E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
SCA RADIO
TUESDAY, 4 MAY 2021
 
SUBJECTS: Morrison Government’s backtrack on India comments; Federal Government go-slow on quarantine facilities; Victoria’s mass-vaccination hubs.
 
STEVE PRICE, HOST: Bill Shorten is the Shadow Minister for Government Services and the NDIS, he’s been good enough to join us, morning to you.
 
BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: Good morning Pricey.
 
PRICE: The PM is clearly rattled, he's jumped on both Sunrise and the Today Show today, Michael Slater of course, on Twitter last night, suggested that he might have had blood on his hands. I think that's probably a bit over the top. But they have very much confused Australians about where they stand on getting Aussies back from India, haven't they?
 
SHORTEN: Yeah, they have. And just let me say at the outset, for a lot of listeners you have on your show, who might be saying, it's not racist, I get it's not racist to want to make sure you don't have a COVID outbreak in this country. So, I'm not going to the debate in that direction. But by the same token, we've had 16 months to set up quarantine facilities outside of our big cities. And I do not for the life of me understand why the Government set on its hands for that period of time.
 
PRICE: It beggars belief. I mean, Scott Morrison's in Darwin last week, saying he's going to expand Howard Springs by 2,000. I mean, clearly, it was obvious from February last year when we shut the borders to China Bill, that we would need to up our quarantine protection in this country. 
 
SHORTEN: Obviously.
 
PRICE: I mean, why has Christmas Island not got people on it?
 
SHORTEN: I have no idea. I mean, obviously, Scott and I have had our disagreements from the last election. I’m capable of parking that, but it's this sense of the Government, you know, the Prime Minister, if only he knew someone who knew the Prime Minister to do something? I mean, he is the man who's in charge. If you go down on our Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, you know, down at Point Nepean almost at the very tip, there were quarantine facilities built in the 19th century, where people would come on the ship, the flag would come up if they had fever on the ship, and the people would be put in quarantine away from the city. So, we've known about it. In the Constitution, you know, the Constitution doesn't talk about air flight or a whole lot of things which hadn't been invented, but it does talk about quarantine, it's a specific power of government. So, I feel for every Australian citizen and their family, especially the ones trapped overseas, that could be brought back, they could pay, you know, even if they've got to help pay for their own quarantine. I'm sure a lot of them would. But we should be - there's a basic principle here, mate. We've got to look after us is when they're in trouble.
 
PRICE: Well you’ve been in government and in opposition for a very long time. We've done it before. I mean, I don't need to remind you what we did when the tsunami hit Southeast Asia and we went into places like Phuket and brought Australians back, we went to Java, we filled planes up and went to Bali and brought people back after the terror attack.
 
SHORTEN: Exactly. That was all before my time. But John Howard wouldn't have said, oh, well, no. Not my [responsibility], you know, or blame the states, why haven’t the states got people back? I mean, in Lebanon, there was a big Civil War, or at least certainly a lot of military unrest. We just hired a ship and took them from the port of Lebanon to Cyprus. What's happened to that sort of thinking? I've said several times in several media outlets over several months that quarantine is a federal responsibility. Sure, the states have taken up some of that role. But when you've got people trapped overseas, well, to me, it's a no brainer, bring them back, bring them back safely. Don't have him wandering around the general population. But to do nothing, to me is cowardly. And I think history will not judge this moment very well.
 
PRICE: The Government is today slightly changing what I believe they did on Friday night, they said on Friday night, in an alteration to that Act, that if you came back to Australia from India, you face jail and a hefty fine. I mean, you and I both know no one would go to jail and the fine will probably never be fined, no one will fined at all. But they're now saying that if you go to a third country and spend two weeks in quarantine, you will be allowed to come back to Australia. Do you think that was clear on Friday night?
 
SHORTEN: No, that wasn't clear - what they did on Friday night as though they thought that people were circumventing the ban on coming to Australia by going to a third country. That's why they did this. Because they somehow were saying that Australians who gave up waiting for their Government to help them, who got on a plane and went to Dubai or you know, got an Emirates plane back to Australia. They were saying these people should be put in jail. Now today they’re saying that's fine. I know, and you’re well connected on both sides of politics, Steve. I know there'll be Government backbenchers who agree with pretty much everything I'm saying. 
 
PRICE: Well, Matt Canavan agrees completely with you.
 
SHORTEN: Yeah. Well…
 
PRICE: I don't know if you want to be in the same room as Matt Canavan, but he agrees with you. 
 
SHORTEN: Oh no, that’s fine.
 
PRICE: But we checked Bill, this morning. We went on to the New Delhi flight departure board. And yeah, you can get a flight out of India but you can't go to the UAE because what the UAE has done, is banned anyone but UAE citizens from flying back into their own country, which is exactly what we should be doing. So yes, you can get a flight, you can go to Chicago, would you really want to go to Chicago and spend two weeks there? COVID is not much better in the United States. You can go to Kathmandu, but there's no direct flights back to Australia. It's just ridiculous.
 
SHORTEN: I don’t always go overseas, but the idea of having a couple of weeks - oh anyway, that's a separate topic. 
 
PRICE: No, you don’t want to go to Kathmandu at this time of year.
 
SHORTEN: No, I don’t want to go to Kathmandu at this time of year. But the reality is that the Government's sending mixed messages. They could have built purpose-built facilities in the last 16 months, with medical treatment available nearby, and they haven't. And now they've got this vaguely stunned Mayor of Hiroshima look, what just happened? You know, like, this is above politics. And by that, I mean, it's not a left-wing way to handle this or a right-wing way. This is a common-sense way. And we're just not seeing it. And, sure, I know a lot of people put their differences with perhaps some of the policies I took to the last election, but just on this one, I know what I would have done and it would have just been to step up.
 
PRICE: On your portfolio of NDIS, can I just ask you a question about vaccinations. I see today, this story is in the Courier Mail, that tens of thousands of critical aged care staff and disability care staff have been told to join the queue to get a coronavirus vaccine at GP clinics. Because they are not already vaccinated. Why?
 
SHORTEN: Again, it's one of the greatest mysteries in the world. I do not know why the Government hasn't got the vaccines out, I'm speaking to GPs in my local area. And there's a great lady runs a GP clinic look after thousands of people in North Essendon. She's written an email to me, she’s desperate. They just can't get more than 50 vaccines a week. This is craziness. And they're being inundated with requests. So, we've got millions of vaccines in this country, but they're just not getting into the arms of the people who need them 
 
PRICE: Well they’re not in the right places. I mean, it might surprise you that I'm over 50, but I am, and I rang yesterday, and I got in immediately to a respiratory clinic, about 5 k's from my house, for an appointment this afternoon. Now I don't need it particularly, I'm going to go and get it because I can. But we hear that 318,000 aged care and disability care staff haven’t been vaccinated, only 37,000 of 300?
 
SHORTEN: Well, there's two surprises for me. And that one was the number about the aged care and disability workers not getting it, although I've heard that. The other surprise to me is that you're over 50 - this may surprise you but so am I, not that much over 50 but I've just had a hard life. The point about it is that -  
 
PRICE: Have you had it yet? 
 
SHORTEN: Now well, I've just found out we can do that, so I will. But I feel sort of bad getting my vaccination, and I've got no hassle getting it, when I think people more deserving, deserve to get their vaccine.
 
PRICE: That’s my point. 
 
SHORTEN: But I'm glad we're having mass vaccination centres. That's what they did in California. Again, I’m no medical expert, but I can read newspapers and I saw what they're doing in other parts of the world. Mass vaccinations for the people who can get to the centres is a great idea. And they should be using the logistics in their supply chain to get the targeted vaccines to vulnerable people or people who work with them. I mean, we're not - while anyone can get COVID, everyone's not out of COVID. And so, the vaccinations are important.
 
PRICE: Agreed entirely. Thank you very much for talking to us, talk again soon.