E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
TUESDAY, 11 AUGUST 2020

SUBJECTS: Crisis in aged care; leaked Victorian quarantine video; AFL Grand Final location.

ALLISON LANGDON, HOST: The woeful response to the COVID-19 outbreak in our aged care homes has been laid bare at the Royal Commission. It's been revealed there was no national coordinated plan to deal with the crisis, which could explain why Australia is suffering one of the highest aged care death rates in the world. To discuss, I'm joined by the Shadow Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten, who is in Melbourne and in Brisbane 4BC’s Scott Emerson, thanks for joining us this morning. Gentlemen, I want to start by playing you the comments from eighty five year old resident Merle Mitchell, who is suffering in one of the homes affected. Her evidence was shown to the commission yesterday.

MERLE MITCHELL, AGED CARE RESIDENT: I know I'm here till I die. And every morning when I wake up I think damn, I've woken up. But I'm sure that if you really ask most people here, they would and they would rather be dead rather than be living here.

LANGDON: Strong words, Bill. I mean, we can talk numbers all we want, but that there is the human face of this catastrophe, isn't it?

BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: I find that heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking. Reminds me of my own neighbour who passed away in St Basil’s and the Commonwealth couldn't tell his family for five days what had happened to him. And then the Commonwealth rang up the family and said he was alive when he'd already died. I mean, 68 per cent of all the COVID deaths have been across 125 aged care homes in New South Wales and Victoria. And I suppose what really upsets me about what I just saw with Merle, and for thousands of other parents who've got their loved ones in there is you know, we knew this was coming, in March we got the warning and yet there was no plan again when the second spike happened.

LANGDON: It's not good enough Bill, is it?

SHORTEN: No, it's almost like because they're old and out of sight, we can forget about them. And the reality is that unlike some of the problems of COVID- 19, this nation has known that aged care has been very poorly run for a very long time. We've been on notice. The workforce are not trained enough. They're not, in many cases, they're not paid enough. And the watchdog is a toothless tiger. And there wasn't even proper protective equipment in many of these facilities. So we've known that aged care has been under loved for too long and COVID-19’s just ripped the lid off it.

LANGDON: And we're seeing the consequences of it now. A thousand aged care residents who have contracted COVID, Scott no matter how you look at it, we have failed our elderly and they deserve better.

SCOTT EMERSON, 4GB: They do deserve better. And it is heartbreaking when you see that kind of video from Merle there, you think of your own elderly parents and if they're in nursing homes or potentially could go in them, how they would feel, how you feel. I think going through all this COVID crisis we've faced, we've seen the Ruby Princess, we've seen the debacle in the hotel, I suspect aged care and what's gone wrong. As Bill quite rightly said, there were warnings much earlier. It may be the third one, in terms of where a policy failure (occurred) during COVID.

LANGDON: And those policy failures have ended in death. I'm going to be be speaking to the Aged Care Minister, Richard Colbeck, in the next half an hour too. Now, how's this, this morning the Herald Sun is calling it a disaster movie, and it will certainly feel like that for the bureaucrats who star in it. It was filmed back in April. And officials in charge of Victoria's disastrous hotel quarantine operation are seen boasting about their success. Take a listen.

VIDEO PACKAGE: And the fact that we've been able to help slow the spread of coronavirus makes us feel really proud of the work that we're doing.

LANGDON: I mean, Bill, to find out that none of them have any health or quarantine experience. Your thoughts?

SHORTEN: I mean, it's a serious issue, but it does remind me, I don't if there was ever an episode in The Office where they sort of said, that solved the problem and they just hadn’t. I mean, one lesson for public servants is don't do victory lap videos too soon. I mean, in all seriousness, I know these are trade people. So they were obviously put into an unfamiliar environment. But there is a judicial enquiry going on. So I don’t know, just don't make a video until you know that it's all over.

LANGDON: I mean, I'm not sure that this is on them. I mean, who on earth decided that these people should be the ones implementing this hotel quarantine plan? Scott, these officials, they were totally unaware of the disaster that they were overseeing.

EMERSON: The video itself can be embarrassing. But it's much more serious than that. These are people, the person leading this team was from Agriculture Victoria, there was people from the National Gallery on this team. They had no experience. They were put in this position. And, of course, we've got the parliamentary enquiry and committee going on at the moment. And we'll see some of the Ministers again fronting that today, being asked the questions. And they will not have the protection because Coates said no, they can be asked about it. So we'll see a lot of questions being asked about why these people were put in charge of this and it went so terribly wrong.

LANGDON: And Scott, no doubt something you'll be talking about more today is this disturbing story in Queensland. Fears of another border breach after the arrest of two teenage girls, aged just 15 and 16, at a Noosa shopping centre after allegedly misleading police about travelling from a Sydney COVID hotspot. I mean, Scott, this is part of the reason the Premier closed the border again. You can't trust everyone to do the right thing.

EMERSON: Well, the border has been closed Ally, but these girls got up via the train, then they lied. Now the questions that are going to be asked is how many other people are lying, getting through the borders but not being found out. The first lot, those three women and the three men were only found out because one of them got on each case, got sick, had to go to hospital. Now, these other two girls, fortunately, had been caught. Hopefully they haven't got COVID, but they are being tested at the moment. But it's a worry that so many people seem to be able to get through just by conning officials, lying to officials and getting through. I wonder how many others are out there that we don't know about.

LANGDON: I think we're all asking that this morning. And just quickly, the AFL Grand Final, Bill if it's not going to be your beloved Melbourne, who gets your vote?

EMERSON: Come on, Bill.

SHORTEN: I've been really thinking about this because my in-laws live in Queensland. My concern is that if it goes to Western Australia they’ll never give it back. So, I mean, part of me says a traditional AFL state should get a guernsey. You know, Adelaide or Perth. But AFL wants to expand nationally. So probably Brisbane. But, oh, God, it just kills me that it's not in Melbourne. It just kills me. Like, it’s a disaster.

LANGDON: Said with such great disdain. Scott, no second guesses who gets your vote?

EMERSON: Look, there's one state that has saved the AFL season this year. One state, that's Queensland. It should be here.

SHORTEN: I got to say that the hubs up there seem to be working. And I know for a lot of Melbournians, at least knowing the footy is going on is something to look forward to every weekend. So thank you Queensland.

LANGDON: Spitting those words out. But Bill, you may not have the AFL Grand Final, but look behind you. You've got an amazing sunrise this morning.

SHORTEN: It’s a beautiful sunrise

LANGDON: So hold on to what you’ve got, hey?

SHORTEN: That's what we've got to look forward to today.

LANGDON: Thanks, guys.