E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
CANBERRA
FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021

SUBJECTS: NDIS Forum with participants and providers in Bean; Morrison Government’s failure on vaccinations.

DAVID SMITH, MEMBER FOR BEAN: Hi, my name is David Smith. I'm the Federal Member for Bean, down here in the south of Canberra. I'm here with Bill Shorten, Shadow Minister of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We’re about to have a forum with plan managers and providers here in the south. We've got an opportunity to talk about the significant challenges that constituents here in Bean and the professionals who deliver their services, are having navigating the whole Scheme and some of the challenges going ahead. And it’s great to have Bill Shorten here and one of our major providers here, Communities At Work. Thanks, Bill. 

BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: Thank you. Thanks, David. Good morning, everybody. Today, I'll be talking to people with disability and with service providers, people who look after people with disabilities, to hear about the appallingly low rate of vaccination of vulnerable profoundly, severely disabled Australians. This Government, the Morrison Government, has been just asleep at the wheel. The vaccination rate for vulnerable people with disabilities is far too slow. For many people with disabilities, COVID is still a very real issue, with them being scared to leave their home and in many cases, scared to leave their home for a year. Disability care workers and people with disability have been invisible as far as the Morrison Government's concerned. I also just briefly want to address some remarks as a Victorian, as a proud Melburnian, about the seven-day lockdown in Melbourne right now. It is a kick in the guts for Victorians. Here we go again. There are weddings being cancelled for the second and third time. There's people grieving who can't attend funerals. There's the 21st’s and the 18th’s, all just put on hold. And I blame in no small part the Morrison Government. Some people say you shouldn't talk about blame and fault. I can understand that. But as a Melburnian, I can't help wonder that if the Morrison Government had an act that worked, if they had a public health campaign encouraging people to be vaccinated, if they had built some federal quarantine facilities specifically for purpose, and if they had rolled out their vaccines quicker, then maybe this lockdown and all the trauma could have been avoided. I was appalled this morning to hear Health Minister Hunt say there was no support for Victorians of a financial nature. I’ve had job seekers who were going to start their first job working in a bar today that can't go to work. I've been inundated by people complaining that they can't get vaccinations, that they're confused about what's happening. I just can't help but wonder if my fellow Melburnians are going through their fourth lockdown, because the Morrison Government has abandoned Victoria. Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten, the Disability Discrimination Commissioner revealed in Senate estimates yesterday that his independent assessment trial was unsatisfactory. How do you make of that?

SHORTEN: Oh listen, I don't trust Morrison Government to manage the National Disability Insurance Scheme. They’re saying there's a big financial crisis, which means that they want to make it harder for people to access the Disability Insurance Scheme. I think that's rubbish. I think the Morrison Government needs to come clean with all the financial figures upon which they're saying this is a crisis. They are proposing these independent assessments, which is just really a way of kicking people off the National Disability Insurance Scheme. If the Scheme needs reform, then make sure that people are not being overcharged for disability services. But you don’t make the Disability Scheme fairer by actually stopping people with disabilities accessing the Scheme, and if  the Human Rights Commissioner is calling time out on the Government's dodgy independent assessment scheme, then maybe they should actually time out this bad idea.

JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten, how important is it to you that people with a disability receive the vaccine?

SHORTEN: To explain to my fellow Australians about what it means to be going through COVID if you've got a profoundly severe disability or severe disabilities, often have reduced immunities. It means they’re more susceptible when they catch a virus or catch a condition. The point of that is, for many of our fellow Australians, and I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of Australians with a profound or severe disability, they haven’t been able to leave their home. When there was a lockdown, when there's been lockdowns, in particular Victoria, but not just Victoria, quite often, disability care workers, because they also work in aged care, can't turn up to a person's home. It is scary to know that you could be one cough or one sneeze or one handshake or one contact with a worker away from dying. Until we have the vaccination program, there can be no peace of mind for hundreds of thousands of our fellow Australians and their care workers and their families who love them. 

JOURNALIST: How many disability care residents have now been vaccinated? 

SHORTEN: Listen, I heard Minister Hunt ducking and weaving on radio this morning. As I understand, as I understand, there's only a few hundred people with disabilities who've had the double dose vaccination, and there are literally at least 17,000 plus people with a disability who haven't even had their first vaccination. That's just the people who live in group housing. There will be hundreds of thousands more people with disabilities who haven't been able to access the vaccination. And in case some people just think, oh, well, that's no big deal, you know, that everyone will get around to being vaccinated, if you are a person with a reduced immunity, if you're someone who is more susceptible than the average person to the consequences of COVID, you can't even leave your home. And every time a disability carer comes into your home, you've got to wonder, have they been vaccinated? And if they haven't been vaccinated, how does that increase the odds of actually catching this fatal COVID disease?

JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten, how would you suggest the Government should be dealing with people who can't leave their home to receive the vaccination?

SHORTEN: Well, the Morrison Government promised a plan to roll out vaccinations for people with disability, on the NDIS, on February the 22nd. They said they would have a roadmap. February the 22nd. It's now the end of May and there is no plan. I was shocked when I heard the latest Minister for Disability announce yesterday, oh we’ll have a plan next week. I mean, they should have had a plan 100 days ago. So, I think what they need to do it is to prioritise people with disability. And the feds need to send out special vaccination teams. And I think for everyone else who doesn't have a particular vulnerability, they should be able to access the vaccination at large vaccination centres, at showgrounds and exhibition buildings and conference centres and the like. I think the Government also needs to do a public health campaign to encourage other people who can get vaccinated easily, to go and get vaccinated. The United States is using Dolly Parton, the United Kingdom’s using Elton John and ironically, our Prime Minister, whose nickname is Scotty for Marketing, isn't even doing any marketing in Australia. So, public health campaign. Get an app that works. Make sure that you're rolling out the priority groups to get their vaccination, and also, build quarantine facilities. One of the reasons why we're in such a rush now to vaccinate people is because the Federal Government, for no reason that I can see, for the last 16 months has refused to get together a gang of electricians, a gang of plumbers, a gangs of carpenters and build some special, for purpose, quarantine facilities. I mean, this Government, they’ve got Christmas Island, they’re used to building facilities to keep people housed in. But when it comes to quarantine and keeping Aussie safe, I don't know, they’ve just been missing in action in my view.

JOURNALIST: The Health Minister this morning said that four million Australians, or 20 per cent of Australians, have received their vaccine. But then last night, we heard that it's actually only half a million that have received their second dose of the vaccine. The Health Minister says that it’s the ALP that has been confusing people over the first or second dose. Is this mixed messaging?

SHORTEN: Oh listen, I think the Federal Health Minister and the Federal Government have been delinquent over the last 16 months. They should have built quarantine facilities. We all know you can build a mining camp in 12 weeks. We all know you can build special facilities if you want to in a relatively short period of time. And they simply haven't done it. And now, this Minister is now confusing, people are saying that a certain number of Australians have had one dose. The reason why we got two doses is the vaccine isn't as effective until you have two doses. Now we're sort of saying, well, one dose is near enough. This is the health of Australians. This is the jobs of Australians. We are seeing Victoria go into lockdown. I don't know if the lockdown could have been avoided, but I'm reasonably sure that if we had had more vaccinations and better quarantine facilities, there's a far lesser chance that this outbreak would have occurred or have gone as far as it has now. So, I just hope the Melburnian sake, for my fellow Melburnian sake, this Government can get its act together federally. Vaccinate people. Encourage people to get vaccinated. Don't forget about the disabled. Have an app that works. And for goodness sakes, let's just build some quarantine facilities, so that when people come to Australia, they can be housed appropriately and safely without infecting the rest of the community.

JOURNALIST: Just on the contact tracing app, you've said that it would be easier if the Federal Government in the first place. But in Victoria, your home state, it's only recently become compulsory or mandatory for businesses to use the state QR code app. Should have done and should have been done months before, like in the ACT or New South Wales?

SHORTEN: When it comes to this federal app, I think the latest numbers show that eight million dollars has been spent and it’s detected 17 people. If you think that's value for money, I've got a bridge to sell you in Sydney, it’s bad value. In terms of contact tracing, I know that the Victorian Government has been seeking to improve its operation, but everyone's got stories about how they think these things could become better. That's true. But what I do know is that we have specific purpose-built quarantine facilities then people being repatriated from overseas, rather than going to hotels with perhaps air conditioning systems which aren’t built for purpose, they could have gone into specific facilities. Then perhaps this man who came from Adelaide, this person who came from Adelaide, wouldn’t have got COVID in the hotel in Adelaide. And then maybe six and a half million Victorians wouldn’t be shut down. 

JOURNALIST: Who would you put in as like Australia's Dolly Parton or Elton John? 

SHORTEN: That's a good question. Normally, when it’s good news, you can't hide the Morrison Government from the TV camera, so maybe we should get – I dunno, what’s Paul Hogan doing? In all seriousness, we've got to encourage people to get the vaccinations. My priority is people with disabilities and older Australians. We've got to go out to them, they can't move around as easily. But what would have made sense I would have thought, was a public health campaign dealing with the anti vaxxer concerns, dealing with the hesitancy. One clear message. I mean, it is ironic, isn't it, that the Prime Minister used to be in charge of Tourism Australia, he seemed to spend money on TV campaigns then, how is it in a billion dollars in government advertising we haven’t had ads encouraging us to go get vaccinated? It's just…. Anyway, I shouldn’t smile, because, frankly, in Melbourne right now, kids aren’t at school. People aren't unable to go to work. You've got the elderly and the vulnerable who are scared of leaving the house. You've got businesses that are been smashed. Just can't help but wonder whether the Government missed an opportunity to prevent this by being much more proactive far earlier in the peace, as many other countries have. Thanks, everybody. 

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: ANTONIA MAGEE 0409 339 989