E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
TUESDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: War of words over French subs continues; Australian relationship with France; Joe Biden; Qld health workers stood down over vaccines; Melbourne Cup.

KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: You're watching Today right across Australia, it's great to have your company. It's gone nuclear, hasn't it? The diplomatic row between France and Australia exploding again overnight, the PM hitting back after the French President accused him of lying over that ditched subs deal, and he didn't hold back.

SCOTT MORRISON (VIDEO PACKAGE): I'm not going to cop sledging of Australia. He was clearly aware over some months that there were concerns and they were responding to those concerns. And we had had correspondence and other messaging during the course of that period, and we decided in Australia's interests, not to go ahead with the contract. That is what has occurred here.

STEFANOVIC: Bit of sledgehammer diplomacy going on. Let's discuss with Bill Shorten in Melbourne and 4BC’s Scott Emerson in Brissie. Good morning, guys, nice to see you. Bill, now I reckon there's, you know, some he said, we said – like what I did there, we? And who does Anthony Albanese side with? Take a listen. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE (VIDEO PACKAGE): President Macron has made a very clear and unequivocal statement about what was said to him in meetings just prior to the tearing up of that contract between Australia and France. 

STEFANOVIC: Le bleh. Albo backing the French, a Labor leader putting a cheap sledge ahead of the national interest, Bill.

BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: Oh, hang on a sec. Hold your horses there, I mean, the point about it is you've got the submarines deal, which when Mr Morrison was Treasurer he ticked off, they cancelled. If it was a dud deal, why did they do it in the first place? Secondly, now they've made the decision, I think they did the dismount very poorly from the submarine deal. And it's not just Macron versus Morrison. Joe Biden said that they were clumsy in the way they did it, so it's two vs. one. And I notice Mr Morrison says - 

STEFANOVIC: I don't know, with the greatest respect Bill, I don't know that you can count Joe Biden. I mean, Sleepy Joe.

SHORTEN: Oh, sorry. Ok, so goodbye, United States. Thanks, Karlos, we’ll make you the Foreign Minister. But you know, the point about it is, in all seriousness, it's relevant. Sorry, Karl. Are we still friends?

STEFANOVIC: I don’t care. I mean, if you want to start stacking up Joe Biden statements, to have a crack at – you know…, yeah.

SHORTEN: OK, the point about it is that Mr Morrison, if the - I like the technology decision of getting the American nuclear-powered submarines and Labor has said that. But I don't think that you'd give them any more than zero out of 10 for the way in which they notified the French. This is an ongoing issue. The Americans have said - 

STEFANOVIC: Was it the right decision to get the subs or not? And the answer is yes. And so, everything else is just blah blah.

SHORTEN: I think the French - well, maybe not, mate. Not in a world where America says they did it in a clumsy fashion and so does the French. And Mr Morrison says that the French President was sledging Australia. He wasn't sledging Australia; he was sledging Scott Morrison. I mean, the fact of the matter is that Mr Morrison has some form for being a bit slippery. And you know, from ‘I don't hold the hose mate’ in Hawaii about the fires, remember he put his arm around Malcolm Turnbull. Scott Morrison is always one campfire ahead of the posse, and perhaps it's got caught out this time.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. How long it would take you to come up with that one? That's a cracker. 

SHORTEN: It’s an oldie, but a goldie.

STEFANOVIC: Scott, Albo siding with the French. Does anyone really actually care about what the French President says about the Australian Prime Minister in Australia? 

SCOTT EMERSON, 4BC: Karl, exactly right. No one cares what the French says and look, if Albo wants to be the French fanboy, well, I guess he's running for the President of France, not for Prime Minister of Australia. The next election. I mean, that's a problem. And look, you'd have to have a beret pulled right over your head over the last, what, six months not to know that the contract was in real trouble. Everyone was talking about it. So, look, I think it's amazing that Anthony Albanese is backing France, along with Bill Shorten, over Australia on this. No one cares what the French do. The French have never stood by next to us.

STEFANOVIC: Billy? 

SHORTEN: Well, forget about World War One there Scott, hey? Do you remember World War one?

EMERSON: Well, sorry I think the French were the ones that argued for us not to get the vaccines from Europe and broke that contract last time I saw.

STEFANOVIC: All right. And you know, and Bill, you do raise Joe Biden, right? And obviously, we can't do, even more now, without the relationship with the U.S to protect us from all the, you know, wars coming from China and whatnot. But President Biden's response, Sleepy Joe, this is him just in the last couple of hours, Glasgow, just tearing it apart, smiling and shaking hands with President Macron, we learned this morning. I mean, he's the clumsy one. It turns out the White House did know this was going down. Billy?

SHORTEN: Yeah, I didn't know where the question was in that one, Karl. Listen, I just think the problem here is not that the deal that we've torn up. You know, I get that. I think the American subs are better, but there is a fuss. The reality is, it's not just the French President saying that there's a problem here. It's got the American President saying they did it as it was a clumsy manoeuvre. Why don't we just sometimes admit that maybe even if we wanted to cancel the contract, we could have done it in a more detailed and a more upfront fashion than what has happened.

STEFANOVIC: All right. Scott in Queensland a big story today, more than 4,000 frontline health workers suspended on full pay because they're not fully jabbed. This is a huge issue in Queensland. We also learned 11 suburbs are only going to be ready for December 17. The rest aren't, with that about 80 per cent vaxxed. That's a terrible stat for Queensland to have to deal with.

EMERSON: Well, it's a shocker Karl, and that means that basically one in 10 of the health workers haven't been jabbed at the moment. So yeah, it's not great, but 95 per cent have been. But a lot are not being jabbed at the moment. They've been stood aside on full pay. Well, let's give it a massive impact on our health system. And as you say, well, only places like Brisbane, even Gundi, they've been jabbed. But even the Gold Coast is not up to that mark yet. That's a worry. And you had to look at those numbers yesterday. It only increased yesterday from 77.6 to 77.8 in terms of first jabs. That's a woeful increase. You know, the problem is December 17th coming around, well, they're going to open up the borders at that point. But God forbid, if we're ever going to get to 90 per cent, that's when we start seeing quarantine free international travel. That's a long way in the future, sometime deep into 2022.

STEFANOVIC: Well, are you going to have forty thousand people trying to cross the border on December 17, every day. That's going to be a particular issue for that border area. Let's talk about something the whole nation can agree on today. How good is having the Melbourne Cup back, and Bill Shorten at Smack Bang in your backyard. Who are you tipping today, my man?

SHORTEN: Listen, I think Incentivise is the favourite for a good reason, nine wins from its last nine starts. And I think what's interesting is that we don't have as many international horses. So, in this, the race that stops the nation in my local electorate, I think Incentivise is the standout and a favourite for good reason. And you know, you can still make some good money on it if you want to bet by the number of lengths that it might win by. And so, you can get some not bad odds there, to get the goods.

STEFANOVIC: Here's a reminder, Bill - I know it's very exciting for you all to be out at Flemington today, but here's a reminder for the punters out there of what not to do. These are shots just from the weekend. Just, you know, just people just lighting it up. Here we are, just Melbourne at its very best. 

ALLISON LANGDON, HOST: Now when you've been locked up for so long... 

STEFANOVIC: Yeah, I love it, Scotty. You know, just be on your best behaviour up there.

EMERSON: Well, wonderful advertisement for Melbourne. And of course, eventually our borders will re-open, and you can come back up to Sunshine Beach here, Karl.

STEFANOVIC: Yeah, OK. I’ll be up here at Christmas. Have a great day, guys. It's nice to see you this morning.

ENDS