E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
TUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 2022
 
SUBJECTS: Tennis player quarantine tantrums; celebrity treatment; support needed for local travel agents; tradie calendar. 
 
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Welcome back to the program, great to have your company this morning. Well, the glamorous life of the world's top tennis players is a little more down to earth this morning, for the Australian Open competitors complaining their way through 14 days of quarantine. For Bernard Tomic, iso life includes this: 11 hours of Pokémon playing, two hundred dollar a day vegan Uber Eats orders and being forced to wash dishes in a bathroom sink. But it's his girlfriend who has it really tough, currently contemplating the possibility of being forced to wash her own hair. 
 
VIDEO: This is the worst part of quarantine. I don't wash my own hair. I've never washed my own hair. It's just not something that I do. I normally have hairdressers that do it twice a week for me. So this is the situation that we're dealing with. 
 
STEFANOVIC: For more, we're joined by Shadow Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten and Chris Smith from 2GB and 4BC. Bill? 
 
BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: I washed my hair this morning. Hey, listen, I hadn't heard of this lady, Vanessa, the lady you just showed up there, but I Googled her and I'm not sure she gets COVID and how serious it is.
 
STEFANOVIC: What did you find out when you Googled her?
 
SHORTEN: She did get in trouble for wearing facemasks as a bikini. [all laugh]. But I think that, at a human level, sure, it's not great to be cooped in a hotel room for that period of time. But, you know, I think they just have to get a grip. COVID’s been shocking. People have died, people have lost their jobs. People haven't been able to go to the funerals of their loved ones. And you've got these pampered sooks who are having a cry over their conditions. They’re elite athletes, I can sympathise. But they get paid a lot of money to come to the Australian Open. Maybe they’ve just got to see how the rest of the world has been putting up with COVID as well. 
 
STEFANOVIC: Well, they're not reading the room, are they, Chris? They want to reduce matches to three sets. I understand the complications physically - well, I think I do - in preparing for a grand slam. But is that reasonable? I mean, they've got to put on a show anyway don’t they?
 
CHRIS SMITH, 2GB/4BC: Yeah look they've got eight days from when they get out of 14 days of quarantine to get on the tennis court in an official game, eight days to acclimatise to the heat of Melbourne, which we know is hot at this time of the year, and get on and win one game and then they win more than one hundred thousand dollars by winning one game. There is no sympathy out there. Hundreds of thousands of Australians have got into quarantine. They've sucked it up and they've done it. These people live in elitist bubbles, not washing my hair? How did that happen? Imagine having to wash two plates in a sink. My God. Like these people must be absolutely mentally deficient after all of that. What a sufferance? What a punishment for them.
 
STFANOVIC: Oh, it’s awful for them.
 
SMITH: Give me a break.
 
STEFANOVIC: Yeah. Hey, one person who won't have to wash their own hair is Matt Damon. He's touched down in New South Wales but skipped hotel quarantined for strict home isolation at a private property as he prepares to shoot the fourth Thor movie with Chris Hemsworth in Byron Bay. Now, Bill, if you can afford it, do you support it? 
 
SHORTEN: Oh, yeah, I understand Matt Damon's played by the rules. I just think that his manager seems to have thought about what happens in Australia before he arrived here. So, you know, there shouldn't be two sets of rules. There should be a standard which anyone can access. But I don't think Matt Damon's been as self-indulgent as some of the tennis players. But by the way, I should say, most of the tennis players are doing the right thing. It's just a few of the attention seekers who are doing it.
 
STEFANOVIC: But I think people aren’t aware that you can, if you can afford it, you can do this. So, Chris, the Damon’s flew in by private jet. Obviously none of us can afford that, moved to private houses. They're paying their own hospital grade cleaning, private security and police monitoring. It does take the strain of the public system. Should we let them do that?  
 
SMITH: Yeah, look, I think it's about trust. Like, can we trust people who just happen to be rich, happen to be famous celebrities, more than we can trust the general public. And this is what irks the general public. Why don't you trust me to stay at home? What, because I don't have cleaners? What, because I don't have extra help or security, and people sort of get really rubbed up the wrong way during times of frustration. And the pandemic has created a real atmosphere of frustration. And this frustrates people. I love Matt Damon. I think he's fantastic. He's actually coming to live here, which is terrific. But having said all of that, it just rubs the Australian public up the wrong way. And we've seen what's happened in Melbourne. We've had breaches reported there. They're no more trustworthy than the general public.
 
STEFANOVIC: OK, none of us are going anywhere any time soon either. Scientists warning the international border will have to remain shut even after the vaccine rollout, because the jab may not stop the virus spreading. And this is from medical experts. Bill, tourism operators are asking for more help in light of that. What form do you think that should take exactly?
 
SHORTEN: Well, travel agents, especially the ones dealing with overseas trips, have been really hard hit, but they're the ones who make sure that our holidays go well. They are really hard hit. I think a couple of things which could be done, one is we could ask state and federal governments, rather than using international travel based platforms, to give our own travel agents a go, to help book the airfares and do the things where there is a bit of travel going on in Australia. I think we are going to have to help bail out our travel agents. I'd keep the JobKeeper going there. I mean, if the borders can't open, they're still affected. But our travel agents, the mums and dads businesses in the high street of the cities and the bush, I think we should give them a hand because they for many years make sure our holidays go well.
 
STEFANOVIC: I completely agree with you, Chris, that local tourism is surging though, the Tourism Australia campaign to holiday here is working. But how do we help those who rely on these international visitors?
 
SMITH: Yeah, well, a lot of the local tourism operators also rely on international visitors, especially outside of the standard scheduled Australian school holidays. So, this is a real problem. There are probably five or four major sectors of our industry that need extra help when JobKeeper expires in March. Now, I heard Josh Frydenberg yesterday talk about, oh, we've got a billion dollars of tax cuts out there. That's not going to cut it. Josh, it ain't going to cut it. They've got to do a little bit more, especially for tourism. And can I say this for the states that had the big problems with tourism, the ones that shut down the borders more than once, they should be paying and propping up their own tourism industry. 
 
STEFANOVIC: OK, if you haven't picked up a 2021 calendar, I've got one for you.
 
SHORTEN: Good news.
 
STEFANOVIC: I found one, but a warning to everyone at home. This is titillating, tantalising.
 
SMITH: Vanessa?
 
STEFANOVIC: No. Chris….
 
SMITH: Sorry.
 
STEFANOVIC: Forget firies, forget cops and check out Aussie tradies. The beautiful illustrious boys from Goulburn Valley Plaster Products in Shep, striking seductive poses on wheelbarrows in all their glory, embracing full manliness. And the only six pack in sight is a VB. Bill the PM is a tradie. As we know, he built his own chook pen.
 
SHORTEN: Yeah, that's great.
 
STEFANOVIC: Are you a tradie?
 
SHORTEN: I don't think I'm a calendar model, but they do say politics is show business for ugly people, so maybe we should do, you know men and women of Canberra? 
 
STEFANOVIC: That's not bad. I'm not sure how much money it’d raise, but –
 
SMITH: A lot of money! A lot of money. 
 
SHORTEN: Yeah, Chris, at last we've seen – well, you boys could get into mainstream calendars, but maybe there's now a chance for me.  
 
STEFANOVIC: Actually, I've got a photo of Bill here I've dug up, from him looking like –
 
SHORTEN: Oh, let’s unsee that.
 
STEFANOVIC: Billy Shorten, hey?
 
SHORTEN: Hey, keto works.
 
SMITH: You've lost a lot of weight!
 
STEFANOVIC: Chris, I think we’re on to something here. Yeah. We could get our pollies to do a calendar for charity, it would raise a fortune. 
 
SMITH: Yeah, I think that would be fantastic. Yes. I don't know, there are certain people I won't name who shouldn't be part of the calendar. But look, have a look at Bill Shorten very, very closely on that picture there -
 
SHORTEN: How did we get on to me?
 
SMITH: You’ve lost weight, Bill. You've lost weight haven't you?
 
SHORTEN: Yeah, that's keto, it’s all keto. I'm calendar ready. 
 
STEFANOVIC: You guys are terrific. Thanks for that this morning. Appreciate it. See you next week.