surge again on the other side. So, if we keep doing it, we make the lockdown work, then we can look forward, with higher vaccination rates, which are really going at pace now, that we can, you know, we can look back on this and say, well, I'm glad we were able to get through that. It was really tough, but we just have to knuckle down and just keep going. So, thank you, Sydney. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

WILSON: Well, well done on today's major economic announcement. It is a help, and there are people crying out - small businesses, individuals - and well done to you and the Government for coming to the party. Thank you. Thank you for your time, Prime Minister, this afternoon.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Jim, cheers.

WILSON: Good on you.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43500

Foster Report

26 July 2021

Prime Minister, Minister for Finance

The Government has today agreed to adopt all ten recommendations of the final report by Stephanie Foster PSM into the processes and procedures relating to serious incidents in the parliamentary workplace.

Every Australian has a right to feel and to be safe at work.

The report has made some significant findings and recommendations to improve how serious incidents are prevented and dealt with in the parliamentary workplace.

The final report incorporates feedback from consultations with the opposition, minor parties, independents and staff, including proposing options for Parliament to mandate training for parliamentarians.

We have already taken steps to make the workplace safer and to help prevent, identify and respond to serious incidents in the workplace. For example, earlier this year we established a dedicated 24/7 support line, 1800 274 778, for staff who have experienced serious incidents in the workplace.

An independent complaints mechanism for serious incidents in the Parliamentary workplace will be established. This mechanism will be overseen by the Parliamentary Service Commissioner and will apply to incidents from the commencement of the current term of Parliament.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will work with the Parliamentary Service Commissioner to stand-up this mechanism within the next six weeks. The Government will work with the Speaker, the President and other parliamentary parties to operationalise the independent complaints mechanism.

In addition, we have been piloting a face-to-face training program for parliamentarians and their staff. This training will be rolled-out widely from September of this year. It will be mandatory for all Coalition Ministers and staff, and it is expected that all other parliamentarians and their staff will undertake this training when it is available to them.

Parliamentarians are answerable to their constituents and therefore the Government agrees with Ms Foster's recommendation that a public register would instil confidence that Parliamentarians were undertaking the necessary actions. The Government will work with the opposition, minor parties and independents to develop a public register of Parliamentarians who have undertaken the training.

Ms Foster's recommendations provide for implementation of important reforms ahead of the receipt of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Jenkins' independent review into Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces later this year.

The Government thanks Ms Foster for her report and now looks forward to working together with Members and Senators from across the political spectrum to make the changes we need to ensure parliamentary workplaces are safe, supportive and respectful.

Full details will be available at: https://pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/pmc/review-parliamentary-workplace-responding-serious-incidents

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-44089

Interview with Peter van Onselen, The Sunday Project

25 July 2021

PETER VAN ONSELEN: Prime Minister, thanks very much for joining me. I want to ask you about this tragedy in Sydney. The woman in her 30s who we learnt today has died of COVID, no pre-existing conditions. She, because of her age, wasn't eligible for Pfizer. She was advised at the time not to take AstraZeneca. Is this something that a faster rollout could have avoided?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, it's terrible news, and I feel awfully for her family and for all of those who knew her. This is a terrible disease. It's taken millions of lives all around the world, and the world has sought to suppress as many of these deaths as possible. And, here, of course, in Australia, some 30,000 people we believe we've been able to save the lives of in the way it's been managed till now. There's not a country other than Israel, arguably Malta, in the world that is at a level of vaccination at the moment that certainly could be preventing things like the lockdowns. But, the AstraZeneca vaccine, as we know, as ATAGI has said today, over the last couple of days, it is a vaccine that is approved in Australia. It is one that has certainly saved the lives of many, many people, thousands of people in the United Kingdom. And, we've had frustrations there, there's no doubt about that. But, sadly, this is a terrible epidemic and it's an epidemic that takes a terrible toll on people's lives, on their health, and, of course, on their livelihoods. And, we've done all we can to try and prevent as much losses as has been possible.

VAN ONSELEN: It feels like the federation, PM, is crumbling. You've got state premiers bickering, refusing to help each other, a Prime Minister who doesn't have the power, we've learnt, to prevent or to weigh in even, almost, on lockdowns, states closing their borders. There are limits to the vaccine at the moment. We hope that's going to ramp up. What do you say to Australians that feel like we don't have one leader at the moment? We've just got a bunch of premiers looking after their own states. 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, I don't think that's how it is. I mean, I can understand how it can appear that way. I mean, at no other time have premiers, chief ministers and I, in a federation, worked together as often as we have. And, that means we've been able to make many decisions. I just talked about, you know, being able to save those lives. A key reason for that was the way we have been able to work together. And, when you get people together that often there'll be things they disagree on. But, I can assure you, even as recently as our most recent meeting, it wasn't about not supporting, it was about how can we best support, what support is being offered, and that's income support, it's economic support. And, as I've already mentioned, there's 90,000 extra Pfizer doses going into New South Wales from next week. That was scheduled increase from earlier this month, there’s another 200,000 that’s gone in on top of that ...

VAN ONSELEN: But, can you unite the states, do you think? They’re all looking after themselves. The New South Wales Premier is pleading for more vaccinations and other state premiers are saying, “Sorry, we're not able, we're not willing to help.”

PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't think that's how it played out at all. I mean, that request wasn't even made at the meeting on Friday. It's important that we keep the pace of the national vaccination program and not to disrupt that program. We’re getting the extra doses into New South Wales. But, the key thing we need to do in New South Wales right now is make sure the lockdown works effectively. It's supported by those additional vaccines, and in particular the AstraZeneca vaccines that we're pumping in and making available. The GPs have been doing that and we look forward to more AstraZenecas being supported in the New South Wales vaccination program. And, so, those vaccines are there in both of those programs. But, the vaccine, the lockdown program has to work effectively, as it has in other states and territories. Once you're in a lockdown like this, once you’re in it, then the only way through is to make sure that that lockdown is effective. It’s supported by vaccines ...

VAN ONSELEN: Well, can I ask you, can I ask you about that. A colleague of yours told me that they don't actually think that New South Wales, or Sydney in particular, can get out of the lockdown until enough people are vaccinated, because that's just the nature of the Delta strain. You can't suppress it. Is there any possibility of that? You have to get enough people vaccinated before you can even get out?

PRIME MINISTER: No, the, the lockdown, as we've already seen in Victoria and in South Australia, can be very effective, and it sometimes can take some time. But, suppression is the only way you can stop the virus moving around. It doesn’t move by itself, it moves with people ...

VAN ONSELEN: But, they got to it a lot earlier than New South Wales, Prime Minister. They, they could do that because they got there earlier.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course they did. They, they went into a lockdown far sooner, but lockdown in preventing the movement of people and people staying at home and people getting tested. It's a much more virulent strain. We all understand that. And, the testing and tracing defences that we've had in the past are not as effective now against this Delta strain, and that's why the lockdown has become a more necessary tool. It’s supported by vaccines, don't get me wrong, of course it is. And, that's why the additional vaccines have already gone in, as well as the, I welcome the ATAGI updated advice, which means AstraZeneca hopefully will be used more, more often than it has been in New South Wales and that will lift those vaccination rates. Vaccination protects you against future lockdowns, but once you're in one, the only way through is to make sure it's effective and that it works, and you prevent and stop the virus from moving around. And, that comes from people staying at home and following those instructions.

VAN ONSELEN: I want to ask you about why we're not seeing more vaccines come in from other states as a reallocation. This population distribution, it just doesn't make sense. I mean, there's been a lot of military comparisons during this pandemic. The bullets and the guns go where the battle is. We need the vaccines in south west Sydney. Your Premier there is pleading for more. Why don't we just take them off states that have got their borders shut and don't have COVID?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, a) I'd say the battle is everywhere. And, and no state or territory is immune from this Delta strain of the virus, and we could have exactly the same situation presenting in Perth by the end of, by the end of tomorrow, or we could have it in Brisbane or Far North Queensland. And, the vaccination program needs to work right across the whole country. Now, it would be wrong to say that additional vaccines haven't been pumped into New South Wales. Immediately on the day I was asked for more, we provided 150,000 of both the Pfizer and the AstraZeneca vaccines. Unfortunately, none of the AstraZeneca vaccines were used, and the 150,000 were provided. Another 50,000 is now being provided and it's, and it's escalated by 90,000 a week and then 110,000 a week from the first month of August, from the first week in August. So, there's more vaccines going in. But, you know, what you have to also take into account to, to cancel the appointments for three weeks of people who have got their vaccinations scheduled will only slow the vaccination program down more right across the country. We can do both and need to do both and are doing both.

VAN ONSELEN: But, but it, it might do that, it might, it might, it might slow it down elsewhere. But, it’s an emergency in south west Sydney, in particular. The Premier wants it. It feels like it's nothing but state parochialism that's preventing it. And, I don't understand when you've got the power on the vaccines, why you don't just override these premiers and take them off them and put them in there?

PRIME MINISTER: Because I think that would undermine the national vaccine program, Peter, that's what I'm telling you. You may not appreciate that point, but we have put additional vaccines into New South Wales and particularly through the GP network. I mean, 70,000 of those additional Pfizer vaccines going in every single week are going through the GP network, which is the best place to get people vaccinated because they're closer to where the people are, particularly in south west Sydney. One of the things we set up recently, working with Dr Jamal Rifi down there in south west Sydney, is setting up the Chester Hill GP vaccine clinic. Now, that's going to be an important tool for addressing the situation there in south western Sydney. So, it would be wrong to, it would be wrong to, it would be wrong to suggest, Peter …

VAN ONSELEN: But, right now we’ve got, right now we’ve got people dying in New South Wales and the outbreak there is only going to get worse, according to the Premier. Surely it's the time to prioritise it. If we were a unitary system without states, not a federation - New Zealand, for example, the UK - if they had an outbreak in one of their major cities, they would redirect vaccines to that outbreak from cities that are sealed off and safe. We're not doing it because of the states, surely?

PRIME MINISTER: No, that's not true, Peter. We're not doing it, as you suggest. That's not correct. We are doing it. We are putting more vaccines into south western Sydney, putting both more Pfizer and more AstraZeneca there. So, I mean, the point you're making doesn't hold up because we're putting more in. But, at the same time, we're doing it in a way that doesn't disrupt the broader national vaccination program, and they’re decisions we're taking. This isn't about state parochialism. It's got nothing to do with it. It's got everything to do with applying the vaccines across the country, and as well as in south western Sydney. But, also, you can't make this error either. And, that is, the way the virus stops moving is by stopping people moving, and that's why the lockdown is the principle tool by which we’ll be able to rest this and get it back to a situation which is far more manageable, and hopefully down where we would like to get it to. Vaccines can help that and are, and more doses are being provided. As I've said, 90,000 extra every single week, and that goes up to 110,000 extra every single week, and 200,000 doses on top of that. So, I'd say that has been quite a swift response, on top of the income support to support the lockdown, which is seeing almost 400,000 people already supported, and around a, $220 million going out the door every single week to support people get through this lockdown.

VAN ONSELEN: Are you worried that if you take vaccines off other states, citizens in those states would basically just be up in arms about it?

PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm not. That's not the point. The point is managing a national vaccination program to ensure the whole country continues to get vaccinated to protect their health and their, and their livelihoods, right around the country, and at the same time respond to the situation we have in New South Wales. That's what our focus is. It's been made on the best possible advice and focusing on what the, on what the tasks are.

VAN ONSELEN: Let me ask you about children - TGA approval now for over 12s to be able to get Pfizer. Previously, you've said that schools are safe. That was obviously a different strain to the Delta strain. How concerning is it for our kids now that the Delta strain looks like it is starting to get towards and attack the younger?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is different, you're right to say it, between what was happening earlier on, and that's why we're watching this very carefully. The TGA has just approved Pfizer for those age groups and next month, early next month, I hope, we'll get further advice from ATAGI about where we need to focus our attention in vaccinating that, those children, and in what groups and in what priority. There's been mixed experience with this overseas, with different results. And, when it comes to our children, I can assure you I'm going to be very cautious about the decisions we take here, but very, very mindful of the urgency, at the same time, of getting it to where we need to get it to. I mean, I have no doubt, speaking as a parent, I'm sure you'd be the same, Peter, we would forego our own vaccinations to ensure our children were safe. And, so, I can assure you, we’ll be, we’ll be acting with those sorts of priorities. And, last Friday we worked with the states and territories to start putting in place the capability to deliver those sort of, those vaccines through a school-based system. And, so, it's another example of how we are working together. We are getting it done, and we wouldn't have saved more than 30,000 lives and got a million people back into work were it not for the way that everyone has worked together. From time to one, like in any family, there's going to be disagreements. But, I tell you why it, if it wasn't working, Peter, we wouldn't be meeting every week. People would be refusing to meet. But, we are meeting every single week and working through all of these issues, and getting solutions.

VAN ONSELEN: Prime Minister, just finally, and we're almost out of time, but I want to ask you about the training for parliamentarians around sexual harassment and bullying. It's optional. Will you undertake it? And, do you think it should be compulsory? Because it strikes me that the kind of person that might opt out is perhaps the kind of person that most needs it.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course I'll be doing it, and so will my ministry. And, that's already been my, my direction and, and I have no doubt that that will be followed through on. For the rest of the Parliament, as you know, the Parliament and Members of Parliament are subject only to Parliament. I'm not in a position to give them those, those directions or to, or to enforce them.

VAN ONSELEN: Do you think it should be compulsory, though?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don’t, if there’s a mechanism where that can take place, then I'd certainly welcome it, but I would be certainly setting my own example by doing it. This is why we put this independent complaints process in place, and it's supported by these types of measures. I said we would do exactly that, and we've already got the 24-hour counselling that is available to staff and others who work here in Canberra, that was put in place months ago. This was the next step that I’d initiated to ensure we had a fully independent complaints process that could handle these matters. That is now coming into force. And, in addition to that, this other training, which I think is absolutely necessary. As, as Members of Parliament, whether you’re the Prime Minister, or you’re a, you’re a Member just for your electorate, then you're an employer and you have responsibilities and you need to uphold them.

VAN ONSELEN: Prime Minister, we appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, Peter.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43496

Australia Secures Additional Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine for 2022 and 2023

25 July 2021

Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Aged Care

The Morrison Government has secured an additional 85 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, providing access to additional booster vaccinations that will protect Australians in the future.

Through continued engagement with Pfizer-BioNTech, the Government has secured 60 million doses in 2022, and 25 million doses in 2023. Delivery will begin in the first quarter of 2022 and enable booster coverage throughout the year.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new supply schedule that the Government had successfully negotiated with Pfizer-BioNTech would provide every Australian with a booster vaccine if required.

“We have secured an additional 85 million doses of Pfizer, which brings Australia’s total Pfizer doses to 125 million,” the Prime Minister said.

“This is a significant shot in the arm for Australia’s vaccine supply. Every Australian will have access to a booster shot if it is needed.

“This will ensure individuals, families and communities have certainty about their continued protection against the evolving threat of COVID-19 over the next two years. We have turned the corner in Australia’s vaccine programme and this is another milestone on our pathway back to a normal life.”

Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said this reaffirmed the nation’s vaccine supply and provided additional capability to manage booster timing requirements if recommended by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.

"These additional doses further expands and strengthens Australia’s vaccine capacity,” Minister Hunt said.

“More than 280 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have now been secured to support the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.”

“We’ve taken this step on advice from the expert Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group.”

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43947

Appeals Court Recognises FAST Government

23 July 2021

The Australian Government acknowledges the decision of Samoa’s Court of Appeal on 23 July 2021, which recognised the validity of Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) Party’s swearing in on 24 May 2021 and declared the party Samoa’s new Government.

Australia congratulates incoming Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and looks forward to working closely with her government to strengthen our longstanding partnership.

We commend the institutions of the Samoan Government and the Samoan people for their patience and for allowing the democratic, constitutional and legal processes to take their proper course.

Following this final decision of the Court of Appeal it is important that all parties in Samoa respect the rule of law and the democratic process and comply with the directions of the Court. We look forward to all Samoa’s elected members participating actively in the new Parliament.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-44088

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-44087

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43492

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43490

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43489

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43488

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43486

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

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43485

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43483

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43482

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

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43481

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-44086

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-44085

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43477

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43475

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.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43474